The Ego Is Always at the Wheel: Bagatelles
The Ego Is Always at the Wheel: Bagatelles
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The Ego Is Always at the Wheel: Bagatelles by Delmore Schwartz
Readers of the poetry and fiction of Delmore Schwartz (1913-66) are familiar with his penetrating psychology and his philosophical concerns, his ability to dramatize ideas and to turn his personal experiences––as immigrant son, New York Jewish intellectual and Wunderkind––into a symbol for the disorders and conflicts of modern life. But Schwartz had another side––the comic. The Ego Is Always at the Wheel, a collection of nineteen essays published now as a New Directions Paperbook, presents the poet as a humorist of no mean accomplishment. In this gathering of Schwartz’s bagatelles, he romps through such topics as the taking of baths and the meaning of existentialism, the abominations of the telephone, fear of having one’s picture taken, the importance of owning an automobile, theories of Hamlet’s behavior and Don Giovanni’s promiscuity, the difficulties of divorce, and more. His “An Author’s Brother-in-Law” and “Memories of a Metropolitan Child, Memoirs of a Giant Fan” provide endearing self-portraits of the young Delmore. And “The Farmer Takes His Time” is an hilarious inquiry into a N.Y. Times news item about a Wisconsin widower who advertises for a wife.
Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) was born and raised in Brooklyn. One of America’s greatest poets and short-story writers, Schwartz contributed “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” to the first issue of Partisan Review in 1937. Schwartz taught at Syracuse, Princeton, and Kenyon College, and received the Bollingen Prize in 1959. After a difficult period of alchoholism and depression, he died of a heart attack in 1966.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780811210287 |
| ISBN 10 | 0811210286 |
| Title | The Ego Is Always at the Wheel: Bagatelles |
| Author | Delmore Schwartz |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | New Directions Publishing Corporation |
| Year published | 1987-10-14 |
| Number of pages | 146 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |