Editing Leonard Kriegel

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Short description|American writer (1933–2022)}}

'''Leonard Kriegel''' (May 25, 1933 – September 25, 2022) was an American author and self-proclaimed "[[cripple]]".  His writing included [[essay]]s, stories, and [[novel]]s.  He contracted [[polio]] at the age of 11, leaving him confined to steel [[Brace (orthopaedic)|braces]] and [[crutches]] shortly after. Kriegel recounted his experience with the illness in his memoir, ''The Long Walk Home'', published in 1964. He received both [[Guggenheim Fellowship|Guggenheim]] and [[Rockefeller fellowship|Rockefeller]] Fellowships, and three of his books were named [[New York Times Notable Book|''New York Times'' Notable Book]]s of the Year.

==Early life==
Kriegel was born in [[the Bronx]] on May 25, 1933.<ref name="NYT obit">{{cite news|title=Leonard Kriegel, 89, Dies; Wrote Unflinchingly About His Disability|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/books/leonard-kriegel-dead.html|first=Margalit|last=Fox|date=October 11, 2022|access-date=October 11, 2022|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012002624/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/books/leonard-kriegel-dead.html|archive-date=October 12, 2022}}</ref>  His father, Fred, worked as a deli counterman; his mother, Sylvia (Breittholz), was a housewife.  Kriegel grew up in the neighborhood of [[Norwood, Bronx|Norwood]].  He caught polio during summer camp in 1944 and consequently remained at the New York State Reconstruction Home in [[West Haverstraw, New York|West Haverstraw]] for two years.  After being unsuccessfully treated, he went back to his home borough and finished his secondary school at home with visiting teachers.<ref name="NYT obit"/>  Kriegel opted not to use a wheelchair – believing that it suggested surrender to his illness – and consequently taught himself how to use braces and crutches to walk.<ref>{{cite news|title=Books in Brief: Nonfiction – Flying Solo|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/22/bib/980222.rv131832.html|first=Elizabeth|last=Hanson|date=February 22, 1998|access-date=October 11, 2022|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>  He studied at [[Hunter College]], graduating with a [[bachelor's degree]].  He then obtained a [[master's degree]] at [[Columbia University]], before being awarded a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] from [[New York University]].  The subject of his thesis was the writer and critic [[Edmund Wilson]].<ref name="NYT obit"/>

==Career==
Kriegel first taught at [[Long Island University]], before teaching at the [[City College of New York]] and becoming director of its Center for Worker Education.<ref name="NYT obit"/>  He published his first book, ''The Long Walk Home'', in 1964.  The memoir bluntly described his experience with polio and his resulting anger, and utilized the term "cripple" at his insistence<ref name="NYT obit"/> (a phrase that would be used throughout his later works).<ref>{{cite news|title=Falling Into Life – Essays|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/108654502 |page=BR24 |first=Steven |last=Slosberg |date=June 23, 1991|access-date=October 11, 2022|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|id={{ProQuest|108654502}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Courage to Conquer Another Day|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-14-ls-7974-story.html|first=Richard|last=Eder|date=January 14, 1998|access-date=October 11, 2022|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>  He recounted telling his wife how he wanted his work to be "free of the sentimentality and cant and papier-mâché religiosity usually found in such books", at a time when it was uncommon to openly talk about the illness.<ref name="NYT obit"/>  [[Richard Shepard]] described the memoir in ''[[The New York Times]]'' as "superb craft and keen insight ... written without a trace of false sentimentality or phony revelation". Another reviewer, in the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', noted that it had "flashes of insight and self-understanding amid sordidness and frequently unnecessary obscene realism".<ref name="NYT obit"/>

Kriegel went on to author several other books, including ''Working Through: A Teacher's Journey in the Urban University'' (1972), ''Notes for the Two-Dollar Window: Portraits From an American Neighborhood'' (1976), ''On Men and Manhood'' (1979), and ''Quitting Time'' (1982).  He also released ''Flying Solo: Reimagining Manhood, Courage, and Loss'', a collection of mostly autobiographical essays, in 1998.<ref name="NYT obit"/>  He was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] for general nonfiction in [[List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1971|1971]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Leonard Kriegel|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/leonard-kriegel/|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation|access-date=October 11, 2022}}</ref>  Four years later, he was conferred a [[Rockefeller fellowship]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Humanities Grants Set Up By Rockefeller Foundation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/01/archives/humanities-grants-set-up-by-rockefeller-foundation.html|page=31|first=Peter|last=Kirss|date=April 1, 1975|access-date=October 11, 2022|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>  Kriegel also received a [[MacDowell (artists' residency and workshop)|MacDowell fellowship]] in 1976,<ref name=MacDowell>{{cite web|title=Leonard Kriegel – Artist|url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/leonard-kriegel|access-date=October 11, 2022|publisher=[[MacDowell (artists' residency and workshop)|MacDowell]]}}</ref> the [[O. Henry Award]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dno8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PR18|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|editor-last=O'Brien|editor-first=Ruth|page=xviii|isbn=9780195156874}}</ref> and three of his books were named [[New York Times Notable Book|''New York Times'' Notable Book]]s of the Year.<ref name=MacDowell/>

==Personal life==
Kriegel was married to Harriet Bernzweig until his death.  Together, they had two children.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

Kriegel died on September 25, 2022, in [[Manhattan]].  He was 89, and suffered from [[heart failure]] prior to his death.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

==List of works==
* ''The Long Walk Home'' (1964), published by [[Appleton-Century]]<ref>{{cite book | last=Wilson  | first=Daniel J. | date=2008 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lz9bEAAAQBAJ | title=Living with Polio: The Epidemic and Its Survivors | publisher=University of Chicago Press | pages=272 ''et passim'' | isbn=9780226901060}}</ref>
* ''Essential  Works of the Founding Fathers (1964, ed.) <!-- no isbn in 1960s -->
* ''Edmund Wilson'' (1971)<ref name="NYT obit"/> {{ISBN|9780809305230}}
* ''Working Through: A Teacher's Journey in the Urban University'' (1972)<ref name="NYT obit"/> {{ISBN|9780841501867}}
* ''Notes for the Two-Dollar Window'' (1976)<ref name="NYT obit"/> {{ISBN|9780841504066}}
* ''On Men and Manhood'' (1979)<ref name="NYT obit"/> {{ISBN|9780801502484}}
* ''Quitting Time: A Novel'' (1982)<ref name="NYT obit"/> {{ISBN|9780394508931}}
* ''Falling Into Life'' (1991) {{ISBN|9780865474581}}
* ''Flying Solo'' (1998)<ref name="NYT obit"/> {{ISBN|9780807072301}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book |first=Hayley Mitchell |last=Haugen |date=2010 |chapter=The 'Disabled Imagination' and the Masculine Metaphor in the Works of Leonard Kriegel |editor-first=Elizabeth |editor-last=Klaver |title=The Body in Medical Culture |location=Albany, NY |publisher=State University of New York Press |pages=89–108 |isbn=9781438425856 |oclc=610904703}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.vqronline.org/author/2158/leonard-kriegel/ Online Biography]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kriegel, Leonard}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Rockefeller Fellows]]
[[Category:Writers from the Bronx]]
[[Category:Hunter College alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:New York University alumni]]