Robert Coles. First edition. New Jersey: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1975. Both the unclipped dust jacket and hardcover are in Very Good condition. No writing or markings found in the book, 185 pp. Jacket design hy David Laufer.
The book explores Williams’s approach to writing and what Coles sees as his “knack of survival” in the American literary landscape, connecting Williams’s narratives to social and cultural themes.
A thoughtful and scholarly study of one of America’s most influential modernist writers. In The Knack of Survival in America, psychiatrist and cultural critic Robert Coles examines the prose fiction of William Carlos Williams, exploring how Williams’s work reflects the resilience, contradictions, and everyday realities of American life.
Rather than focusing solely on poetry, Coles offers a penetrating literary and cultural analysis of Williams’s short stories and novels, placing them within the broader social and psychological landscape of 20th-century America. Originally developed from academic lectures, this volume remains an important contribution to American literary criticism and Williams scholarship.
