Clement Greenberg was born on January 16, 1909 in the Bronx, New York. His parents came from the Lithuanian Jewish cultural enclave in northeastern Poland. Greenberg was the eldest of three children. At the age of five Greenberg and his family moved to Norfolk, Virginia, but returned to Brooklyn when he was eleven. Greenberg graduated from Marquand School and went on to Syracuse University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in languages ​​and literature in 1930. During the next two years of college Greenberg taught himself German, Italian, French, and Latin; in these years he supported himself by translating German books. In 1934 Greenberg met and married Edwina Ewing. In 1935 she had her first child, Daniel, and in 1936 she divorced. In 1938 he attended a conference on modern European art held by Hans Hoffman. Greenberg wrote an article titled “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” in 1939 in which he showed his first interest in social conditions in artistic creation. In 1940 he became editor of the Partisan Review and contributed a regular column to the Nation from...