Never a Lovely So Real
Page 52
102Aaron was from: Biographical details about AA are from Interview of AA, BD Papers. And a personal Interview of Chester Aaron, 30 December 2015.
104Wright was born: Biographical details about RW are from Hazel Rowley, Richard Wright (New York: Henry Holt, 2001).
105“What on earth”: American Hunger, p. 61.
105Nelson began dating: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
106Farrell distilled their concerns: Letter from JF to John Switalski, BD Papers.
107marry a “negress”: Notes from JF’s diary, BD Papers.
107“the Party line”: Letter from JF to John Switalski, BD Papers.
107They arrived with an agenda and Richard Wright fought: Richard Wright, pp. 85–87.
108“The club was my first contact”: American Hunger, p. 69.
109“Censored by Commonwealth College”: Windsor Quarterly, winter 1935.
113“Like it or not”: H. W. Boynton, “ ‘Somebody in Boots’ and . . . ,” New York Times, 7 April 1935.
114then seven hundred. Sixty more: Royalty statement, NA Collection.
114heard that Nelson had hiked: Interview of Mrs. William Jordan, BD Papers.
114“Had a letter from the guy”: Letter from AA to JC, JC Papers.
THE CRACK-UP
115Lawrence Lipton’s phone rang: This account of Nelson’s time with Lipton is from an interview of Lawrence Lipton, UCLA Library, Center for Oral History Research.
117Goldie called her “whore”: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
118“The capitalist system”: The open letter ran in the 22 January 1935 edition of New Masses.
118Two hundred and sixteen writers and I have traveled: Henry Hart, ed., American Writers’ Congress (New York: International Publishers, 1935), pp. 13–19.
119Le Sueur looked at Nelson: Interview of Meridel Le Sueur, BD Papers.
119How embarrassing, Ross thought: Interview of Sam Ross, BD Papers.
119“You may not understand” and “Everything remains”: American Writers’ Congress, pp. 178 and 192.
120He looked “malevolent” and “How does it feel”: Interview of JC, courtesy of JH.
121Richard Wright thought: Letter from JF to John Switalski, BD Papers.
121“A going almost insane”: Notes from JF’s diary, BD Papers.
121Dorothy Farrell met the men and “He wasn’t doing anything”: Interview of Dorothy Farrell, BD Papers.
121“I have not had the chance”: Letter from Ames to JF, BD Papers.
TWO FORLORN CHILDREN
125Amanda Leocadia Kontowicz had: All biographical information about AK comes from an interview of AK, BD Papers, and an interview of AK, courtesy of JH.
127the Workers’ Center on Kedzie and “Ten Years of Workers’ Literature”: Scrapbook, NA Collection.
127“Why,” Amanda’s friend asked: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
128“It’s hard to die”: Unpublished memoir, NA Collection.
128Eventually, she replied: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
129“Unk,” Robert Joffe said: Interview of RJ, BD Papers.
129They found a basement room: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
130“You’re trying to do me in”: ibid.
130I “felt obliged”: Guggenheim fellowship application, BD Papers.
130“Frank Mears turned south”: Nelson Algren, “American Obituary,” Partisan Review, October-November 1935.
131a pair of suede oxfords: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
131“We’re here,” they said: ibid.
131“Jeezus,” he teased and Nelson rarely drank: ibid.
TROTSKYISTS, COUNCIL COMMUNISTS, AND MATTICKITES
133“strike a blow”: American Writers’ Congress, p. 83.
133Rise up, workers: Nelson Algren, “Holiday in Texas,” Anvil, May-June 1934.
134write “without fear”: Nelson Algren, “Do It the Hard Way,” Writer, March 1943.
134“Environment is a tremendous thing”: Stephen Crane, “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” in Barbara H. Solomon, ed., The Haves and Have-Nots (New York: Signet Classics, 1999), p. 219.
135“a worse evil”: “Yama: The Pit.” Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
135“born-to-be-doomed” and “a wedge for the inarticulate”: Nelson Algren, “Remembering Richard Wright,” Nation, 28 January 1961.
135put down the “world of reality”: “Do It the Hard Way.”
135“I was just going around” and “I went to a Walkathon”: Conversations, p. 89.
