Word: edel
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When he came back, the depression was "going full blast." Edel wrote for Canadian newspapers, did broadcasting work, tutoring, and received a Guggenheim fellowship to edit James' plays. "The army used my talents well in World War II," he added, "Others in my position were sent to Tokyo, but they sent me to France, where I was on the military end of psychological warfare. The Germans would be in pockets, you see, and we would get them to surrender, using loudspeakers and leaflets. It saved a lot of lives...
When he returned, Edel found that interest in James had increased considerably. His Depression scholarship was rewarded in the form of publishers' contracts and an offer to write a James biography. During this period, he taught at Princeton, Harvard Summer School, Indiana, and the University of Hawaii. He received a permanent appointment at N.Y.U...
...interest is in the whole literary movement beginning with James and ending with Faulkner," Edel says. "James is just beginning to move in the direction of the subjective, of `inside experience.' Why is he more popular now than before? I think the reason is that he understood what happens when two people meet. He's the great novelist of `interpersonal relationships', to use psychological jargon...
...much class discussion as possible in my teaching," Professor Edel says. "The act of reading is such a personal thing. I want students to see that it is an individual experience, and not look at a book as if it were behind a museum glass. You should read things out of a book, not into a book--this is what James wants you to do in Turn of the Screw. That's why Turn of the Screw will never be successful on television; James is ambiguous, and you can't be ambiguous on television...
...addition to the second volume of his biography of James, Professor Edel is assembling a four volume edition of James' letters. "It's very difficult reading them," Edel says. "I have, on occasion, spent half a morning with a magnifying glass looking at one world. I dictate the letter to a tape recorder--my one concession to mechanization--and a secretary types them up. It's difficult to select the important ones when you have ten thousand to choose from...