Thomas Keith
Letters
SECTION I
PF: The first thing, of course, in your relationship with Tennessee is that you met him through Lincoln Kirstein, so why don’t we start with how you knew Kirstein and that cocktail party where you first met Tennessee?
JL: Well, I’d always known Lincoln from college days because he was a member of the Ararat Thursday evening suppers in Boston. I was the only undergraduate in that group, and I kept very quiet. But I formed an enormous attachment for Lincoln because he was such a brilliant man and was doing such great work. The Hound and Horn or as Ezra called it, the Bitch and Bugle, was a wonderful magazine.
PF: So you knew him at Harvard. Did you keep in touch with him?
JL: Very off and on; I was in such awe of him. He was just such a god to me of what a man should be. He had me several times to his modest little apartment in New York for cocktail parties. That was when he was married to—I can’t think of her name right now. I think it was a marriage of convenience. This particular time I saw off in an adjacent room this little man. He was hunched over, wearing a sweater and dirty gray pants. And I said to myself, there’s someone who needs company, and I went over and started talking to him. I liked him right away. We liked the same poets, like Hart Crane, and he started telling me about his work, and various contacts flowed out of that and he started sending me stuff.
« • »
Lincoln Kirstein: Founder of the School of American Ballet and Dance Index magazine (1907–1996).
Ezra: Ezra Pound, American poet (1885–1972). Pound was not only a teacher and mentor to James Laughlin, but also it was he who suggested that Laughlin become a publisher.
I can’t think of her name: Fidelma Cadmus Kirstein (1906–1991). Painter, sister of the artist Paul Cadmus.
Hart Crane: American poet (1899–1932). Strongly influenced by Crane, TW was known to carry a tattered copy of Crane’s poems with him wherever he went. Though he was ultimately buried in St. Louis, TW had made known his desire to be buried at sea in the Gulf of Mexico at the approximate spot where Crane committed suicide.
1. TLS—1
December 15, 1942 [New York]
DEAR JAY LAUGHLIN:
Lincoln tells me that your name is Jay, not James.
I hope you remember our talk about my poems at Lincoln’s Sunday night recently.
Well, I have gotten most of the long ones into fairly presentable shape, but of the short ones there is a bewildering number to choose among. I am wondering if you plan to be in the town (Manhattan) any time soon so that instead of mailing the only existing copies of a great number of poems only a few of which may be acceptable to you—It would not be better for us to get together and sort of go over and discuss them informally[?]. With a sensitive poet in the grand manner, such a business might be a violent ordeal but with me I promise you it would be extremely simple and we would inevitably part on good terms even if you advised me to devote myself exclusively to the theatre for the rest of my life.
Any way that you want to do this is all right, just let me know. I might even be able to deliver them to you at your office in Norfolk if that seems a better plan.
Of course I am excited over the possibility and I do hope enough of the poems are sympathetic to you to make it work out.
Lincoln sends his love.
Cordially,
Tennessee
c/o Lincoln Kirstein, 637 Madison Ave., New York City.
« • »
Norfolk: The town in Connecticut where Laughlin’s aunt, Leila Laughlin Carlisle, lived. After JL’s first marriage in 1942, she renovated and enlarged a farmhouse across the road from her home, Robin Hill, for the young couple. JL continued to live at what came to be called Meadow House for the rest of his life. JL maintained the offices of New Directions on the property from 1936 to 1945 in a cottage with a converted stable attached. He then opened an office at 500 Fifth Avenue in New York City.
2. ALS—2
Dec. 21, 1942 [New York]
DEAR JAY LAUGHLIN—
I am enclosing the only existing copy of my verse play Dos Ranchos or The Purification. The agent has apparently not seen fit to have it typed because of its non-commercial nature. I feel, however, that it is more of a stage than a closet drama and might be better in production than reading. No music for the guitar accompaniment has been composed yet. It could be printed without the marginal directions which sound a bit crude, I’m afraid. Things in brackets are suggested cuts.
