7. So successful was Howe as a destructive critic that it's rarely noted how acute and convincing his appreciations were.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. Foer mentions Howe's ability to "make" the reputation of writers, but something (Henry Roth, Malamud) but there was something else.
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9. Howe had a specific passion for championing unfashionable writers: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Leskov, Sarah Orne Jewett
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10. You know how John Williams' "Stoner" (1965) was posthumously re-discovered? Howe had repeatedly championed Williams while he was alive
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11 Howe's instinct for looking for the literary underdog, neglected & forgotten figure, animated his passion for an entire language, Yiddish
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12. The passion for the underdog was also of course had a political dimension and is linked with Howe's socialism.
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13. I sometimes think Howe went after Roth in 1973 because Roth was riding high in post-Portnoy fame. Now if Roth was neglected...
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14. If Roth had been neglected or was starting out, Howe would've championed. In fact did write rave of Roth's first book.
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15. The other interesting thing about Howe is when he struggled to appreciate a writer who rubbed against his sensibility.
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16. Worth thinking about: last piece Irving Howe ever wrote was a very just appreciation of Edward Said.
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17. What I mean to say is Howe was a cross-grained writer: radical in conservative 1950s, anti-radical in wild 1960s, etc.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
18. Howe's cross-grained qualities hurt him in 1960s/1970s, when he snapped back at feminists he should've been listening to.
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