As though Sunday weren"t rugged enough without the Times Times and the Aldridges. and the Aldridges.
Best wishes,
To Elizabeth Ames July 28, 1952 [New York City]
Dear Miss Ames- Once more I want to thank you for Yaddo"s hospitality and for your kindness.
I badly needed those two weeks in order to turn myself round and find the proper direction.
The city"s hot. Though there"re hotter places (they tell me) this one"s hot enough for my taste.
Gratefully yours,
To Bernard Malamud July 28, 1952 New York Dear Bernard Malamud, I read The Natural The Natural with great pleasure. Every page of it shows the mind and the touch of a real writer. The signs are unmistakable, and it"s always a thrill to discover them. with great pleasure. Every page of it shows the mind and the touch of a real writer. The signs are unmistakable, and it"s always a thrill to discover them.
Your story "The Loan" made a deep impression on me, too. It has a Hardyesque turn that I particularly approve of.
All best wishes for your success.
To Herbert and Mitzie McCloskey
[Postmarked Princeton, N.J., 10 September 1952]
How are you, all of you? All the Bellows live and flourish. Ask Isaac. Me, this week I turn the cap shut on Augie Augie in his pickling mason jar and am ready to play peek-a-boo again with the universe. in his pickling mason jar and am ready to play peek-a-boo again with the universe.
State of the soul much better. Very Very sorry two days were all. sorry two days were all.
Love, To Robert Penn Warren [Postmarked Princeton, N.J., 27 October 1952]
Dear Red: It would be nice to see you sometime. I"m a lot more free now, having all but finished Augie Augie. It won"t be published for a while. I"ve missed the spring list. But it is done.
So if you do any weekend socializing in New York, may I call you somewhere?
I look for announcements of your long poem. Have you finished it? When"s it coming out?
Augie was very difficult for me in the last half. I suppose I succ.u.mbed to the dreadful thing I warn everyone against-seriousness. I had to throw away about two hundred pages at the end and re-write them. My slogan was, "Easily or not at all," but I forgot it. Too much of a temptation to speak the last word. Either it"s already inscribed on our brows or it isn"t. I speak of my own brow, natch, and of Augie"s. was very difficult for me in the last half. I suppose I succ.u.mbed to the dreadful thing I warn everyone against-seriousness. I had to throw away about two hundred pages at the end and re-write them. My slogan was, "Easily or not at all," but I forgot it. Too much of a temptation to speak the last word. Either it"s already inscribed on our brows or it isn"t. I speak of my own brow, natch, and of Augie"s.
Hope you had a wonderful summer, Warren"s long poem was Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices, which would be published the following year.
To Henry Volkening November 10, 1952 Princeton Dear Henry: I mailed the mss. to Mrs. White [at The New Yorker The New Yorker] by special delivery last Thursday, so if she"s in New York she received it on Friday and you should be hearing from her any day.
I"m up to Ch. XXI in the revision of Augie Augie. There are, in all, X XVI. Thus the Liberation comes this month. And then there"s one section that I"ll do over especially for you, and Viking won"t get any of that. that. I suppose I could get a better deal if I told Pat [Covici] of my situation, but then I"d have to discuss it with him. Than which nothing could suit me less. I suppose I could get a better deal if I told Pat [Covici] of my situation, but then I"d have to discuss it with him. Than which nothing could suit me less.
The Vanguard check came, thank you very much. You know what makes everything happen? Love, Henry. You ought to know that by now. Only Love is married to Hate, isn"t it! You know, a new mythology ought to go good. Ambivalence is their little daughter who lives on the sh.o.r.es of the Superego, etc.
Vale, Following Monroe Engel"s departure from Viking, Pascal Avram Covici (1885-1964), who had edited John Steinbeck"s The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath and and East of Eden, East of Eden, became Bellow"s editor. became Bellow"s editor.
To Samuel Freifeld December 28, 1952 Princeton Dear Sam: Thanks for answering. I ordered those records on Dec. 1st, and they should have arrived long ago. I"ve sent a tracer after them, and they should be coming in one of these days. The reason I bought them is that I want to observe your birthday. You shouldn"t reproach me, since it means something when one is suffering suddenly to remember that since childhood a certain love has existed without changing. The love I have for you is something literal brotherhood never gave me.
I have written to Oscar; it"s terrible luck. Is he better? Is he still in the hospital?
I"ve just gotten out of the hospital myself. I had virus pneumonitis, or some such d.a.m.ned thing. My strength is very low. The book took it out of me, and what this book didn"t take Anita did.
