Carolyn Gold Heilbrun was an American academic and prolific feminist author, engaging in both significant academic studies and popular mystery novels under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. Her scholarly work specialized in British modern literature, with a particular interest in the Bloomsbury Group. Through her writings, she explored the lives and works of women to illuminate their experiences and intellectual contributions. Heilbrun aimed to rediscover and re-evaluate the literary voices of women who had been historically overlooked or marginalized.
The feminist writer and author of the Amanda Cross mystery series looks back on a youthful pledge to commit suicide at seventy, explaining why, given that her sixties have been her happiest decade, she decided not to take her life
Essays discuss American literature, feminist poetics, Black and Lesbian feminist criticism, and women's writing