John Leonard Dies

John Leonard, the dazzling television critic for New York magazine, passed away last night at 69. Leonard wrote his first piece, a book review, for New York in its third issue, and became its TV critic in 1984. Before that, he edited The New York Times Book Review in the early seventies. His last two pieces appeared in the latest issue of New York—reviews of Crash and Crusoe. Of the latter, he wrote, “Like Huck and Jim, or Ishmael and Queequeg, Crusoe and Friday embody the triumph of homoerotic male bonding over the steeps of race, culture, and ethnicity.”