The author delves into the mystery of why a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, whose mature novels were both well reviewed and widely read, disappeared so rapidly from critical and popular notice. He considers his subject one of the major novelists of the twentieth century, certain that in the eyes of history Cozzens will be seen as the consummately skilled, uniquely American, brilliantly creative writer that this prodigiously researched biography vividly and convincingly portrays.--Provided by publisher.

In this short novel Mr. Cozzens has constructed a modern parable of the Robinson Crusoe tale, one with powerful implications for the survival of modern man. Beyond doubt an interesting and distinguished piece of work. —Times Literary Supplement.

A New York Review Books Original An uncompromising contrarian, a passionate polemicist, a man of quick wit and wide learning, an anarchist, a pacifist, and a virtuoso of the slashing phrase, Dwight Macdonald was an indefatigable and indomitable critic of America’s susceptibility to well-meaning cultural fakery: all those estimable, eminent, prizewinning works of art that are said to be good and good for you and are not. He dubbed this phenomenon “Midcult” and he attacked it not only on aesthetic but on political grounds. Midcult rendered people complacent and compliant, secure in their common stupidity but neither happy nor free. This new selection of Macdonald’s finest essays, assembled by John Summers, the editor of The Baffler, reintroduces a remarkable American critic and writer. In the era of smart, sexy, and everything indie, Macdonald remains as pertinent and challenging as ever.

This collection, marking the author's seventy-fifth birthday, contains Ask Me Tomorrow, selections from six of his major novels, three short stories, and several essays