Spr06_pg4-7_P3 4/15/06 12:12 PM Page 7 VJournal

Visitors from Far and Near life on campus Perspectives Remembrances of literary legends, celebrated barflies and Mrs. Vanderbilt’s money. By WALTER SULLIVAN, BA’45, MA’50

hen I joined the liar tastes and sometimes even more curi- Vanderbilt facul- ous opinions. Apparently, she thought a good ty in 1949, I was deal about money. She told me once that among friends the “real money” in her and Mr. Vanderbilt’s who two years family belonged to Mr. Vanderbilt. She had earlier had been only $10 million of her own, this when money my teachers. From almost as far back as I was worth much more than it is now. She wor- Wcould remember, I had wanted to be a writer; ried about being cheated. When the grocery after I entered Vanderbilt, I saw that, in order bill at her house in Palm Beach seemed too to write, I would have to teach because, with high, she dressed herself as a person of slen- few exceptions, good writers didn’t make der means and investigated prices at the gro- much money from their writing. cery stores. Many people, she told me, many In my judgment we were a good depart- of whom did not deserve it, asked her for JIM HSIEH ment, and we shared an admiration, almost a money. The inference was not lost on me. veneration, for literature recent and past. We The symposium was a rousing success. him in subverting the English language. I kept argued sometimes about whether Shakespeare Not only the university community but also remembering Scott Fitzgerald’s remark that was a greater writer than Chaucer or about people from all over Nashville came to hear the rich were different from the rest of us and whether a poem as hard to fathom as “The visiting writers, to talk with them after their Hemingway’s riposte that they had more Waste Land” could be a great poem, but we lectures or readings, and to have books signed. money, and I sided with Fitzgerald. never doubted the tradition in which we worked. Without Mrs. Vanderbilt’s support there would My major problem in dealing with Mrs. Early in his tenure as chancellor, which be no symposium, and I was determined to Vanderbilt was the difference between the began in the 1950s, Harvie Branscomb per- have it continue; I wanted desperately to please cultures in which we had been bred. She gave suaded Harold Vanderbilt, a grandson of Cor- Mrs. Vanderbilt, but my job would have been money to the Paris Review, and she often nelius Vanderbilt, after whom the university easier if I had known what she wanted me to praised George Plimpton, hoping, I suppose, was named, to join the Board of Trust. His say. If she had contended that the earth was that I would be more like him, but that was wife, Gertrude, took an interest in the Eng- flat, I would have agreed with alacrity and a lost cause. My Southern manners, my South- lish department and promised to give $5,000 deplored the fact that everybody did not know ern accent, were the only ones I had, and it a year, a good sum in those pre-inflationary this. Consequently, coward that I was, I did was too late for me to try to change them. But days, to hold an annual literary symposium. not dispute her when she said that it was all I did what I could. She once reprimanded me For the first couple years, Randall Stewart right to teach Shakespeare, but only selected for using “school” to refer to a university. organized the symposium; then I succeeded passages. A whole play was too much to ask “Never do that,”she cautioned.“School refers him, and my duties included consulting with students to read. She told me that one of her to your prep school. You call your college a Mrs. Vanderbilt, who said that if she liked prep-school teachers in Philadelphia had college.”I didn’t make that mistake a second what we were doing, she would endow the asked her to memorize verses by Shelley, which time. On one of her trips, she visited the Eng- symposium. But she hadn’t yet endowed it, she did, but she had declined to recite them lish department offices, arriving with the ther- so every spring I had to go to her, hat in hand. because “wert” was not a word that anybody mos of martinis she always seemed to carry She was, in my judgment, a woman of pecu- except Shelley used, and she would not join continued on page 82

