Katha Pollitt

Katha Pollitt
Pollitt in September 2007
Born	October 14, 1949 (age 67) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Occupation	Author, journalist, poet, and cultural critic
Nationality	American
Period	Late 20th, early 21st century
Genre	Essays, poetry, magazine articles, non-fiction
Subject	Feminism, politics, reproductive rights
Website
kathapollitt.blogspot.com

Katha Pollitt (born October 14, 1949) is an American feminist poet, essayist and critic. She is the author of four essay collections and two books of poetry. Her writing focuses on political and social issues, including abortion rights, racism, welfare reform, feminism, and poverty.

Pollitt was born in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Her father, Basil Pollitt, was a lawyer who championed liberal causes, and her mother, Leonora Levine, was a real estate agent. Her parents were prolific readers, and they encouraged their only daughter to pursue her interest in poetry. Her father was Protestant and her mother was Jewish.

Pollitt wrote extensively of her family in Learning to Drive, which is dedicated to her parents. New York Times Sunday Book Reviewer Toni Bentley writes about the discoveries she made in adulthood about her parents:

"Her father, Basil Riddiford Pollitt, a lawyer, was a kind of real-life Communist Atticus Finch, complete with an F.B.I. file about “five inches thick.” People had been informing on him since his high school days, and he lost his scholarship to Harvard as a 17-year-old freshman for “ ‘making communistic speeches and engaging in communistic activities.’ ” As a lawyer he argued that “grand juries were unconstitutional because they systematically excluded blacks and women.” (Decades later, the Supreme Court finally agreed with him.)

Pollitt’s mother, Leanora Levine Pollitt, was Jewish and also had an F.B.I. file, which revealed that she had had an illegal abortion and had protested against segregated restaurants and Nazi collaborators. She was beautiful and had received nine proposals before marrying Basil, played classical piano, could recite Heine in German, knew what President and Mrs. Roosevelt were doing at any moment of any day and had begun (though did not finish) law school. She had, Pollitt writes, her “dream self,” which included being a journalist and a “fiery revolutionary.” In a poignant legacy, the daughter has manifested the mother’s dream. Beautiful Leanora, however, drank herself to death by the age of 54."