Gamaliel Bradford

by Edward Wagenknecht

Book by Wagenknecht, Edward

220 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gamaliel Bradford VI (1863–1932) was a poet, novelist, dramatist, and literary critic, best known in the 1920s and early 1930s for what he called “psychography,” a style of life-writing that treated biographical subjects topically rather than chronologically and emphasized not events but analysis of the subject’s character and personality. Edward Wagenknecht (1900-2004), the author of this volume in the Twayne’s United States Authors Series, was a literary critic and professor of English at Boston University. He was also a close friend of Bradford, who himself wrote more than seventy books, mostly biographies of notable literary, theatrical, and motion picture figures—including a biography of Willa Cather published in his 94th year.

Wagenknecht divides this short work into eight chapters: one of fewer than twenty pages on Bradford’s “biography, background, and interests,” one on poetry, one on drama, one on fiction, three on the psychographs, and a final summation of Bradford’s character in a chapter called “The Man.” Though Wagenknecht’s appraisal of Bradford is, as might be expected, appreciative, the author is not uncritical; and the writing itself is lucid and engaging, especially considering this book is essentially literary criticism.