Preserving the Hunger: An Isaac Rosenfeld Reader

Isaac Rosenfeld, who died in 1956 at the age of thirty-eight, was a brilliant and original writer whose work has unfortunately become unavailable to anyone but the scholar. A gifted member of a gifted generation, his writings shine with the hard light of a burning and troubled intelligence.

Though Rosenfeld was a man quintessentially of his era, grappling with issues and books that may no longer engage us, his writing remains fresh because of his commitment to striking deep and remaining open to experience, with all the risks entailed thereby. In the contemporary climate of academic thought, we are badly in need of teachers like Rosenfeld who read books no differently than they conduct their lives--with the belief that the world of the phrase can do more than make a point or strike a pose, but rather can, through intensity, poise, and grace, give meaning to life.