Full Description
Whittaker Chambers is one of the most controversial figures in modern American history a former Communist spy who left the party, testified against Alger Hiss before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and wrote a classic autobiography, Witness. Dismissed by some as a crank, reviled by others as a traitor, Chambers still looms as a Dostoevskian figure over three decades after his death in 1961. A man of profound pessimism, rare vision, and remarkable literary talents, his continuing importance was attested to when Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the Medal of Freedom in 1984. Ghosts on the Roof, originally published in 1989, brings together more than fifty short stories, essays, articles, and reviews that originally appeared in Time, Life, National Review, Commonweal, The American Mercury, and the New Masses. Included are essays on Karl Marx, Reinhold Niebuhr, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, George Santayana, Dame Rebecca West, Ayn Rand, and Greta Garbo. These show Chambers at his best, as a peerless historian of ideas.
Contents
One: Introductory; Two: Documentation; Poem 1; Poem 2; Poem 3; Poem 4; Poem 5; Poem 6; Poem 7; Poem 8; Poem 9; Poem 10; Poem 11; Poem 12; Poem 13; Three: Analysis; 1: The Four Kinds of Meaning; 2: Figurative Language; 3: Sense and Feeling; 4: Poetic Form; 5: Irrelevant Associations and Stock Responses; 6: Sentimentality and Inhibition; 7: Doctrine in Poetry; 8: Technical Presuppositions and Critical Preconceptions; Four: Summary and Recommendations; Summary
