Constellation of Genius, 1922: Modernism Year One

In this “biography” of 1922, Jackson narrates the landmark year during which both James Joyce’s Ulysses and T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland first appeared in print. Jackson (The Worlds of John Ruskin) offers a month-by-month and even day-by-day narrative of that year’s cultural and political events, as modernists sought a radical reinvention of art and political upheaval spread worldwide. Though the story most extensively tracks the movements of Joyce, Eliot, and Ezra Pound, the cast of characters is enormous, including every significant cultural, artistic, and political figure of the time: Hemingway, Stein, Picasso, Breton, Cocteau, Proust, Chanel, Fitzgerald, Woolf, Wittgenstein, Lorca, Armstrong, Stravinsky, Mussolini, and many, many more. Providing brief, lively snapshots of these players, the story roves restlessly around the globe, from Hollywood to Paris to Moscow, leaping as far afield as Peru, China, and Australia. Jackson doesn’t attempt a new interpretation of modernism or even of its seminal works, aiming instead at a comprehensive, international story of modernism’s “year one” through deft sketches. Despite its manic shifts and cumbersome footnotes, this ambitious and approachable volume overflows with absorbing anecdotes and remarkable personalities. With clearly epic aspirations himself, Jackson casts the well-known story of modernism in a new and instructive light. Agent: Caroline Sloan, Cornerstone Rights (U.K.). (Sept.)