Moral agents
Subtitle: Eight Twentieth-Century American writers
By: Edward Mendelson
Series: New York Review Books classics; New York Review Books classics
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
ISBN-13: 9781590177761
Subjects: American literature; History; History and criticism; Literature and history; Intellectual life
Description: "One of contemporary America's leading critics and scholars offers a provocative reassessment of the lives and work of eight influential twentieth- century American writers: Lionel Trilling Dwight Macdonald W.H. Auden William Maxwell Saul Bellow Alfred Kazin Norman Mailer Frank O'Hara Drawing on newly published letters and diaries, Edward Mendelson explores the responses of these writers, very public figures all, to major historical events--among them the rise and fall of fascism, the cold war, the struggles for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, and the sexual revolution--and shows how intensely personal concerns, relating to childhood, religion, status, sex, and money, largely shaped their views. Mendelson's vivid portraits cut to the quick, changing our perceptions of these brilliant, complicated, often deeply troubled men while offering readers a new understanding of their contributions to American intellectual and political life"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (page 203).