Leonard Kriegel

Leonard Kriegel (May 25, 1933 – September 25, 2022) was an American author and self-proclaimed "cripple". His writing included essays, stories, and novels. He contracted polio at the age of 11, leaving him confined to steel braces and crutches shortly after. Kriegel recounted his experience with the illness in his memoir, The Long Walk Home, published in 1964. He received both Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, and three of his books were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

Early life

Kriegel was born in the Bronx on May 25, 1933. His father, Fred, worked as a deli counterman; his mother, Sylvia (Breittholz), was a housewife. Kriegel grew up in the neighborhood of Norwood. He caught polio during summer camp in 1944 and consequently remained at the New York State Reconstruction Home in West Haverstraw for two years. After being unsuccessfully treated, he went back to his home borough and finished his secondary school at home with visiting teachers. He studied at Hunter College, graduating with a bachelor's degree. He then obtained a master's degree at Columbia University, before being awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from New York University. The subject of his thesis was the writer and critic Edmund Wilson. He recounted telling his wife how he wanted his work to be "free of the sentimentality and cant and papier-mâché religiosity usually found in such books", at a time when it was uncommon to openly talk about the illness. Four years later, he was conferred a Rockefeller fellowship. Kriegel also received a MacDowell fellowship in 1976, the O. Henry Award, and three of his books were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

Essential Works of the Founding Fathers (1964, ed.)
Edmund Wilson (1971)