Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers

Description

In Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers 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.

Edward Mendelson is the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and the literary executor of the estate of W.H. Auden. He is the author of Early Auden, Later Auden, and The Things That Matter, essays on Mary Shelley, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf.

"In Moral Agents Edward Mendelson has written an original and unsettling group portrait of the literary generation just past. These essays are rich in quotation, precise in judgment, and unified by a premise they test in detail: that literature is most invigorating when it teaches us how to live. Mendelson is rare among contemporary critics in his treatment of writing as a form of personal action." -David Bromwich, Yale University "Edward Mendelson's observations about literature are among the best I have read: deeply knowledgeable, appreciate and attentive, and expressed with the affinity of a scholar and critic who is himself an excellent writer." -Shirley Hazzard "Each chapter contains a biographical profile and an assessment of the writer based on his response to some of the burning issues of the day, from the rise of communism to the sexual revolution. Mendelson's focus on "the conflicts between the inward, intimate private lives of the eight authors and the lives they led in public" ties the essays together...Those interested in the role these writers played as public intellectuals-and in the larger issue of the relationship of literature to politics-will welcome this engaging read." -Library Journal "Drawing on unique familiarities, Mendelson, like his subjects, becomes a public intellectual, offering insightful, well-crafted sketches that will entertain and edify a broad audience." -R. Mulligan, CHOICE Praise for Edward Mendelson's The Things That Matter: "Filled with sage insights into literature and life...A joy to read." -The Wall Street Journal "Thrilling...[Mendelson's] readings will send you hungrily to these classics." -Newsday "Elegant...Enlightening...Mendelson is an ideal companion...[The book] reminds us that criticism of the sort that Mendelson practices is one of the things that matter." -Los Angeles Times "Heartfelt...illuminating." -The New York Review of Books "Great works of fiction not only tell a story but also reveal how we are to live our lives. This sympathetic, profound, and very readable work by one of the finest literary scholars of our time shows us how seven novels can help us with the stages through which we all must pass. Edward Mendelson's insights into the meaning of the novels he considers are acute. He reveals dimensions to these works that most of us will never have guessed at, showing, with grace and courtesy, both their deeper significance and the wisdom they contain about life's challenges. Reading this book places one in the company of an urbane, erudite, and sure-footed guide." -Alexander McCall Smith "Written with clarity and grace, these essays serve as an essential guide to an era when literary powerbrokers set the cultural agenda." -Jane Ciabattari, "Ten books to read in March," BBC