Whittemore, (Edward) Reed - Whittemore, (Edward) Reed 1919–

Whittemore, (Edward) Reed 1919–

Whittemore, a gifted American poet and essayist, is concerned with middle-class values and aspirations and topical issues. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)

[Whittemore] is as wittily cultural as they come, he has read more than any young man anybody knows, has been all kinds of places, yet shuffles along in an old pair of tennis shoes and khaki pants, with his hands in his pockets, saying to every head-down, hustling graduate student he meets, "Shucks, fellow, don't take all this so seriously. Learn, as I was born to know, that all literature, all life, is secretly funny."…

Whittemore has plenty of whatever it takes to get you to "reassess the world around you," and is not much interested in the other thing, that makes you like, or hate in any significant way, anything you know, or think you know. The Subjects of the world stand around you, during your reading of...

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