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BOOK REVIEW Paul J. Carter. Waldo Frank. Twayne Publishers (U.S. Authors Series No. 125), 191 pp. $3.95. Students of social forces in American literature will find Professor Carter's little book especially relevant in view of our present social turmoil and the national predilection for soul-searching. Waldo Frank, one of America's most ardent soul-searchers of the 1920's and 30's, is an almost forgotten figure today, except by those who still remember The Seven Arts, The Dial, The New Masses, The Menorah Journal. These defunct periodicals were noted for their trenchant aesthetic and social criticism, and Frank wrote for all of them. Waldo Frank's search for identity and spiritual purpose in an age of raucous boosterism had its roots in his Hebraic origin, in his Whitmanesque faith in democracy, and an odd combination of mysticism, idealism, and political activism . When Frank died last year at the age of seventy-seven he had written fourteen novels, eighteen social histories, and over a hundred stories and articles on a variety of subjects. His great pasFront terrace of the library building, Boise State College. sion as a novelist and social critic was for "cosmic wholeness," by which he meant not only the self-discovery of the individual through harmony with some transcendant higher goal, but his radically changed social behavior, outward manifestation of his new awareness , and inner grace. Ironically, Frank's greatest influence was not with his fellow-Americans, but with the Spanish-speaking world where his books are still widely read. Carter's work, which owes much to the previous studies by Bittner and Kloucek, is concise yet readable—no mean accomplishment considering the amount of material covered. One might have wished for briefer summaries of plots—always dull going—and more space devoted to critical analysis or to deeper burrowings; for example, into the nature of Waldo Frank's Jewish identity—a significant factor in the development of his lyrical-prophetic style as well as his social consciousness. —Carl Levtne English, Colorado State University ...

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