I feel that an inexpensive printing of this little play might be commercially rewarding because of the interest here in my dramatic writing. I think a pretty good sale would be assured in New York Shops.
The poems will come along later.
Carly Wharton has advanced some money on the D. H. Lawrence adaptation (long play and a production this season seems likely).
It is possible I can bring the poems up to Norfolk since you will not return to New York soon. Otherwise I will send as many as practicable through the mail.
Please take good care of this only copy for me.
Cordially,
Tenn. Williams
« • »
Dos Ranchos or The Purification: TW’s only play in verse, The Purification was originally produced at the Pasadena Laboratory Theater, Pasadena, California, in July 1944. ND published the script in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays (ND 1945).
The agent: Audrey Wood (1905–1986). TW was approached by Wood after he won a prize of one hundred dollars as an honorable mention in a contest sponsored by the Group Theatre for four one-act plays submitted under the collective title American Blues (not the same group of plays published under that title in 1948), along with three full-length plays. Wood was TW’s agent from 1939 until he broke off the relationship in 1971.
Carly Wharton: (1898–). Along with her business partner, Martin Gabel (1912–1986), Carly Wharton considered producing You Touched Me!, on Broadway but ultimately rejected the project.
The D. H. Lawrence adaptation: You Touched Me! Coauthored with Donald Windham, TW’s only literary collaboration.
D. H. Lawrence: (1885–1930), English novelist, poet, critic, and painter. Inspired by Lawrence’s ideas about sensuality and sex, TW wrote at least three one-act plays about Lawrence: I Rise in Flame Cried the Phoenix, A Panic Renaissance in the Lobos Mountains, and Adam and Eve on a Ferry.
Donald Windham: (1920–2010), American novelist. In addition to collaborating with TW on the play You Touched Me! he introduced TW to Lincoln Kirstein, Paul Cadmus, Gore Vidal, and George Platt Lynes, among others. Windham was the author of several novels, two plays, and a memoir; he also edited a volume of his correspondence with TW published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1977. Though he often tried, TW could never interest JL in Windham’s writing enough for JL to publish him at New Directions. Windham’s roman à clef about TW, The Hero Continues, was published in 1960.
3. TL—1
Dec. 23, 1942 [Norfolk]
DEAR TENNESSEE—
I think the play is extremely interesting and very beautiful in places. The verse really has a lovely tone to it. Perhaps the plot is sort of melodramatic, but there is plenty of tradition for that.
I am now anxious to see the poems so that I can get a general idea of the situation and decide about the best method of publication.
A good play like that reinforces a book of verse, or it might go well in the annual, or it might even go by itself in the Poets series. But I would like to get an idea of the whole layout before trying to suggest anything.
Best wishes,
J Laughlin
« • »
the annual: New Directions in Prose and Poetry. In 1936, JL inaugurated his publishing house with an anthology bearing its name. Although it was informally known as “the annual,” it did not necessarily appear each year in the early years, and after 1972 it became biennial. These anthologies were often a forum for new writing from ND’s stable of authors as w
ell as a showcase for new, international, and avant-garde writers. JL’s first Annual contained contributions by William Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings, Gertrude Stein, Henry Miller, Kay Boyle, Elizabeth Bishop, Louis Zukofsky, Jean Cocteau, Wallace Stevens, and Ezra Pound, among others.
the Poets series: Most likely a reference to the Poet of the Month series, which ran from 1941 to 1945; each monthly “issue” was a finely printed pamphlet devoted to an individual poet. See note following JL’s letter to TW of October 20, 1955, for additional details.
4. TLS—1
January 12, 1943 [New York]
DEAR JAY LAUGHLIN:
I have gone about preparing these poems with more energy than method, but rather than delay any longer I am just going to stick a bunch of them in an envelope and shoot them off—the first contingent. Others will come along in a second dispatch.
I have made no effort to arrange them in any logical sequence, if such a sequence exists.
