The Insider

“Absorbing and fascinating . . . Howard is an engaging guide through the life and work of this influential champion of literature . . . Readers will find a trove of riches in The Insider.”— Bookpage (starred review)

“Howard, a distinguished former editor at Doubleday, presents a captivating life of Cowley that combines biography and cultural history and captures the pivotal role Cowley played in shaping twentieth-century American letters . . . Written with clarity and affection, Howard’s study balances personal detail with intellectual history while serving as both tribute and reevaluation, reaffirming Cowley’s enduring significance as American literature’s most savvy insider.”— Booklist

“The Insider is the capstone to Gerald Howard’s career as a publishing powerhouse, leading us through the great movements of twentieth-century American literature. The Insider will go down as a classic work of American literary history.” —Debby Applegate

“Howard’s chronicle of the literary life of the American twentieth century brings back a time when novels, books of poetry, magazines, and even criticism mattered in the life of the nation. His writing sets a new standard for literary history.” —David Denby

“What a story Howard tells here and what a book he has written! Cowley’s life spanned most of the last century, and he was in the thick of things: World War I, Paris, the Jazz Age, radical politics, Kerouac and the Beats, Kesey and the sixties. Howard’s portrait brings a remarkable man and his times to life.” —Edwin Frank

“Sensitive, well-reported and probing.” — Dwight Garner, New York Times

“The Insider brings to life—through the key figure of Cowley and with a remarkable amount of warmth and tenderness—a thrilling piece of social history.” —Vivian Gornick

“Howard is a rare bird: a brilliant editor and a writer who makes ideas dance on the page. The story of Cowley, a tastemaker who championed and sometimes revived the careers of American fiction writers from Hemingway and Faulkner to Kerouac and Kesey, has found the ideal storyteller.” —James Kaplan

“An old-fashioned literary biography of the critic and editor Malcolm Cowley by Gerald Howard, a great editor in his own right. Cowley had a hand in the careers of everyone from Hart Crane to Hemingway to—crucially—Faulkner, to Jack Kerouac to…Ken Kesey. This is, in many ways, a history of 20th century American literature. And delightful in every way.” —Jo Klein

“In tracing the career of Cowley, Howard has created a fresco of American literary life featuring Crane, Faulkner, Kerouac, and scores of others. Howard’s portraits of all the players make this a living drama.” —Geoffrey O’Brien

“I was taken by the beauty of insights in Howard’s book on Cowley, by his range of reference, his command of the scene, and his understanding of the dynamics of the literary marketplace. This is literary history of a kind so rare.” —Jay Parini

“It’s all here, in this rich tour of twentieth-century literature, which came into its own shaped, championed, and salvaged by Cowley. The career was one of improbably lucky breaks, and the streak continues: Howard writes with a clarity and intimacy that would make his subject proud.” —Stacy Schiff

“The American story might have been told differently were it not for Malcolm Cowley, who participated in and defined the work of every literary generation in his lifetime, from the Lost Generation to the Beats and beyond. Now his career has been brought to the fore by a former colleague, a distinguished editor himself, whose knowledge of intellectual history and the dynamics of publishing are amplified by his affection for his subject in this vital account of literature’s American century.” —Amanda Vaill

“Howard has written a superb biography, unapologetic about Cowley’s Stalinist apologies, persuasive about his singular literary achievements, and filled with essential stories.” — Sean Wilentz

“With The Insider, Howard has performed a service to the republic of letters, restoring Cowley to his rightful eminence as a critic, editor, personal essayist, talent spotter, and redeemer of lost reputations.” —James Wolcott