The Dream of the Golden Mountains: Remembering the 1930s

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Summary: Another volume in Cowley's retrospective
Review: Like many literary expatriates of the early 20th century, Malcolm Cowley had a tendency to examine and re-examine his life. He started formalizing this process in his literary history of the 1920s, Exile's Return. Years later, he looked back on the 1930's in The Dream of the Golden Mountains. Taken together, these books show the shifts in thinking that were taking place in the first few decades of the 20th century. Moreover, we see the shifts in Cowley's own life and (importantly) self-identification - an important background for explaining the later Cowley who helped edit Kerouac's On the Road. Here is Cowley flirting with Communism, labor issues, and about everything else anti-thetical to the 1920's commitment to art and not much else. And while it doesn't have the strength of storytelling nor the mix of characters of Exile's Return, the work is interesting in its own right, if for no other reason than for Cowlye's clear perceptions of the issues of his day. Further, this is an important bridge to Cowley's later works and retrospects. As time moved on, Cowley became less literary and more historically and critically oriented. While he continued to produce occasional poems, producing two more editions of Blue Juniata, for example, it seems clear that Cowley was becoming less concerned with forging an identity (artistically) than determining and explaining how he fit into the present scenery. Thus, this book also serves as a mile-marker in the shifting identity of Mr. Cowley.