Malcolm Cowley

Malcolm Cowley was a prominent American writer, critic, and editor, known for his association with the Lost Generation and his influential work as a literary critic. He was a close friend and colleague of notable writers such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos. Cowley's work was heavily influenced by his experiences in World War I and his time spent in Paris during the 1920s, where he befriended writers like James Joyce and Gertrude Stein. His writing often explored themes of American modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, as seen in the works of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.

● Early Life and Education

Malcolm Cowley was born in Belsano, Pennsylvania, to a family of Presbyterian ministers. He spent his early years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Bellevue, Pennsylvania, where he attended Bellevue High School. Cowley then enrolled in Harvard University, where he studied literature and philosophy, and was heavily influenced by the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. During his time at Harvard, he became friends with fellow writers E.E. Cummings and John Peale Bishop, and was introduced to the works of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. After graduating from Harvard, Cowley moved to New York City and became involved in the city's vibrant literary scene, which included writers like Edna St. Vincent Millay and Dorothy Parker.

● Career

Cowley's career as a writer and critic spanned several decades, during which he worked as an editor for The New Republic and Vogue (magazine), and contributed to numerous other publications, including The New Yorker and The Nation. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1950. Cowley's work was often associated with the Lost Generation, a group of American writers who came of age during World War I and were known for their experimental style and disillusionment with modern society, as seen in the works of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. He was also influenced by the French Surrealists, including André Breton and Guillaume Apollinaire, and the Dada movement, which included artists like Marcel Duchamp and Hannah Höch.

● Literary Criticism and Legacy

As a literary critic, Cowley was known for his insightful and nuanced analyses of American literature, particularly the works of Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, and Theodore Dreiser. He was also a strong advocate for the work of younger writers, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and was a key figure in the development of the Beat Generation. Cowley's criticism was often published in The New York Times Book Review and The New York Review of Books, and he was awarded the National Book Award for his criticism in 1980. His work was also influenced by the New Criticism movement, which included critics like Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, and the Chicago School of literary criticism, which included critics like Ronald Crane and Richard McKeon.

● Major Works

Some of Cowley's most notable works include Exile's Return (1934), a memoir of his time in Paris during the 1920s, and The Literary Situation (1954), a collection of essays on American literature. He also edited several anthologies, including The Portable Hemingway (1944) and The Portable Faulkner (1946), which helped to establish the reputations of these writers. Cowley's work was often compared to that of other notable critics, including Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson, and he was praised for his ability to balance intellectual rigor with accessibility and wit, as seen in the works of George Orwell and Virginia Woolf.

● Personal Life

Cowley was married to Peggy Baird Cowley and had two children, Rob Cowley and Polly Cowley. He lived in New Milford, Connecticut, for many years, where he was a prominent figure in the local literary community, and was friends with writers like Arthur Miller and Saul Bellow. Cowley was also a close friend and colleague of Dwight Macdonald, and the two men often exchanged ideas and criticism, as seen in the works of Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt. Throughout his life, Cowley remained committed to the values of American liberalism and social justice, and was an outspoken critic of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, as seen in the works of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and C. Vann Woodward.