Early Life and Career
Siegel was born in The Bronx, New York. He received his BA, from the Columbia University School of General Studies and his MA and M.Phil. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He worked as an editor at The New Leader and ARTnews before turning to writing full-time in 1998. The New York Times Magazine has called him "one of the most eloquent and acid-tongued critics in the country", while The New York Times Book Review remarked on his "drive-by brilliance". David Rieff wrote about Siegel that "to read him is to be reminded of what criticism used to aspire to in terms of range, learning, high standards, and good writing and--dare one say it?--values", and Janet Malcolm has admired the way Siegel "holds the feet of the overpraised and undertalented to the fire of his wicked wit." In The New York Times Book Review, Ross Douthat wrote that Siegel was "the scourge of literary cant", The Guardian has called him "one of the heroic few," and The Times Literary Supplement has praised Siegel as "a rare bird among American critics... boisterous and erudite." His work has been translated into seven languages.
Read more about this topic: Lee Siegel (cultural Critic)
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or career:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“It is so very late that we
May call it early by and by. Good night.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The Heavens. Once an object of superstition, awe and fear. Now a vast region for growing knowledge. The distance of Venus, the atmosphere of Mars, the size of Jupiter, and the speed of Mercury. All this and more we know. But their greatest mystery the heavens have kept a secret. What sort of life, if any, inhabits these other planets? Human life, like ours? Or life extremely lower in the scale. Or dangerously higher.”
—Richard Blake, and William Cameron Menzies. Narrator, Invaders from Mars, at the opening of the movie (1953)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)