From the Uncollected Edmund Wilson.

World Literature Today | June 22, 1996| | Copyright

Even before his death in 1972, Edmund Wilson was already going out of fashion, as his variety of "literary, criticism" was being challenged by the increasing vogue of "literary theory." He appears to have been aware of this early on. In The Nation (1938) he complains: "The young today are not enthusiastic about books. They merely approve when the book suits their politics." After his death, critics set vigorously about revealing "the idol's feet of clay." But these attacks had gone on during most of his career. Even Archibald MacLeish, usually so genteel, described him as "a ...

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