Doris Grumbach, a renowned American novelist who lived in Kennett Square, has died aged 104, writes Robert D. McFadden for The New York Times. 

In her novels, essays, and literary criticism, Grumbach explored the social and psychic hardships of women trapped in repressive families or disintegrating marriages. She also portrayed lesbian characters and themes in a positive light in the 1970s and 1980s, which was unusual for the mainstream fiction of that time. 

Grumbach wrote seven novels and six memoirs, as well as a biography of writer Mary McCarthy. She reviewed books for many prominent publications, including The New York Times. The prolific author was also the literary editor of The New Republic and a commentator on NPR and PBS. 

A mother of four daughters, Grumbach was a scholar of medieval and modern literature, a Navy women’s branch officer during World War II, and a professor of literature and creative writing at several colleges and universities. 

She was married to a neurophysiologist, Leonard Grumbach, for 31 years. After their divorce, she and Sybil Pike, a bookseller, were partners for more than four decades until Pike’s death last year. 

Read more about Doris Grumbach in The New York Times.