Trilling, Diana

Writer Diana Trilling spent much of her life carving a niche out for herself that would separate her from her husband, critic and author, Lionel Trilling. Although she was fiercely devoted to their marriage, she maintained her own identity and had a successful career as a literary critic, an author, and a cultural commentator. She was not afraid to shy away from controversy especially if, in her view, her political opinions were being distorted or misunderstood by others. (The name Trilling, when used alone, refers to Diana Trilling. Lionel Trilling will always be referred to by his full name.).

Diana Rubin was born in New York City on July 21, 1905. Her parents, Joseph Rubin and Sadie Helene Rubin (neé Forbert), were immigrants from Poland. Joseph Rubin was a successful businessman while his wife did occasional work in interior design. Diana Rubin lived first in Westchester and then Brooklyn where she attended Erasmus Hall High School. She entered Radcliffe College in 1921 as an Art History major with a minor in Music. Rubin had wanted to be a singer, but had suffered from an affliction of the thyroid, effectively ending any chances she may have head to pursue a professional career.

After graduating cum laude in 1925, she moved back to New York to look for a job in some artistic environment, preferably a museum. What she found was a young graduate student at Columbia named Lionel Trilling. After dating for a couple of years, they married on October 25, 1929. Lionel Trilling continued to pursue his doctorate in English Literature while Diana Trilling spent her time volunteering in Harlem. She was active with other politically-minded individuals who were trying to save the Scottsboro Boys, the nine black boys charged with raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama. Diana Trilling tried to work with her Harlem neighbors and raise money to pay lawyer fees, a situation made more difficult due to racial and economic factors that distanced residents from each other.

In 1941, Lionel Trilling was asked by editors at The Nation to suggest a fiction critic for them. Diana Trilling offered her services and the weekly column "Fiction in Review" was created. The column ran until 1949. At this point, Trilling had begun contributing pieces on literary, social, and political themes for some of the following publications: The New York Times Book Review, Partisan Review, Commentary, Harpers, The Atlantic, The Saturday Review, Redbook, McCall's, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Vogue, The Nation, and The New Leader. Later on while being interviewed, she always made the point that she never discriminated against a particular journal or magazine. In other words, it was a privilege to know that one's articles were wanted in intellectual journals as well as mainstream magazines. In addition to these pieces, Trilling edited the Portable D.H. Lawrence for Viking Press in 1947. She was an active writer throughout her life and yet, found time to raise a family. James Lionel Trilling was born in 1949.

In the 1940s and 1950s, both Diana and Lionel Trilling began to distance themselves politically from other New York intellectuals. Once staunch supporters of Communism, they were unhappy with whom their fellow communists supported during World War II and the actions conducted in Europe under the umbrella of Communism. The Trillings joined the American Committee for Cultural Freedom. The American branch of this organization was in essence an Anti-Communist set of intellectuals and public personas that strove to condemn censorship of art and defend civil liberties. The group was comprised of individuals who represented various fields such as literature, dance, art, as well as political and labor activists. Notable members included Sidney Hook, James T. Farrell, Peter Viereck, W.H. Auden, George Balanchine, Saul Bellow, Elia Kazan, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, A. Philip Randolph, John Steinbeck and Robert Penn Warren. Diana Trilling served as Chairman of the Board from 1953 to 1957 and as a board member from 1957 until she resigned three years later. Trilling felt that she had moved away politically from some of the leadership and wanted to distance herself from their cause.

During this time, Lionel Trilling taught English at Columbia University. He was an extremely popular public figure who was always receiving invitations to give lectures, be a visiting scholar, or to read and offer criticism to literary pieces. Although he may have been more well-known of the two, Diana Trilling continued to publish articles and books. In 1958 she edited a selection of letters of D.H. Lawrence. This was followed by a collection of essays in 1964 published under the title Claremont Essays. The Trillings lived on Claremont Avenue and Diana Trilling felt that her address, and her neighborhood, had such an impact on the way she viewed the world.

Lionel Trilling was diagnosed with a rapid moving cancer in spring of 1975. His health quickly declined and he passed away in November of that same year. Despite this personal tragedy, Diana Trilling continued to write. Two years after his death, she published a retrospective of her time at Radcliffe College and the impression that coeducation made on the students of the mid-1970s called We Must March My Darlings. That same year Trilling began editing a twelve-volume uniform edition of her husband's works. This project lasted until 1979. In between, she pulled together some of her more popular book reviews and published Reviewing the Forties. Other publications include a nonfiction analysis of a 1981 Westchester murder trial entitled Mrs. Harris: The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor, and a 1993 memoir of her marriage, The Beginning of the Journey: The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling.

Throughout her career, Diana Trilling was active in intellectual and social organizations. Among them were the Radcliffe Club, the Cosmopolitan Club, which she joined in 1968, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which she was elected to in 1976. She was also an honorary member of the Radcliffe Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Trilling also successfully received a joint grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and two Guggenheim Fellowships, one in 1950 and one in 1991.

Diana Trilling remained a public figure even when she was not at the peak of her career. Her fiery public outbursts, like the Lillian Hellmann controversy, and her outspoken nature, made her a controversial figure. Even when her eyesight was failing and she was diminishing her creative output, Trilling continued to praise the political and cultural time of the 1930s and criticize the social movements of the 1960s. Like her husband, she was often considered elitist and woefully ignorant of the ways in which the United States in general, and New York in particular, had moved on since the 1930s.

Despite the criticisms, Diana Trilling remained determined to defend her views and those of her husband. She continued to give interviews and mentor younger writers until her death from cancer in 1996. She is survived by her son James Trilling, an art historian.

