Literary critic and autobiographer, born in New York City, New York, USA. He was educated at City College and Columbia University, and with Irving Howe belonged in the 1940s to the New York Intellectuals. Kazin became famous for On Native Grounds (1942), his classic study of modern American prose, a literature he would reinterpret in An American Procession (1982). He taught and lectured widely and reached a popular audience with an autobiographical trilogy beginning with A Walker in the City (1951).
Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915 – June 5, 1998) was an American writer and literary critic, many of whose writings depicted the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America. Kazin is regarded as one of "The New York Intellectuals", and like many other members of this group he was born in Brooklyn and attended The City College of New York. His literary criticism has been described as an example of the movement known as New Criticism.-- His criticism had nothing to do with the "new criticism"-- which was formalistic to an extreme.
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