MORRIS DICKSTEIN

DICKSTEIN--Morris, age 81, died on March 24, from complications of Parkinson's Disease. Distinguished Professor emeritus of English and Theatre at the Graduate Center, CUNY, he also taught at Yale, Queens College, the University of Paris, and Columbia. He was a widely published literary and cultural critic, a public intellectual whose books included Gates of Eden (1977), Dancing in the Dark (2009), and a memoir, Why Not Say What Happened (2013). A child of immigrants from Eastern Europe, he attended Rabbi Jacob Joseph yeshiva on the Lower East Side. A General Motors scholarship enabled him to attend Columbia College. He did graduate work in English literature at Yale University and wrote his PhD thesis on the poet Keats under Harold Bloom. He spent 1963-4 as a Kellett Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge. He is survived by his wife, Lore Willner Dickstein, his daughter, Rachel (Blake Eskin), and son, Jeremy. Four grandchildren: Evan, Adam, Simon and Anya, and sister Doris Fineberg. He was an ideal, loving husband, parent and grandparent. A brilliant and elegant writer. A lover of puns. A mensch. A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date. Contributions in his name to Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, NY, would be appreciated.