Granville Hicks: The Intellectual in Mass Society

Renowned for his literary criticism, Hicks (1901-1982) was an editor for the New Masses during the 1930s, and he analyzed American writing from a Marxist perspective (e.g., The Great Tradition ). Levenson and Natterstad's painstaking research yields a wealth of details concerning Hicks's activities as a writer and political activist, but they offer little insight into his character. In 1935 Hicks was dismissed from a teaching position because he was a Communist; and yet, after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Unon signed the nonaggression pact in 1939, he became disillusioned with the Party. The authors, clearly sympathetic to their subject, shine the kindest possible light on his subsequent controversial decision to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953 and implicate former colleagues as Communists. Even after this, Hicks continued to write influential book reviews, which spurred the careers of such writers as Flannery O'Connor and Bernard Malamud; he also published several novels of his own and an autobiography. Levenson is an independent scholar, Natterstad is a professor of English at Framingham State College in Massachusetts. (Dec.)