Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer,literary critic, and journalist. He is widely regarded as one of the most important literary critics of the 20th century. Wilson began his career as a journalist, writing for publications such asVanity Fair andThe New Yorker. He helped to editThe New Republic, served as chief book critic forThe New Yorker, and was a frequent contributor toThe New York Review of Books.
His notable works includeAxel's Castle (1931), described byJoyce Carol Oates as "a groundbreaking study of modern literature." Oates writes that Wilson "encroached fearlessly on areas reserved for academic 'experts': early Christianity inThe Dead Sea Scrolls (1955), native American civilization inApologies to the Iroquois (1960), and the American Civil War inPatriotic Gore (1962)."[1]
In an essay on the work of horror writerH. P. Lovecraft, "Tales of the Marvellous and the Ridiculous", Wilson condemned Lovecraft's tales as "hackwork".[8] Wilson is also well known for his heavy criticism ofJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings, which he referred to as "juvenile trash", saying "Dr. Tolkien has little skill at narrative and no instinct for literary form."[9] He had earlier dismissed the work ofW. Somerset Maugham in vehement terms (without, as he later boasted, having troubled to read the novels generally regarded as Maugham's finest,Of Human Bondage,Cakes and Ale andThe Razor's Edge).[10]
Wilson lobbied for the creation of a series of classic U.S. literature similar to France'sBibliothèque de la Pléiade. In 1982, ten years after his death,The Library of America series was launched.[12] Wilson's writing was included in the Library of America in two volumes published in 2007.[13]
He attended Princeton with Fitzgerald, a year-and-a-half his junior. In 1936 inthe "Crack-Up" essays, Fitzgerald referred to Wilson as his "intellectual conscience ... [f]or twenty years".[16] After Fitzgerald's early death (at the age of 44) from a heart attack in December 1940, Wilson edited two books by Fitzgerald (The Last Tycoon andThe Crack-Up) for posthumous publication, donating his editorial services to help Fitzgerald's family. Wilson was also a friend of Nabokov, with whom he corresponded extensively and whose writing he introduced to Western audiences. However, their friendship was marred by Wilson's cool reaction to Nabokov'sLolita and irretrievably damaged by Wilson's public criticism of what he considered Nabokov's eccentric translation ofPushkin'sEugene Onegin.
Wilson had multiple marriages and affairs.
His first wife was Mary Blair, who had been inEugene O'Neill's theatrical company. Their daughter, Rosalind Baker Wilson, was born on September 19, 1923.
His second wife was Margaret Canby. After her death in a freak accident two years after their marriage, Wilson wrote a long eulogy to her and said later that he felt guilt over having neglected her. Wilson, despondent over Canby's death, moved to a rundown townhouse at314 East 53rd Street in Manhattan for several years.[17][18]
From 1938 to 1946, he was married toMary McCarthy, who like Wilson was well known as a literary critic. She enormously admired Wilson's breadth and depth of intellect, and they collaborated on numerous works. In an article inThe New Yorker,Louis Menand wrote, "The marriage to McCarthy was a mistake that neither side wanted to be first to admit. When they fought, he would retreat into his study and lock the door; she would set piles of paper on fire and try to push them under it."[19] This marriage resulted in the birth of their son, Reuel, on December 25, 1938.[20]
He wrote many letters toAnaïs Nin, criticizing her for her surrealistic style, because it was opposed to therealism that was then deemed correct writing, and he ended by asking for her hand — "I would love to be married to you, and I would teach you to write" — which she took as an insult.[21] Except for a brief falling-out following the publication ofI Thought of Daisy, in which Wilson portrayedEdna St. Vincent Millay as Rita Cavanaugh, Wilson and Millay remained friends throughout life.
Wilson was also an outspoken critic of USCold War policies. Herefused to pay his federalincome tax from 1946 to 1955 and was later investigated by theInternal Revenue Service. After a settlement, Wilson received a $25,000 fine, rather than the original $69,000 sought by the IRS. He received no jail time. In his bookThe Cold War and the Income Tax: A Protest (1963), Wilson argued that as a result of competitive militarization against theSoviet Union, thecivil liberties of Americans were being paradoxically infringed under the guise of defense from Communism. For those reasons, Wilson also opposed involvement in theVietnam War.
