Richard Gilman


Richard Martin Gilman was an American drama and literary critic.

Early life

On April 30, 1923, Gilman was born as Richard Martin Gilman in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Gilman's family is Jewish.

Education

In 1947, Gilman graduated with a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin.

Career

Gilman served in the U.S. Marine Corps. After his service, he attended the New School for Social Research in New York.
Gilman was a freelance writer. After converting to Catholicism, he wrote for the left-leaning Catholic journal Commonweal and from 1964 to 1967, he was the drama critic for Newsweek.
In 1967, the dean of the Yale School of Drama, Robert Brustein, invited him to teach. Gilman was a professor at Yale School of Drama for 31 years. He also taught at Columbia, Stanford, Barnard and the City University of New York.
Gilman was the author of five books of criticism, and a memoir.

Personal life

In 1949, Gilman married painter Esther Morgenstern. In 1966, Gilman married Lynn Nesbit, a literary agent,, In 1992, Gilman married Japanese scholar, Yasuko Shiojiri, who would translate his books into Japanese. Gilman has three children from his first two marriages: Nicholas, Priscilla, and Claire.
Gilman died of lung cancer on October 28, 2006 at the age of 83 at his home in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
He was born Jewish, converted to Catholicism as an adult, and lapsed from that faith eight years later.