Helen Muchnic was an American scholar and writer, specializing in

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

and literature. She taught for many years at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, where she was appointed Helen and Laura Shedd Professor of Russian Language and Literature. Her friends included the writers Edmund Wilson and

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American people, American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the N ...

. She wrote a number of scholarly works, including: * ''An Introduction to Russian Literature'' * ''From Gorky to Pasternak: six modern Russian writers'' * ''Dostoevsky's English reputation, 1881-1936'' * ''The unhappy consciousness: Gogol, Poe, Baudelaire'' She also contributed regularly to scholarly and popular journals such as the '' New York Review of Books''. Muchnic lived with her partner

Dorothy Walsh Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Characters *Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum * Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...

, philosopher, also a Smith professor, in the town of

Cummington Cummington is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 829 at the 2020 census, down from 872 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Cummingto ...

, Massachusetts.

References

Smith College faculty Russian studies scholars American LGBT academics American LGBT writers {{Russia-studies-bio-stub