Taken from one of America's oldest and most distinguished literary journals, these essays revaluate eminent British and American literary critics of the twentieth century in one masterful volume.

"The spirited, compellingly written essays show the subject's formative power and more: its value as a continuing model for erudition, rigor and articulacy, as well as effectiveness at fostering civil yet incisive dialogue."--Virginia Quarterly Review

"This collection rests not so much on the strength of what those earlier critics may have done to shape us (although that shaping surely matters) as on the perspicacity of the critics who have written about them in these artful appreciations-essays so engaging and rigorous they reveal the writers' minds as clearly as the work of those being appreciated. Judgment and debt inform the collection. Pleasure and insight reward the reading."--Sewanee Review

"Essays need not, indeed cannot, be definitive. Certainty contradicts their very nature. But essays like those in The Critics Who Made Us can draw us back into inquiring conversations and lead us in the direction of essential truths, leaving us wiser about the literature we read and, perhaps, more settled about the lives we're trying to live."--Sewanee Review