SOURCE: A review of A Writer's America: Landscape in Literature, in Journal of American Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3, December, 1990, pp. 442-43.

[In the following excerpt, Cohen provides a laudatory review of A Writer's America.]

[In A Writer's America: Landscape in Literature] Kazin's landscape of nature is panoramic, embracing seascape and cityscape. His time span is roughly from the Revolution to the present, and a walker in the city, he has a special interest in the power that cities exert on the land. From the westward prospect of Jefferson's Monticello, the "little mountain," Kazin's vista reaches across the continent, encompassing regional distinction and local colouration as it extends towards the California coast, and the passage beyond the Pacific toward Whitman's India and "more than India." His book is diffuse, as if writer of his title is Kazin himself, ranging the continent and savouring its history and diversity and even now...