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Alfred Kazin, a literary critic and professor of English literature, was born in Brooklyn on June 5, 1915. He was educated at City College and Columbia University. Kazin established his own critical reputation in the mid-1940s with On Native Grounds (1942), a study of American literature. His later work, Bright Book of American Life (1973), is both a recapitulation of modernism and an evaluation of American writers who have achieved prominence since 1945. Modernism, a favorite topic of Kazin, is in his view a literary revolution marked by spontaneity and individuality but lacking in precisely the mass culture appeal necessary to its survival. Contemporaries (1962) includes reflective essays on travel, five essays on Freud, and some very perceptive essays on literary and political matters. The final section, "The Critic's Task," concerns itself with the critic's function within a popular and an academic context and with critical theory and principles. Starting Out in the Thirties (1965) describes Kazin's early years with The New Republic as book reviewer and evaluates his contemporaries in a period when the depression and radical political thought, pro and con, deeply affected literary production. In the midst of the current antihumanistic trend in literary theory, Kazin remains a literary critic of the old school, believing in the relevance of literature to modern life. Alfred Kazin died on June 5, 1998. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from A Walker in the City… (more)
A Walker in the City 379 copies, 6 reviews
New York Jew 153 copies
Writing Was Everything 74 copies, 1 review
Contemporaries 55 copies
Emerson: A Modern Anthology (Editor) 38 copies
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Afterword, some editions) 41,619 copies, 509 reviews
Moby Dick (Introduction, some editions) 34,074 copies, 520 reviews
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Afterword, some editions) 31,570 copies, 319 reviews
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Afterword, some editions) 16,333 copies, 188 reviews
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Afterword, some editions) 15,945 copies, 430 reviews
The Red Badge of Courage (Introduction, some editions) 10,742 copies, 126 reviews
Sons And Lovers (Introduction, some editions) 9,296 copies, 94 reviews
Ethan Frome (Afterword, some editions) 9,262 copies, 209 reviews
Howards End (Introduction, some editions) 8,529 copies, 129 reviews
An American Tragedy (Introduction, some editions) 3,884 copies, 48 reviews
Call It Sleep (Introduction, some editions) 2,038 copies, 39 reviews
The Adolescent (Introduction, some editions) 1,612 copies, 18 reviews
The 42nd Parallel (Introduction, some editions) 1,587 copies, 21 reviews
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (Editor, some editions) 942 copies, 14 reviews
The Portable Blake (Editor) 649 copies, 4 reviews

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