136“accurate description of” the city: Guggenheim fellowship application.
137even “near writers” were welcome: Jerre Mangione, The Dream and the Deal (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996), p. 48.
138“Galena, nestling against steep hills”: Federal Writers’ Project (Illinois), Works Progress Administration, Galena Guide, 1937.
138feeling the “world was against them”: Conversations, p. 64.
138“The suicide rate”: David A. Taylor, The Soul of a People (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009), p. 9.
138Amanda had specific ideas, Nelson’s ideal life, and “He refused to pay”: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
140took a few hours off work: NA claimed he married AK in 1936, but the records of the Chicago Bureau of Vital Statistics show the date was March 1, 1937.
140Abe Aaron visited and Good paragraph: Personal interview of Chester Aaron, 30 December 2015.
141“Most of the young artists”: Richard Wright, p. 121.
141The congress was: All references to the congress are from Henry Hart, ed., The Writer in a Changing World (New York: Equinox Cooperative Press, 1937).
142“Directly or by implication”: “Writers Spurred to Fight Fascism,” New York Times, 6 June 1937.
142News of the protest: Some accounts place NA at this congress, but I am confident he did not attend because AA, in a letter to RW, mentions that he allowed NA to read the news RW sent from the congress, and then describes his reaction. NA would not have had to read about the congress in a letter if he had been there.
142“It was a quarrelsome situation”: Interview of FL, BD Papers.
143“I’m letting my Party membership”: Letter from AA to RW, RW papers.
143then so be it: Richard Wright, p. 127.
143These will become “part of”: NA’s FBI file.
AT HOME IN RAT ALLEY
144The buildings faced: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
145young Marxists established: Interview of FL, BD Papers.
145Two adjacent storefronts: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
146Margaret Walker, the youngest: Interview of Margaret Walker, BD Papers.
146secretary of the Chicago chapter: Letter from NA to J. Kerker Quinn, J. Kerker Quinn Papers, University of Illinois Archives.
147Nelson sent Jack Conroy: Interview of JC, courtesy of JH.
147Conroy had fallen: Worker-Writer in America, chapter 17.
148“wounded gorilla”: ibid., p. 5.
148Conroy met a wild and “C-I-O, C-I-O”: Douglas Wixson, “Jack Conroy and the East St. Louis Toughs,” New Letters 57, no. 4 (summer 1991).
149“One man’d go”: Douglas Wixson, “Very Penniless If Fairly Philosophical Victim,” New Letters 57, no. 4.
149“I’ve got a leanin’ ”: “Jack Conroy and the East St. Louis Toughs.”
149“I often reeled”: Worker-Writer in America, p. 429.
149“just a lot of boxes”: “The Jean Winkler Correspondence . . .”
150I rambled like: Letter from JC to Wallie Wharton, Walter William Wharton Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
150He was in a “bad way,” a large presence, and He started an affair: Interview off AK, BD Papers.
151The Drunkard’s Warning and “You Goldblatt”: Worker-Writer in America, pp. 443–45.
152beat someone in the head: Interview of JC, BD Papers.
152“I have heard very distressing rumors”: Letter from Franklin Folsom to NA, NA Collection.
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br /> 153casting “bad reflections”: Interview of JC, BD Papers.
153“we were fighting the war against”: Conversations, p. 88.
154the only white members and Marry me and my friend: Interview of JC, courtesy of JH.
155“hipsters in artistic revolt”: Frank Sandiford, “My Main Man,” New Letters 57, no. 4 (summer 1991).
155called themselves “lost” men and raped a dog: Interview of FL, BD Papers.
155“Tell all them kunts”: Letter from Fallon to JC, JC Papers.
156“It got a little ridiculous”: Interview of FL, BD Papers.
156“He was smart as a shit house rat”: Interview of JC, courtesy of JH.
156“I don’t have a Pulitzare”: Worker-Writer in America, p. 434.
157“I . . . know you for what you are”: Letter from Fallon to NA, Walter William Wharton Papers, State Historical Society of Missouri.
157“I hate to knock down”: Letter from NA to RW, RW Archive.
157a weekly painting class and “It’s very nice”: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
158a tall Armenian man: This account of AK’s affair is from an interview of AK, BD Papers.
159cancer in her intestines: Interview of RJ, BD Papers.
160haunting street carnivals: Letter from NA to Granville Hicks, Granville Hicks Collection, Syracuse University Libraries.
161“I used to go by,” “In 1937 I was,” and “The boys rolled a Jew”: Notes for Morning, NA Archive.
162Nelson and Amanda went: This account of the evening’s events, and the following day, come from an interview of AK, BD Papers.
163Nelson attacked Finch: ibid.
163nearly insensate, singing: Interview of FL, BD Papers.
MORNING
164cutting his reviews out: Postcard from NA to RW, RW Papers.
165“To my old friend”: NA’s copy of Native Son, NA Collection.
165“I haven’t begun it”: Postcard from NA to RW, RW Papers.
166“I really hadn’t planned on writing”: Letter from NA to RW, RW Papers.
168kept a pot on his stove: Interview of Lil Frankel and Blanche Robbins, BD Papers.
169“I think the English”: Letter from RW to NA, NA Collection.
169Abe Aaron wasn’t as cavalier: Letter from AA to RW, RW Papers.
169a Russian cossack gutted: Personal interview of Chester Aaron, 30 December 2015.
169“I’m on the books”: Letter from NA to RW, RW Papers.
169mentioned to the Dies Committee: United States Congress, House of Representatives, Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1938–1944), Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States.
169Communist “antiseptic squad”: NA’s FBI file.
170“Better destroy this letter”: Letter from AA to RW, RW Papers.
170“I feel pretty goddamn bad”: ibid.
171“too many parties”: Letter from NA to RW, RW Papers.
171“He is young, and he”: Letter from RW to NA, NA Collection.
171keeping herself busy: Interview of AK, BD Papers
172they drifted apart the moment: Interview of RJ, BD Papers.
172“I read page after page”: letter from RW to NA, NA Collection.
173Edward Aswell agreed and “Nothing remains”: Letter from EA to NA, NA Collection.
174friend named Alexander: Letter from Celia [?] to NA, NA Collection.
174minor operation in the spring: Interview of RJ, BD Papers.
174She never shed a tear: Carousel, p. 249.
175“Everyone [at Harper’s]”: Letter from EA to NA, NA Collection.
182“I consider Never Come Morning”: Letter from JF to NA, NA Collection.
182The Providence Journal and “It is not too much”: Jacket copy for the 1948 Avon edition of Morning.
182“an unusual book”: Fred T. Marsh, “Poles in Chicago,” New York Times, 10 May 1942.
183“Mr. Algren blends”: John Chamberlain, “Books of the Times,” New York Times, 25 April 1942.
183“not by instinct a novelist”: Malcolm Cowley, “Chicago Poem,” New Republic, 4 May 1942.
183“that if we did not”: Morning (Berkley Medallion 1968 edition), p. xiii.
183“I protest strongly”: Letter from John Olejniczak to EA, NA Collection.
183“It is contemptible”: Letter from John Czech to EA, NA Collection.
183“Herr Goebbels’s”: Letter from A.J. Lukaszewski to EA, NA Collection.
184“You might care to”: Letter from John Czech to NA, NA Collection.
184Fallon heard about Nelson’s plight: Interview of Dorothy Farrell, BD Papers.
184“I just want to tell you”: Letter from MGH to NA, NA Collection.
185“Never Come Morning hasn’t a dull”: Letter from MGH to EA, NA Collection.
“DO IT THE HARD WAY”
186The military had a hard time: George Sarka, “The Role of the United States Public Health Service in the Control of Syphilis during the Early Twentieth Century” (dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 2013), UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
187applied for the same position: Interview of JC, BD Papers.
187Leads were often slim: ibid.
187pimp came after Conroy: ibid.
187“I was waitin’ to see” and “Not sick”: Field notes, NA Collection.
187“He was very sympathetic”: Interview of JC, BD Papers.
188No tool at a writer’s disposal: “Do It the Hard Way.”
189In the spring, Amanda: The account of Amanda’s return comes from an interview of AK, BD Papers.
191he rambled through: Letter from NA to AK, AK Collection.
191“The fact of your being”: ibid.
191Nelson’s induction form: NA’s army records.
