Cowley, Malcolm

Cowley, Malcolm (kou`lē), 1898–1989, American critic and poet, b. Belsano, Pa., grad. Harvard, 1920. He lived abroad in the 1920s and knew many writers of the "lost generation," about whom he wrote in Exile's Return (1934) and Second Flowering (1973). For many years he wrote a book-review column for the New Republic. His works include The Blue Juniata (1927) and A Dry Season (1942), poems; The Literary Situation (1954), a critical analysis; and Many Windowed Houses: Collected Essays on Writers and Writing (1970).

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Cowley, Malcolm

(born Aug. 24, 1898, Belsano, Pa., U.S.—died March 27, 1989, New Milford, Conn.) U.S. literary critic and social historian. He was educated at Harvard and in France. As literary editor of the New Republic (1929–44), he took part in many Depression-era literary and political battles, usually on the leftist side. He revived the reputation of William Faulkner with The Portable Faulkner (1946). His books include Exile's Return (1934), a history of expatriate American writers; The Literary Situation (1954), on the role of writers in society; and the collections Think Back on Us (1967) and A Many-Windowed House (1970).

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Cowley, Malcolm (1898–1989) literary critic, editor; born in Belasco, Pa. He interrupted his studies at Harvard to serve with the American Ambulance Corps in World War I. Returning to France for graduate studies (1921–23), he got to know some of the American writers he would write of in his first widely recognized book, Exile's Return (1934). Meanwhile, he worked as a free-lance writer, contributing book reviews and critical essays, translating French works, and composing his own poetry. As associate editor of the New Republic (1929–44) he promoted contemporary American writers. As literary advisor to Viking Press (1948–85) he edited popularly available editions of selected works of writers from Hawthorne and Whitman to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway; it is generally recognized that his Viking Portable edition of William Faulkner (1946) was responsible for launching Faulkner's serious reputation. Cowley encouraged later generations of writers such as John Cheever, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey and continued writing and lecturing to promote American literature until his final years.