Mencken and His Enemies Sep 12, 2009
(He thought Theodore Dreiser s Jennie Gerhardt was the greatest American novel since Huckleberry Finn, for example. Mencken s criticism is hardly any closer to modern sensibilities than is his politics, but since he gave the benefit of the doubt to those with whom he disagreed, today s literary critics who disagree with him might want to extend the same courtesy. (The American Conservative)
The Magnificent Mencken Aug 28, 2009
Sniping critics took to calling its editor the late Mr. Mencken, while former friends like Nathan and Theodore Dreiser, launching their own magazine, took cheap shots at him ... He championed writers who seemed to share this belief, most notably Theodore Dreiser, who by the standards of the day was considered risqu; indeed, his books were subject to being banned from the mails and suppressed by the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice. (The American Conservative)
IN MY LIBRARY: JOEL KLEIN Aug 9, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009 Last Update: 05:40 AM EDT. hide topics THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPICS. (New York Post -- Opinions)
The Populism of the FDR Era Jul 4, 2009
In 1932, its presidential ticket drew support from a constellation of great minds, from the novelist Theodore Dreiser to the critic Edmund Wilson. The novelist Upton Sinclair ran for California governor in 1934 on a platform called End Poverty in California (EPIC), calling on the state to seize unused factories and farmland to house and employ the destitute. (Time.com)
Lionel Trilling: A Modern Burke Jun 16, 2009
Theodore Dreiser, Trilling saw, had been admired by left populists because of, not in spite of, his simplifications and awkwardness, Sherwood Anderson for his sentimentality, and Alfred Kinsey for his reductive sense of sexuality. To counter these terrible simplifiers, Trilling proposed a moral and literary tradition. (The American Conservative)
