25 Facts About Diane Middlebrook

Diane Helen Middlebrook was an American biographer, poet, and teacher.

Diane Middlebrook taught feminist studies for many years at Stanford University.

In 1945, when Diane was five, the family moved to Spokane, Washington.

Diane Middlebrook graduated from North Central High School in 1957.

Diane Middlebrook expressed her desire to become a published poet and writer, but received no encouragement from her family.

Diane Middlebrook entered Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, then transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle.

Diane Middlebrook received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961.

Diane Middlebrook entered Stanford University as an assistant professor of English in 1966, then obtained a Ph.

Diane Middlebrook began her teaching career at Stanford as an assistant professor in 1966 and gradually worked her way up to university professor and associate dean positions.

Diane Middlebrook won a number of fellowships, grants, and awards along the way.

Diane Middlebrook had not focused on feminist studies before she was tapped for Stanford's new Center for Research on Women, one of the first such centers in the nation in the 1970s.

Diane Middlebrook was chair of Stanford's Feminist Studies Program from 1985 to 1988.

Diane Middlebrook embraced diverse curricula: one syllabus from that era lists both Ovid and Queen Latifah.

Diane Middlebrook received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, the Stanford Humanities Center, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Study Center of Bellagio.

Diane Middlebrook was a founding trustee of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, an interdisciplinary arts center in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Diane Middlebrook received two honors from Stanford for her teaching effort.

Diane Middlebrook resigned from Stanford in 2002 to concentrate fully on her writing.

Diane Middlebrook reviewed a wide variety of books on subjects ranging from Helen Keller to the development of modern clothing.

At the time of her death, Diane Middlebrook was preparing a biography of the Roman poet Ovid, to be published in 2008.

Diane Middlebrook was noted for her openness and honest, sometimes "brutal" biographical writing.

Diane Middlebrook's Husband was a 2004 finalist for the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award in non-fiction.

Diane Middlebrook had one daughter, Leah Middlebrook, born 1966, who became a university professor and taught Comparative Literature and Romance Languages at the University of Oregon.

Diane Middlebrook retired in 2002 and persuaded Djerassi to retire from chemistry that year, although he continued to write fiction and drama.

Diane Middlebrook concentrated more fully on her research, and she and Djerassi divided their time between their residences in San Francisco and London.

Diane Middlebrook underwent surgery for cancer in July 2001 and again in February 2004.