{"product_id":"alfred-kazin-richard-m-cook-9780300115055","title":"Alfred Kazin: A Biography","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first biography of Alfred Kazin-inveterate New Yorker, autobiographer, and perhaps the last great man of American letters in the tradition of Edmund Wilson\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Born in 1915 to barely literate Jewish immigrants in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Alfred Kazin rose from near poverty to become a dominant figure in twentieth-century literary criticism and one of America's last great men of letters. Biographer Richard M. Cook provides a portrait of Kazin in his public roles and in his frequently unhappy private life. Drawing on the personal journals Kazin kept for over 60 years, private correspondence, and numerous conversations with Kazin, he uncovers the full story of the lonely, stuttering boy from Jewish Brownsville who became a pioneering critic and influential cultural commentator.\u003cp\u003eUpon the appearance of \u003ci\u003eOn Native Grounds\u003c\/i\u003e in 1942, Kazin was dubbed \"the boy wonder of American criticism.\" Numerous publications followed, including \u003ci\u003eA Walker in the City \u003c\/i\u003eand two other memoirs, books of criticism, as well as a stream of essays and reviews that ceased only with his death in 1998. Cook tells of Kazin's childhood, his troubled marriages, and his relations with such figures as Lionel Trilling, Saul Bellow, Malcolm Cowley, Arthur Schlesinger, Hannah Arendt, and Daniel Bell. He illuminates Kazin's thinking on political-cultural issues and the recurring way in which his subject's personal life shaped his career as a public intellectual. Particular attention is paid to Kazin's sense of himself as a Jewish-American \"loner\" whose inner estrangements gave him insight into the divisions at the heart of modern culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Richard M. Cook\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0300115059\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780300115055\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/28\/2008\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 464\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.76lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.34h x 6.46w x 1.49d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker (The)\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/21\/2008 pg. 81\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/27\/2008 pg. 16\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2008 pg. 34\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/03\/2008 pg. 26\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/15\/2008 pg. 72\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/12\/2008 pg. 54\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooks \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2008 pg. 18","brand":"Richard M. Cook","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48013721338111,"sku":"9780300115055","price":83.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_66b3950d-770d-4277-9a76-4cfcdaeaed14.jpg?v=1767744353","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/alfred-kazin-richard-m-cook-9780300115055","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}