In this volume, R.V. Cassill has put together a collection of his own essays, which he refers to as "a personal, critical appraisal of the crisis of our time as it is reflected, primarily, in literature." As a writer and critic, he is concerned about the prevailing American view of art that equates excellence and quality with price and best-sellerdom. His primary concern is literature, the idolatry of "great books" that confuses literature as art...