Seymour Krim (May 11, 1922 – August 30, 1989) was an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

and

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. He is often categorized with the writers of the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

. He wrote for the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

'', ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'', ''New York Element'' and ''

International Times ''International Times'' (''it'' or ''IT'') is the name of various underground newspapers, with the original title founded in London in 1966 and running until October 1973. Editors included John "Hoppy" Hopkins, David Mair ...

'', among many other publications. He worked for a time at ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', where

Brendan Gill Brendan Gill (October 4, 1914 – December 27, 1997) was an American journalist. He wrote for ''The New Yorker'' for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for ''Film Comment'', wrote about design and architecture for Architectu ...

recalled he was often "stripped to the waist."

Career

Krim was born in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and spent much of his time in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He was widely regarded as part of the

New Journalism New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non ...

movement of the 1960s; in 1965 he joined the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

''′s staff, which included

Jimmy Breslin James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

and

Dick Schaap Richard Jay Schaap (September 27, 1934 – December 21, 2001) was an American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author. Early life and education Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and raised in Freeport, New York, on Long Island, Schaap began writ ...

. His robust prose was often laced with a startling, often funny, candor. In his introduction to

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

's novel '' Desolation Angels'', published in 1965, Krim argued for Kerouac's place in the annals of American literature. He taught writing seminars at a number of universities in the United States and abroad, including Mexico and Israel. For several years during the early 1980s he served as head of The Writers Workshop in Iowa City. His honors included the Longview Award for Literature (1960), a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

(1976) and a

Fulbright grant The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

(1985). After suffering from a number of physical setbacks, including a debilitating

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

, Krim committed suicide in his one-room apartment on East 10th Street by an overdose of

barbiturate Barbiturates are a class of depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological addiction potential as we ...

s on August 30, 1989.

Posthumous

Phillip Lopate Phillip Lopate (born 1943) is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate. Early life Phillip Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a BA degr ...

published Krim's "For My Brothers and Sisters in the Failure Business" in his 1997 antholog
''The Art of the Personal Essay''.
In 2001, Saul Bellow included "What's This Cat's Story?" i

Also in 2001, critic

Vivian Gornick Vivian Gornick (born June 14, 1935) is an American radical feminist critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist. Early Life and Education In 1957 Gornick received a bachelor of arts degree from City College of New York and in 1960 a master of a ...

praised Krim as "a Jewish

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an ...

" in her book ''The Situation and the Story''. Gornick also included Krim's "Failure Business" on her list of th
Ten Greatest Essays, Ever

Bibliography

* ''Manhattan: Stories from the Heart of a Great City'' (1954; co-editor) * ''The Beats'' (1960; editor) * ''Views of a Nearsighted Cannoneer'' (1961) * ''Shake It for the World, Smartass'' (1970) * ''You and Me'' (1974) * ''What's This Cat's Story?'' (1991 Posthumous compilation)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krim, Seymour Drug-related suicides in New York City 1922 births 1989 suicides Writers from New York City Beat Generation people Drug-related deaths in New York City Suicides in New York City