In Memoriam: Eve Kosofsky Sedwick (1950-2009)

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It is with profound sadness that I write to say that the influential literary critic and queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedwick has died after al long battle with cancer. She had been earlier diagnosed with cancer in 1991, and put her struggles into the poetic prose of A Dialogue on Love. This relentless disease has taken one of our most gifted and passionate critics far too soon.

As I mourn the loss of so singular an intellectual, I find myself pondering a curious experience I had only minutes before returning to my hotel in New York City. I had visited The Strand bookstore, where among the many millions of items, I came across a copy of Jonathon Goldberg's Sodometries: Renaissance Texts, Modern Sexualities. Although I ultimately decided not to purchase the volume, I remember Goldberg's dedication reading simply, "For Eve Sedgwick..."

There have been two blog posts so far commenting on her passing here, here, here, here and here. The GLBT magazine The Advocate ran this, and The Nation has run an elegant and substantial piece. The New Yorker ran this obit. I will try to add further links when they become available.