The scholarship already accumulated on the subject of F. O. Matthiessen may be larger than that on any other American scholar born in the twentieth century. As the collective reminiscences published i...
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In the following review, Blackmur provides a mixed assessment of The Achievement of T. S. Eliot.
The great temptation in writing of T. S. Eliot's poetry is to batten upon the frequent illumi...
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In the following laudatory review of American Renaissance, Spiller considers its “importance as a contribution to American literary history and to the theory and technique of historical writing...
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In the following mixed assessment of Henry James: The Major Phase, Rahv perceives Matthiessen's analysis as lacking, but deems the volume a significant study of James's later novels.
...
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In the following mixed review of Responsibilities of the Critic, Bateson contends that Matthiessen was an excellent reviewer, but a mediocre critic.
The subtitle [of The Responsibilities of the Cri...
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In the following essay, Ruland analyzes the defining characteristics of Matthiessen's critical work, and evaluates his impact on American literary theory and criticism.
The whole book is bas...
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In the following essay, Lynn offers personal reminiscences of Matthiessen's tenure as an American literature professor at Harvard University in the 1940s.
Teachers of American literature who...
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In the following essay, Marx elucidates Matthiessen's political ideology and determines how these beliefs impacted his literary work.
The bulk of mankind believe in two gods. They are under ...
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In the following essay, Cain contends that Matthiessen's ambivalent feelings about the work of Henry James provide insight into the critic's “conflicted attitudes toward the relat...
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In the following essay, Arac addresses the often contradictory nature of Matthiessen's work and assesses “the possibilities for a new literary history in the practice of American Renaiss...
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In the following essay, Cain examines Matthiessen's critical writings of the late 1920s and 1930s, maintaining that with these works the critic forged his identity as a literary critic.
F. O...
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In the following essay, Cheyfitz explicates and reconciles the contradictory images of Matthiessen in American literary critical theory.
In 1963, reviewing four books of criticism, including F. O. ...
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In the following essay, Tuttleton perceives a discrepancy between Matthiessen's literary criticism and his political views.
Down with non-partisan writers!
—V. I. Lenin
At the ...
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In the following review of William A. Cain's F. O. Matthiessen and the Politics of Criticism, Bove praises Cain's reading of Matthiessen's work.
What magnanimity!
—D...
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In the following essay, Cadden determines how Matthiessen's sexuality influenced his views on Walt Whitman and discusses the incongruity of his public and private writings on the poet.
...
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In the following essay, Bergman considers the impact of Matthiessen's sexuality on his work.
Despite the publicity that attended F. O. Matthiessen's suicide in 1950, and the books tha...
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In the following essay, Dolan determines Matthiessen's important role in the critical rediscovery of the work of Herman Melville.
Last year we observed two important anniversaries in the his...
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In the following essay, Horne discusses Matthiessen's reading of James's “The Pupil.”
Queer Affairs
Perhaps I can best indicate some of the troubles I want to raise in t...
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In the following essay, Morris maintains that Matthiessen's literary criticism provides insights into his attitudes toward his sexuality as well as the practice of gay historical criticism gene...
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In the following essay, Grossman analyzes how Matthiessen's sexuality influenced his perception and discussion of the literary relationship between Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau.
An a...
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The American Classics: A Personal Essay, by Denis Donoghue. Yale University Press, 295 pages, $27.Rapping the knuckles of the American classics is good fun-especially if it's done with a light, sha...
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F. O. Matthiessen
Critical Review by R. P. Blackmur
A Brief Tour of the Classics, Led by a Nimble Expert