As I told you, I have had to combine the poetry with work on a play or I would have finished sooner and in much better order.
Truly,
T. W.
I have thought of several titles for a collection—One Hand in Space, Dark Arm, Fiddler’s Green. That could be decided after you have read all the poems.
5. TLS—1
Jan 20 [1943] [Norfolk]
DEAR TENNESSEE—
I am very excited with the poems you sent. It seems to me you ARE a poet. Some of the stuff is rough, to be sure, but it’s studded with nuggets. You have some of the wonderful quality of Éluard—strange insights that reduce to highly poetic images.
I’m keen on the stuff and want to do something about it. Will be down in NYC before long. We must get together and plan it out. I’ll call Lincoln’s office when I get to town and leave word where I am staying.
Best wishes,
JL
« • »
Éluard: Paul Éluard (1895–1954) was the pen name of the French poet Eugène Grindel, whose The Dour Desire to Endure (1950) and Selected Writings (1951) were published by ND.
6. TLS—1
1/31/43 [St. Louis, Missouri]
DEAR JAY:
Here is the list of books I wanted. All you have of Rimbaud, the Kafka, anything you recommend by E.M. Forster. Lately my enthusiasm has divided between Crane and Rimbaud but I don’t think Crane would resent the division. Crane would drunkenly declare himself the reincarnation of Christopher Marlowe but I think it is more significant to observe that he was born less than ten years after the death of Rimbaud. A restless spirit like Rimbaud’s wouldn’t wait longer to find another earthly residence, though I wonder if he would choose to be a poet again—maybe as expiation—No, he wouldn’t need that, not after that horrible last chapter of his life. Do you think one should write a play about him? A motion picture would be the ideal medium starting with “Morte a Dieu” and ending with the pitiful conversion in the hospital at Marseilles. Not with pious implications, however.
I am at work on your stories. In fact so intensely that when I stopped this evening I had a regular crise de nerfs. Vertigo, so that I couldn’t stand up, a crazy feeling of panic, palpitations, nausea, chill—then finally an absolute drowsy peace with a wolfish appetite. I am now in that last phase, thank God. When I read the stuff tomorrow it will either be in my best vein or else pure gibberish. Unfortunately the subsequent paroxysms could signify either.
I will probably leave here in less than two weeks, for N.Y. if I receive favorable news of the play, otherwise for New Orleans or Mexico—but I will send you an address when I leave.
Letters from Margo and David, both raving of books you sent them. You have acquired two fanatic admirers in them. With your Lincoln-like aura it must be hard to avoid idolatry of this kind. People like David and Margo, too intelligently skeptical for the church and with more emotional excitability than they can put into social or sexual relationships and with professions not quite creative enough to absorb it, have need of discovering a modern Saint or Buddha, and sooner or later your mountain lodge will inevitably be a citadel of holiness.
10.
« • »
Rimbaud, Kafka, Forster: Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), French poet. ND published A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat (1961) and Illuminations and Other Prose Poems (1957). Franz Kafka (1883–1924), German-language novelist born in Prague. ND published Edwin Muir’s translation of Amerika (1946) as well as an anthology of criticism, The Kafka Problem (1946). E. M. Forster (1879–1970), English novelist. ND reissued Forster’s novels The Longest Journey (1943) and A Room with a View (1943) as well as a book of criticism on Forster by Lionel Trilling.
Marlowe: Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), English dramatist.
“Morte a Dieu”: TW’s imperfect French; he may have intended “Morte à Dieu,” which is not idiomatic either but which approximates “Death to God.” Possibly TW is hinting at episodes in Rimbaud’s youth when he expressed such thoughts.
Margo: Margo Jones (1913–1955), American theater director and producer. Known as the “Texas Tornado,” Jones directed the original productions of TW’s The Purification, Stairs to the Roof, You Touched Me!, The Glass Menagerie (co-directed with Eddie Dowling), Summer and Smoke, and The Last of My Solid Gold Watches.
