Delmore Schwartz Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Mark Ford

SOURCE: "No One Else Can Take a Bath for You," in London Review of Books, Vol. 10, No. 7, March 31, 1988, pp. 20-1.

In the following essay, Ford offers an overview of Schwartz's literary career, focusing on his achievements and limitations as an artist.

It is unfortunate, really, that Schwartz has filtered into the general public's consciousness more because of the outstanding copy his life has proved for other writers than because of his own work. Saul Bellow's superb roman à clef, Humboldt's Gift, was modelled loosely on his relations with Schwartz in the late Forties and early Fifties, and—his first book after winning the Nobel Prize—was a colossal seller. By now, most of those who knew him best have had their say. There are essays from many of the old Partisan crowd, Dwight Macdonald, Irving Howe, William Barrett, Philip Rahv; a compassionate reminiscence from Harry Levin, who was...
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