In common with other notable creators, Edmund Wilson possessed a sensibility that at its intensest achieved a fusion of time and place so that a particular period took on the architectures of an edifice—had corridors, chambers, and neglected corners—and a particular locale breathed forth a history, manifested itself temporally. At the end of his career he sought to embody the fusion in his life as well as in his writing. (p. 44)

The fusion that he acted out as well as rendered in prose at the close of his career informs the great body of Wilson's writings on American themes almost from the start. The crucial term of place that entered into it was, of course, America, and the crucial term of time was the twenties. (p. 45)

The man of letters is the product of his times and his direct presence is not available to those who...