Diane Helen Middlebrook (née Wood; April 16, 1939 – December 15, 2007)[1] was an American biographer, poet, and teacher.
[6] Middlebrook expressed her desire to become a published poet and writer, but received no encouragement from her family.
[citation needed] Middlebrook received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities,[8] Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, the Stanford Humanities Center, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation,[8] and the Rockefeller Study Center of Bellagio.
She was a founding trustee of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, an interdisciplinary arts center in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
[4][7] The resulting book, Anne Sexton: A Biography, spent eight weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.
[5] Joyce Carol Oates called the book "sympathetic but resolutely unsentimental ... intelligent, sensitive, at times harrowing.
Writing for The New York Times, Daphne Merkin called the book an "attentive and cleareyed account," but noted that "even Middlebrook's inspiring slant can't obscure the chill at the heart of this story.
"[9] She published many articles on Sexton, Plath, Hughes, and other writers, such as Robert Lowell and Philip Larkin.
She also reviewed a wide variety of books on subjects ranging from Helen Keller to the development of modern clothing.
[5] The Financial Times wrote: "Tipton may have spent his life fearing exposure, but he/she [sic] could not have wished for a more perceptive or sympathetic biographer than Middlebrook.
She concentrated more fully on her research, and she and Djerassi divided their time between their residences in San Francisco and London.