An American Procession

“With An American Procession, Alfred Kazin confirms a reservation in the front tier of the reviewing stand, next to his eminent predecessors Van Wyck Brooks and Edmund Wilson. I have nothing but praise for An American Procession. Alfred Kazin himself can write brilliantly, catching the ‘very essence’ of an author in an epithet or a phrase… He is a first-rate comprehender, explainer, and savorer. The power of his book lies, in the last analysis, in Mr. Kazin’s profound instinct for style.”—Marcus Cunliffe, The New York Times Book Review

“The Procession is wonderfully exciting to read… An authentic entrance, as Whitman called the self, to all facts.”—Richard Howard, The New Republic

“A sense of caring intimacy lifts Kazin’s survey above the usual inventory of masterworks… An American Procession is a refresher in the best sense… It vivaciously refreshes our awareness.”—The New Yorker

“Kazin is one of the most seasoned and subtle critics of American literature. He has always balanced an awareness of the pressure of external circumstances with a sense that books are also a series of private meetings between authors and ink bottles. He sees writers as at once facing the world and facing their desks.”—Richard Ellmann, The Atlantic