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VJournal continued from page 7 derbilt was accustomed to drinking. But she time for the reading and, second, to keep Jim in lieu of a purse. Randall was still our chair- did drink, and then she talked, and we agreed sufficiently sober to read his own lines, an man, and I do not know why I didn’t take with whatever she said, whatever our thoughts assignment that only a policeman, and a tough Mrs. Vanderbilt to his office, but we went to were on the subject under discussion. Mer- one at that, could have accomplished. At the Ed Duncan’s more austere quarters, where cifully, the interview was soon over. I offered hour the program was to begin, students we were joined by several of my colleagues. to accompany her to her car.“Well,”she said, crowded the auditorium. Some were there We got Mrs. Vanderbilt settled in the best “you won’t have far to go.”And I didn’t. Our because they admired Jim’s poetry. Many chair available, took our places around her, building was in the middle of the campus, more had read his novel Deliverance or had and waited to try to answer whatever she but her driver had brought her cross-coun- seen the movie based on it. They occupied might ask. To our discomfort, at first she did try, over the lawns and walks and around all the seats, stood at the back and along the not ask anything, but it was clear that she trees, to park at our front door, which was walls, sat or sprawled in the aisles, but there wanted something. She looked around, not where I said goodbye to her. was no Dickey. Dan Young hastened to the at us, but at the door and the corners of the The symposium continued and, ultimately, Holiday Inn where Jim was staying, went room. Finally, she put out her hand as if she perhaps in her will, Mrs. Vanderbilt endowed immediately to the bar, and found Jim and expected whatever she needed to be put in it. it, but this was after I had turned the program the graduate student drinking together. I did “Mrs. Vanderbilt,”I said, “what may I over to someone else. Randall Stewart had not see the scene that followed. Later, Dan get for you?” invited to the first symposia some of our dis- said the graduate student was drunk beyond “Water,”she replied, her tone indicating tinguished alumni, members of the Fugitives taking care of himself, much less seeing that I was a fool for having to ask. and Agrarian groups who had brought notice, that Dickey kept to his schedule. Jim was at All of us scurried to find a glass in which if not fame, to Vanderbilt in the late ’20s and first happy, but he soon resented the tone to put the water—sooner said than done in early ’30s. Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, in which Dan spoke to him. He declared that this case, for most of us used the drinking John Crowe Ransom, Andrew Lytle and Cleanth he was not ready to leave the bar and might fountains in the building. We got a glass from Brooks appeared on some of the early pro- not leave at all unless Dan addressed him in one of the secretaries, thick and clumsy and, grams and, when I succeeded Randall, I invit- more conciliatory terms. He agreed to come I surmised, not the sort from which Mrs. Van- ed them to come again. Alexander Heard, at once, however, when Dan threatened to who had become chancellor when Harvie withhold his stipend. Branscomb retired, thought we were over- In a perfect world, Jim would have paid doing the Fugitive-Agrarian connection and for his arrogance with a poor reading and a said so. From time to time, Alex Heard got disgusted audience, but no such thing hap- Make a letter from Jim Dickey asking that he be pened. After his introduction he mounted invited to read. Jim had earned [bachelor’s the stage with a firm step. He stood behind Your and master’s degrees] at Vanderbilt shortly the dais silently, allowing his gaze to move Message after World War II. In his letters to Alex, he from one side of the room to the other, let- always warned that his schedule of readings ting the audience wait a moment longer in was filling up. To avoid disappointment we anticipation. Then in the loudest voice he Matter should invite him at once. He added that Van- could muster, he said,“Sh-i-i-t,”drawing out Advertise in derbilt ought to be “falling all over itself” to the word that, to the best of my recollection, Vanderbilt Magazine. arrange for him to receive an honorary degree. had never before been spoken from a Van- Vanderbilt doesn’t give honorary degrees, but derbilt stage by a visiting writer. He paused Reach an exclusively Vanderbilt frequently, after letters from Dickey, Alex sug- for a moment, beaming at the audience. He audience by placing your ad in gested that I invite Jim to appear at a sym- was having his triumph, congratulating him- Vanderbilt Magazine. A full range posium, probably because he was tired of the self for having packed the hall. The delight- of sizes is available to fit your letters Jim was writing him. ed students cheered this contravention of budget. I held my ground. I knew too well Jim and protocol. When they quieted down, Jim read how he behaved for me to take responsibil- and read well. For more information please ity for him, but the story has a sequel. Dan I brought to Vanderbilt the best writers I view our media kit online at Young, my successor at running the sym- could find who would agree to come. Among www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/ posium, in innocence or with guile—for Dan fiction writers who lectured and read were publications/mediakit; or contact was known as a campus politician and may Anthony Burgess, William Golding, Allen Sil- Phillip Tucker, advertising manager, have wanted to curry favor with Alex Heard— litoe, Elizabeth Spencer, Eudora Welty, Jean at 615/322-3989 or by e-mail at invited Dickey and appointed a graduate stu- Stafford, Peter Taylor, Mary Lavin, Kather- [email protected]. dent to be Jim’s keeper. The student’s duties ine Anne Porter, J.F. Powers, Flannery O’Con- were, first, to get Jim to the auditorium in nor, Shelby Foote, Walker Percy, Madison

