The Fall and Rise of Exile’s Return: Malcolm Cowley and the Cultural Politics of Revision

In 1934, the American literary critic and historian Malcolm Cowley (1898–1989) published Exile’s Return: A Narrative of Ideas. The book discussed the role played by the “lost generation” in the emergence of modern American literature from cross-fertilization with European modernism. Written after Cowley’s Depression-inspired conversion to radical politics, it repudiated the non-political aesthetics of the 1920s, and ended with a call to radical engagement. In 1951, the book was reissued in a revised edition, Exile’s Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s. Cowley’s revisions placed the peregrinations of his generation in a depoliticized light and emphasized the timeless mythical underpinnings of its “odyssey.” The revised edition was hailed as a contemporary classic of American literary history, and established its author’s reputation as a major critic. In this chapter, I examine the nature, extent, and effects of Cowley’s 1951 revisions of his 1934 narrative. I suggest that Cowley’s revisions need to be understood in the context of the personal, literary, cultural, and political changes that occurred between 1934 and 1951—in Cowley’s life and career, in the canonical status of the “lost generation,” and in American culture, society, and politics.