Edmund Wilson - Our Neighbor from Talcottville

For the eminent American literary critic Edmund Wilson, Upstate New York was home. Richard Hauer Costa's biography of Wilson's final years, from 1962 to 1972, in Talcottville, NY, combines the literary, the political, and the domestic in an engaging portrait of Wilson as "squierarchical, Dickensian, benevolent."

Costa shows us a very personal, accessible man as he tells us about Wilson's opinions, literary and otherwise, his likes and dislikes, his almost spiritual link to Talcottville, his failing health in his final years, his habits (moviegoing) and idiosyncracies (sneakers). What emerges is a profile of Wilson not at all like the stern figure of academic biography.

Also included are interviews Costa conducted after Wilson's death with noted Upstate novelist Walter D. Edmonds, Canadian writer Morley Callaghan, and Wilson's Upstate friend, Mary Pcolar.

About the author

Richard Hauer Costa is professor emeritus of English at Texas A&M University and the author of several books including H. G. Wells and Malcolm Lowry.

Summary

Recounts the literary critic's final years at his home in upstate New York, and his views on literature, politics, and life in general.

Product details

• Authors: Richard Hauer Costa, Richard Haver Costa
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.11.1980
• EAN: 9780815601630
• ISBN: 978-0-8156-0163-0
• No. of pages: 192
• Dimensions: 151 mm x 235 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 426 g
• Series: York State Books; New York State; New York State Series
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies