Richard Wright Newsletter

Volume 6, Number 2 Spring/Summer 1998 THE INTERVIEW ISSUE Featuring conversations with Wright Scholars Michel Fabre and Hazel Rowley

Iowa, the University of Missis­ MICHEL FABRE sippi, and the University of Lon­ BY MARYEMMA GRAHAM don, Michel is afrequent traveler Contents of this Issue to the u.s. Likewise, African Americans traveling to Paris have Cover feature: been frequent visitors in the Fabres' home. This interview A recent interview with Michel was conducted in their home at Fabre in Paris ...... I 12 Montsouris, Paris, France, September 27, 1997. Letter from the Editors ...... 2 Wright News: New Marker at * * * Wright'S Natchez home ...... 3 MG: Your biography of Rich­ ard Wright is still considered the An interview with Hazel Rowley ... .. 6 definitive biography of Richard Wright. It has made its own Richard Wright alld the Book-of~the- history and I wanted to know Month Club by Mark Madigan ...... 9 what your sense of that history is, how you see the book since its Conferences and Symposia ...... 12 Michel Fabre is currently profes­ publication? Has it had the im­ Plus the latest Richard Wright sor emeritus at the Universite de pact you wanted it to have? Bibliographic Supplement! Paris IIi. He is a renowned Wright MF: The book has created its scholar whose career began with own history. I was given the his acclaimed biography Richard chance to rewrite the book when Wright: Unfinished Quest (1973, it was republished by the U niver­ recently published by the Uni­ 1993), Fabre along with his wife sity of Illinois Press, but I didn't versity Press of Mississippi, a Genevieve, also a noted scholar of feel I wanted to. I changed a few book which took us three years to AfricanAmerican CllltllreJounded things which were factual errors get published. the Centre d'Etudes Afro-Ameri­ pointed out to me by people and MG: How do you see your bi­ caines et des Nouvelles Litteratures that was all. I suppose because I ography in relationship to the en Anglais (CETANLA), which has don't want to say I was tired of other biographies that have ap­ served as an academic and cultural Wright, but for some twenty years peared? center sponsoring symposia and I had been inundated with infor­ MF: Ifelt Margaret Walker did conferences. Other wo rks. by Fabre mation on Wright so I knew that a biography and had a different include The World of Richard much work was going on. I felt side. I disagreed with her on Wright (1985), Richard Wright: that this was very good, and it many points, but still think what Books and Writers (1990), From was important for me to let the she has to say must be taken into Harlem to Paris: Black American book go the way it was. I worked account. Eugene E. Miller did a Writers in France, 1840-1980 with Keneth Kinnamon on Con­ book on Wright's style, a very ( 1991), and The French Critical versations with Richard Wright. good book on Wright's style. I Reception of African American I worked with Robert Skinner on would say the more the better es­ Literature from the Beginnings to Himes, and with Edward Margo­ pecially when it's written by lies, I wrote a biography, The 1970: An Annotated Bibliography people who are really good schol- Several Lives of Chester Himes, (1995). Having been at Harvard, (continued page 4)

