Randall Jarrell and His Age

Randall Jarrell (1914-1965) was the most influential poetry critic of his generation.

This book examines all of Jarrell's work, incorporating new research such as previously undiscovered essays and poems.

Other books have examined Jarrell's poetry in biographical or formal terms, but none have considered both his aesthetic choices and their social contexts.

Burt situates the poet-critic among his peers, including Bishop and Arendt, in literature and cultural criticism.

It considers the ways in which Jarrell's efforts and achievements encompassed the concerns of his time, from teen culture to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the book posits what these concerns might say to our own.