Attached is one of the first American reviews of T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, it was penned by literary critic Gilbert Seldes (1893 – 1970):
In essence The Waste Land says something which is not new: that life has become barren and sterile, that man is withering, impotent, and without assurance that the waters which made the land fruitful will ever rise again.
A review of Christopher Isherwood’s (1906 – 1986) semi-autobiographical novel, Memorial, which was placed in post-World War I Britain:
The plot of Memorial
Edith Sitwell (1887 – 1964) had appeared on the literary horizon some fourteen years before this profile was read in the American press and by 1927 all concerned seemed to have decided that she had attained a respectable level of notoriety and was worthy of being labeled famous:
Miss Sitwell is described by THE SKETCH (London) as ‘an author who dislikes simplicity, morris-dancing, a sense of humor, and every kind of sport except reviewer-baiting.’
Appearing in the Beverly Hills literary rag, Rob Wagner’s Script was the 1947 review of The Butterfly by James M. Cain (1892 – 1977):
I have not read Cain’s older books to confirm this impression, but offhand I would say that ‘The Butterfly’ is second to ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, among his longer things, as an exhibition of his peculiar talents…This work concerns itself with incest. Technically, no incest is committed, but a marriage is made and consummated between two people, one of whom supposes that she is the other’s daughter…
From Amazon: The Butterfly
Command Decision, the World War II novel by William Wister Haines (1908 – 1989), was written from the point of view of a general officer and the Allied effort to destroy the Nazi jet fighters before the Luftwaffe could muster the initiative and get the upper hand; the novel was based upon the author’s own wartime experiences serving with the American 8th Air Force in Europe during the Second World War. Haines enjoyed much critical and popular success when the book was released; a 1947 Broadway production ran for 409 performances and a film adaptation premiered in 1948 starring Clark Gable (who also served in the 8th Air Force).
Click here to read the 1947 book review of a William Saroyan war novel.
The 1913 book review of The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill (the other one) was so fraught with questions concerning the revolt of the Suffragettes and their disillusion with Christianity that the review was printed on the Religion Page of THE LITERARY DIGEST.
The 1913 book review of The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill (the other one) was so fraught with questions concerning the revolt of the Suffragettes and their disillusion with Christianity that the review was printed on the Religion Page of THE LITERARY DIGEST.
Literary critic Edmund Wilson (1895 – 1972) was a big part of the intellectual world that existed in New York throughout much of the Twenties through the Fifties. His reviews could be found in a number of magazines such as VANITY FAIR, THE DIAL and THE NEW REPUBLIC. Wilson is remembered for championing many of the younger poets that we still read to this day and in this review, Bunny Wilson celebrated the new poetic form that the modern era had created: free verse. Good words can be read on behalf of the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Amy Lowell.
Time is the satirist in its recompense as in its revenge. Who of that youthful generation who read Dime Novels stealthily and by night, with expense of spirit and waste of shame, imagined that he would one day review his sins by broad daylight in the exhibition room of the New York Public Library? The thin volumes which were wont to lie so flat under pillows or slip so readily into pockets are now enshrined in glass case, and the yellow covers and inky pages which suffered such persistent search and seizure and were burnt so freely as literary garbage are now gathered and appraised as prizes of the bibliophile.
In 1937 the Rare Book Department at the Library of Congress launched a surprising exhibit of what they called, ephemeral literature – these works were popularly known as Dime Novels and they were not simply the father of the modern comic book but also the father of one other form of popular literature:
The roots of the American historical novel are sunk in the so-called dime novel – the first effort at popular fiction. It began with the stories based on the Revolutionary War, then historical fiction of incidents in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the struggle for Cuban independence, which stated about that period.
