Partisan Responsibilities

The first two Partisan Review anthologies, published in 1946 and 1953 and now out of print, were of an almost unbelievable richness. The contributors whose names began with “A” were Lionel Abel, James Agee, Conrad Aiken, Sherwood Anderson, Hannah Arendt, W.H. Auden, and Erich Auerbach. Those whose names began with “B” included Isaac Babel, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, R.P. Blackmur, Louise Bogan, Paul Bowles, and James Burnham. . . .You get the idea. Writers and Partisans: A Partisan Review Reader, published in 1983 and also out of print, was slenderer but still distinguished, with essays by Arendt, Daniel Bell, Albert Camus, Nicola Chiaromonte, Irving Howe, Arthur Koestler, Dwight ...