Edmund Wilson: Centennial Reflections

Published by Princeton University Press 1997

Edmund Wilson

Centennial Reflections

Edited by: Lewis M. Dabney

Volume 370 in the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400864621

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Reviews

Edmund Wilson ... comes brilliantly to life in this wide-ranging collection of essays.... Not only do we get acute explorations of Wilson's criticism but incisive pieces on his other writing.---George Core, editor, The Sewanee Review

Edmund Wilson, who epitomized the man of letters for this century and who relished his role as the nation's leading literary curmudgeon and dictator, comes brilliantly to life in this wide-ranging collection of essays edited by his biographer, Lewis Dabney. Not only do we get acute explorations of Wilson's criticism but incisive pieces on his other writing and on aspects of his long disorderly life. Professor Dabney, his contributors, and the Princeton University Press are to be congratulated for this celebration of Wilson as he triumphantly passes his centennial and doggedly sets sail for another century.---George Core, Editor, The Sewanee Review

Memories of the man, scholar, drinker, libertine, are mostly amused, affectionate and forbearing.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
CONTRIBUTORS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION Lewis M. Dabney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
THE CRITIC AND HIS PREMISES
EDMUND WILSON: THREE PHASES Morris Dickstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
THE RELIGION OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT Jason Epstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
WILSON'S ROMANTICISM Barbara Epstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
WILSON'S MODERNISM David Bromwich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
THE WRITER'S EYE Jed Perl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
EDMUND WILSON AND GENTILE PHILO-SEMITISM Mark Krupnick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
WILSON THE MAN
A READING OF THE JOURNALS Neale Reinitz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
THE PERSPECTIVE OF BIOGRAPHY: 1929, A TURNING POINT Lewis M. Dabney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
REMEMBERING EDMUND WILSON Elizabeth Hardwick, Jason Epstein, Mary Meigs, Roger Straus and Alfred Kazin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
THE ADMIRABLE MINOTAUR OF MONEY HILL Michael C. D. Macdonald Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
REVISITING THE CRITIC ON THE SCROLLS James A. Sanders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
THE WRITING AND ACTING OF HISTORY
WILSON'S LENIN David Remnick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
THE INDEPENDENT RADICAL OBSERVER Daniel Aaron Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
WILSON AND SOVIET RUSSIA A Roundtable Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
PATRIOTIC GORE AND THE INTRODUCTION Arthur Schlesinger and C. Vann Woodward Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
OMISSIONS IN PATRIOTIC GORE Randall Kennedy and Toni Morrison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
A GREAT MAN'S LIMITATIONS David Bradley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
WILSON DIVIDED Andrew Delbanco Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
PERSPECTIVES
EDMUND WILSON IN HIS TIMES Louis Menand Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
WILSON AND OUR NON-WILSONIAN AGE Paul Berrnan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
AFTERWORD Sean Wilentz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	276
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285

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