"The great authors to come up since the Second World War have mostly been dead a long time. Kafka, Melville, Hawthorne, Henry James should be with us always but their resurgence in the forties presaged more than recognition of their stature. It signified also a genteel retreat from a period too complicated to confront easily. The writings of the detached past became a kind of smokescreen to conceal the present dilemma, and the ruins. But a ruin can be as good a point of departure as any. There is usually new life in the ruins as anyone who ever saw a population react from a bombing can testify. But the picker-uppers are not trying to salvage tender mementos only. They usually are looking for bricks and firewood."
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LGBT peopleWomen authors from the United StatesPeople from PennsylvaniaUniversity of California, Berkeley alumniJournalists from Iowa
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Josephine Herbst
Josephine Herbst (March 5, 1892 – January 28, 1969) was a writer and journalist, active from 1923 to near the time of her death. She was a radical with communist leanings, who "incorporate[d] the philosophy of socialism into her fiction" and "aligned herself with the political Left".
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Josephine Herbst →
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