The renewal of interest in Delmore Schwartz may be due to a fascination with his life, with the now familiar history of the poète maudit in the modern world, but for the serious reader the real concern is always with the work, with Schwartz's poetry, stories, and critical essays. His reputation as a poet has remained constant enough to guarantee a place in the anthologies for some of his best-known poems, such as "The Ballad of the Children of the Czar," "In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave," and "The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me," but attention to Schwartz's work since his death has also resulted in republication of Summer Knowledge in 1967, the appearance of a collection of the critical essays in 1970, and a new edition of the stories in 1978. With much of the major writing now in print, then, critical recognition or reevaluation is both appropriate and desirable.
