Portions of this book are based on material by Alfred Kazin
that has appeared elsewhere in different form.
Several names in this book have been changed.
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.
Copyright © 1978 by Alfred Kazin
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.: Excerpts from COMPLETE POEMS 1923–1962, by E.E. Cummings. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972. Hill & Wang: Except from “The Distant Runners” from COLLECTED AND NEW POEMS, 1924–1963, by Mark Van Doren. Copyright © 1963 by Mark Van Doren. Reprinted by permission of Hill & Wang (now a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Houghton Mifflin Company: Excerpts from “Permit Me Voyage” from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF JAMES AGEE, edited by Robert Fitzgerald. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968. Liveright Publishing Corporation: Excerpt from THE COMPLETE POEMS AND SELECTED LETTERS AND PROSE OF HART CRANE, edited by Brom Weber. Reprinted with permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1933, © 1958, 1966 by Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kazin, Alfred [date]
New York Jew.
1. Kazin, Alfred [date] 2. Critics—United
States—Biography. 3. American literature—20th
century—History and criticism. I. Title.
PS29.K38A36 810.9 [B] 78–1932
eISBN: 978-0-8041-5126-9
v3.1