The Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature

by Gerald Howard Narrated by Robert Petkoff

Overview

A delightful and majestic reckoning with the ascent of American fiction in the twentieth century through the prism of the under-known man who had an astonishing amount to do with it

Malcolm Cowley is not a household name today, but the American literary canon would look very different without him. A prototypical “man of letters” of his generation-Harvard University, a volunteer in the French ambulance corps in World War I, a rite of passage in Paris after the war-he became one of the few truly influential critics of the 1920s and '30s, along with his close New Republic colleague Edmund Wilson. Cowley's early support of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their set-and indeed for framing this group in generational terms in the first place-secured his place in literary history.

Most people are lucky to be part of a single game-changing era in their careers; for Cowley, it happened again and again. After emerging from the political fray of the thirties badly damaged, he retreated behind the scenes as a tastemaker whose import has awaited Gerald Howard to be brought into full view. The process of canon formation is a murky business, and Cowley was a prime mover in it for the better part of four decades, through the Lost Generation, the Beat Generation, and the counterculture of the sixties. Without him, the odds would be much longer that the names William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey, to name just three, would have ever echoed.

In The Insider, Gerald Howard gives an intimate accounting of the fever graph of a fascinating and multifaceted career in the literary trade that uses that career to tell a much bigger story of how American literature took the course that it did from the 1920s to the 1960s. It's a story of an art form, and an industry, and a country experiencing wrenching change, and the people who made a home in the storm and in no small part shaped it. Howard's own career as a literary weathermaker is justly acclaimed, and he has brought all his talents of head and heart to bear in crafting this extraordinary book. It's a gift to booklovers and a major contribution to the cultural history of this country.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Insider is the capstone to Gerald Howard’s career as a publishing powerhouse, leading us through the great movements of twentieth-century American literature. The Insider will go down as a classic work of American literary history.” —Debby Applegate

“Howard’s chronicle of the literary life of the American twentieth century brings back a time when novels, books of poetry, magazines, and even criticism mattered in the life of the nation. His writing sets a new standard for literary history.” —David Denby

“What a story Howard tells here and what a book he has written! Cowley’s life spanned most of the last century, and he was in the thick of things: World War I, Paris, the Jazz Age, radical politics, Kerouac and the Beats, Kesey and the sixties. Howard’s portrait brings a remarkable man and his times to life.” —Edwin Frank

“The Insider brings to life—through the key figure of Cowley and with a remarkable amount of warmth and tenderness—a thrilling piece of social history.” —Vivian Gornick

“Howard is a rare bird: a brilliant editor and a writer who makes ideas dance on the page. The story of Cowley, a tastemaker who championed and sometimes revived the careers of American fiction writers from Hemingway and Faulkner to Kerouac and Kesey, has found the ideal storyteller.” —James Kaplan

“In tracing the career of Cowley, Howard has created a fresco of American literary life featuring Crane, Faulkner, Kerouac, and scores of others. Howard’s portraits of all the players make this a living drama.” —Geoffrey O’Brien

“I was taken by the beauty of insights in Howard’s book on Cowley, by his range of reference, his command of the scene, and his understanding of the dynamics of the literary marketplace. This is literary history of a kind so rare.” —Jay Parini

“It’s all here, in this rich tour of twentieth-century literature, which came into its own shaped, championed, and salvaged by Cowley. The career was one of improbably lucky breaks, and the streak continues: Howard writes with a clarity and intimacy that would make his subject proud.” —Stacy Schiff

“The American story might have been told differently were it not for Malcolm Cowley, who participated in and defined the work of every literary generation in his lifetime, from the Lost Generation to the Beats and beyond. Now his career has been brought to the fore by a former colleague, a distinguished editor himself, whose knowledge of intellectual history and the dynamics of publishing are amplified by his affection for his subject in this vital account of literature’s American century.” —Amanda Vaill

“Howard has written a superb biography, unapologetic about Cowley’s Stalinist apologies, persuasive about his singular literary achievements, and filled with essential stories.” —Sean Wilentz

“With The Insider, Howard has performed a service to the republic of letters, restoring Cowley to his rightful eminence as a critic, editor, personal essayist, talent spotter, and redeemer of lost reputations.” —James Wolcott

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2025-07-15
Agile life of a nearly forgotten writer and editor.

It’s meta to say here, but as Howard, a writer and editor, notes, there was a time in this country when literary criticism and book reviewing were taken seriously and exercised enormous influence over the culture. “Critics enjoyed prestige and sway over not just educated, but even mass opinion,” acting as guides and gatekeepers to the flood of cultural production following World War II. Enter Malcolm Cowley, a farm-born Pennsylvanian and later resident of New York and Paris, one of the post–World War I expatriate Americans. Cowley, according to Howard’s fluent, fast-moving narrative, wrote mountains of reviews and many books, and he knew everyone and championed the writers whom he admired, not least of them Ernest Hemingway, who was also living in Paris and was all but unknown, and William Faulkner, who had been all but forgotten; Cowley’s advocacy, Howard suggests, was directly instrumental in Faulkner being awarded the Nobel Prize. Cowley was adept at the politics of culture and publishing: “His career is a master class in how the literary Game of Thrones was played in the twentieth century, and, to a certain extent, to this day.” But he was also deeply generous and of unfailing good taste, discovering and publishing Jack Kerouac’sOn the Road and Ken Kesey’sOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, among many other books and writers. Howard does a fine job of placing Cowley in the cultural context of his long career—he lived to be 90 and wrote almost to the end—which includes nearly being blacklisted during the McCarthy era, having been a leftist in his early years and a liberal after. John Updike’s encomium on Cowley’s death says much: “He was an energetic and gregarious man who lived the life of the mind with gusto and good nature.”

A superb contribution to the history of American literature and the Lost Generation.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940194047963
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	11/04/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged