Description
Book SynopsisPresents a study of novelist and critic Robert Cantwell, a Northwest-born writer with a strong sense of social justice who found himself at the center of the radical literary and cultural politics of 1930s New York.
Trade Review"This critical study dusts off the largely forgotten work and career of Cantwell. . . . T.V. Reed has performed a service in bringing Robert Cantwell and the topic of proletarian fiction back to the fore."
-- Barbara McMichael * The Seattle Times *
"A concise literary biography of “proletarian” novelist Robert Cantwell adds significantly to the revisionist studies of early and mid–twentieth-century cultural radicalism… Reed’s valuable insight into considerations of place might be applied to avoid overgeneralizations about the Communist Party as a homogeneous entity—even when it sought to present itself as such."
-- Joel Wendland * American Studies Journal *
"Reed's complex and multilayered book on Cantwell will help rescue The Land of Plenty from oblivion. It is also a significant contribution to the project of reconsidering the American literary left of the 1930s. . . . Progressives from our own time have much to learn from that era and from this book."
-- Priscilla Long * H-Net Reviews *
"Reed succeeds admirably in recapturing Cantwell as both a complex political thinker and literary figure for the revisionist canon. . . . A timely invitation to serious academic engagement in our contemporary political crisis."
-- John Trombold * ALH Online Review *
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
1. Rewriting the Left
2. Mill Towns, Blue Collar Work, and Literary Ambitions
3. A Student of Karl Marx and Henry James
4. A Portrait of the Artist as Propagandist
5. The Revolutionist Meets the Capitalist
6. Time, Doubt, and the Popular Front
7. Breaking Down, Moving On, Looking Back
Conclusion
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
