The life of Joseph Wood Krutch is a study in transformation. In the 1920s he was a spokesman for the cynical modernists, who felt that all values had been lost. As part of the New York intellectual circle, he had observed the alienation of many of his contemporaries. His 1929 book, The Modern Temper: A Study and a Confession, was hailed as a crucial assessment of the pessimistic spirit of the times. It posited that humanity was separated from any connection to nature and that traditional faiths were irrelevant to modern existence. While he reveled in the attention that this book brought him, he was uneasy with its pervasive sense of detachment and despair. Over the next two decades he struggled to find a creed that would take him beyond the philosophical negativity of the early twentieth century. He discovered such a belief in understanding and experiencing the wonders...