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An Edmund Wilson celebration

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Edmund Wilson was from the nineteen twenties on and for close to forty years the dean of American critics. The vastness of his reading and writing, his tremendous energy and intelligence , however contrarian, were central to American literary life. In this book of appreciatory essays John Wain gathers together friends,acquaintances, admirers who write about various aspects of Wilson's work. John Updike writes about Wilson as a novelist arguably his weakest form in writing. Clive James writes about the hidden elements in Wilson's not very well- known poetry. Edith Oliver writes of her marginal friendship with Wilson. She gives a sense of his dynamism, and defines him as first and above all a great 'reader' who showed a generous spirit in his relation to other writers. According to Oliver , Wilson was the rare writer who did not have envy of his peers. Angus Wilson writes about how Wilson's recognition of his early work was of essential importance to him. Alfred Kazin writes of Wilson as strongly independent mind , as one who belonged to an old America . Wilson was not an easy character and much of his especially political writing aroused great controversy. Did he over- romanticize the Russian revolution? And was he inordinately harsh on the American government he was often in conflict with on tax matters? But all this is perhaps secondary to the pioneering work he did on exploring and revealing Literary Modernism to his own time. A man of vast and varied learning, who loved acquiring new languages he took great interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This work will be of great interest to all who still take interest in this major literary figure of the American twentieth century.