The Wallace Stevens Journal The Wallace The Wallace Stevens Journal Vol. 31 No. 1 Spring 2007 Vol. A Publication of The Wallace Stevens Society, Inc. Volume 31 Number 1 Spring 2007 The Wallace Stevens Journal Volume 31 Number 1 Spring 2007 Contents Ivan S. Daugherty’s “Memorandum” on Wallace Stevens —James M. Daugherty 3 Wallace Stevens’ Marvellian Intertext: “The Garden” and “Description Without Place” —Genevieve Guenther 14 Wallace Stevens’ Philosophical Evasions —Gregory Brazeal 27 “Shall I uncrumple this much-crumpled thing?”: Wallace Stevens’ Poetics of Sequence in “Sea Surface Full of Clouds” —Phoebe Putnam 43 Masculine Fecundity and “Overinclusiveness”: Imagery of Pregnancy in Wallace Stevens’ Poetry —Brian Brodhead Glaser 59 “From this collision were new colors born”: Peter Redgrove’s Reversionary Swerves from Wallace Stevens’ Iconic Texts —Erik Martiny 73 Poems 86 Reviews 91 Current Bibliography 103 Cover Kathryn Jacobi from “Le Monocle de Mon Oncle” The Wallace Stevens Journal EDITOR John N. Serio POETRY EDITOR ART EDITOR BOOK REVIEW EDITOR Joseph Duemer Kathryn Jacobi George S. Lensing EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS EDITORIAL BOARD William T. Ford Milton J. Bates George S. Lensing Maureen Kravec Jacqueline V. Brogan James Longenbach Hope Steele Robert Buttel Glen MacLeod Eleanor Cook Marjorie Perloff TECHNICAL ASSISTANT Bart Eeckhout Joan Richardson Jeff Rhoades Alan Filreis Melita Schaum B. J. Leggett Lisa M. Steinman The Wallace Stevens Society, Inc. PRESIDENT ADVISORY BOARD John N. Serio Milton J. Bates Joseph Duemer Owen E. Brady Kathryn Jacobi Robert Buttel George S. Lensing David M. Craig A. Walton Litz The Wallace Stevens Journal is published biannually in the Spring and Fall by the Wallace Stevens Society, Inc. Administrative and editorial offices are located at Clarkson University, Box 5750, Potsdam, NY 13699. Phone: (315) 268-3987; Fax: (315) 268-3983; E-mail: [email protected]; Web site: www.wallacestevens.com. The subscription rate for individuals, both domestic and foreign, is $30 for one year or $50 for two years and includes membership in the Wallace Stevens Society. Rates for institutions are $38 per year domestic and $45 per year foreign. Back issues are available. Also available are volumes 1–25 on text-searchable CD-ROM. Manuscripts, subscriptions, and advertising should be addressed to the editor. Manu- scripts should be submitted in duplicate and in Works Cited format. Word-processed manuscripts will not be returned. Authors of accepted manuscripts should furnish an electronic file of the article as well as photocopies of all secondary quotations. The Wallace Stevens Journal is indexed or abstracted in Abstracts of English Studies, American Humanities Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents, IBR (In- ternational Bibliography of Book Reviews), IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Lit- erature), MHRA Annual Bibliography, MLA International Bibliography, and Year’s Work in English Studies. This journal is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. © 2007 The Wallace Stevens Society, Inc. ISSN 0148-7132 Ivan S. Daugherty’s “Memorandum” on Wallace Stevens JAMES M. DAUGHERTY Y GRANDFATHER, Ivan Simpson Daugherty (known as “Doc,” since our name is pronounced “Dokkerty”), worked directly Munder Wallace Stevens as a lawyer in the Hartford Insurance Company from approximately 1929 on. Their association was close and Ivan saw him daily. They often ate lunch and drank martinis together on Wednesdays at Stevens’ favorite spot, the Canoe Club, and Ivan received inscribed copies of Stevens’ books following their publication. Yet, when I tell people about their association, I am left with a couple of problems. The first is that nobody in my usual circles has read or even heard of Wallace Stevens. The second is that all my family’s stories represent Stevens as a son of a bitch, or, if that is too strong, then at least as “a very small man.” In fact, I remember my aunt Barbara, Ivan’s daughter, describing Stevens using that very phrase. Because I was young, she had to explain to me that it was not a reference to his physical size. Because of the lasting bitterness Ivan and our family had toward Stevens, neither my grandmother, Mrs. Mary C. Daugherty, nor my father, Ivan S. Daugherty, Jr., agreed to speak with Peter Brazeau when he was compil- ing his oral biography. However, my mother, Lillian, who had met Stevens while dating my father (whom Stevens called “the boy” in the interview), agreed, and her interview, one of the most negative characterizations of Stevens, is contained in Brazeau’s book. In an odd coincidence, my mother had also met Holly Stevens while they were both students at the now- defunct University of