About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherDee Publisher, Ivan R.

ISBN-101566633931

ISBN-139781566633932

eBay Product ID (ePID)1951644

Product Key Features

Book TitleMoral Temper : the Letters of Dwight Macdonald

Number of Pages512 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2001

TopicUnited States / 20th Century, Sociology / General, General, Literary, Historical

IllustratorYes

GenreSocial Science, Biography & Autobiography, History

AuthorMichael Wreszin

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight17.8 Oz

Item Length9.5 in

Item Width6.6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2001-028380

ReviewsI find these letters to be remarkable...entertaining, quirky, irritating, delightful, and illuminating., "Wreszin is to be commended for bringing these letters together." --John B. Judis, Senior Editor, New Republic "It may be that we get only one Dwight Macdonald a century...He is a bracing writer and, not incidentally, the Leonardo of the well-drawn distinction." --Erik Wensberg, Editor, Modern American Usage "Bracing and very interesting...wonderful stuff." --Adrienne Miller, Esquire "I find these letters to be remarkable...entertaining, quirky, irritating, delightful, and illuminating." --Norman Mailer "The keenness of Macdonald's wit is everywhere apparent in these marvelous letters." --The Review of Higher Education "Brilliant." --Dwight Gardner, The New York Times, It may be that we get only one Dwight Macdonald a century...He is a bracing writer and, not incidentally, the Leonardo of the well-drawn distinction.

TitleLeadingA

Dewey Edition21

Dewey Decimal973.91/092

SynopsisA bountiful selection of letters from Dwight Macdonald, one of the crankiest and shrewdest observers of American life in the 20th century. These letters sing. --New York Times Book Review, Dwight Macdonald's biographer has brought together in one volume a comprehensive selection of letters from the correspondence of one of the most astute observers of American politics, society, and culture in the twentieth century. Macdonald's letters span his lifetime, from his education at Exeter and Yale in the twenties through his career as an editor of Partisan Review, founder of Politics magazine, staff writer for the New Yorker, columnist for Esquire, and cultural critic and essayist for other major publications. The scope of his interests was extraordinary as was the diversity of friends and colleagues who became his correspondents. He had an instinctive grasp of the important fact and important thought, and an uncanny ability to bring an issue before the intellectual community, of which he was a prominent member. Macdonald consistently had his eye on what he felt was a change in the moral temper of the times and a prevailing dehumanization of the individual. Few spoke more eloquently against the mechanized terror of the modern world and of the separation of means from ends. His letters, always spirited and engrossing, trace the life of an upper-middle-class white male, schooled in the elite institutions of the WASP establishment, who managed to jettison the prejudices and provincialism of his class and, through the force of an inquiring mind, become a penetrating critic of mid-century American civilization., A bountiful selection of letters from Dwight Macdonald, one of the crankiest and shrewdest observers of American life in the 20th century. "These letters sing."--New York Times Book Review., Dwight Macdonald's biographer has brought together in one volume a comprehensive selection of letters from the correspondence of one of the most astute observers of American politics, society, and culture in the twentieth century. Macdonald's letters span his lifetime, from his education at Exeter and Yale in the twenties through his career as an editor of Partisan Review , founder of Politics magazine, staff writer for the New Yorker , columnist for Esquire , and cultural critic and essayist for other major publications. The scope of his interests was extraordinary as was the diversity of friends and colleagues who became his correspondents. He had an instinctive grasp of the important fact and important thought, and an uncanny ability to bring an issue before the intellectual community, of which he was a prominent member. Macdonald consistently had his eye on what he felt was a change in the moral temper of the times and a prevailing dehumanization of the individual. Few spoke more eloquently against the mechanized terror of the modern world and of the separation of means from ends. His letters, always spirited and engrossing, trace the life of an upper-middle-class white male, schooled in the elite institutions of the WASP establishment, who managed to jettison the prejudices and provincialism of his class and, through the force of an inquiring mind, become a penetrating critic of mid-century American civilization.

LC Classification NumberE748.M147A4 2001