Linda Wolfe

Linda Wolfe (November 15, 1932 – February 22, 2020) was an American journalist, essayist, and fiction writer., best known for her award-winning work, Wasted: The Preppie Murder, an investigation of the so-called "rough sex" killer, Robert Chambers. Critic John Leonard called Wolfe a writer of "fierce intelligence." Wolfe was also a distinguished book critic and a founding member of the National Book Critics Circle.
Writing
Wolfe's Wasted was nominated for an Edgar Award and named a "Notable Book of the Year" by The New York Times. In addition, Wolfe wrote several other books based on true crimes and events, such as Double Life: The Downfall of Judge Sol Wachtler. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Ladies Home Journal, Playboy, and several other publications.
Career
Wolfe began her literary career in 1958 as an editorial assistant at Partisan Review alongside editors William Phillips and Philip Rahv. During her time at Partisan, Wolfe studied for a M.A. degree in American literature at New York University and began research on what would be her first published work, The Literary Gourmet. This book would be one of the first to explore the ways and reasons the world's great novelists used dining scenes to illuminate character. In 1960 Wolfe started working for Time Inc., first in the copy department of Life Magazine, then as a researcher and writer for Time-Life Books, where she published her second book, The Cooking of the Caribbean Islands.
In 1971 Wolfe was asked by Clay Felker to write about food for New York Magazine and was soon named a contributing editor, a position she maintained for the next 25 years. From there Wolfe branched out to write about sexuality, social behavior, and crime, particularly about crimes committed by well-placed professionals and academics. One of her better known articles is The Strange Death of the Twin Gynecologists, about twin New York Hospital physicians who were found dead in their apartment. This article would later help inspire the film Dead Ringers. Wolfe also twice served as a restaurant reviewer for New York Magazine in the 1970s.
Wolfe also wrote about travel, starting an annual series called Island Travel that ran in New York Magazine from 1984 to 1994, as well as doing travel pieces for the New York Times, the New York Post, and Washington Post, among others.
Wolfe's interest in sexuality and social behavior would later lead to her writing Playing Around: Women and Adultery and The Cosmo Report: Women and Sex in the Eighties. Wolfe also wrote a profile named A Brief History of Alfred Kinsey, published as an introduction to the movie Kinsey as well as several articles for Playboy and Mirabella June.
Criticism
Wolfe's book reviews appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post. The Boston Globe, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the St. Petersburg Times, and elsewhere. Her involvement with the National Book Critics Circle began in 1976, the year it held its first Awards Ceremony. She served on the governing board from 1997 to 2002 and from 2005 to 2010. In 2011 she started a book review column for the website FabOverFifty.com.
Early life and education
Wolfe was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Antioch College and Brooklyn College, graduating from Brooklyn College in 1955. She received an M.A.from New York University in 1959.
Personal life
Wolfe's first marriage was to the magazine editor and film publicist Joseph Wolfe. Her second marriage was to psychologist Max Pollack. She had one daughter, Jessica Bernstein, and two stepdaughters, Deborah and Judith Pollack, as well as two granddaughters and two step-grandchildren.
Works
Books
My Daughter/Myself 2013
The Murder of Dr. Chapman: The Legendary Trials of Lucretia Chapman and Her Lover
Love Me to Death: A Journalist's Memoir of the Hunt for Her Friend's Killer 1998
Wasted: The Preppie Murder 1989, won Notable Book of the Year
The Literary Gourmet: Menus From Masterpieces
Double Life: The Downfall of Judge Sol Wachtler 1994
The Murder of Dr. Chapman: The Legendary Trials of Lucretia Chapman and Her Lover 2004
Playing Around: Women and Adultery
The Professor and the Prostitute and Other True Tales of Murder and Madness 1986
The Cosmo Report: Women and Sex in the Eighties 1981
The Cooking of the Caribbean Islands 1971
The Literary Gourmet 1963
Articles
My Manhattan; On East Broadway, a Wide World Unfolds, July 11, 2003
In Step With Austen: English Country Dancing, March 7, 1997
Hers; Runaway Memory, April 2, 1995
And Baby Makes 3, Even if You're Gray, January 4, 1994
[; New York Woman – Suicide of Theodora Sklover], October 12, 1992
January 14, 1991 – New York's Toughest Judges
December 3, 1984 – Dented Pride
April 9, 1984 – Death in the Video Arcade: A Story of Two Families
February 6, 1984 – Daylight Express: Trapped in a Turkish Prison
October 17, 1983 – The Death of an Idealist – Jacqui Bernard
January 17, 1983 – Transsexual Bartender and the Suburban Princess
April 5, 1982 – Mommy's 39, Daddy's 57 – And Baby was Just Born
July 27, 1981 – Taunted to Death – Death of Gerard Coury
October 20, 1980 – Tragedy on 89th Street – Irene Schwartz
September 15, 1980 – The Strange Case of Dr. Buettner-Janusch
April 14, 1980 – Lady Vanishes – Dr. Margaret Kilcoyne
Contemporary Behavior, Sexuality, Psychology
October 4, 1982 – Growing up Absorbed
August 9, 1982 – The G Spot – Criticism
July 19, 1982 – The Next Sexual Hype – The G Spot
May 7, 1979 – When was the last time you called your mother
January 10, 1977 – The Coming Baby Boom
September 8, 1975 – The Strange Death of the Twin Gynecologists (in New York magazine)
February 17, 1975 – Funny Valentine
March 19, 1973 – The Forbidden Couple
July 3, 1972 – Can Adultery Save Your Marriage?
June 5, 1972 – A Time of Change
April 17, 1972 – The Masterses' Disciples: Sexual Therapy in New York
January 31, 1972 – Divorce – Dominican Style
March 8, 1971 – Psychotherapy Clinics: Walk in If You Can
February 13, 1984 – The Return of "Uncle" Gairy
June 30, 1980 – Olympus on 155th Street
February 13, 1978 – Mort Janklow: Friends Make the Man
December 7, 1992 – Fatal Error – The Death of Radio Man Rick Sklar
April 25, 1983 – Young Doctors at Sea: Caribbean Politics and Current Affairs
January 14, 1980 – Death by Botulism, A Medical Mystery
My Manhattan; On East Broadway, a Wide World Unfolds, July 11, 2003
Winter in the Sun; Martinique, Deja Vu, but Different, October 25, 1998
Lingering in Languedoc, July 16, 1995
Book reviews in New York Times
Crime/Mystery; In the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills, October 20, 1991
Houston Law November 18, 1990
Crime in the Family, April 22, 1990
One Night in Queens February 11, 1990
Psycho Killer, June 4, 1989
Australia Found Guilty, March 22, 1987
Men, Women, and Children First, April 27, 1986
Filling in the Blanks, November 3, 1985
Restaurant reviews
August 8, 1977 – Small is Beautiful
March 19, 1973 – To Eat, Perchance to Dream
August 30, 1971 – A Room with a View
References
External links
Official website
My Manhattan; On East Broadway, a Wide World Unfolds
In Step With Austen: English Country Dancing
And Baby Makes 3, Even if You're Gray
1932 births
2020 deaths
American non-fiction crime writers
Journalists from Brooklyn
American women journalists
Writers from New York (state)
New York Post people
New York (magazine) people
American literary critics
American women literary critics
Women crime writers
21st-century American women