Connecticut’s Hartford branch in downtown Hart- ford. Holly was older by perhaps six years, already divorced and living at home. One evening Holly invited a group of about six friends, including my mother, back to Stevens’ home. The noise from the group awakened Stevens, who, according to my mother, quietly but sternly summoned Holly to the upper landing of the stairway. Holly returned embarrassed and an- noyed and told the group that they would have to leave. What struck my mother as odd, what she remembered, was that Stevens had appeared in a Scrooge-like nightshirt and stocking cap. After my grandfather died at age 73 in 1970, my grandmother did not want any of the Stevens material in her home, including the inscribed books, and so she had my father pass them along to a bookseller friend of THE WALLACE STEVENS JOURNAL 31.1 (SPRING 2007): 3–13. © 2007 THE WALLACE STEVENS SOCIETY, INC. 3 his, John F. Hendsey. Perhaps waiting for them to increase in value, Hendsey held onto this material for nearly a decade before conducting an auction of this and other Stevens material on April 28, 1982 (see the Ap- pendix at the end of this article for this and other related material). I do not know how much of the material from my grandfather was sold at that time, but I have included a list of those items mentioned in Hendsey’s catalogue that describe works inscribed by Stevens to my grandfather. I have included photocopies, taken from the catalogue, of two of the books Stevens inscribed to my grandfather, for one in particular, Ideas of Order, illustrates that even in giving a present to my grandfather, Stevens could not resist a dig: “To Ivan Daugherty/of all people/his friend/Wal- lace Stevens.” My mother told me that in later years Ivan would often show that book’s inscription to guests with amusement. I think he looked back upon the years with Stevens with just a little less bitterness than my grandmother Mary did, who felt that Stevens had held my grandfather back from promotion within the company. Not long ago my mother unearthed a photograph copy of my grand- father’s “Memorandum” (printed below), along with a receipt from John Hendsey, dated October 27, 1994, detailing the sale of more Stevens mate- rial, including the “Memorandum” and a signed copy of “Description Without Place.” Neither my mother, endearingly called “Nick” by Hendsey in the receipt, nor I can say whether that book belonged to my grandfa- ther or to my father, who had by then himself become an antique book- seller and had perhaps found a signed copy of Stevens’ work elsewhere. The “Memorandum” tells of the frustration my grandfather felt at the hands of Stevens, particularly in an era when one’s career was tied to a long tenure with just one company. I am happy its contents can be re- vealed here, as it is both an additional insight into Stevens and a tribute to my grandfather’s struggle with him. 4 THE WALLACE STEVENS JOURNAL Memorandum Knowing, from eighteen years of association, how vindictive and cruel Mr. Stevens has been to all those who have had the audacity to oppose him or express opinions or views contrary to his, it seems necessary to make a memorandum of an episode which occurred on Friday January 3, 1947. I do this in order that there may be a record, made at the time of the occurrence and while the matter is fresh in my recollection, should there be any distortion of the facts by Mr. Stevens at perhaps some remote date in any retaliation by him against me. It first seems necessary to indulge in some self analysis and to review some past events in order that the mood I was in on January 3, 1947 may be understood. I think I am only normally ambitious. I have looked for success only through my superior Mr. Stevens, it not being in my nature to seek success through other quarters. I have made progress in my eighteen years with the company, but it has been slow with long waiting periods between salary increases. There was never much joy in receiving increases because of the ungracious manner in which Mr. Stevens granted them. They were usually ac- companied with expressions of doubt that I was entitled to them and statements to the effect that it would be a long time before I got another. While I have no complaint concerning my present salary, having received a salary increase in 1946, I nevertheless feel that by comparable standards with promotions generally during the past few years, I have not achieved the success which my accomplish- ments have warranted. This is not to say that I have any grievance with the company or that I am envious of any of the men here who in recent years have been recognized by promotion. That I should re- sent Mr. Stevens’ failure to allow me in that company I consider per- fectly normal. At the same time Mr.