# David Denby > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/David_Denby > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/David_Denby.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Denby > Source revision: 1345460440 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American film critic}} {{about|the film critic|the academic|David Denby (academic)}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}} {{Infobox writer | image = David Denby.JPG | imagesize = | name = David Denby | caption = Denby in 2016 | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1943}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Film critic, journalist | alma_mater = [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) ([BA](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts), [MA](/source/Master_of_Arts)) | period = | genre = | movement = | signature = | spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|[Cathleen Schine](/source/Cathleen_Schine)|1981|2000|end=divorced}}|{{marriage|Susan Rieger|2004}}}} | children = 2 }} '''David Denby''' (born 1943) is an American journalist. He was a film critic at ''[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker)'' magazine[https://newrepublic.com/article/107212/has-hollywood-murdered-the-movies# Has Hollywood Murdered the Movies?|The New Republic] until December 2014.{{cite magazine|title=Contributors: David Denby|url=http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/david-denby|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=December 14, 2014}} ==Early life and education== Denby grew up in New York City. He received a [B.A.](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts) from [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) in 1965 and a [master's degree](/source/master's_degree) from its journalism school in 1966. ==Career== ===Journalism=== Denby began writing film criticism while a graduate student at [Stanford University's](/source/Stanford_University) Department of Communication.{{cite web |url=http://www.worldleaders.columbia.edu/participants/david-denby |title=Biography: David Denby |publisher=[Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) |location=World Leaders Forum |access-date=February 3, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608224401/http://www.worldleaders.columbia.edu/participants/david-denby |archive-date=June 8, 2010 |url-status=dead }} He began his professional life in the early 1970s as an adherent of the film critic [Pauline Kael](/source/Pauline_Kael)—one of a group of film writers informally, and sometimes derisively, known as "the Paulettes."{{cite magazine |author=Denby, David |date=October 20, 2003 |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-24768257_ITM |title=My Life As a Paulette |magazine=[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker) }} Denby wrote for ''[The Atlantic Monthly](/source/The_Atlantic)'', the ''Boston Phoenix'', and [''New York''](/source/New_York_(magazine)) before arriving at ''The New Yorker''. His first article for the magazine was published in 1993, and beginning in 1998, he served as a staff writer and film critic, alternating his critical duties week by week with [Anthony Lane](/source/Anthony_Lane). Denby participated in the [2012 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll](/source/The_Sight_%26_Sound_Greatest_Films_of_All_Time_2012), where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: ''[L'Avventura](/source/L'Avventura)'', ''[Citizen Kane](/source/Citizen_Kane)'', ''[The Godfather Part II](/source/The_Godfather_Part_II)'', ''[Journey to Italy](/source/Journey_to_Italy)'', ''[The Life of Oharu](/source/The_Life_of_Oharu)'', ''[The Rules of the Game](/source/The_Rules_of_the_Game)'', ''[Seven Samurai](/source/Seven_Samurai)'', ''[Sunrise](/source/Sunrise%3A_A_Song_of_Two_Humans)'', ''[The Tree of Life](/source/The_Tree_of_Life_(film))'', and ''[Vertigo](/source/Vertigo_(film))''.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/voter/687|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818143407/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/voter/687|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 18, 2016|title=David Denby {{pipe}} BFI}} In December 2014, it was announced that Denby would step down as film critic in early 2015, continuing with ''The New Yorker'' as a staff writer.{{cite news|last1=Hayden|first1=Erik|title=David Denby to Step Down as New Yorker Film Critic|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-denby-step-down-as-757475|access-date=December 14, 2014|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=December 13, 2014}} ===Books=== [[File:Denby at Berkeley.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Denby speaking at the [Berkeley School of Journalism](/source/UC_Berkeley_Graduate_School_of_Journalism), 2009]] Denby's ''Great Books'' (1996) is a non-fiction account of the [Western canon](/source/Western_canon)-oriented [Core Curriculum](/source/Core_Curriculum_(Columbia_College)) at his ''alma mater'', [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University). In ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'', the writer [Joyce Carol Oates](/source/Joyce_Carol_Oates) called the book "a lively adventure of the mind," filled with "unqualified enthusiasm."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/01/books/back-to-school.html |title=Back to School |first=Joyce Carol |last=Oates |author-link=Joyce Carol Oates |work=The New York Times |date=September 1, 1996 |access-date=March 20, 2008}} ''Great Books'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. In ''The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th century'', [Peter Watson](/source/Peter_Watson_(intellectual_historian)) called "Great Books" the "most original response to the culture wars."{{cite book |last= Watson|first= Peter|title= The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th century|url=https://archive.org/details/modernmindintell00wats_455|url-access= limited|date=July 2002|publisher= Harper Perennial|isbn= 0-06-008438-3|page= [https://archive.org/details/modernmindintell00wats_455/page/n746 733] }} The book has been published in 13 foreign editions. In 2004, Denby published ''American Sucker'', a memoir which details his investment misadventures in the [dot-com stock market bubble](/source/Dot-com_bubble), along with his own bust years as a divorcé from writer [Cathleen Schine](/source/Cathleen_Schine), leading to a major reassessment of his life. [Allan Sloan](/source/Allan_Sloan) in ''The New York Times'' called the author "formidably smart," while noting this paradox: "Mr. Denby is even smart enough to realize how paradoxical it is that he not only has a good, prestigious job, but that he is also in a position to make money by relating how he lost money in the stock market."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/28/books/books-of-the-times-ok-sharp-film-critic-not-so-shrewd-investor.html?sq=%22american+sucker%22&scp=1&st=nyt |title= O.K., Sharp Film Critic, Not-So-Shrewd Investor |first=Allan |last=Sloan |author-link=Allan Sloan |work=The New York Times |date=January 28, 2004 |access-date=March 20, 2008}} ''Snark'', published in 2009, is Denby's polemical dissection of the spread of low, annihilating sarcasm in the Internet and in public speech. In 2012, Denby collected his best film writing in ''Do the Movies Have a Future?'' Denby’s next book, ''Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives'', published in 2016, is a kind of prequel to ''Great Books''. It dramatizes the kind of reading and teaching can turn tenth-graders into lifetime readers. USA Today (February 17, 2016) described it as “by turns funny, bracing and utterly absorbing, it is that rare journalism artifact: a hopeful book about adolescence that doesn’t whitewash the nasty bits.” Denby is married to novelist Susan Rieger, author of ''The Divorce Papers'' (2014), ''The Heirs'' (2017), and ''Like Mother, Like Mother'' (Fall, 2024). ==Bibliography== {{Main|David Denby bibliography}} {{clear}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{Official website|http://david-denby.com}} * [http://nymag.com/nymag/author_390/ David Denby archive], [''New York''](/source/New_York_(magazine)) (articles from January 1998 to January 2001) *{{C-SPAN|45797}} {{Authority control|state=collapsed}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Denby, David}} Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:American film critics Category:American memoirists Category:American social sciences writers Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni Category:Harper's Magazine people Category:The New Yorker critics Category:The New Yorker staff writers Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Writers from New York City Category:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [David Denby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Denby) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Denby?action=history)). 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