Renata Adler

Adler was born in Milan, Italy, to Frederick L. and Erna Adler while they were traveling from Germany to the United States.{{Cite news |date=September 2, 2022 |title=Journalist and novelist Renata Adler — a wide-ranging chronicler of contemporary life |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/journalist-and-novelist-renata-adler-a-wide-ranging-chronicler-of-contemporary-life-1.6566880 |access-date=September 23, 2022}} She has two older brothers. Her family had fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and moved to the U.S. in 1939.{{Cite news|last=Lubow|first=Arthur|date=January 16, 2000|title=Renata Adler Is Making Enemies Again (Published 2000)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/16/magazine/renata-adler-is-making-enemies-again.html|access-date=January 8, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}

Adler grew up in Danbury, Connecticut and attended Bryn Mawr College, where she studied philosophy under José Ferrater Mora and German literature. She graduated summa cum laude in 1959.{{Cite web |title=Renata Alder |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/renata-alder |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}{{Cite web |last=Howell |first=Beryl A. |date=2020 |title=The Post-Pandemic Normal? |url=https://www.brynmawr.edu/bulletin/post-pandemic-normal |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin |language=en}} She then pursued her interest in philosophy, linguistics and structuralism at the Sorbonne under the tutelage of Jean Wahl and Claude Lévi-Strauss, graduating in 1961. She also studied comparative literature under I. A. Richards and Roman Jakobson at Harvard University, graduating with an M.A. in 1962. She went on to receive a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979.{{Cite journal |date=Summer 2013 |title=Books in Print |url=https://ylr.law.yale.edu/pdfs/v60-2/S13_books.pdf |journal=Yale Law Report |pages=18–19 |via=Yale Law School}}

{{needs update|date=February 2025}}

In 1962, Adler became a staff writer for The New Yorker, working under William Shawn. Around the same time, she also worked briefly as a book reviewer for Harper's Bazaar under a pseudonym{{which?|date=February 2025}}.{{cite book |last1=Adler |first1=Renata |title=Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker |date=1999 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York City |isbn=978-1451667226 |pages=72–76}} In 1967, she traveled to Vietnam on assignment for McCall's Magazine; while traveling abroad, she also covered the Six-Day War for The New Yorker.{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Melissa |date=2018 |title=Darkness Visible: the film criticism of Renata Adler |url=https://www.bookforum.com/print/2502/the-film-criticism-of-renata-adler-19699 |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=BookForum |language=en-US}} Adler also reported on the Nigerian Civil War in Biafra as well as the Selma March. While at the New Yorker, Adler became a mentee and close friend of colleague Hannah Arendt.{{Cite magazine |last=O’Rourke |first=Meghan |date=2013-03-11 |title=Welcome Back, Renata Adler |language=en-US |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/welcome-back-renata-adler |access-date=2023-12-20 |issn=0028-792X}} In 1968, despite not being involved in the film trade, she was hired by Arthur Gelb to succeed Bosley Crowther as film critic for The New York Times. Her esoteric, literary reviews were not well received by film studio distributors. She was not happy with the Times{{'}}s deadlines and in February 1969, she was replaced by Vincent Canby and returned to The New Yorker.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=March 5, 1969|page=7|title=Vincent Canby Gets 'Times' Film Critic Post; Exit Renata}}

Her film reviews were collected in her book, A Year in the Dark. During her time at the Times she retained her office at The New Yorker and she rejoined the staff there after leaving the Times, remaining for four decades.{{cite web |title=New Yorker Classics |url=https://link.newyorker.com/view/5be9fceb2ddf9c72dc8994b7boip3.af1f/6b74fe29 |website=link.newyorker.com |access-date=March 5, 2020}}

Her reporting and essays for The New Yorker on politics, war, and civil rights were reprinted in Toward a Radical Middle. Her introduction to that volume provided an early definition of radical centrism as a political philosophy.Adler, Renata (1969). Toward a Radical Middle: Fourteen Pieces of Reporting and Criticism. Random House, pp. xiii–xxiv. {{ISBN|978-0-394-44916-6}}. Her "Letter from the Palmer House" was included in the collection The Best Magazine Articles of the Seventies.

In the early 1970s, Adler taught theater and film at Hunter College.{{Cite web |title=Adler, Renata {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/adler-renata |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}{{Cite web |last=Birnbaum |first=Robert |date=2004-09-16 |title=Renata Adler |url=https://themorningnews.org/article/birnbaum-v.-renata-adler |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=The Morning News}}{{Cite web |title=Renata Adler |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/renata-adler/ |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation... |language=en}} In 1973, John Doar, whom Adler had met while covering the Selma March, approached her with an offer to write speeches for Peter Rodino, the chairman of the Nixon impeachment inquiry of the House Judiciary Committee.{{Cite web |last=Wolff |first=Michael |date=2000-01-17 |title=Mr. Shawn's Lost Tribe |url=https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/media/columns/medialife/1812/ |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=New York Magazine |language=en}} Adler accepted, and would later publish Pitch Dark (1983), which fictionalized an affair she had with Burke Marshall, a fellow committee member.