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 1 From the Editors The Richard Wright Newsletter After seven years of pro­ I am very excited to end the is published biannuaUy by ducing the Richard Wright News­ Richard Wright Newsletter's Northeastern University letter, we are passing the editing tenure at Northeastern Univer­ Department of English duties on to James A. Miller of sity with this issue, featuring 480 Nightingale Hall The George Washington Univer­ interviews with Michel Fabre, , Boston, MA 02115 sity. We thank the graduate stu­ noted Wright scholar and biog­ Phone: (617) 373-4549 dents at Northeastern University rapher, and Hazel Rowley, who Fax: (617) 373-2509 who have served as editorial as­ is approaching Wright's life and E-mail: [email protected],edu sistants for their dedicated and work from a new and different invaluable work; Diane Putnam perspective. Each interview EDITORS deserves special thanks for her reveals the writer/researcher at Maryemma Graham, Northeast­ superb work under pressure. work and serves as an exceUent ern University Members of the RWN Advisory model for approaching Wright Jerry W. Ward, Jr., University Board have given us much needed and biography in general. of Memphisffougaloo support throughout the years as This issue also contains a College have Julia Wright and Keneth very interesting piece which Kinnamon, our official bibliog­ details Native Son's controver­ EDITORIAL ASSISTANT rapher. And, of course, we are tial candidacy for the Book-of­ Diane Putnam, Northeastern indebted to members of the Rich­ the-Month Club in 1940. The University ard Wright Circle for the finan­ discussion about and alterations INTERN Keisha Winston cial and intellectual contributions of the novel that came out of to the newsletter. that debate serve as a reminder September 4, 1998 marks 1996-99 ADVISORY BOARD of the kind of fear provoked by Robert Butler Wright's 90th birthday. We en­ a character like Bigger Thomas Thadious Davis courage members to organize and what lies behind that fear Y oshinobu Hakutani student symposia or to sponsor for some readers. The Club's Keneth Kinnamon, Bibliogra- lectures on Wright's legacy at judges and their positions are pher their institutions. We ask also explored and reveal much about Alessandro Porte Hi that members review our sugges­ popular literature and the racial Yvonne Robinson Jones tions in the Spring/ Summer 1997 climate of the 1940's in Amer­ Arnritjit Singh issue for the Richard Wright ica. Centenary (2008). As for myself, I am ex­ FOUNPINGMEMBERS Our work has been stimulat­ tremely pleased and proud to Margaret Walker Alexander ing and rewarding, but we must have worked on the Richard Samuel Allen now turn our energies to new Wright Newsletter for the past Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) projects. We give our blessings two years. Thanks to Ma­ Michel Fabre to James A. Miller as he engaged ryemma Graham and Jerry Maryemma Graham a new scholarly challenge. We Ward, who have always been Jerry W. Ward, Jr. are confident that the newsletter patient and trusting, and from J ulia Wright will continue to be a source of whom I've learned a good deal. information and inspiration for I will continue to follow the ©1998 RWC the study and teaching of Wright's Circle and Richard Wright stud­ life, works, and enduring legacy. ies even as I move on to a new The editors welcome all news place and a new position this relevant to the life and work of Richard Wright. The Richard Maryemma Graham upcoming year. Jerry W. Ward, Jr. Wright Circle is supported by the departments of African Diane Putnam American Studies and English Editorial Assistant at Northeastern University.

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 2 Wright News

New Marker for Richard Wright in Natchez

FROM THE NEW EDITOR:

To the members of the Richard Wright Circle:

When Maryemma Graham and Jerry W. Ward, Jr. asked me to assume the editorship of the Richard Wright Newsletter, I agreed to do so without any hesitation. In its seven years of existance, the Newsletter has Photos come Courtesy of the City of Natchez not only demonstrated the con­ tinuing relevance of Richard Wri crht's work to contemporary At 20 E. Woodlawn Street in The Richard Wright Circle is and social issues, it has cult~ral Natchez, Mississippi, a marker grateful to these students for so also helped to shape the current was unveiled on February 20, meaningful a contribution to resurgence of Wright scholar­ 1998 to identify the "Childhood keeping the memory of Richard ship. I look forward to continu­ home of noted American author Wright and his legacy alive. ing the tradition of excellence Richard Wright, while he lived established by my predecessors. with grandparents Richard and Beginning in September, 1998, * * * Margaret Wilson in the Wood­ *Mississippi Department of Archi ves the new home of the Richard lawn neighborhood. Author of and History, 1998. Wright Circle and Newsletter NativeSoll and BlackBoy, Wright will be: was born outside Natchez in ru­ ral Adams County in 1908. His Department of English, lifelong quest for freedom led The George Washington him to Paris, France, where he University died in 1960."* Washington, D.C. 20052 Students from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sci­ I look forward to working with ence raised $900.00 toward the you. cost of the marker; the Historic Natchez Foundation matched James A. Miller. with a $400.00 donation. Ac­ cording to Rob Jolly, a senior at MSMS, the students had two motives. They wished to show appreciation to Natchez for host­ ing them during their annual fiel.d trips and to demonstrate then pride in Wright's contributions to American letters.

