F. W. Dupee

Frederick Wilcox Dupee (AKA Fred Dupee and F. W. Dupee) (June 25, 1904 – January 19, 1979) was a distinguished American literary critic, essayist for Partisan Review and The New York Review of Books, and professor of English at Columbia University. He evolved from radical Marxist penning political essays to highly respected literary critic.

Dupee was born in Chicago on June 25, 1904. He was the son of Leroy Church and Frances Wilcox Dupee. He earned a PhD from Yale University in 1927.

In the 1930s, he was a Marxist radical, whose circle included: Robert Cantwell, Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Cowley, John Chamberlain, Erskine Caldwell, Matthew Josephson, Harry Hansen, James T. Farrell, Meyer Schapiro, John Dos Passos, Newton Arvin, Kenneth Burke, Granville Hicks, Kenneth Fearing, and Whittaker Chambers. With Cantwell and others, Dupee held an abiding interest in Henry James. Within this circle, Dupee, Chambers, and Arvin were gay or bisexual.

He taught at Bowdoin College and Bard College before going to Columbia University in 1948, where he taught modernist literature. Mary McCarthy was a student of his at Bard.

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