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Jones, Verlin Cassill and Benedict Kiely. Some Some writers visited us for entire semes- just retribution. They were at our house. To poets who read at Vanderbilt were Richard ters, but these did not come on Mrs.Vander- go with her food, [my wife] Jane had put out Wilbur, Richard Eberhart, W.H. Auden, Louis bilt’s money; they were supported by outside some mild mustard and some that was extreme- Coxe, Louis Simpson, Donald Justice, Paul foundations such as the American Council of ly hot. Our visitor chose the hot and began Engle, William Stafford, William Jay Smith, Learned Societies, or they substituted for Van- to pile it on his ham and biscuit. Robert Hollander, and those stalwarts from derbilt professors who were on leave and were “Please,”Jane said to his wife, “he is wel- the Fugitive days, John Crowe Ransom, Allen paid out of the department budget. come to all he wants of anything, but that Tate and Robert Penn Warren. Over the years our long-term visitors came mustard is very hot. Please tell him. He will In spite of legendary topers such as Dylan from various parts of the world, and most of burn himself.” Thomas and madmen like Cal Lowell, in my them spoke English fluently. In one spectac- His wife, giving Jane an innocent smile, limited experience as a literary impresario I ular case we were joined for a semester by a said, “No speak.” found that, in general, poets, while not Japanese novelist who, we were told, was “the The Robert Penn Warren of Japan took a abstemious, behaved more prudently than Robert Penn Warren of Japan.”He appeared large bite. His eyes filled with tears. His face novelists. Allen Tate was an exception. He to be capable of speaking only two English turned a deep red. He began to gasp. Jane drank too much and chased too many women sentences. “Do you know Allen Tate?” he gave him water, which did not immediate- and married too many times, but his fellow would ask, and when you said that you did, ly cool the fire. Our guest gasped again and Fugitives, Mr. Ransom and Red Warren, lived he would smile amiably and say,“Thank you coughed and wheezed. No one could help careful lives, husbanding their energy as if, very much.” him. We watched while he suffered. But noth- wherever they were and whatever they were His wife knew English quite well, but ing changed. His pain wasn’t sufficiently doing, a part of their minds was always at she would not admit that she knew it when severe for him to allow his wife to translate work on the poem or novel or essay they were he was close by. She would not translate for for him. writing. For most of the years that I knew him. She would not take messages over the him, Mr. Davidson did not drink at all. His phone. At parties, when he was at one end of Walter Sullivan, Vanderbilt professor of Eng- life after the Fugitive movement had been the room and she was at the other, she would lish, emeritus, is the author of three novels, different from those of his colleagues—more chat easily, but when he approached, sud- numerous short stories, and three books of crit- difficult, as he saw it, and he seemed to want denly, with a straight face she would say that icism. This article is adapted from Nothing to separate himself from the loose behavior she did not speak English. This was trying, Gold Can Stay: a Memoir, published by the of other writers, from any suggestion of but, once, her refusal to translate for her hus- University of Missouri Press (2006, www.umsys- bohemian excess. band brought what some of us considered tem.edu/upress).

Sports continued from page 16 David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Braden- Even as Lawrence develops her game, Van- halfway through high school you switch to ton, Fla., Lawrence caught the eye of Van- derbilt has changed her perspective on what French.” derbilt’s coaches with her impressive she wants to achieve in life. When she came Lawrence isn’t content with knowing five performances at various national tourna- to the U.S., Lawrence was intent on pursu- languages and is working on her sixth, Span- ments. After narrowing her school choices ing a career in professional golf and had never ish. It seems that for Lawrence, speaking sev- down to Vandy and Texas, the decision became experienced anything outside of the very golf- eral forms of vernacular is second nature. But clear after talking to Coach Freitag and pay- centric atmosphere of the academy in Flori- for those around her, as Richards expressed ing a campus visit. da. But during these last two years, Lawrence before, there is something both entertaining “It just seemed perfect—the academics, has come to realize that she has opportuni- and captivating about watching her lin- the school itself, the coach—and the team ties open to her that extend far beyond the guistic fluidity in action. was doing really well that year. It was a no- realm of golf. “I have no idea what she’s saying when she brainer,”Lawrence says. “Before I came here, I was never around talks to her mom,”says Coach Martha Fre- Disappointed with her performance as a so many intellectual people who are inter- itag. “She might as well be speaking Japan- freshman, Lawrence worked hard over the ested in so many different things,”she says. ese, but it’s fun to see how easily she jumps summer and, in the fall, twice bested her “Vanderbilt has given me insights about the between languages. It’s fascinating. I can only career low from last season with scores of 70 entire world and what I might be able to do.” speak very little Spanish—maybe enough to and 68. She also earned her first top-10 finish Majoring in communication studies, ask for directions—so to watch her jump in the team’s opening match at the Cougar Lawrence now knows that if a career in golf between languages shows what a great talent Classic in Charleston, S.C. does not work out, her language skills can she has.” “This year we’re seeing the kind of golf take her places she never dreamed of before. Of course, it wasn’t her talent with lan- we knew she was capable of,”Freitag says.“I guages that persuaded Freitag to recruit feel like she’s just going to get more and more Greg Roberts is a senior in the College of Arts Lawrence. While attending the prestigious consistent every day.” and Science, majoring in French and history.

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