Lee Siegel (cultural Critic) - Early Life and Career

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.