Edmund Wilson : centennial reflections / Lewis M. Dabney, editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dabney, Lewis M., editor.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library

Princeton Legacy Library ; 370

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc--Congresses.

American literature.

Historiography--United States--History--20th century--Congresses.

Historiography.

Criticism--United States--History--20th century--Congresses.

Criticism.

United States--Intellectual life--20th century--Congresses.

United States.

Wilson, Edmund, 1895-1972--Knowledge--Literature--Congresses.

Wilson, Edmund.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (307 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Mercantile Library of New York in Association with Princeton University Press, [1997]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Edmund Wilson helped shape American letters from the early 1920's through the mid-'60s. He remains a presence in our literary culture, and his accounts of art and society have influenced a younger generation of readers and thinkers. This vibrant collection emerges from symposiums held at the Mercantile Library and at Princeton University in 1995, Wilson's centennial year. At these occasions, prominent critics, literary journalists, and historians aired a variety of points of view about his work and personality. Assembled and edited by Lewis Dabney, this book shows new intellectual voices interacting with veterans who knew Wilson and his times.In the first part, Morris Dickstein, Jason Epstein, Barbara Epstein, David Bromwich, Jed Perl, and Mark Krupnick comment on Wilson's development as a critic, his faith in reason and his personal romanticism, his version of modernism and eclectic interest in the arts, as well as the sources of his later writing about Judaism. In the second section, a reading of the journals from The Twenties to The Sixties by Neale Reinitz and a chapter from Dabney's biography-in-progress lead to the reminiscences of Elizabeth Hardwick, Jason Epstein, Mary Meigs, Roger Straus, and Alfred Kazin, as well as Michael C. D. Macdonald, the son of family friends, and the Dead Sea Scrolls scholar James Sanders giving an authentic sense of Wilson's place in the literary life. Two of his important works, the study of the Marxist intellectual tradition in To the Finland Station and of Civil War literature in Patriotic Gore, anchor the discussion in the third part. Here David Remnick and Daniel Aaron debate his radical commitment, joined by Arthur Schlesinger and others in a vigorous exchange, and Randall Kennedy's attack on Wilson's neglect of nineteenth-century black writers provokes a response from Toni Morrison. Instructive essays by Andrew Delbanco and Louis Menand, and discerning comments by Paul Berman and Sean Wilentz round out the volume.Originally published in 1997.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

INTRODUCTION / Dabney, Lewis M.

THE CRITIC AND HIS PREMISES

EDMUND WILSON: THREE PHASES / Dickstein, Morris

THE RELIGION OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT / Epstein, Jason

WILSON'S ROMANTICISM / Epstein, Barbara

WILSON'S MODERNISM / Bromwich, David

THE WRITER'S EYE / Perl, Jed

EDMUND WILSON AND GENTILE PHILO-SEMITISM / Krupnick, Mark

WILSON THE MAN

A READING OF THE JOURNALS / Reinitz, Neale

THE PERSPECTIVE OF BIOGRAPHY: 1929, A TURNING POINT / Dabney, Lewis M.

REMEMBERING EDMUND WILSON / Hardwick, Elizabeth / Epstein, Jason / Meigs, Mary / Straus, Roger / Kazin, Alfred

THE ADMIRABLE MINOTAUR OF MONEY HILL / Macdonald, Michael C. D.

REVISITING THE CRITIC ON THE SCROLLS / Sanders, James A.

THE WRITING AND ACTING OF HISTORY

WILSON'S LENIN / Remnick, David

THE INDEPENDENT RADICAL OBSERVER / Aaron, Daniel

WILSON AND SOVIET RUSSIA

PATRIOTIC GORE AND THE INTRODUCTION / Schlesinger, Arthur / Vann Woodward, C.

OMISSIONS IN PATRIOTIC GORE / Kennedy, Randall / Morrison, Toni

A GREAT MAN'S LIMITATIONS / Bradley, David

WILSON DIVIDED / Delbanco, Andrew

PERSPECTIVES

EDMUND WILSON IN HIS TIMES / Menand, Louis

WILSON AND OUR NON-WILSONIAN AGE / Berrnan, Paul

AFTERWORD / Wilentz, Sean

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

Papers originally presented at two symposia held at the Mercantile Library of New York and at Princeton University in 1995.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781400864621

1400864623

OCLC:

884012730