Robert Cantwell and the Literary Left: A Northwest Writer Reworks American Fiction (Robert B Heilman Books)
T.V. Reed
Robert Cantwell and the Literary Left is the first full critical 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. Regarded by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway as one of the finest young fiction writers to emerge from this era, Cantwell is best known for his superb novel, The Land of Plenty, set in western Washington. His literary legacy, however, was largely lost during the Red Scare of the McCarthy era, when he retreated to conservatism.
Through meticulous research, an engaging writing style, and a deep commitment to the history of American social movements, T. V. Reed uncovers the story of a writer who brought his Pacific Northwest brand of justice to bear on the project of “reworking” American literature to include ordinary working people in its narratives. In tracing the flourishing of the American literary Left as it unfolded in New York, Reed reveals a rich progressive culture that can inform our own time.
Product Details
About T.V. Reed
Reviews for Robert Cantwell and the Literary Left: A Northwest Writer Reworks American Fiction (Robert B Heilman Books)
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