Blackguard

by Maxwell Bodenheim

This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Nook

First published January 28, 2010

About the author

Maxwell Bodenheim was an American poet and novelist. A literary figure in Chicago, he later went to New York where he became known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians. His writing brought him international notoriety during the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maxwell Bodenheim (1892-1954) cut a memorable Boho figure in Chicago and New York between the World Wars, but spiraled downward to a Cornell Woolrich finish, murdered along with his wife in a Manhattan flophouse in 1954. All 14 of his novels, of which Blackguard was the first, were published in a burst between 1923 and 1933.

Blackguard is an interesting, not completely successful performance, but I am glad to have read it. It has status as a Chicago novel and a Jewish proletarian novel, but the main thrust is the interior life of a disaffected, talentless young poet, Carl Felman, whose high self-regard and low regard for everything and everyone else does capture a mood of the times (which would repeat 40 years later in the Sixties), even if Carl is not always the most pleasant fellow to spend time with.