SOURCE: “Jazz in the American Novel,” in The English Journal, Vol. XLVII, No. 8, November, 1958, pp. 467-478.

In the following essay, Smith examines the inclusion of jazz music from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Ralph Ellison, John O'Hara, and Nelson Algren.

Since the late thirties enough has been written about jazz as an art form to warrant its dignity with those who claim any real breadth of reading. And jazz has become an intellectual fad in the fifties, which is fortunate, for now the burden of disproof rests with the unbelievers: jazz is no longer a talented but naughty waif trying to slide in the temple door behind the tuxedoed respectability of classical music.

Jazz has been denotatively defined as successfully, at least, as poetry ever has. One such definition was arrived at by a roundtable conducted by professor Marshall Stearns of Hunter College and held at Music Inn, Lenox...