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Collection Data
- Description
- Alfred Kazin (1915-1998) was an American literary and cultural critic, essayist, and historian. The Alfred Kazin papers comprise manuscript and typescript drafts and publication-related materials of Kazin's books, essays, book reviews, lectures, and poetry; as well as research files, journals, correspondence, photographs, audio and video recordings, computer disks; awards, and personal items.
- Names
- Kazin, Alfred, 1915-1998 (Creator)
- Birstein, Ann
- Dunford, Judith
- Kazin, Alfred, 1915-1998
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1938 - 2001
- Library locations
- Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
- Shelf locator: Berg Coll MSS Kazin archive
- Topics
- Brownsville (New York, N.Y.)
- Israel -- Description and travel -- 20th century
- Russia -- Description and travel -- 20th century
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
- God in literature
- Jews -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Biography
- Jews -- Russia -- 20th century
- Jews -- United States -- Biography
- Modernism (Literature) -- United States
- Religion and politics -- United States -- History -- 19th century
- Religion and politics -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Slavery -- United States -- History
- Transcendentalism (New England)
- Genres
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Documents
- Ephemera
- Lectures
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Alfred Kazin (1915-1998) was an American literary critic, essayist and historian. He was one of the most influential of the prominent New York intellectuals in the second half of the twentieth century, and belonged to the school of writers and thinkers associated with the Partisan Review.
Kazin was born June 5, 1915, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants Charles Kazin and Gita Fagelman. He attended City College of New York and received an MA from Columbia University in 1938.
Kazin began his career as a book reviewer for The New Republic, where he became a literary editor (1942-1943) and contributing editor (1943-1945). Over his lifetime, he contributed to many influential, New York-based magazines and journals, including The Nation, Partisan Review, The Masses, Modernist Quarterly, and The New York Times.
In 1942, Kazin wrote On Native Grounds, his seminal study of American prose literature written between the years 1890-1940. Optimistic about the future of American literature, On Native Grounds attempted to demonstrate that the literature of the period was a product of the times, and a reaction against modernism. The book was recognized as a major contribution to American literary criticism.
Kazin also won acclaim for his three memoirs, A Walker in the City (1951), Starting Out in the Thirties (1965), and New York Jew (1978), all of which were finalists for the National Book Award. Other notable works by Kazin include The Inmost Leaf (1955), Contemporaries (1960), An American Procession (1984), A Writer's America (1988), Our New York (1990), and God and the American Writer (1997). Philip Roth called Kazin "America's best reader of American literature in this century."
Kazin taught in the English department at SUNY Stony Brook from 1963 to 1973, Hunter College from 1973 to 1978, and the CUNY Graduate Center from 1979 to 1985. He also lectured at Harvard, Smith, Notre Dame, and many other academic institutions.
Kazin was married four times: to Natasha Dohn, Caroline Bookman, Ann Birstein, and Judith Dunford. He had two children, Michael and Cathrael. Kazin died on June 5, 1998, in New York.
- Content: The Alfred Kazin papers, dating from 1938 to 2001, document Kazin's career as an author and critic.
The collection includes typescripts of published and unpublished writings by Kazin, including books, essays, poetry, biographical sketches, and lectures; extensive notes and research files; personal and literary correspondence; photographs; audio and video recordings; computer disks; awards; and personal ephemera. The archive also includes a selection of memorials and tributes to Kazin written by family and friends.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 193 boxes 48.25 linear feet
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Sound recording
- Moving image
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: Berg Coll MSS Kazin archive
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b20155879
- MSS Unit ID: 22934
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): ac7de420-0129-013f-6915-0242ac110004
