Ludwig Lewisohn was an imposing figure on the literary landscape of America and Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. A product of two continents and several ethnic communities, he sought to give new life to an American culture he believed moribund, to a Western society he saw as misguided by demogoguery, and to a Jewish community he found lost and without direction. At first seeking to assimilate within the dominant culture in America, he gradually came to realize the need to find a way to mix, in what were for him proper proportions, the elements of his diversified heritage.

The major themes of his life's work can be found even in his earliest writings--a concern for the development of a richer American literature and theater through exposure to the literary arts of Europe; the role of literature and the theater in the lives of the...