"In this study, Ronald Berman examines the work of the critic/novelist Edmund Wilson and the art of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway as they wrestled with the problems of language, experience, perception, and reality in the "age of jazz."" "Fitzgerald is often thought of as a romantic, but Berman shows that Fitzgerald actually sought to subvert the romantic models he studied so assiduously. Hemingway, widely viewed as a stylist who captured experience by simplifying language, is revealed as consciously demonstrating reality's resistance to language. Between these two renowned writers stands Wilson, who was critically influenced by Alfred North Whitehead, as well as Dewey, James, Santayana, and Freud. By patiently mapping the connectedness of these philosophers, historians, literary critics, and writers, Berman opens a new gateway into the era."--Jacket.