With the 1 October issue of The New Yorker, James Wood made his debut as a staff writer at the magazine, covering the literary beat. In so doing, Mr. Wood stepped into shoes once worn by the likes of Edmund Wilson and Clifton Fadiman. Indeed, Wilson was something of a literary engineer, altering the direction in which the stream of readers and writers flowed toward each other. A measure of the esteem with which Wilson is still held in some quarters is the forthcoming two-volume Library of America set of his works, the LOA being a series that Wilson himself put into gestation back in the 1960s.

One thought that Wilson’s shoes had been filled by Professor Louis Menand (who had a terrific essay on Jack Kerouac in the same issue), but never mind. Like Wilson, Mr. Wood came to the New Yorker after a stint at The New Republic. Mr. Wood, who is British, had been a senior editor at the New Republic since 1996, and it was deemed something of a coup for The New Yorker to acquire his services, for which the Anglophilic publication had been pitching woo for years. Mr. Wood’s old boss at the New Republic, Leon Wieseltier, quipped to the NYT that “The New Republic plays many significant roles in American culture, and one of them is to find and to develop writers with whom The New Yorker can eventually staff itself.”

Few looked at the reasons why Mr. Wood might be leaving the New Republic (which, thanks to his and other evacuations, among other woes, now emanates the fumes of a sinking ship), but instead focused on what the New Yorker would gain. And Mr. Wood himself allowed to the media as how he “wouldn’t go soft” in his new digs, adding that lately at the The New Republic, “I was repeating myself,” that “the pieces were becoming a bit automatic, a bit inevitable.” Mr. Wood went on to note that he wished to “find and promote unknown or younger writers.” It thus became as a bit of a surprise when, in his inaugural review, Mr. Wood reviewed a new book by … Robert Alter, a longtime contributor to the New Republic himself and a frequent subject of invariably laudatory reviews, as was Mr. Wood in his review. This week, Mr. Wood takes on that “unknown” ” younger” writer &$151; Philip Roth, another inevitable TNR subject. So far, Mr. Wood’s essays have the musty smell of leftover New Republic pieces. Mr. Wieseltier told The New York Observer that his “fondest wish is that James will write as if he never left.” On the basis of Mr. Wood’s first two reviews, at least, it appears his wish is coming true.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 11:34 pm and is filed under Reel Politique - Film columnist DK Holm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.