It is a shame that this book is out of print as it is one of the best books ever published on American civilization. Many people think that New England gave us only Emerson and Thoreau. In point of fact the cultural life of Boston and the environs was much more interesting and dynamic than one would imagine, particularly if one has not read this book. This is a series of vignettes rather than a seamless history. It is a kind of Plutarch's Lives of New England cultural figures.

What I particularly enjoyed about it was not the usual stories of people everyone has heard about, like Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, but also people like William H. Prescott, whose story is perhaps the most inspiring. Though blind, he was able through the use of sighted readers to write some of the best histories of Spain under the Hapsburgs that have ever been written (anyone who is familiar with the archives in Madrid and their chaotic nature will want to make Prescott a particular hero). The section on Hawthorne is also very fine due to what Brooks has to say about Boston vs Salem. They are very different places as anyone who has ever been there can testify.
I hope this book comes back into print. It should be readily available to the ordinary reader.

This beautifully written book often matches the eloquence of its 19th century New England subjects - Hawthorne, Emerson, Parker, Thoreau, etc. You read this book and quickly grasp the genesis of contemporary ideas (whether you agree with them or not). It will also make you yearn for a simpler, more genteel time. I would recommend anything by this author.

The never has been, probably never will be, a finer, more stimulating utopian than Paul Gauguin. Unquestionably his life was a mess, but he was driven by angels, and transcendence, if not divinity, flickers from the pages of his journals as much as his paintings. Much revisionist bunk has been written about his modus, but Gauguin was an unashamed romantic - profoundly selfish, yes, but such is the call of the muse - and motivated solely by the drive to destroy hypocrisy and reinvent painting. He had the appetites of a satyr, and, while it lasted (and it lasted 20 years, while Van Gogh burned out in ten), a comparable animal energy. This slim book sums up his philosophy in aphorisms and boozy yarns and is the most elevating distraction for any grey day. It is crammed with jokes and visions, and has the feel of a roller-coaster - soaring from diatribes against corrupt Christian missionaries to the joy of unbridled sex in the sun, from the sanctity of humble animals to the prize of Confucius. Gauguin's son Emil edited this volume for publication in 1921 and insists that it is the true voice of his father, as opposed to the watered-down "Noa Noa" which, in its Dover edition, a reprint of the 1919, is equally interesting, if a little stilted. The bottom line, of course, is that Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh and Gauguin invented modern painting and all paid a huge personal price for their pursuit of the new way forward. All suffered great anguish, but none retained the buoyant irreverence of boyhood that twinkles in all of Gauguin. Read this, and see the difference.

Van Wyk Brooks was one of the most respected and successful critics of his day but he took a stand against the nihilism embodied in the works of authors like Faulkner and O'Neil and that courageous stand cost him his reputation. This book is MUST reading!

This book is an excellent guide and explanation to
the literary/critical career of Van Wyck Brooks, who
"for more than half a century [with the publication in
1908 of his first book of criticism, _Wine of the
Puritans_, to 1962 with _Fenollosa and His Circle,
With Other Essays in Biography_] was a wholly dedicated
partisan for the cause of American literature."
This tribute comes from the "Preface" by the author
of this critical/appraising work, James Vitelli. In
the Preface, Vitelli says that literature for Brooks
was never a mere pastime, or a business, or an
adornment, or "something to go in for," but rather
it was life itself, life at its greatest intensity.
"Without writers committed to a vision of the beautiful,
the good, and the true, life simply held no promise
of fulfillment."
Brooks's views are not simplistic, though generalized
stereotypes of some of his insights may creep into
"post-modern" discussions or critiques of American

literature and American writers. But, we should go
back to the source -- the originator -- of these
interesting and strongly held views of the writer,
the literature, and the vision for both which Brooks
so well put forth in his works.
Brooks's published works of criticism and insight
include: _Wine of the Puritans_(1909); _The Soul:
An Essay Towards a Point of View_(1911); _The
Malady of the Ideal_(1913); a biography, _John
Addington Symonds_(1914); _The World of H.G. Wells_

(1915); _America's Coming of Age_ (1915); _Letters
and Leadership_(1918); an essay in the _Dial-,
"On Creating a Usable Past" (1918); _The Ordeal of
Mark Twain_(1920); _The Pilgrimage of Henry James_
(1925); _Emerson and Others_(1927); _The Life of
Emerson_(1932); _The Flowering of New England_(1936)
which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History;
_New England:Indian Summer, 1865-1915_(1940);
_The World of Washington Irving_(1944); _The Times
of Melville and Whitman_(1947); _The Confident Years,
1885-1915_(1952); _The Writer in America_(1953);
books of his own memories; _John Sloan: A Painter's
Life_(1955); _The Dream of Arcadia: American Writers
and Artists in Italy, 1760-1915_(1958); _Howells:
His Life and World_(1959); and _Fenollosa and His
Circle_(1962).
Van Wyck Brooks was born in Plainfield, New Jersey,
in 1886. His early education, Vitelli says, was in
the Plainfield schools in the years 1897-1904 --
but the most significant year was the one he spent
in Europe, 1898-1899. For Brooks, Europe [before
the War] was "a realm of magic...a paradise of culture
that had scarcely known a beginning and would never
know an end." He spent most of his time visiting art
galleries and recording his enthusiasms and
disappointments with the works in 8 little notebooks.
On that trip he discovered John Ruskin's criticism,
and from Ruskin, Brooks acquired his ambition to become
a critic.
Brooks, according to Vitelli, was a youth of sensitive
nature, capable of responding not only to the color and
forms of art inside the galleries but also to the
sensuous atmosphere of the life outside. Italy,
Vitelli says, especially appealed to Brooks, and
thereafter always remained important, providing him
with a kind of standard against which he tested the
cultural environment of America.
From Ruskin, Brooks also acquired the drive and
sense of importance associated with the idea of
a "purpose" for art...and for artists. Brooks came
to feel that the artist had a special "calling" to
which he should be true, regardless of the external
trappings of the practical, business-oriented society
around him. If he failed that calling to truly express
himself, then he had missed his opportunity to enrich
the culture and the lives and minds of the generation
in which he worked, as well as future generations to
come. But Brooks also felt that the artist had a
treacherous path to try to tread, falling victim
neither to the materialistic pressures of the society
around him, but also not falling for the mistaken
ploy of becoming either "high-brow" or "low-brow"
in the deterministic, doctrinaire sense of those
designations and "identities." He was exasperated
by Twain's apparent succumbing to the "Puritan"/
pioneering drive to succeed in a material way --
but he also saw traces of that same all-too-American
"drive" in Whitman's later years, as Whitman curried
his image and fame. The artist who puts his eyes on
success and prestige, all too often becomes the artist
who fails himself, his art, and his vision.
There is much of depth, insight, importance, and
enduring value in these works and ideas by Brooks.
And he needs to be re-read and re-introduced into
the post-modern literary and critical curricula as
an enduring voice from America's past whose wisdom
should not be ignored or lost.
This, unfortunately out-of-print book, is an
excellent introduction to the man, his views,
and his influence. Hopefully, some modern
publisher will re-publish this work, as well
as re-publish Brooks's own works of criticism.
Though used book editions can be purchased through
Amazon, only a forthcoming new edition of _The
Flowering of New England_ and _America's Coming
of Age_ (from Amereon House, 1990) apparently are
the only works in print.
Van Wyck Brooks, who suffered from "chronic
melancholia" from 1927 to 1932, died in Bridgewater,
Connecticut, in 1963.