Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (June 14, 1934 – November 7, 2018) was an American journalist, editor of the ''

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', critic, and novelist, based in New York City. He served as senior Daily Book Reviewer from 1969 to 1995.

Biography

Lehmann-Haupt was born on June 14, 1934 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, while his parents were visiting his mother's family. He was the eldest of three sons of Leticia Jane Hargrave Grierson, a Scottish teacher and editor from Edinburgh, and Hellmut Otto Emil Lehmann-Haupt, a German-born graphic arts historian and bibliographer. His family lived in New York City. Christopher had two younger brothers, Carl and Alexander. It was not until Lehmann-Haupt traveled to Berlin in 1947 to live with his father for a year that he learned about his father's Jewish ancestry. His parents had divorced, and his father had gone to Berlin in 1946 with the Allied Armies’ Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section to help recover art works stolen by the Nazis and to revive German cultural life. In 1948 his father married again, to Rosemarie Mueller. They had two children, John and Roxana Lehmann-Haupt, half-siblings to Christopher and his brothers. Lehmann-Haupt was educated at the

Ethical Culture Fieldston School Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also referred to as Fieldston, is a private independent school in New York City. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 facult ...

in New York,

The Putney School The Putney School is an independent high school in Putney, Vermont. The school was founded in 1935 by Carmelita Hinton on the principles of the Progressive Education movement and the teachings of its principal exponent, John Dewey. It is a co-edu ...

in Vermont, and

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

. He did postgraduate work at the Yale School of Drama, from which he graduated in 1959 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater history and dramatic criticism.

Editing

Lehmann-Haupt first worked as a teacher in Middletown, New York, but moved to Manhattan to seek work in publishing. He worked as an editor for various New York City publishing houses, among them Holt, Rinehart and Winston and

The Dial Press The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh. The Dial Press shared a building with ''The Dial'' and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W. R. Bu ...

. In 1965, he moved to ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', where he became an editor and critic. He became immersed in the books and issues of the day. In May 1968, along with several dozen then-prominent writers and political activists (including

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

, Jules Feiffer,

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...

and

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in ...

), Lehmann-Haupt signed the "Violence in Oakland" essay published in the '' New York Review of Books''. It condemned police harassment of and violence against

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

members in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. A police attack on April 6, 1968, had resulted in their killing 17-year-old

Bobby Hutton Robert James Hutton (April 21, 1950 – April 6, 1968), also known as "Lil' Bobby", was the treasurer and first recruit to join the Black Panther Party.Eldridge Cleaver and another young African-American man. Each of the three was unarmed. In 1969, Lehmann-Haupt was appointed senior Daily Book Reviewer for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He held this position until 1995, when he became a regular daily book reviewer. From 1965 until 2000, he wrote more than 4,000 book reviews and articles, on fiction and on subjects from trout fishing to Persian archaeology. Lehmann-Haupt taught and lectured widely. He wrote articles on a variety of subjects, including

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling method that uses a light-weight lure—called an artificial fly—to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. The light weight requires casting techniques significantly diffe ...

and bluegrass banjo-picking, two of his occasional avocations. He also published three books of his own, which were well-reviewed. The first, a memoir, ''Me and

Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

: A Baseball Fan Goes in Search of His Gods'', was published in 1986 by Simon & Schuster. His first novel, ''A Crooked Man'', was published by Simon & Schuster in 1995. His second novel, ''The Mad Cook of Pymatuning'' was published by Simon & Schuster in 2005. At the time of his death, Lehmann-Haupt was working on a memoir of the year he spent living in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

with his father, from 1947 until 1948. While editor of ''The New York Times Book Review'', Lehmann-Haupt was known for being opposed to genre fiction. In 1980, when given a copy of

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...

's '' Shatterday'' for possible review, Lehmann-Haupt reportedly threw the book across the room and said, "Oh, it's that sci-fi crap." In April 2000, he assumed the job of chief obituary writer for ''The Times''. He wrote advance obituaries and occasional daily obituaries until his retirement on June 30, 2006. Obituaries bearing his byline continued to run in ''The New York Times'' as of January 2020. In retirement he continued to write advance obituaries as a freelancer for ''The New York Times''. During these years he also taught writing at the Marymount College Writing Center and College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale,

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York. He also taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He was appointed the Editorial Director of Delphinium Books, a literary small press that publishes works of fiction.

Marriage and family

Lehmann-Haupt married writer Natalie Robins in 1969. They had two children together, Rachel and Noah, and lived in the Riverdale section of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

.Novelist Christopher Lehmann-Haupt to Read at Mount Saint Vincent
, College of Mount Saint Vincent press release dated September 2, 2005. Accessed May 4, 2008. "A former senior daily book reviewer for The New York Times, Lehmann-Haupt resides in Riverdale with his wife, writer Natalie Robins."

References

External links

Recent and archived news articles
by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of ''The New York Times'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher 1934 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American literary critics Obituary writers American male novelists Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni Critics employed by The New York Times People from Riverdale, Bronx Swarthmore College alumni Yale School of Drama alumni Jewish novelists 20th-century American Jews Writers from Edinburgh Writers from the Bronx The Putney School alumni 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women