Synopses & Reviews
Among the American avant-garde of the early twentieth century, Floyd Dell played a distinctive role. A boy from the Midwest who rose to influence in the Chicago Literary Renaissance and in the heyday of Greenwich Village radicalism, he became a celebrated novelist, critic, editor (of The Masses), poet, and playwright. Dell was also a notorious bohemian, proponent of free love, and champion of feminism, progressive education, socialism, and Freudianism. His love affairs earned him almost as much notoriety as his writings. His friends and colleagues included many of the great figures of the era: radical journalists John Reed and Max Eastman; the Christian Socialist Dorothy Day; novelists Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and Sherwood Anderson; and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Yet no figure was more colorful and brilliant than Dell himself. Better than anyone, he epitomized the high spirits and towering ambitions of American culture in the early decades of the century. Douglas Clayton's biography of Dell, the first full-length life, captures the remarkable accomplishments and contradictions of a man who was both central to radical culture and profoundly skeptical of it. An early escapee from Marxism, his career never followed the familiar left-to-right course. But Dell struggled all his life with the relationship between politics and art, which makes his life so arresting and relevant today. With 8 pages of photographs.
Synopsis
The first full-length biography of the celebrated novelist, critic, editor (of The Masses), poet, and playwright who was both central to radical culture in the early 20th century and profoundly skeptical of it.
Synopsis
In the heyday of the American avant-garde and Greenwich Village bohemianism, in the early years of the twentieth century, Floyd Dell was one of the scene's brightest lights. "The prose laureate of Greenwich Village", some called him, "the most talented of literary young men". In a galaxy of high-spirited artists, writers, and playwrights, no figure was more colorful and brilliant. Douglas Clayton's biography of Floyd Dell traces the life of a boy from the Midwest who rose to influence in the Chicago Literary Renaissance and moved on to New York to become a celebrated novelist, critic, editor, poet, and playwright. Beyond his literary pursuits, Dell was also a notorious bohemian, proponent of free love, and champion of feminism, progressive education, socialism, and Freudianism. When he was editing The Masses, perhaps the best radical magazine ever, Dell once famously remarked that it "stood for fun, truth, beauty, realism, freedom, peace, feminism, revolution". So did Dell's own life. Yet, as Douglas Clayton shows, while Dell was central to radical culture, he was also profoundly skeptical of it. He was a leader among the cultural rebels while also a shrewd satirist of their countless causes and tendencies. He was an early escapee from Marxism, and his career never followed the familiar left-to-right course of some radical writers. All his life Dell struggled with this perspective, and with the larger relationship between politics and art - a struggle that continues to have meaning for us today.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 314-326) and index.