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F 521 148 VOL7 N02 - - - - INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES Dianne J. Carunel, Seymour William E. Ervin, Hartford City Ralph D. Gray, Indianapolis Charles A. Johnson, Carmel H. Roll McLaughlin, Carmel Thomas M. Miller, Carmel Janet C. Moran, Hammond Ronald V. Morris, Lafayette Kathleen Stiso Mullins, South Bend Alan T. Nolan, Indianapolis, Chair Larry K. Pitts, Indianapolis William G. Prime, Madison Robert L. Reid, Evansville Evaline 1-1. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, Vice President Frances Petty Sargent, Muncie Richard S. Simons, Marion John Martin Smith, Auburn, President Theodore L. Steele, Indianapolis P. R. Sweeney, Vincennes SLanley Warren, Indianapolis, Treasurer Michael L. Westfall, Fremonl ADMIN ISTRATION Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L. Shoemaker, Administrative Director Annabelle J.Jackson, Controller Susan P. Brown, Human Resources Director Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary DIVISI ON DIRECTORS Bruce L. Johnson, Library Thomas K. Krasean, Community Relations Thomas A. Mason, Publications Robert M. laylorJr., Education TRACES OF INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORl' Thomas A. Mason, Executive Editor J. Kent Calder, Managing Editor Megan L. McKee, Editor Kathleen M. Breen, Editorial Assistant George R. Hanlin, Editorial Assistant CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ray E. Boomhower Douglas E. Clanin Paula J. Corpuz Ruth Dorrel PHOTOGRAPHY Kim Charles Ferrill, Photographer Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator EDITORIAL BOARD RichardJ. M. Blackett, Indiana University, Bloomington Edward E. Breen, Marion Chronicle-Tribune James T. Callaghan, Indianapolis Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University David E. Dawson, Indianapolis Robert L. Gildea, lndianapolis Ralph D. Gray, Indiana University, Indianapolis James J-1. Madison, Indiana University, Bloomington Richard S. Simons, Marion DESIG N Lloyd Brooks & Company R. Lloyd Brooks, An Director TYPOGRAPHY Weimer Graphics, Inc. PRINTING Shepard Poorman Communications Corp. Editors' Page 3 APR :i 0 1995 "I'll Have to Ask Indianapolis" INDIANA HISTORICAL WILLIAM STYRON SOCIETY LIBRARY 1lf Ordeal and Renewal: David Laurance Chambers, Hiram Haydn, and Lie Down in Darkness ) KENT CALDE R 2lf "Alwaxs the Other S�ringi": The L{je and Nature Writing of Edwin Way Te ale CATHERINE E FORREST WEBER 3 6 Des tination Indiana: The Joh n Hay Home RAY BOOMHOWER 3 8 The Cou n tr y Con tributor: Rockville's Juliet V Stra us.s RAY BOOMHOWER lf 8 Focus: The Theodore Dreiser Papers ) KENT CALDER FRON T COVER: IN 1967 WILLIAM ST YRON VISITED THE CAPRON, VIRGINIA, FARM HOUSE WHERE NAT TURNER'S DEADLY UP RISING BE GAN IN 1831. STYRON WON THE 1968 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION FOR THE (ONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER. TED POLUMBAUM, LIFE MAGAZ INE, © TIME INC. IN SIDE FRONT COVER: SUBJUGATION, THE MEM ORIAL STATUE TO )ULlET V. STRAUSS AT TURKEY RUN STATE PA RK. INDIANA STATE LIBRARY. ABOVE: PH O TOGRAPH OF A WINTER SCENE BY EDWIN WAY TEALE. COURTESY, EDWIN WAY TEALE PAPERS, UNIVERSITY OF CONNEC TICUT LIBRARIES, STORRS. © UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT. BACK COVER: COURTESY, EDWIN WAY TEALE PAPERS, UNIVERSITY OF CON ECTICUT LIBRARIES, STORRS. © UN IVERSI TY OF CONNECT ICU T 2 TRACES Swall ow ing the Canar· y PRINC AS I SAT IN THE make concessions. He did not make them easily, however. My essay on AUDIENCE AT NORT H CENTRAL HIGH SC HOOL IN INDIANAPOLIS IN Chambers and Styron's editor Hiram Haydn is presented as a complement ANTICIPAT ION OF LISTENING TO A� TA LK BY WiLLIAM STYRON, I to Styron's memoir. This entire issue is devoted to lit­ CLUTC HED A COPY OF HIS FIRST NOVEL, LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS, WHICH erary topics. Indiana, of course, has a long and distinguished literary his­ WA S PUBLISHED BY THE IN DIANAPOLIS FIRM OF BOBBS-MERRILL IN 1951. tory that is well known or at least Styron had come to town under the Styron's fate was actually Chambers. familiar to most Hoosiers. Many, auspices of the Indianapolis-Marion Later that evening, I asked the however, may find something new in County Public Library Foundation author if he had any plans for pub­ Catherine Weber's story about the to deliver its annual Marian McFad­ lishing the lecture, which deals not career of Edwin Way Te ale, who den Lecture, and I, like hundreds of only with the publication of his first grew up at the edge of the Indiana others in attendance, was hoping to novel but also with the value of dunes and became the first nature acquire the author's autograph. My libraries and the dangers of censor­ writer to win a Pulitzer Prize. Ray chances were particularly good, ship. He said that he had no such Boomhower provides a profile of however, because