The Open Form: Essays for Our Time

by Alfred Kazin

A reviewer suggests the book may have been intended "as a primer, perhaps, for a literature survey that wanted to take a closer look at the essay form. As such, it contains highly polished examples covering a wide range of topics, from sociology to psychology, and from memoir to cultural critique."

408 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915 – June 5, 1998) was an American writer and literary critic, many of whose writings depicted the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America.

Kazin is regarded as one of "The New York Intellectuals", and like many other members of this group he was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and attended the City College of New York. However, his politics were more moderate than most of the New York intellectuals, many of whom were socialists. He wrote out of a great passion-- or great disgust -- for what he was reading and embedded his opinions in a deep knowledge of history, both literary history and politics and culture. He was a friend of the political theorist Hannah Arendt. In 1996 he was awarded the first Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award for literary criticism.

His son is historian and Dissent co-editor Michael Kazin.

(from wikipedia.org)

Reviews

[J.S. Bratton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love buying anthologies like this, yet I never read them. This one I did, way back in the day.