In 1980, upon the publication of her New Yorker colleague Pauline Kael's collection When the Lights Go Down, she published an 8,000-word review in The New York Review of Books that dismissed the book as "jarringly, piece by piece, line by line, and without interruption, worthless",{{cite news |last=Adler |first=Renata |author-link= Renata Adler |url= http://www.nybooks.com/articles/7313#fnr3 |title=The Perils of Pauline |work=The New York Review of Books |date=August 14, 1980 |access-date=July 16, 2015}} arguing that Kael's post-1960s work contained "nothing certainly of intelligence or sensibility", and faulting her "quirks [and] mannerisms", including Kael's repeated use of the "bullying" imperative and rhetorical question. Adler's motivations were considered to be either wanting to "uphold The New Yorker's usually high standards" or stemming from "personal differences with Kael". The piece, which stunned Kael and quickly became infamous in literary circles,{{cite book |last=Davis |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Davis |title=Afterglow: A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael |year=2002 |publisher=Da Capo |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-306-81230-4}} was described by Time as "the New York literary Mafia['s] bloodiest case of assault and battery in years." New Yorker editor William Shawn called Adler's attack "unfortunate" and mentioned his admiration for Kael, saying that her "work is its own defense"; David Denby, of New York magazine, wrote that Adler "had an old-fashioned notion of prose". Kael's own response was indifferent: "I'm sorry that Ms. Adler doesn't respond to my writing. What else can I say?"{{Cite magazine|date=August 4, 1980|title=Press: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Ouch Ouch)|language=en|magazine=Time|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,920938-1,00.html|access-date=April 11, 2021|issn=0040-781X}}

In 1998, Adler wrote a long essay about the Starr Report (issued by Independent Counsel Ken Starr about his investigation of President Bill Clinton) for Vanity Fair magazine. The Starr Report led to Clinton's impeachment; Adler argued that it contained evidence of Starr's abuse of power in his pursuit of Clinton.{{cite web | url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1998/12/monica-lewinsky | title=Decoding the Starr Report| website=Vanity Fair|first=Renata|last=Adler | date=May 6, 2014|access-date=June 13, 2023}} She called the Starr Report "an utterly preposterous document: inaccurate, mindless, biased, disorganized, unprofessional, and corrupt. What it is textually is a voluminous work of demented pornography, with many fascinating characters and several largely hidden story lines. What it is politically is an attempt, through its own limitless preoccupation with sexual material, to set aside, even obliterate, the relatively dull requirements of real evidence and constitutional procedure."

In 2001, reflecting on her years in journalism, Adler said, "The New York Times was pretty good, although there were always limits on what it could do culturally. But they were so aware of their power that the question of what was honorable was very important to the editors of that time. I have the impression it does not arise any longer at The New Yorker or at The New York Times."

Adler taught journalism and English literature for three years{{when?|date=February 2025}} at Boston University, also serving in the University Professors Program.{{cite web |last1=Bollen |first1=Christopher |title=Renata Adler |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/renata-adler |website=Interview |access-date=22 May 2022 |date=14 August 2014}}

In 1968, Adler's essay "Letter from the Palmer House", which appeared in The New Yorker, was included in The Best Magazine Articles of 1967. In 1973, Adler received a Guggenheim Fellowship for General Nonfiction. In 1975, Adler's short story "Brownstone" received first prize in the O. Henry Awards Best Short Stories of 1974.{{Cite web |date=2013-04-08 |title=Review: Speedboat and Pitch Dark |url=https://www.thecommononline.org/review-speedboat-and-pitch-dark/ |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=The Common |language=en-US}} The same story was selected for the O. Henry Collection Best Short Stories of the Seventies.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In 1977, Adler's novel Speedboat won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, an annual award to recognize a distinguished achievement in debut fiction.{{Cite news |date=1977-04-27 |title=Renata Adler Wins Prize |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/27/archives/renata-adler-wins-prize.html |access-date=2023-12-20 |issn=0362-4331}} In 1987, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1989 she received an honorary doctorate from the Georgetown University School of Law.{{Cite web |title=Georgetown Law Chronology |url=https://www.law.georgetown.edu/library/special-collections/archives/georgetown-law-timeline/ |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.law.georgetown.edu |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Academy Members – American Academy of Arts and Letters |url=https://artsandletters.org/academy-members/ |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=artsandletters.org}} In 2021, Adler received an honorary doctorate from Oberlin College.{{cite news|url = https://www.oberlin.edu/news/2021-commencement-celebrations-will-be-held-may-14|title = 2021 Commencement Celebrations will be held May 14|work = Oberlin College|accessdate = January 8, 2022|date = May 7, 2021}}

