Dante in America: The First Two Centuries

In October 1974, the Council of the Dante Society of America voted to sponsor, as a Bicentennial offering, an anthology of significant essays on Dante written by Americans or by other nationals in an American context. The volume, tentatively entitled, 'Dante and American Intellectual Life,' was intended to demonstrate the impact Dante has had on American letters and thought, broadly conceived, an was not meant to confine itself solely to literary criticism. The Council wanted representative essays form people either born in America, or born abroad but educated here, from as early as possible in America's history to the present, and from a variety of perspectives.