THE ANONYMOUS MAN
193Private Abraham, serial number 36679611: NA’s army records.
193Nelson’s unit woke: Letter from NA to Geraldine Brooks, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Records, University of Chicago Library.
193“[T]hey play for keeps”: Letter from NA to JC, courtesy of JH.
193“We put in so much time”: Letter from NA to Geraldine Brooks, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Records, University of Chicago Library.
194The army reassigned Nelson: NA’s army records.
194Nelson tried to leave: Letter from NA to Pete [?], Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Records, University of Chicago Library.
194“Not that I’m feeling particularly”: ibid.
194because he was Jewish: Interview of AK, BD Papers.
194A judge seated on the Circuit Court: NA’s army records.
195he became apathetic: NA’s army records.
195“I have found this man”: ibid.
196“I’m Nelson Algren”: Robin D. G. Kelley, “Interview of Herbert Aptheker,” Journal of American History 87, no. 1 (1 June 2000).
196Aptheker demurred: ibid.
196boarded a train there: This account of Amanda’s visit comes from an interview of AK, BD Papers.
197You’ve been transferred: Letter from NA to JC, JC Papers.
197Richard Wright called: Letter from NA to RW, RW Collection.
197“I haven’t hit the army”: ibid.
198His paperwork was stamped: NA’s army file.
198publication of Never Come Morning: NA’s FBI file.
199agent named John Bowker: ibid.
199According to Camp Maxey gossip: Interview of Irwin Glustoff, BD Papers.
199The evacuation hospital received: NA’s army file.
199Some of the men in Nelson’s unit: Conversations, p. 68.
199“You’re not going” and “I don’t want to get left”: ibid.
200“Looking forward to”: Letter from NA to JC, courtesy of JH.
200Timid bay waves and Red Cross workers moved: 125th Evacuation Hospital Unit History.
200soldiers in Nelson’s unit disembarked: All reference to unit movements, ibid.
201�
�There was no war near there”: Conversations, p. 80.
201“They were firing everything”: Conversations, p. 81.
202occupied the St. Francis hospital: 125th Evacuation Hospital Unit History.
202made themselves at home: ibid.
202“Don’t worry . . . gotta golden arm”: “The Art of Fiction.”
202The men in Nelson’s unit: 125th Evacuation Hospital Unit History.
202Nelson called him a “ghost”: Letter from NA to Lou Gilbert, BD Papers.
203Nelson was in Paris: Conversations, p. 82.
204a campground for GIs: ibid.
204“I just had a cot” and “The town was full”: Conversations, pp. 82–83.
204“Every morning I”: Letter from NA to MG, MG Collection.
204the “most isolated”: ibid.
204“It seemed like it was time”: Conversations, pp. 91–92.
EXPLORING THE NEON WILDERNESS
207The army delivered Nelson: NA’s army file.
208and accepted $160.60: ibid.
208went looking for a flower shop: This account of this day’s events comes from an interview of Dorothy Farrell, BD Papers.
210In January, he found: Letter from NA to Mary Guggenheim, BD Papers.
211“You’re a jack roller”: Show-up notes, NA Collection.
212“failed before the radio commercials”: Arm, p. 17.
212“live out their hand-to-mouth”: Nonconformity, pp. 35–36.
212“Every day is D-Day”: Chicago, p. 71.
212“Never has any people”: Nonconformity, p. 75.
213Amanda arrived first: This account of Amanda’s visit comes from an interview of AK, BD Papers.
213“I’d like to see”: Letter from MGH to NA, NA Collection.
213Nelson offered Gellhorn: ibid., and an interview of AK, BD Papers.
213“I love your Siberian country”: Letter from MGH to NA, NA Collection.
214“It occurs to me”: Letter from NA to AK, AK Collection.
214Kenneth McCormick arrived: “The Art of Fiction.”
215I want enough to live on: ibid.
215“I believe in you as a writer”: Letter from EA to NA, NA Collection.
217Nelson finished assembling: Letter from NA to AK, AK Collection.
217Mary Guggenheim arrived: This account of Guggenheim’s visit and biography come from an interview of Mary Guggenheim, BD Papers.
218“such a solitary person”: ibid.