The situation is bad. Her rigid unlovingness has driven me out-that and nothing else. I"ve done my best to stay and often I"ve felt that either going or staying threatened me with death. So I tried to choose the braver and at least less ignominious death.
Happy New Near, and my love to Roch.e.l.le and my love to Judy and Susie. G.o.d bless you all,
To David Goldknopf [n.d.] [Princeton]
Dear David: I got a letter off to Elizabeth Ames in a hurry, and I hope she will send you an invitation. Frankly, I have a selfish interest in the success of your application. I may be-most probably will be-in Yaddo myself in July and I"d like to be sure of at least one person there. Miss Ames herself is a good and charming woman but she has creeps innumerable on her list. Perhaps it"s not her fault solely but the situation in the "arts." Anyhow there are usually more phonies than deerflies on the estate, getting into your hair.
I would like to see you sometime soon. I get into New York on weekends, and I spend those mostly with my son. We often go to the zoo, or to the Museum of Natural History. If you have wild animals or stuffed Indians at your house he"d be delighted to come and I"d be glad to bring him.
Best wishes,
1953.
To Robert Penn Warren January 7, 1953 Princeton Dear Red- I wish you both long life and all the happiness in the world.
It"d be nice to see you, one of these days. I suppose you"ll be going to Europe soon. Perhaps we can have one drink before you leave.
Albert [Erskine] tells me your poem"s done. I hope to read it soon. Augie Augie"s finished, thank G.o.d.
Best wishes,
Warren had just married the writer Eleanor Clark. Albert Erskine was his editor at Random House.
To the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation January 20, 1953 Princeton, N.J.
CONFIDENTIAL REPORT ON CANDIDATE FOR FELLOWSHIP.
Name of Candidate: Bernard Malamud Mr. Bernard Malamud is, to my mind, one of the very few writers of the first order to appear since the debut of J. F. Powers. I am perfectly sure that he will become a major novelist. He has every prerequisite: the personal, definite style, the emotional resources, the understanding of character, the dramatic sense and the intelligence. He understands what the tasks of an imaginative writer of today are. Not to be appalled by these tasks is in and of itself a piece of heroism. Imagination has been steadily losing prestige in American life, it seems to me, for a long time. I am speaking of the poetic imagination. Inferior kinds of imagination have prospered, but the poetic has less credit than ever before. Perhaps that is because there is less room than ever for the personal, s.p.a.cious, unanxious and free, for the unprepared, unorganized and spontaneous elements from which poetic imagination springs. It is upon writers like Mr. Malamud that the future of literature in America depends, writers who have not sought to protect themselves by joining schools or by identification with prevailing tastes and tendencies. The greatest threat to writing today is the threat of conformism. Art is the speech of an artist, of an individual, and it testifies to the power of individuals to speak and to the power of other individuals to listen and understand.
Literal-minded critics of Mr. Malamud"s novel, The Natural The Natural, complained that it was not about true-to-life baseball players and failed entirely to see that it was a parable of the man of great endowments, or myth of the champion. I have immense faith in Mr. Malamud"s power to make himself understood. I should be very happy to hear that he had become a Guggenheim fellow.
To Oscar Tarcov March 9, 1953 Princeton Dear Oscar: I had heard about your good news and was very happy for you. If I hadn"t been so utterly flattened out I"d have written at once to tell you so. But I"m sure you knew how I"d feel about an event like this and I know also that you understand how at times one needs every ounce of strength to get over the daily obstacles and can only have daily perspectives. Now I am better; I can admit I was very desperate, that I was very nearly dead. Things have improved greatly. I can now sleep, eat and function normally, and I seem to be making it.
I was planning to come to Chicago during spring vacation, at the beginning of April, but my old man isn"t going to be there then so I"ll probably arrive in June, toward the end of the month, with Gregory. This may be my last visit to Chicago for some time to come, because people will be taking the axe to me when Augie Augie is published. Publication date is set for after Labor Day. If I had the dough I"d go to Europe and stay out of the way altogether. But I haven"t. I may be teaching at Bennington College, therefore, when Sept. comes. is published. Publication date is set for after Labor Day. If I had the dough I"d go to Europe and stay out of the way altogether. But I haven"t. I may be teaching at Bennington College, therefore, when Sept. comes.
Gregory is not so disturbed as you might imagine. He knows how strong his parents" love for him is. He does not feel abandoned by me, in fact we have never been closer. I have never loved him more.
