Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, who wrote under the pseudonym Amanda Cross, was a prominent American author and academic. She was born on January 13, 1926, and went on to study English literature at Columbia University, where she earned her Master of Arts degree in 1951 and her Ph.D. in 1959. While at Columbia, Heilbrun studied under notable scholars such as Lionel Trilling and Jacques Barzun, and was inspired by figures like Clifton Fadiman.
Heilbrun became a professor of English at Columbia University, where she taught for over three decades between 1960 and 1992. She was the first tenured woman in the university's English department and specialized in British modern literature, with a particular focus on the Bloomsbury Group. In addition to her academic work, Heilbrun was a prolific writer and authored several academic titles that explored feminist themes. Together with her colleague and friend Nancy K. Miller, Heilbrun co-founded and co-edited the Columbia University Press. She also served as the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities Department at Columbia from 1985 to 1992.
Under the pseudonym Amanda Cross, Heilbrun wrote feminist and mystery novels that were well-received by critics and readers alike. Her first novel, "In the Last Analysis," was published in 1964, and she went on to write over a dozen more books under the Cross name. Her writing as Cross allowed her to explore feminist themes in a different genre and reach a wider audience. Heilbrun's experiences at Columbia University served as inspiration for some of her writing, including her 2002 book "When Men Were the Only Models We Had: My Teachers Barzun, Fadiman, Trilling." Heilbrun passed away on October 9, 2003, but her contributions to academic and literary circles continue to be celebrated and studied.