Her "Letter from Selma", originally published in the New Yorker in 1965,{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1965/04/10/letter-from-selma|title=Letter from Selma|last=Adler|first=Renata|date=April 10, 1965|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=November 7, 2017|issn=0028-792X}} was included in the Library of America compendium Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1963–1973 (2003),{{Cite web|url=https://www.loa.org/books/187-reporting-civil-rights-american-journalism-1963-1973|title=Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1963–1973|website=www.loa.org|publisher=Library of America|language=en-US|access-date=November 7, 2017}} and an essay from her tenure as film critic of The New York Times, on In Cold Blood, is included in the Library of America compendium American Movie Critics: An Anthology From the Silents Until Now. In 2004, Adler served as a media fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.[http://www.nndb.com/people/799/000048655/ Renata Adler] NNDB: Retrieved March 21, 2008.

Adler was selected as the 2016 Writer-in-Residence for the International Literature Festival held at Utrecht University.{{Cite web |date=2016-03-21 |title=Renata Adler appointed Writer-in-Residence 2016 - News - Utrecht University |url=https://www.uu.nl/en/news/renata-adler-appointed-writer-in-residence-2016 |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=www.uu.nl |language=en}}

In the 1960s, Adler was briefly engaged to Reuel Wilson, the son of Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy, whom she met while studying at Harvard. Adler has one son, Stephen, whom she adopted as an infant in 1986. {{As of|2013}}, she lives in Newtown, Connecticut.{{cite news|url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/07/renata-adler-new-york-author-interview|title = Renata Adler: 'I've been described as shrill. Isn't that strange?'|work = The Guardian|last = Cooke|first = Rachel|date = July 7, 2013|accessdate = January 27, 2022}}

In her memoir Then Again, Diane Keaton said that her character Renata in the 1978 Woody Allen movie Interiors was inspired by Adler.{{cite book |last1=Keaton |first1=Diane |title=Then Again |date=2011 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-0812980950 |page=144}}

Fiction

• {{cite book |year=1976 |title=Speedboat |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=0-394-48876-8}}
• {{cite book |year=1983 |title=Pitch Dark |publisher=Knopf |location=New York |isbn=0-394-50374-0}}

Nonfiction

• {{cite book |year=1969 |title=A Year in the Dark: Journal of a Film Critic, 1968–69 |publisher=Random House |location=New York}}
• {{cite book |year=1970 |title=Toward a Radical Middle: Fourteen Pieces of Reporting and Criticism |url=https://archive.org/details/towardradicalmid00adle |url-access=registration |publisher=Random House |location=New York}}
• {{cite book |year=1986 |title=Reckless Disregard: Westmoreland v. CBS et al., Sharon v. Time |publisher=Knopf |location=New York |isbn=0-394-52751-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/recklessdisregar00adle }}
• {{cite book |year=1999 |title=Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0-684-80816-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/gonelastdaysofne00adle }}
• {{cite book |year=2001 |title=Canaries in the Mineshaft: Essays on Politics and the Media |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0-312-27520-X |url=https://archive.org/details/canariesinminesh00adle }}
• {{cite book |year=2004 |title=Irreparable Harm: The U.S. Supreme Court and the Decision that Made George W. Bush President |publisher=Melville House Pub. |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |isbn=0-9749609-5-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780974960951 }}
• {{cite book |year=2015 |title=After the Tall Timber: Collected Non-Fiction |publisher=New York Review of Books |location=New York |isbn=978-1-59017-879-9}}

{{NoteFoot}}

{{reflist}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{C-SPAN|1011509}}

{{S-start}}

{{s-media}}

{{Succession box| title=Chief film critic of The New York Times |years=1968-1969 |before=Bosley Crowther |after=Vincent Canby}}

{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Renata}}

Category:1937 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American essayists

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American women journalists

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American essayists

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American women journalists

Category:21st-century American journalists

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American people of German-Jewish descent

Category:American women critics

Category:American women essayists

Category:American women film critics

Category:American women non-fiction writers

Category:American women novelists

Category:Boston University faculty

Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni

Category:The New York Times journalists

Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winners

Category:Hunter College faculty

Category:Jewish American essayists

Category:Jewish American journalists

Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers

Category:Jewish American novelists

Category:Jewish women writers

Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Category:The New Yorker staff writers

Category:O. Henry Award winners

Category:Writers from Danbury, Connecticut

Category:People from Newtown, Connecticut

Category:Radical centrist writers

Category:Yale Law School alumni

Category:Writers from Milan