I"ll most certainly want to write a piece about your book when it comes out. It"s great news, Oscar. It made me very glad.
My best love to you all, Tarcov"s first novel, Bravo My Monster, Bravo My Monster, had been scheduled for publication in the autumn by Regnery. had been scheduled for publication in the autumn by Regnery.
To James H. Case, Jr.
June 6, 1953 Dear President Case: I shall be happy to accept appointment as a.s.sistant Professor of English at Bard College for the year 1953-1954 at an annual salary of four thousand five hundred dollars.
I plan to come up to Bard sometime next week to make housing arrangements and to arrange the details of my schedule with the Registrar.
Sincerely,
To Henry Volkening August 25, 1953 Dear Henry- What know I about such matters? Doesn"t Diarmuid [Russell] know more than I could if I studied? When Augie Augie is published, there will be a big bang and even the British will hear it. I don"t think we ought to act in dread of the workhouse. Were [Andre] Deutsch a British Vanguard I"d say no. But if the Deutsches will publish a sizeable first printing, will produce a neat book and will advertise, why, I won"t object. is published, there will be a big bang and even the British will hear it. I don"t think we ought to act in dread of the workhouse. Were [Andre] Deutsch a British Vanguard I"d say no. But if the Deutsches will publish a sizeable first printing, will produce a neat book and will advertise, why, I won"t object.
Henry, look! Would you marry your daughter off to her first suitor? This book, old man, is a child of mine.
Let"s have not simply a figure but some notion of the Deutsch intentions.
Heavens! You You should know should know this this!!!
Yrs. from the midst of night,
To Katharine Sergeant Angell White September 25, 1953 Barrytown, N.Y.
Dear Mrs. White: I wish to point out to you, an editor of the New Yorker New Yorker, that Mr. [Anthony] West"s review of Augie March Augie March is disgraceful. Mr. West is at liberty to dislike my book; that is a prerogative no sane author would deny a critic. But Mr. West, without any warrant whatever, has made me out to be a disciple of the New Criticism and has constructed, and attacked, a mad symbolical novel that bears no resemblance to the one he was given. In writing the book I was aware of no symbolic aims. Out of his own turbulence, thoughtlessness and pedantry Mr. West has attributed to me things as remote from me as the moon. "Simon" and "simony," eagles and "virility," "s.e.x" and "culture"-really, it is simply too much! I feel I must write to you for the sake of my mental health. Let us hope that it is only my mental health that is endangered and not that of your readers as well. is disgraceful. Mr. West is at liberty to dislike my book; that is a prerogative no sane author would deny a critic. But Mr. West, without any warrant whatever, has made me out to be a disciple of the New Criticism and has constructed, and attacked, a mad symbolical novel that bears no resemblance to the one he was given. In writing the book I was aware of no symbolic aims. Out of his own turbulence, thoughtlessness and pedantry Mr. West has attributed to me things as remote from me as the moon. "Simon" and "simony," eagles and "virility," "s.e.x" and "culture"-really, it is simply too much! I feel I must write to you for the sake of my mental health. Let us hope that it is only my mental health that is endangered and not that of your readers as well.
Sincerely yours,
To Pascal Covici September 25, 1953 Barrytown Dear Pat- Thanks for the [Harvey] Swados review. I"m glad to see he feels as we do about things. A. West is a mamzer mamzer [ [46] of a different color. I thought it only reasonable that I should protest such a horrible misrepresentation of Augie Augie and wrote to Mrs. White explaining that I was not a New Critic and Symbolist and that West had invented this lurid and foolish book that he was attacking in his own foolish and disorderly mind. [ . . . ] and wrote to Mrs. White explaining that I was not a New Critic and Symbolist and that West had invented this lurid and foolish book that he was attacking in his own foolish and disorderly mind. [ . . . ]
Love,
The ad in the Times Times was beautiful. was beautiful.
To Lionel Trilling October 11, 1953 Barrytown, N.Y.
Dear Lionel, I"ve more than once wanted to write you a letter of thanks. I know that you have contributed more than a little to the success of my book. I"m in your debt also for mental support-for the intelligence of your reading. Though I"m not, perhaps, the most objective judge to be found, I thought your essay brilliant. The many criticisms of Augie Augie I"ve seen since have made me appreciate yours all the more; I appreciate above all your sense of justice, for I know the book must have offended you in some ways. I"ve seen since have made me appreciate yours all the more; I appreciate above all your sense of justice, for I know the book must have offended you in some ways.