Eroticizing the Nation by Leverett T. Smith
Michael Rumaker's Fiction
Second Edition: Revised and Expanded

For someone as important and neglected as Michael Rumaker—an essential
North American writer who emerged from Black Mountain College at the height
of the Cold War, with its central assault on the liberatory aspects of human
communication—an introduction is more than necessary. While the virtue of
straightforward narrative literary analysis has fallen into disrepute, Leverett T.
Smith Jr.’s lucid and informative approach to Rumaker’s varied and complex
writing life turns out to be immensely useful. With its appearance—and the recent
republication of other key works—one hopes that a new generation of readers
will be gained, and more critical attention paid to Michael Rumaker’s unique
and expansive artistic achievements.         Ammiel Alcalay

Leverett T. Smith


Leverett T. Smith, Jr. is Emeritus Professor of English at North
Carolina Wesleyan College where he still curates the Black
Mountain College Collection.