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Biography
American

Ellen Willis

1941 — 2006

Ellen Willis was an American essayist, cultural critic, and political writer who was the first pop music critic for The New Yorker (1968–1975) and one of the most important feminist and cultural critics of the late twentieth century. Her essays — collected in Beginning to See the Light (1981) and No More Nice Girls (1992) — are essential documents of American cultural and political thought.

Past sales0
PeriodModern
NationalityAmerican
1. Biography

A short life of the author

Ellen Willis (1941–2006) was born on 14 December 1941 in New York City. She studied at Barnard College and the University of California, Berkeley. She founded the journalism program at New York University.

Life and Career

Willis became The New Yorker’s first dedicated pop music critic in 1968, writing about Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground, Janis Joplin, and the Rolling Stones with intellectual seriousness and emotional engagement. Her music criticism — collected posthumously in Out of the Vinyl Deeps (2011, edited by her daughter Nona Willis Aronowitz) — is among the finest in the field.

She was also a founding member of the radical feminist group Redstockings and a fierce polemicist on issues of feminism, sexuality, free speech, and the American left. Beginning to See the Light (1981) and No More Nice Girls (1992) collect her essays on feminism, popular culture, and politics.

Major Works and Themes

Willis wrote about popular culture, feminism, free speech, and the contradictions of the American left. She is one of the essential American cultural critics of the twentieth century.

Key Works

  • Beginning to See the Light (1981)
  • Out of the Vinyl Deeps (2011)

Collecting Willis

Beginning to See the Light first edition (Knopf, 1981) brings $30–$60. Out of the Vinyl Deeps (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) brings $15–$25. Willis died in 2006.