Robert Cantwell

Per SeyerstedÕs Robert Cantwell: An American 1930s Radical Writer and His Apostasy is an exceedingly unusual, inventive, and distinguished contribution to 20th century United States cultural, intellectual, and political history in several respects. SeyerstedÕs focus is on the career of Robert Cantwell, a promising novelist from the Northwestern United States who was a much-admired pro-Communist literary talent in the early 1930s, but who steadily evolved to the Right and vanished into the relative obscurity of the mass market publishing industry in subsequent decades. CantwellÕs name is certainly recognizable to most scholars of United States literary radicalism, but the central mystery of Òwhat happenedÓ to him has never been explained. SeyerstedÕs extraordinarily researched book now answers that question in a manner that sheds new light on a variety of other issues, and offers a highly detailed fresh paradigm for the radical literary experience that will absorb a broad range of readers.

Alan Wald Director of the Program in American Culture University of Michigan