When the Kissing Had to Stop

Critic John Leonard was born in Washington on February 25, 1939. He attended Harvard University from 1956 to 1958 and later studied briefly at the University of California, Berkeley. He wrote numerous books including Smoke and Mirrors: Violence, Television and Other American Cultures (1997) and When the Kissing Had to Stop: Cult Studs, Khmer Newts, Langley Spooks, Techno-Geeks, Video Drones, Author Gods, Serial Killers, Vampire Media, Alien Sperm-Suckers, Satanic Therapists, and Those of Us Who Hold a Left-Wing Grudge in the Post Toasties New World Hip-Hop (1999). His work also appeared in the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, The Village Voice and The Washington Post Book World. He received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle in 2006. He died from complications of lung cancer on November 5, 2008 at the age of 69.

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