Literary Philanthropy and 20Th Century American Literature
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Buying Time: Literary Philanthropy and 20th Century American Literature Alexander Rocca Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2017 © 2017 Alexander Rocca All rights reserved ABSTRACT Buying Time: Literary Philanthropy and 20th Century American Literature Alexander Rocca This dissertation analyzes the influence of cultural philanthropy on 20th and 21st-century American literature. Modern cultural philanthropy emerged in the late 19th century out of the fortunes of wealthy industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie, and grew to be one of the three pillars of the 20th-century literary economy alongside the publishing market and the university system. I trace the origins and evolution of literary philanthropic institutions through authorial case studies to show how funding from the Guggenheim Foundation, the PEN American Center, the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Program, and the MacArthur Foundation have opened avenues for collective political action and individual aesthetic innovation alike, while at the same time extending the power and influence of institutions over the cultural sphere. Through readings of Walter Francis White, Langston Hughes, Philip Roth, Leslie Marmon Silko, Maxine Hong Kingston, and David Foster Wallace, I show how philanthropic institutions have sought to make modernity hospitable for writers—part of what John Dewey in the 1930s called modernity’s “lost individuals”—by incorporating them and their work into the American democratic project. The effect, I argue, has been the democratization of American literature and an unprecedented efflorescence of writing by the varied people and social groups that at once constitute America and its most profound aspirations. Literary philanthropy seeks to transform the literary imagination from a luxury for individual aesthetic ends into an integral component of the common good. Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................................ ii Introduction: The Gospel of Wealth ..................................................................................................................... 1 The Ideology of Literary Philanthropy ........................................................................................................... 13 Institutional Criticism Beyond Bourdieu ........................................................................................................ 20 Buying Time ................................................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 1: The Rise of Literary Philanthropy: The Guggenheim Foundation and the Harlem Renaissance (1925- 1952) ................................................................................................................................................................... 45 Reintroducing Walter White ........................................................................................................................... 52 Guggenheim Rising ........................................................................................................................................ 59 Art + Propaganda ............................................................................................................................................ 72 Langston Hughes Makes a Living .................................................................................................................. 90 Guggenheim on Trial .................................................................................................................................... 107 Chapter 2: Brotherhood of the PEN: Philip Roth and the American Pen Center (1925-1985) ......................... 122 Institutional Hazard ...................................................................................................................................... 126 Unreal Freedom ............................................................................................................................................ 142 PEN in Consumer Society ............................................................................................................................ 157 Zuckerman’s Political Education .................................................................................................................. 169 Capitalizing on Literature ............................................................................................................................. 182 Chapter 3: Writing Beyond the Nation: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Dream of a National Literature (1965-1989) ...................................................................................................................................... 188 Origins of the Endowment ............................................................................................................................ 194 Leslie Marmon Silko Writes America .......................................................................................................... 208 Whose Nation? ............................................................................................................................................. 222 Kingston Speaks Up ..................................................................................................................................... 230 Institutional Warriors .................................................................................................................................... 246 Chapter 4: The Genius to Come: David Foster Wallace, Trickle-down Aesthetics, and the MacArthur Foundation (1978-2011) ...................................................................................................................................................... 252 The Genius.................................................................................................................................................... 257 MacArthur Makes a Foundation ................................................................................................................... 268 Wallace Becomes a Name ............................................................................................................................ 277 MacArthur Gains Currency .......................................................................................................................... 285 “I don’t feel like a Genius” ........................................................................................................................... 296 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................................................... 318 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 318 Chapter 1 ...................................................................................................................................................... 320 Chapter 2 ...................................................................................................................................................... 325 Chapter 3 ...................................................................................................................................................... 329 Chapter 4 ...................................................................................................................................................... 335 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I want to thank my committee—Rachel Adams, Bruce Robbins, and Ross Posnock—whose knowledge, wisdom, and guidance have been invaluable at every stage of this project’s development. I also want to thank Jim English and Casey Blake for their thoughtful commentary and astute observations, which have encouraged me to see farther and opened new dimensions for the project’s future. A tremendous thank you as well to the members of Columbia’s Americanist colloquium, whose constructive criticism of many excerpts from this dissertation have both enriched its ideas and buoyed my morale: Tim Donahue, John Hay, Ben Barasch, Aaron Ritzenberg, Austin Graham, Phil Polefrone, Sarah Arkebauer, Marty Larson-Xu and more. Thank you as well to my friends Bradley Gorski, Alex Rigas, Zach Roberts, and Maria Bo for their generous commentary and fellowship. No acknowledgment could be complete without also thanking my parents, for whose love and boundless patience I am grateful every day. But the greatest debt goes to Abigail, my love, without whom I would know nothing. 1 Introduction: The Gospel of Wealth “Our Republic is great in some things – in material development unrivaled; but let us always remember that in art and in the finer touches we have scarcely yet taken a place” – Andrew Carnegie, “Gospel of Wealth” “…If the world wants books, it must be willing to pay for them.” – Charles W. Chesnutt, “The Negro in Books” “The problem of our age,” the steel-magnate Andrew Carnegie wrote in 1889, “is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship” (14). So begins his essay “The Gospel of Wealth,” perhaps the most influential statement on philanthropy ever written.