Writer Diana Trilling spent much of her life carving a niche out for herself that would separate her from her husband, critic and author, Lionel Trilling. Although she was fiercely devoted to their marriage, she maintained her own identity and had a successful career as a literary critic, an author, and a cultural commentator. She was not afraid to shy away from controversy especially if, in her view, her political opinions were being distorted or misunderstood by others. (The name Trilling, when used alone, refers to Diana Trilling. Lionel Trilling will always be referred to by his full name.)

Diana Rubin was born in New York City on July 21, 1905. Her parents, Joseph Rubin and Sadie Helene Rubin (neé Forbert), were immigrants from Poland. Joseph Rubin was a successful businessman while his wife did occasional work in interior design. Diana Rubin lived first in Westchester and then Brooklyn where she attended Erasmus Hall High School. She entered Radcliffe College in 1921 as an Art History major with a minor in Music. Rubin had wanted to be a singer, but had suffered from an affliction of the thyroid, effectively ending any chances she may have head to pursue a professional career.

After graduating cum laude in 1925, she moved back to New York to look for a job in some artistic environment, preferably a museum. What she found was a young graduate student at Columbia named Lionel Trilling. After dating for a couple of years, they married on October 25, 1929. Lionel Trilling continued to pursue his doctorate in English Literature while Diana Trilling spent her time volunteering in Harlem. She was active with other politically-minded individuals who were trying to save the Scottsboro Boys, the nine black boys charged with raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama. Diana Trilling tried to work with her Harlem neighbors and raise money to pay lawyer fees, a situation made more difficult due to racial and economic factors that distanced residents from each other.

In 1941, Lionel Trilling was asked by editors at The Nation to suggest a fiction critic for them. Diana Trilling offered her services and the weekly column "Fiction in Review" was created. The column ran until 1949. At this point, Trilling had begun contributing pieces on literary, social, and political themes for some of the following publications: The New York Times Book Review, Partisan Review, Commentary, Harpers, The Atlantic, The Saturday Review, Redbook, McCall's, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Vogue, The Nation, and The New Leader. Later on while being interviewed, she always made the point that she never discriminated against a particular journal or magazine. In other words, it was a privilege to know that one's articles were wanted in intellectual journals as well as mainstream magazines. In addition to these pieces, Trilling edited the Portable D.H. Lawrence for Viking Press in 1947. She was an active writer throughout her life and yet, found time to raise a family. James Lionel Trilling was born in 1949.

In the 1940s and 1950s, both Diana and Lionel Trilling began to distance themselves politically from other New York intellectuals. Once staunch supporters of Communism, they were unhappy with whom their fellow communists supported during World War II and the actions conducted in Europe under the umbrella of Communism. The Trillings joined the American Committee for Cultural Freedom. The American branch of this organization was in essence an Anti-Communist set of intellectuals and public personas that strove to condemn censorship of art and defend civil liberties. The group was comprised of individuals who represented various fields such as literature, dance, art, as well as political and labor activists. Notable members included Sidney Hook, James T. Farrell, Peter Viereck, W.H. Auden, George Balanchine, Saul Bellow, Elia Kazan, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, A. Philip Randolph, John Steinbeck and Robert Penn Warren. Diana Trilling served as Chairman of the Board from 1953 to 1957 and as a board member from 1957 until she resigned three years later. Trilling felt that she had moved away politically from some of the leadership and wanted to distance herself from their cause.

During this time, Lionel Trilling taught English at Columbia University. He was an extremely popular public figure who was always receiving invitations to give lectures, be a visiting scholar, or to read and offer criticism to literary pieces. Although he may have been more well-known of the two, Diana Trilling continued to publish articles and books. In 1958 she edited a selection of letters of D.H. Lawrence. This was followed by a collection of essays in 1964 published under the title Claremont Essays. The Trillings lived on Claremont Avenue and Diana Trilling felt that her address, and her neighborhood, had such an impact on the way she viewed the world.

Lionel Trilling was diagnosed with a rapid moving cancer in spring of 1975. His health quickly declined and he passed away in November of that same year. Despite this personal tragedy, Diana Trilling continued to write. Two years after his death, she published a retrospective of her time at Radcliffe College and the impression that coeducation made on the students of the mid-1970s called We Must March My Darlings. That same year Trilling began editing a twelve-volume uniform edition of her husband's works. This project lasted until 1979. In between, she pulled together some of her more popular book reviews and published Reviewing the Forties. Other publications include a nonfiction analysis of a 1981 Westchester murder trial entitled Mrs. Harris: The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor, and a 1993 memoir of her marriage, The Beginning of the Journey: The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling.

Throughout her career, Diana Trilling was active in intellectual and social organizations. Among them were the Radcliffe Club, the Cosmopolitan Club, which she joined in 1968, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which she was elected to in 1976. She was also an honorary member of the Radcliffe Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Trilling also successfully received a joint grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and two Guggenheim Fellowships, one in 1950 and one in 1991.

Diana Trilling remained a public figure even when she was not at the peak of her career. Her fiery public outbursts, like the Lillian Hellmann controversy, and her outspoken nature, made her a controversial figure. Even when her eyesight was failing and she was diminishing her creative output, Trilling continued to praise the political and cultural time of the 1930s and criticize the social movements of the 1960s. Like her husband, she was often considered elitist and woefully ignorant of the ways in which the United States in general, and New York in particular, had moved on since the 1930s.

Despite the criticisms, Diana Trilling remained determined to defend her views and those of her husband. She continued to give interviews and mentor younger writers until her death from cancer in 1996. She is survived by her son James Trilling, an art historian

Photo Credit: Michael O'Neill