For over half a century Van Wyck Brooks devoted himself to understanding and shaping American culture. His career is divided in two. In the first part he was one of the most important cultural critics of the progressive era, looked to by American writers as their spokesman in articulating the condition the artist faced in America. In the second part, after a long nervous breakdown, he turned from criticizing American culture to defending it, as he set out to record the history of the writer in America. The change in his career has resulted in a debate over his skill as a literary critic. Yet almost all agree that he played one of the most important roles in starting serious study of American writers.

Brooks was born in 1886 in Plainfield, New Jersey. Growing up in this New York City suburb, the young Van Wyck saw people's lives made...