Cathy Gibson, the plans, so I asked all assembled to Indiana's Country Contributor, library staff member in charge of consider Tr aces as an outlet. When Juliet V. Strauss, whose columns arranging the lecture, had asked me the librarians expressed enthusiasm advocating traditional roles for and my wife to meet a group of peo­ for the idea, Styron reached into women reached a national audience ple, including then library director the inside pocket of his jacket, in the pages of the Ladies ' Home jour­ Ray Gnat and Styron, for dinner pulled out the handwritten text, nal between 1893 and 1918. Writing afterward. Here, I thought, I would and handed it to me. I nearly at a time when Indiana authors dom­ be able to query the author about fainted. Tr ying not to look too inated the national literary scene the circumstances surrounding the much like the cat who swallowed with poems and romantic tales that publication of Lie Down in Darkness. the canary, I steered the conversa­ espoused wholesome midwestern I had recently received a small tion to another topic before Styron values, Strauss fit in well with the grant to research David Laurance had a chance to change his mind. other Golden Age authors. Chambers, who served Bobbs-Merrill He did not change his mind, and Indiana's Golden Age of literature in various capacities for fifty-five his essay presented in this issue is an exerted its gravitational pull on years, ending his career as chairman eloquent testament to the impor­ Chambers and even Styron, and it of the board in 1958 with the sale of tance of maintaining freedom of continues to influence the state's the firm. As president in 1950 expression in society through the writers and editors, whether they Chambers maintaine.d tight control publication and distribution of are inspired by sympathy with the of the firm's trade department, and books. Styron's tale about the efforts tradition or by resistance to it. The I knew Styron could not have pub­ of Bobbs-Merrill's home office to most interesting writing and pub­ lished this novel without dealing soften his language reflects the chal­ lishing about Indiana, however, is with him. As Styron's talk unfolded lenges faced by the midwestern pub­ comprised of mixtures of these two that night, I realized that the bulk lisher in its efforts to accommodate responses. That's what we hope of it dealt with the very question a rapidly changing literary climate. you'll find here. that I intended to ask. I also real­ Even such a staunch advocate of the ). KENT CALDER ized that the "Indianapolis" deciding genteel tradition as Chambers had to Managing Edito r Spriug i995 3 4 TRACES I'll Have to Ask IndianapOlis • WIL LIAM ST YRON DE LIVE RED THE INDIA NA POLIS-MARION COUNT Y PU BLIC LIBR ARY FOUNDATION' S SE VENT EENTH ANNUA L MA RIAN McFA DDEN MEMORIA L LECTUR E ON 14 APRIL 1994. Jm very happy to be in Indianapolis especially under the auspices of this very fine library. This is my first trip to your city, whose iden­ tity in the past has been most real to me as the hometown of my good friend Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt has often spoken to me with affection of Indianapo­ lis, and I hope that this evening I won't commit any major gaffes or mishaps or otherwise disgrace him. I William Styronl © 1994 WILLIAM STYRON Spri11g 1995 5 WILLIAM STYRON !though this is my first visit to Indianapolis, there was a time in my · e when Indianapolis figured very large as an influ­ ence on me, and I'd like to explain the connection. About two hundred years ago-it was 1951, to be exact-I finished my first novel, Lie Down in Darkness. In those post-World War II years there was a reverent, I should say almost wor­ shipful, aura that surrounded the writing and publishing of novels. This is not to say that even today the novel as a literary form has lost cachet or distinction (though there are critics who would argue that position) but in those days to be a young novelist was a little like being a rock star in our time. The grand figures of the previous generation-Faulkner, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, James T. Farrell-were still very much alive, and we young hopefuls were determined to emulate these heroes and stake our claim to literary glory. The first among the newcomers to make his mark was Tr uman Capote, whose brilliant tales and lovely novel Other Voices, Other Rooms filled me, his I WROTE THE exact contemporary, with inordinate envy. Then soon after this came The Na ked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, a writer of such obvious and prodigious FIRST PA GES OF gifts that it took the breath away. Following on Mailer's triumph was James Jones's monumental From He re to Eternity, which was quickly succeeded by that LTE DOWN IN DARKNESS classic which forever crystallized the soul of the American adolescent, The Catcher in the Rye by J.

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