Alvarez, A(lfred) (Vol. 13) - Introduction

Alvarez, A(lfred) 1929–

Alvarez is an influential British literary critic, poet, essayist, editor, and novelist. Throughout his vigorous, idiosyncratic, and firmly subjective criticism, Alvarez examines and endorses the "extremist" artists, those like Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell who will pursue their insights to the edge of breakdown—and beyond. He is best known for his highly subjective study of suicide, The Savage God. Hunt is his most recent work, a psychological thriller that has been compared to the early works of Graham Greene. (See also CLC, Vol. 5, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed.)