Richard Martin Gilman (April 30, 1923 – October 28, 2006) was an American drama and literary critic.

Early life

On April 30, 1923, Gilman was born as Richard Martin Gilman in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, U.S. Gilman's family is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Los Angeles Times: "Richard Gilman, 83; influential theater critic and longtime Yale drama professor" by Charles McNulty
November 04, 2006

Education

In 1947, Gilman graduated with a B.A. from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Career

Gilman enlisted into the U.S. Marine Corps in 1941 and was stationed in the Pacific during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After his service, he attended the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

in New York. Gilman was a freelance writer. After converting to Catholicism, he wrote for the left-leaning Catholic journal ''

Commonweal Commonweal or common weal may refer to: * Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community * Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group * Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...

'' and from 1964 to 1967, he was the drama critic for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

''. In 1967, the dean of the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

Robert Brustein Robert Sanford Brustein (born April 21, 1927) is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer, and educator. He founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Ma ...

, invited him to teach. Gilman was a professor at

for 31 years. He also taught at Columbia, Stanford, Barnard and the City University of New York. Gilman was the author of five books of criticism, and a memoir.

Personal life

In 1949, Gilman married painter Esther Morgenstern. In 1966, Gilman married Lynn Nesbit, a literary agent, (who would go on to co-found the literary agency Janklow & Nesbit Associates with Morton L. Janklow), In 1992, Gilman married Japanese scholar, Yasuko Shiojiri, who would translate his books into Japanese. Gilman has three children from his first two marriages: Nicholas,

Priscilla Priscilla is an English female given name adopted from Latin ''Prisca'', derived from ''priscus''. One suggestion is that it is intended to bestow long life on the bearer. The name first appears in the New Testament of Christianity variously as ...

, and Claire. Gilman died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

on October 28, 2006, at the age of 83 at his home in Kusatsu,

Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the nort ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He was born Jewish, converted to Catholicism as an adult, and lapsed from that faith eight years later. His memoir ''Faith, Sex, Mystery'' is primarily devoted to explaining his conversion and deconversion.New York Times: "Best Sellers February 1, 1987"
"''Faith, Sex, Mystery: A Memoir, by Richard Gilman. (Simon & Schuster, $16.95.) In a sort of rueful tranquillity, tinged with the pain of loss, the writer and critic recollects and reflects on his conversion from Jewish atheist to Roman Catholic nearly 35 years ago, and his lapse from the church eight years later''"

References

External links

Los Angeles Times obituary
1923 births 2006 deaths American literary critics 20th-century American Jews American theater critics Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Deaths from lung cancer in Japan Yale School of Drama faculty Former Roman Catholics 21st-century American Jews {{US-academic-bio-stub