Criminal ingenuity : Moore, Cornell, Ashbery, and the struggle between the arts /

Appearing in the "Modernist Literature and Culture" series, this book has a fanciful title for such a scholarly treatment. The title comes from a poem by Marianne Moore ("Marriage"). Each of Levy's subjects--Moore, poet and critic John Ashbery, and visual artist Joseph Cornell--was deeply influenced by modern art and poetry, and all collaborated with others. Their separate and collaborative productions encourage a study of surrealism, abstract expressionism, and other "isms" associated with modernism. Levy (Pratt Institute) treats all of these. Taking off from an observation by Frank O'Hara--"Poetry was declining / painting advancing / we were complaining / it was '50" (a poetical comment here bolstered with the philosophical writings of Walter Benjamin and the art criticism of Clement Greenberg)--Levy provides a fascinating discussion of the "stress lines" between "professionalism" and the market and of such topics as sexuality and class. One might doubt that any poet or painter, including these three figures, considers the primacy of one art form over another when getting down to work. Still, reading about the "age of Pollock" versus "the age of Eliot" is exciting. Nicely produced plates, copious endnotes, and a careful list of works cited enrich the book. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. B. Wallenstein emeritus, CUNY City College