ABSTRACT
In the aftershock of the Great War came a long struggle, resonating across all the arts, to reinterpret a changed and fragmented world. In those uncertain years, the most stirring new voices in the field of literature seemed to emerge in America. Bold, awkward, and disquieting stories and poems, born of fresh energy and irreverent sympathies, suggested a contemporary sensibility in the making. At the same time, a new generation of publishers gambled that, despite the conventional reading habits of the public at large, these more inventive works could attract a broad and enthusiastic audience. As one critic observed in 1919, the victories of American arts and letters would now be built upon ‘the battlefields of modern life’. 1
