The appearance of [Andrew Lytle's collection of critical essays] The Hero with the Private Parts is, in the best sense, what New York reviewers like to call a "literary event." (p. 209)

Defining Andrew Lytle's criticism is difficult and risky. Certainly he is a new critic, yet he is less a new critic in the generally accepted sense than any other major Fugitive or Agrarian, excepting Donald Davidson. True, he reads the text very closely, but at the same time he relies very little upon the criticism of others, and he does not use much in the way of a special vocabulary. He also does not set out to provide an exhaustive interpretation; rather, he is interested generally in several large considerations: the relation of form to subject, or technique to theme, being the most important. He dislikes historical scholarship, but he is very aware of the historical dimension...