Robert Samuel Warshow[1] (1917–1955) was an American author associated with theNew York Intellectuals.[2] He is best known for his criticism offilm andpopular culture forCommentary andThe Partisan Review.
Born inNew York City and raised in itsBronx borough, he graduated from theUniversity of Michigan in 1938.[3][4] He briefly wrote forThe New Leader before being stationed inWashington, D.C. as a member of theArmy Signal Corps duringWorld War II.[5] He was managing editor ofCommentary from 1946 until his death.[6]
Robert Warshow died of a heart attack at the age of 37.
Among the articles published in Warshow's lifetime were "The Westerner" and "The Gangster as Tragic Hero", analyses of theWestern movie and thegangster moviegenre from a cultural standpoint. The opening sentence of "The Westerner" reads "The two most successful creations of American movies are the gangster and the Westerner: men with guns."[7]
Warshow also penned essays praising playwrightClifford Odets as well asGeorge Herriman's newspaper comic stripKrazy Kat. "The 'Idealism' of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg" showed the executed AmericanStalinists in a brutally honest light. In a critique ofThe Crucible Warshow argued thatArthur Miller was not as competent a dramatist as was perceived. AfterFredric Wertham andGershon Legman, Warshow was the first serious critic to write aboutEC Comics and itsMad magazine, albeit from a measured and equivocal perspective.[8]
Most of his published work was collected in the bookThe Immediate Experience in 1962. An expanded edition was released byHarvard University Press in 2001.
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