David: Possibly producer David Merrick (1911–2000) who was considering TW’s play Stairs to the Roof at that time. Merrick would later produce TW’s Kingdom of Earth on Broadway in 1968, under the title The Seven Descents of Myrtle, and the Broadway premiere of Out Cry in 1973. In 1975 Merrick produced TW’s The Red Devil Battery Sign, which he closed in Boston.
mountain lodge: In early 1940, with money received from the estate of his late uncle, James Laughlin III, JL bought the lease to a pristine ski area in Little Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City from the U.S. Forest Service. His enthusiasm for skiing went back to the time he spent at the Le Rosey School in Switzerland in 1927 to 1928. With Dick Durrance, one of the earliest American international ski champions, he completed the Alta Lodge and founded the Alta Ski Lift Company. Alta was both a passion and a retreat, and the ski lift company still remains in the Laughlin family.
7. TLS—1
Feb. 10, 1943 [New York]
DEAR JAY:
You said at our lunch that you would mention me to an editor at The New Yorker who might could use some of my lyrical triviata. That would be exceptionally convenient right now, so would you mind asking him to look at the stuff? I will pick out the things that seem slanted for the magazine. If you have a fairly good idea of the verse you wish to keep for the prospective anthology, would you send me back the poems you definitely won’t require? I could use them for the above purpose perhaps. Also I have a bunch which quite obviously wouldn’t have interested you but might do for this, some folk ballads and lyrics called “Blue Mountain Blues” or “The Songs that Saved Me from a Drunkard’s Grave.”
With spring coming on, I will probably write some more poetry and will concentrate on the long free verse things we both prefer.
I have a new job, as usher at the Strand theatre, a colorful little world of its own, which I enjoy exploring.
Best wishes always,
10.
« • »
prospective anthology: Five Young American Poets (1944) Third Series [FYAP (1944) hereafter].
8. TLS—1
April 1943 [Clayton, Missouri]
DEAR JAY:
How are you? As the custodian of my verse you have a great importance to me, and I am a little worried because I haven’t heard anything from you. Will you drop me a line to assure me the poems are in a safe place and not in danger of loss?
I am poised in the mid-continent, briefly, trying to decide which way to jump. The west is the strongest attraction, but New York still has some strings on me.
Inadvertently, just before I left, I did run into one of your other poets. I went to a modern dance recital and afterwards to a cocktail party for one of the dancers, and there h
e was—Howard Moss. Along with two other sort of school-teacherish poets, the opposite of the Paul Goodman type. As a group at a party, poets of this type always remind me of ladies in a delicate condition, excused from making any social effort. I was sort of in between the dancers and the poets and tried to form a connection, so I got to talking to Moss. It came out that he was to be in your planned anthology. I said I was, too. This started a great disturbance. They all wanted to know if I was “the dark horse.” I couldn’t say whether I was or not, and the speculations became very heated. Up till then they had just been sitting there like brooding hens, but now they all hopped up talking at once, as though their eggs had hatched into something very alarming. It was too bad for the dancers, for in spite of their natural vivacity, they were thrown in obscurity from then on, and the chasm between the groups became abysmal. My fortuitous prominence was great fun.
I would like you to see a short play of mine just come out in Dodd-Mead’s anthology, The Best One-Act Plays of 1942. If works of this genre interest you, I would like to submit some to you.—I am enclosing a new long poem.
Address above for about ten days,
Cordially,
Tennessee
« • »
Howard Moss: (1922–1987), American poet and editor. Moss was not published in the Five Young American Poets series after all. He later went on to be the editor of The New Yorker.
Paul Goodman: (1911–1972), American social critic and psychotherapist, published by ND in Five Young American Poets (1941) First Series and The Break-Up of Our Camp (1949).
short play: The Last of My Solid Gold Watches was published in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays (ND 1945).
9. TLS—2.
[April 1943] [Clayton]
DEAR JAY:
The Luck of Friendship Page 4