F.R. Leavis: A Life in Criticism

An important pre-WWII English literary critic, Frank Raymond Leavis (1895-1978) was important in the re-shaping of English criticism, in bringing D.H. Lawrence into the spotlight, and for the word wars he waged with many famous contemporaries. Those unfamiliar with the Leavis oeuvre of lectures, essays and impassioned letters might think of him as a precursor to American critic E.D. Hirsch--both seek to place a conservative canon at the center of academia--but rather than beginning his career during the conservative '80s, which launched Hirsch, Leavis had the bad timing to start his career during modernism. One sees hints of future movements--cultural studies, deconstruction--in Leavis's assertions, and he and outspoken wife Q.D. (""Queenie"") took on Bloomsbury, C.P. Snow, I.A. Richards, T.S. Eliot, and many others--usually because of a feeling that F.R. had been slighted for promotion, publication or attention. Leavis's battles were public and brutal, and this biography by former student MacKillop holds as much ""he said, she said"" as a conversation with seventh-grade girls. MacKillop defends Leavis against his bad press but isn't afraid to point out his foibles, and while MacKillop's research is staggering and conclusive, his commitment to fairness is almost more impressive. The best bits are quips and reported eccentricities from the Leavis family and their acquaintances (such as Wittgenstein). MacKillop includes proportionally few details of Leavis's personal life, perhaps because Leavis took everything personally. (June)