BEYOND CULTURE: ESSAYS ON LITERATURE AND LEARNING

New York City, NY: The Viking Press, 1965. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: The Viking Press, 1965. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 235 pages. The author's fourth collection of essays. One of the most important books of the 20th century. Review Copy. Review Materials laid-in. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Lionel Trilling's "Beyond Culture: Essays On Literature And Learning". His best, and most valuable, book since his ground-breaking "The Liberal Imagination" (1950) . A "summing-up" collection of his lifelong themes, concerns, and anxieties. Celebrates, defends, and examines the life of the mind, which for Trilling, is the life of the imagination and the saving grace of modernity and humanity as we confront one existential crisis after another. At the same time and with incomparable virtuosity, he "takes the reader into the hearts and minds of some of the most well-known figures and their works, extracting wisdom and revealing how society can learn and benefit from the study of great literature" (Publisher's blurb) . Trilling wrote during (and helped put an end to) the great Age of New Criticism, which focussed on close readings of literary texts to the exclusion of the latter's social, cultural, moral, and even psychological contexts. In other words, Trilling was THE preeminent "culture critic" long before the term became the reigning aspiration (and expectation) of academic critics, bestowing intellectual relevance and prestige to its exemplar. As an exemplary pioneer, Trilling longed, deeply, to surpass the critical analysis that he mastered, championing instead a very specific idea of transcendence (what he means by going "beyond culture") that is all but lost in and yet necessary for our time. An absolute "must-have" title for Lionel Trilling collectors. This is a Review Copy. The Review Materials are laid-in, which include a pristine Souvenir Card that is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed and inscribed in black ink-pen by Lionel Trilling. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only Review Copy with signed and inscribed Souvenir Card of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare set thus. The most important American literary critic of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER LIONEL TRILLING TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0670160911.