Selected byJohn F. Kennedy to receive thePresidential Medal of Freedom, Wilson, in absentia, was officially awarded the medal on December 6, 1963, by PresidentLyndon Johnson. However, Wilson's view of Johnson was decidedly negative. HistorianEric F. Goldman writes in his memoirThe Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson[22] that when Goldman, on behalf of Johnson, invited Wilson to read from his writings at a White House Festival of the Arts in 1965, "Wilson declined with a brusqueness that I never experienced before or after in the case of an invitation in the name of the President and First Lady."
For the academic year 1964–65, he was a Fellow on the faculty in the Center for Advanced Studies atWesleyan University.[23]
Throughout his career, Wilson often answered fan mail and outside requests for his time with this form postcard:
"Edmund Wilson regrets that it is impossible for him to: Read manuscripts, write articles or books to order, write forewords or introductions, make statements for publicity purposes, do any kind of editorial work, judge literary contests, give interviews, conduct educational courses, deliver lectures, give talks or make speeches, broadcast or appear on television, take part in writers' congresses, answer questionnaires, contribute to or take part in symposiums or 'panels' of any kind, contribute manuscripts for sales, donate copies of his books to libraries, autograph books for strangers, allow his name to be used on letterheads, supply personal information about himself, supply photographs of himself, supply opinions on literary or other subjects".[24]
Axel's Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870–1930, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931
The Triple Thinkers: Ten Essays on Literature, Harcourt, Brace & Co, 1938
The Wound and the Bow: Seven Studies in Literature, Riverside Press, 1941;ebook
The Boys in the Back Room, Colt Press, 1941
The Shock of Recognition: The Development of Literature in the U.S. Recorded by the Men Who Made It (editor),Modern Library, 1943, Illustrations (one-volume edition) by Robert F. Hallock
Volume I. The Nineteenth Century
Volume II. The Twentieth Century
The Triple Thinkers: Twelve Essays on Literary Subjects, Farrar, Straus & Co., 1948;ebook
Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1920s & 30s: The Shores of Light, Axel's Castle, Uncollected Reviews ed. Lewis M. Dabney,Library of America, 2007
Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1930s & 40s: The Triple Thinkers, The Wound and the Bow, Classics and Commercials, Uncollected Reviews, ed. Lewis M. Dabney, Library of America, 2007
Europe without Baedeker: Sketches among the Ruins of Italy, Greece and England, 1947
Red, Black, Blond, and Olive: Studies in Four Civilizations: Zuni, Haiti, Soviet Russia, Israel,Oxford University Press, 1956
The American Earthquake: A Documentary of the Twenties and Thirties (A Documentary of the Jazz Age, the Great Depression, and the New Deal), Doubleday, 1958
Apologies to the Iroquois, Vintage, 1960
The Cold War and the Income Tax: A protest, Farrar, Straus & Co., 1964
O Canada: An American's Notes on Canadian Culture, Farrar, Straus & Co., 1965
Letters on Literature and Politics, ed. Elena Wilson, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977
This Room and This Gin and These Sandwiches 1937 (original title "A Winter in Beech Street")
Beppo and Beth 1937
The Little Blue Light 1950
Five Plays 1954 collects Cyprian's Prayer, The Crime in the Whispering Room, This Room and This Gin and These Sandwiches, Beppo and Beth, and The Little Blue Light.
^Stossel, Scott (November 1, 1996),"The Other Edmund Wilson",The American Prospect,archived from the original on September 17, 2011, retrievedMarch 22, 2010,But this has not prevented writers and scholars from trying in recent years to elevate Wilson to what they claim is his rightful status as this century's preeminent American man of letters.
^Menand, Louis (March 17, 2003)."The Historical Romance".The New Yorker. Condé Nast.Archived from the original on August 21, 2022. RetrievedFebruary 25, 2022.
^abLewis, R. W. B. (May 22, 1983)."A Vision of the Wounded Genius".The New York Times. p. 1, Section 7; joint review ofThe Portable Edmund Wilson, edited, with an introduction and notes, by Lewis M. Dabney; &The Forties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period by Edmund Wilson, edited, with an introduction, by Leon Edel{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^Wilson, Edmund,Galahad / I Thought of Daisy,Noonday, 1967; "Foreword", p. viii
Blight, David W. (2011). "'Lincoln and Lee and All That': Edmund Wilson", in Blight, David W.American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era, pp. 129-181. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-04855-3
Dabney, Lewis M. (2005).Edmund Wilson: A Life in Literature. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN0-374-11312-2
