For the Nation and the World: Malcolm Cowley, the Making of American Literature and the Cultural Cold War

Abstract

In this essay I examine the extent to which Malcolm Cowley’s mid-century efforts on behalf of ‘the making of American literature’ – as critic, editor, publisher’s advisor and literary gatekeeper – dovetailed with the aims of U.S. cultural diplomacy and (wittingly or unwittingly) played a part in the ‘cultural Cold War’. I analyze in particular ‘American Books Abroad’, Cowley’s concluding chapter to Literary History of the United States (1948), and examine his role as guest editor and critic of the Autumn 1953 issue of Perspectives USA, a quarterly launched by James Laughlin of New Directions and funded by the Ford Foundation. The latter aimed to correct a widespread European perception of American culture as imperialist and steeped in mass entertainment, by demonstrating it was at least as highbrow and distinguished as the best of Europe – and an effective beacon of individual freedom against totalitarian communism.