Naomi Bliven, 76; Book Critic for New Yorker Magazine

Naomi Bliven, 76, prolific book critic and writer for the New Yorker magazine, died Jan. 14 in New York of undisclosed causes.

Bliven wrote feature articles, “Talk of the Town” items and more than 200 long reviews, and thousands of shorter pieces for the magazine’s “Briefly Noted” column.

She began contributing to the New Yorker in the late 1950s and became a staff writer in 1961, writing four reviews a week at her peak. Her last piece in the magazine, a review of “According to Queeney” by Beryl Bainbridge, was published in the July 30 issue.

Born Naomi Horowitz in New York, Bliven graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hunter College and worked at Random House publishers. She also wrote a novel, “On Her Own” in 1989.