Fine Silver Thread: Essays on American Writing and Criticism

In a time when the idea of literature has been dissolved by our academic critics into mere “discourse,” many readers seem unable to distinguish between art and ideology. “This book,” James Tuttleton writes, “is about the difference between the two and about the ways in which ideology has not merely entered the word of some of our best writers but even grossly disfigured it.” Mr. Tuttleton’s new collection of fifteen essays focuses on what Henry James called “the imaginative faculty under cultivation,” the quality that makes for important literature. The subjects here range from Washington Irving to Louis Auchincloss, with stops along the way for considerations of Cooper, Poe, Howells, James, Henry Adams, Edith Wharton, Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and Conrad Aiken. The effects of ideology are a dominant motif, supported by Mr. Tuttleton’s customary banquet of information based upon his close reading of American literature and criticism. Of his most recent collection, Vital Signs, James Seaton wrote in the Hudson Review: "The ability to integrate analysis with celebration requires both intellectual entergy and generosity of spirit; James Tuttleton is one of those rare critics who possesses both.... He is a critic whose judgements can be trusted." A Fine Silver Thread further confirms Mr. Tuttleton’s stature as one of our most respected critics.

A new collection of essays on American writing and criticism--about the difference between art and ideology, and how ideology has disfigured the work of some of our best writers. Tuttleton is a critic whose judgments can be trusted. --James Seaton, Hudson Review

Booknews

Tuttleton (English, New York U.) focuses on what Henry James called "the imaginative faculty under cultivation," the quality that makes for important literature. His ideology-free discussions range from Washington Irving to Louis Auchincloss, and include considerations of Cooper, Poe, Howells, James, Henry Adams, Edith Wharton, Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and Conrad Aiken. He assesses the influence and accomplishments of literary radicalism in the 20s and 30s and investigates the treatment of women in the Amerian novel between the two world wars. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

James Tuttleton, who died in November 1998, was professor of English at New York University and author of Vital Signs (published by Ivan R. Dee) and of The Novel of Manners in America.