Francine du Plessix Gray '52 Wins National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography
Francine du Plessix Gray '52 has received a National Book Critics Circle Award for Them: A Memoir of Parents. The NBCC’s citation reads in part: “Through exhaustive, meticulous research, with an historian’s skepticism, the penetration of an acute social observer, and an honesty with and about herself, Gray gives us era upon complex era of the 20th century, and several of its richest cultures. There are more than a few amazing love affairs, and doomed ones, including that of “them:” Gray’s mesmerizing, self-centered White Russian mother, Tatiana Yakovleva, and her step-father, Alexander Liberman, probably known to many people here as the evil genius behind Conde Nast. Not to mention the heart-breaking relationship between Francine and the two of them.”
The book, which the New York Times called "a vivid, often harrowing portrait" won in the category of autobiography, a new category this year.
Gray is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and the author of numerous essays and books, including Simone Weil, At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life, Rage and Fire, Lovers and Tyrants, and Soviet Women. She is part of Barnard's tradition of extrordinary alumnae writers, which also includes Pulitzer Prize winners Jhumpa Lahiri and Anna Quindlen. To see a full list of Barnard alumnae writers, visit the Books Etc. site.
The National Book Critics Circle is the country's leading organization of book critics and book review editors, with some 500 members. It was founded in 1974 to honor book criticism in all media, and to create a means for critics, reviewers and their editors to communicate with one another about their profession. |
