If you are looking for a fun read on the beach, this may not be the book for you, but if you’re looking for a book that takes a hard look at the “Lost Generation,” you will certainly enjoy this book.  It examines the career of Malcomb Cowley in which he left his indelible stamp on this period of Literature. Extending from the start of the twentieth Century to the Modernists of the 1960s, America contributed some of the best writers of the era. 

The Lost Generation were artists and writers who were influenced by the disillusioned by World War I. American authors that Earnest Hemmingway,  Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg, and E. E. Cummings. Their disillusionment was due to the indiscriminate slaughter of the war from new weapon technology such as mustard gas, rapid fire weapons and airplanes. Following the armistice in November 1918 and the Spanish Influenza pandemic, Europe was in ruins politically and economically. 

When the Great Depression began in October 1929, American writers such as John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Sinclair Lewis and John Dos Passos used Modernism to tell the realistic tribulations of the times. The New Deal initiated by Franklin Deleno Roosevelt to sponsor new artistic and writing movements. Cowley found William Faulkner much maligned writher of Southern Gothic as the new literary star for Viking Press as he had for Hemmingway two decades prior.

What I really enjoyed was how real Gerald Howard made this period of time come alive with the spirit of Malcomb Cowley’s efforts in bringing American authors to the forefront. Having Moved his family to Paris after the World War I, Cowley resurrected the Socialist Exile back into circulation after the Russian Revolution that gained the attention of some of the countries ruined by the war such as France and Great Britian.   The political landscape in Europe was going through a genesis as the economies took a sharp left turn .As Germany embraced a national socialism (Nazi) with the new Chancelor Adolph Hitler, other countries began to see the grim future of the former powers who were  had built colonial empires were being challenged.  

Even America was no immune to these new far left political philosophies. Eugene Debs head of the the American Communist Party. As a result Malcolm became a member of the American Communist Party had made an unsuccessful run for president but had also brought communism to America. Author Upton Sinclair wrote “It Can’t Happen Here that warning the American public that communism could happen in America.

One of the drawbacks of the book, however, is the four-hundred-page length, but Malcomb’s career was fascinating as he became one of the editors and writers for Viking Press, a fledgling press from the 1920s. With a career stretching over six decades in publishing, Cowley had a strong influence on American Literature even though few people are even aware of his contributions. His biggest achievements were revitalizing authors’ careers like William Faulkner and John Steinbeck.

Malcolm was also a literary critic and poet as well as a publisher of The Portable Hawthorn and Hemmingway which helped elevate these American authors to prominence and popularity. In the late part of his career, Malcolm became involved in the Counter-revolution taking place on college campuses in American as a result of the reaction again the Vietnam War as well as reaction to institutions that were considered part of the American Way. One of the things that Malcolm did was to question these institutions that sent fifty thousand plus young men to die in a war.

Malcolm Cowley passed away in 1989 at the age of 91. He published his autobiography The Long Journey shortly before his death.

When I read this book, I gained a insight into a little-known influence of American Literature during the early part of the Twentieth Century when the Lost Generation put their stamp on literature. I gave this book a five out of five rating due to bringing up issues that are with us to this day.  For a man who was a great influence on our modern culture, few know the real story of Malcolm Cowley unless you read this book which I totally recommend.