Lionel Trilling was a major figure on the American cultural scene from 1940 until his death in 1975. In this first book-length study of his entire career, Chace assesses all the critic's writing, from his first published essays and stories for the Menorah Journal in 1925 to his last major work, Sincerity and Authenticity. Chace concludes that Trilling had "elaborated a means to return discussions of literary works to the cultural roots and social circumstances from which they had arisen."