SELDES, Gilbert

A unique intellectual figure as an arts critic who was also managing editor of the highly literary The Dial, a nonacademic until his sixties, a prolific writer who contributed to both literary journals and daily newspapers, Seldes established his reputation precociously with The 7 Lively Arts (1924), a book that argued that popular arts should and could be taken as seriously as high arts. Following his own advice, Seldes wrote pioneering appreciations of Ring Lardner , Charlie Chaplin,...