Moral Agents: Eight Twentieth-Century American Writers : Eight American Writers in Public and Private in the Twentieth Century

A deeply considered and provocative new look at major American writers—including Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, and W.H. Auden—Edward Mendelson’s __Moral Agents__ is also a work of critical biography in the great tradition of Plutarch, Samuel Johnson, and Emerson. Any important writer, in Mendelson’s view, writes in response to an idea of the good life that is inseparable from the life the writer lives. Fusing biography and criticism and based on extensive new research, __Moral Agents__ presents challenging new portraits of eight writers—novelists, critics, and poets—who transformed American literature in the turbulent twentieth century. Eight sharply distinctive individuals—inspired, troubled, hugely ambitious—who reimagined what it means to be a writer. There’s Saul Bellow, a novelist determined to rule as a patriarch, who, having been neglected by his father, in turn neglected his son in favor of young writers who presented themselves as his literary heirs. Norman Mailer’s extraordinary ambition, suppressed insecurity, and renegade metaphysics muddled the novels through which he hoped to change the world, yet these same qualities endowed him with an uncanny sensitivity and deep sympathy to the pathologies of American life that make him an unequaled political reporter. William Maxwell wrote sad tales of small-town life and surrounded himself with a coterie of worshipful admirers. As a powerful editor at __The New Yorker__, he exercised an enormous and constraining influence on American fiction that is still felt today. Preeminent among the critics is Lionel Trilling, whose __Liberal Imagination__ made him a celebrity sage of the anxiously tranquilized 1950s, even as his calculated image of Olympian reserve masked a deeply conflicted life and contributed to his ultimately despairing worldview. Dwight Macdonald, by contrast, was a haute-WASP anarchist and aesthete driven by an exuberant moral commitment, in a time of cautious mediocrity, to doing the right thing. Alfred Kazin, from a poor Jewish émigré background, remained an outsider at the center of literary New York, driven both to escape from and do justice to the deepest meanings of his Jewish heritage. Perhaps most intriguing are the two poets, W.H. Auden and Frank O’Hara. Early in his career, Auden was tempted to don the mantle of the poet as prophet, but after his move from England to America he lived and wrote in a spirit of modesty and charity born out of a deeply idiosyncratic understanding of Christianity. O’Hara, tireless partygoer and pioneering curator at MoMA, wrote much of his poetry for private occasions. Its lasting power has proven to be something different from its avant-garde reputation: personal warmth, individuality, rootedness in ancient traditions, and openness to the world. From Prologue I: Saying Goodbye... The House of Books that my grandparents lived in, as well as the lives they lived and the people who made up their vast social circle, drew me across the generational lines and into their world. As a result of the gatherings I took part in at Hillway, for all of my life the shadows and ghosts of history have peered over my shoulder. From my early childhood days, Chimen taught me how to interpret the world around me, how to use ideas carefully to create patterns out of chaos. He made me realize that we are, in large part, defined by our pasts—both our individual pasts and our collective histories. We are the aggregate of generations of experiences lived by our ancestors; but we are also, inevitably, products of our times, influenced by wars and revolutions, by social upheavals, by economic turmoil, by scientific advances and so on and so forth. The nineteenth-century German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach famously noted that “Man is what man eats.” True, but man is also what man’s ancestors ate and what man’s surrounding community eats. However much we try, we cannot entirely escape the past. What I consumed at the House of Books was not just Mimi’s food but also the grand feast of ideas that accompanied every meal. 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-- Sage: Lionel Trilling -- Moralist: Dwight Macdonald -- Outsider: Alfred Kazin -- Magus: William Maxwell -- Patriarch: Saul Bellow -- Mythmaker: Norman Mailer -- Neighbor: W.h. Auden -- Celebrant: Frank O'hara. Edward Mendelson. Includes Bibliographical References (page 203). "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, and 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"-- Provided by publisher In Lives of the Intellectuals one of contemporary Americas 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 OHara Drawing on newly published letters and diaries, Edward Mendelson explores the responses of these writers, very public figures all, to major historical eventsamong them the rise and fall of fascism, the cold war, the struggles for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, and the sexual revolutionand shows how intensely personal concerns, relating to childhood, religion, status, sex, and money, largely shaped their views. Mendelsons 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. Saying Goodbye Saying Hello The Citadel An Extraordinary Portal Salt, Sugar, and a Dash of Love The Haskalah Rituals and Rebels Roots Rebirth Endings None None None