ARCHIBALD MACLEISH

Archibald MacLeish has made a lasting mark on American poetry. Winner of three Pulitzer prizes, he stands with the best of his contemporaries. Falk's study of his work does much to establish MacLeish's value, but fails at a crucial point. Consider MacLeish, ""Art is an organization of experience in terms of experience...The truth of a work of art is the truth of its organization. It has no other truth."" This is no less true of art criticism, and Falk seems not to realize this. For this book possesses no unity. It fails to organize the experience of MacLeish's poetry. Instead ii rambles chronologically through the maze of his poetry, offering analyses of each work in turn. Fortunately these analyses and Falk's ability to relate MacLeish's life and work prove valuable for the understanding of MacLeish. But this does little to save the book. In short, it partially succeeds as a means to MacLeish, but fails as an end.