Neil Arditi
Delmore’s Gift
If Delmore Schwartz's recognition had been doled out in more moderate increments, perhaps it wouldn't have so completely undone him.
Blessing and Rebuke
Orphaned and imprisoned by the Nazis, while never ceasing as a poet, Paul Celan knew what it was to sing “above, O above / the thorn.”
Dionysus and the Schlemiel
If Judaism was a congenital disease, as Heinrich Heine imagined it was, it is only logical that he would eventually succumb to it.
Remembering Harold Bloom
As Harold Bloom's student, I wanted to be transported to the heights of the literary sublime where he always seemed to reside, whatever the cost (it seemed considerable).
Orpheus on the Lower East Side
Hart Crane’s name will forever be linked to Samuel Greenberg’s by a brilliant act of plagiarism, for the story of Greenberg’s posthumous manuscripts is almost as remarkable as the poetry itself.