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This dissertation has been 65—1233 microfilmed exactly as received YOUNG, David Lee, 1929- THE ART OF CONRAD RICHTER. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1964 Language and Literature, modem University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE ART OF CONRAD RICHTER DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By David Lee Young, B.A., M.A. ****** .The Ohio State University 1964 Approved by A dviser Department of English VITA Ju ly 27, 1929 Bom - Youngstown, Ohio 1951................... B.A., Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 1 9 5 1 .1 9 5 4 . Military Service, the United States Army 1956-1-958 . Graduate Study, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 1958................... M.A., Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 1958-1964 . Graduate Study, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1960-1964 . Teaching Assistant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1960-1963 . Research Assistant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English Regional Literature. Professor Claude M. Simpson Victorian Literature. Professor Richard D. Altick Bibliography. Professor Richard D. Altick English Romantic Literature. Professor Arthur E. DuBois i i i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page C hapter I . INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 1 I I . THE MOUNTAIN ON THE DESERT........................................................ 7 I I I . THE USES OF PHILOSOPHY.................................................................. 2k IV. AMBIVALENCES.......................................................................................... 50 V. THE WATERS OF KRONOS....................................................................... ?6 V I. TECHNIQUE..........................................................•..........................................132 V II. THE TRAGIC VIEW .......................................................................................1^2 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................... 159 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION For almost thirty years. Conrad Richter has been writing novels and short stories about the frontier at various periods of American development. He dealt with Pennsylvania settlement life in The Free Man; he produced a magnificent recreation of the Ohio frontier in a trilogy comprising The Trees. The Fields, and The .Town: and he wrote of the southwestern frontier in The Sea of Grass. The Lady, and Tacey Cromwell. He has also written novels about small-town life in Pennsylvania in the early years of this century, notably Always Young and Fair. The Waters of Kronos. and 4 Simple Honorable Man. As a result of his choice of material, he has become known as a regional writer and a historical novelist. Thus in the recent publication of the Library of Congress, 4 Guide to the Study of the United States of America, he is recommended as a writer of "historical novels and short stories which give his impressions of life in America. His lucid style, depiction of local color, and recording of historical details are charac­ teristics of his work."^ And Edward Wagenknecht, one of the few ^ Roy P. Balser, Donald H. Mugridge, and Blanche P. McCrum, 4 Guide to the Study of the United States of America (Washington, 19S0)7"p. 137. 2 critics to deal with Richter at any length, says that in his three novels about Ohio, "if anywhere in fiction, modem readers can learn what it meant for a people to pit themselves against a 2 wilderness." This is not mean praise. But on one score, it slights what Richter claims is a central purpose to his work. For in writing about the frontier, Richter attempts to dramatize a pattern which he finds constant in the advance of homes, stores, railroads, and newspapers upon the wilderness. This pattern is the decline in vitality which, he says, always parallels the growth of culture. The trap p ers, woodmen, and cattlem en who break new ground—the most vital forces responsible for the victory over the wilderness— despise the weakness of the culture they paved the way for. For example, one o f R ich ter's p io n eers—Worth Luckett in the Ohio novels—insists that if he had known his settlement would grow into a town, he never would have begun it. In The Free Kan. Richter shows that the German indentured immigrants to colonial America, who withstood the perils of the ocean journey and the in­ dignities of domestic service, are more honest, sturdy, and brave than their masters, the effete British who possess fine houses and rich clothing. And in The Sea of Grass, he indicates that the men who carved their cattle empires out of the desert are nobler, ^Cavalcade of the American Novel (New York, 19^2), p. ^37* 3 stronger, and more self-reliant than those who follow with the paraphernalia of civilization. He argues the validity of this pattern by linking it to a concept he calls psvcho-energism, an amateur's philosophy that declares man can best restore his depleted energies not through rest or ease (the advantages of culture) but through increased activity. He has written four expository books on psycho-energism, the most recent of them being The Mountain on the Desert. Richter claims considerable importance for his philosophy in the preface to this book, where he states that he wrote the Ohio trilogy expressly to illustrate it. Richter, then, approaches fiction with two aims: he attempts to present an authentic picture of frontier life, and he tries to demonstrate that pioneers deserve our attention because they lived according to principles which have passed out of favor. The re­ viewers and critics consider him only in regard to his former aim; if they are aware of Richter's philosophy, they choose to ignore it. In a sense, they are justified. For while Richter is extremely skillful at creating pioneers and their environment, his philosophy lacks discipline; it is in many ways naive, betraying Richter's unfamiliarity with significant areas of modem thought such as psychoanalysis. Of course it does not detract from our evaluation of Richter the novelist to say that he does not quite succeed as a philosopher. k But Richter approaches fiction with a third, more significant aim, and it does- detract from his stature if we ignore it. In empha­ sizing his compelling scenes of pioneer life, reviewers and critics have ignored the fact that Richter's aesthetic consciousness encom­ passes far more than historical accuracy. He is primarily concerned with creating fiction that is totally satisfying—he welds his his­ torical detail completely into the work so that the facts become but * one element of the total impression. In his best work, moreover, his characters are vivid and consistent with themselves; yet they are complex and unpredictable, as satisfying fictional characters should be. Most important, Richter never lets his philosophy stand in the way of his story: he lets his characters be true to them­ selves even if it means that a philosophic point is lost. Admittedly he does not always succeed in character portrayal. He has, however, done excellent work which justifies our plea that he be accepted as an artist rather than a writer who considers fiction merely a vehicle for historical fact and self-improvement formulas, tty purpose, then, is to examine his work and point out its values—to pay him the kind of critical attention that he has not yet received. 0 I do n o t mean to suggest th a t no resp o n sib le work has been done. There is an article on the folklore in Richter's 3 novels and another on the mythic elements in his stories of the 4 pioneers. And a dissertation has appeared which is valuable chiefly for its collection of scattered biographical information and for its study of Richter as a frontier novelist in the tradition of Elizabeth Madox Roberts and Willa Cather.^ But all of these works deal with matters peripheral to Richter's artistry. Before we can discuss his artistry, however, we must examine his stated aims of re-creating the past and presenting a philosophy of self-revitalization. We can understand his art only if we under­ stand how these goals influence it» and how it influences them. We have considerable source material for this part of our task— Richter has prefaced a number of his novels with statements of his concern with the past, and he has written at length on his philo sophy. However, he has said little about his artistic aims in general—a situation which need not hamper us, for his novels and ■^John T. Flanagan, "Folklore in the Novels of Conrad Richter," Midwest Folklore. II (1952), 5-14. ^Frederic I. Carpenter, "Conrad Richter's Pioneers: Reality and Jfyth," College English. XII (1950), 77-82. ^Marvin John LaHood, "A Study of the Major Themes in the Work of Conrad Richter, and His Place in the Tradition of the American Frontier Novel" (diss. Notre Dame, 1962). stories provide considerable proof of his conscious craftsmanship. Once we understand his philosophic position, we‘can detect with little trouble the scenes in which he sacrifices a philosophical point to the full realization of a character. And when we are aware of his attitude toward tiie role of the historical novelist, we can see how this attitude contributes to the impact of his fiction. In order to know his ideas, then, we must first look at his non-fiction work. CHAPTER II THE MOUNTAIN ON THE DESERT In 1936. Richter collected nine of his recent stories into a

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