This collection of twenty-one unabridged interviews puts us immediately in the company of one of the presiding literary figures of our times. This revered editor, poet, literary historian, and critic encapsulates seven decades of American literature in these conversations that took place between 1942 and 1985.

Full of insights and strong opinions, direct, salty, Cowley converses candidly with his interviewers about himself and about many subjects and personages that have shaped our national literature in the last century.

Throughout this volume Cowley gives vivid accounts of his close...