A Moral Temper: The Letters of Dwight MacDonald

by Dwight Macdonald

Dwight Macdonald's biographer has brought together in one volume a comprehensive selection of letters from the correspondence of one of the most astute observers of American politics, society, and culture in the twentieth century. Macdonald's letters span his lifetime, from his education at Exeter and Yale in the twenties through his career as an editor of Partisan Review, founder of Politics magazine, staff writer for the New Yorker,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566633931
• ISBN13: 9781566633932
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A Profile of Honesty and Courage

As one who is a generation younger than Dwight Macdonald and therefore came of age in the time that he was writing these letters this was of great interest. I regret that I was generally unaware of his writings at the time but am sincerely grateful to have had this belated opportunity to sample them. The political and literary culture of the middle 50 years of the 20th century are brilliantly explicated. As one with the courage to take on the Stalinists on the left and the McCarthyites on the right he deserves a more prominent place of honor in the literary annals of this country.I look forward to reading "A Rebel in Defense of Traddition".Update: 23 September, 2002--Having now read the Michael Wreszin's biography "A Rebel in Defense of Tradition" I am ready to reiterate my praise for the life and works of Dwight Macdonald with the reservation that Macdonald was a complex and often difficult personality. Quoting from the review of Christopher Lehmann-Haupt "Dwight Macdonald emerges as a hugely appealing figure in these pages. Mr. Wreszin lends sense somehow to every step in his subject's sometimes erratic reasoning"Macdonald was certainly on occasion erratic but in the end he was HONEST, COURAGEOUS and mostly RIGHT.