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 3 ars. We need different outlooks from other scholars especially on those things I only sketched. About two or three years ago, I was contacted by an Australian woman Hazel Rowley, who was interested in Richard Wright and was very hesitant about approach­ ing me because she thought there might be some competition. So when she approached me, I asked myself how I was going to deal with it. And I felt that I should let her have access to all I have since it's much easier to find documents here which are otherwise scattered all over the world. Everyone was discouraging her at the time, and I encouraged her to go on with it. I read her biography on Christina Stead and knew she could do good a great poet and writer from those at home in the U.S. as well work. So I let her use my archives. Martinique has written a won­ as abroad. MG: What has been happening derful book on Faulkner, which I MF: Ernest Gaines is becom­ in France in terms of Wright Stud­ think will be translated very soon. ing big here. His last book, A ies and the study of American lit­ MG: What other African Lesson Before Dying, is fantas­ erature generally? American writers are popular tic. And there are a number of MF: Wright seems to be in a among the French readers? others writers being translated, stable position, and he is taught as MF: After James Baldwin died, like John Wideman. he used to be taught when my sec­ there was renewed interest in MG: You are suggesting that ond son was in high school. High Baldwin. Now the African one of the reasons these writers school literature courses mostly American writer who is being are becoming more widely known teach Black Boy. Recently there studied most is Toni Morrison, is their accessibility? has been a dissertation on Wright and it's overwhelming. I have MF: Yes, accessibility is key. and essentialism by an African already sat on twenty panels and AU of Gaines' books have been scholar and another scholar work­ directed a couple of dissertations published in French, so he is more ing on Wright in France. Fitzger­ on her. known by people. A French ald is still big and I recently went to MG: How would youjudge the publisher, Liana Levi, took a a Faulkner commemoration and a quality of this work? chance on Gaines and they have similar one on Hemingway. MF: Some of them are good, done very welL Edouard Glissant, a black man and but not very original. They bring MG: What do you think of something new in terms of style Wideman? r;:======:::;-] and linguistics, bu t they often do MF: He reminds me of Wole not have a deep understanding of Soyinka who uses images as I'm currently working more the context which Americans concepts. His metaphors are very have. conceptual. He picks metaphors on African American writ­ MG: Morrison is certainly just more because of their meaning. I ers in Europe, where as popular or more so as an Ameri­ think Wideman is one of the few can dissertation and thesis topic. people who can use postmoder­ Wright is again central. What about other writers who are nist techniques while at the same The notion ofAfrican being read, if not necessarily time keep you very strongly re­ Americans in Paris has being written about? One of the lated to what is really going on in things we are trying to do in the his books. become very big. newsletter is expose readers to a MG: Are there African Ameri­ wider range of writers, and espe­ can writers we need to be aware c======::::J cially the lesser known writers, of?

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 4 MF: I'm currently working France, along with our U.S. sub­ part of a TV series on 200 writ­ more on African American writ­ scribers. One of our strategies ers, "Un siecle d' ecrivains". ers in Europe, where Wright is has been to send bulk copies of MG: Final words. What will again central. The notion of the newsletter with peop]e who we see coming from Michel Fabre African Americans in Paris has teach in the less conventional next? become very big. There is James places (like prisons) and we dis­ MF: Jack Moore is editing an Emmanuel, a fine poet living in tribute newsletters to conferences issue of Mississippi Quarterly on Paris, who's sort of been forgot­ where there is a constituency the international reception of ten, I think. I was sorry to see that interested in African American Wright and I am helping him he wasn't included in the Norton literature. J ulia Wright is sent with it. The new Street Guide to Anthology of African American bulk copies for distribution as African Americans ill Paris that I Literature. But a film is being well. The result is that the News­ prepared with John A. Williams done on him. And he's going on letter has a mixed audience: is being distributed by The Du a tour to read poetry in Syria. A people who are just plain readers, Bois Book Center (PO Box 776, film is also being made on Afri­ Richard Wright scholars, students Englewood, NJ, 0763 1-0776). can American Writers in Paris, who get turned on through a class­ Many people approach me from and they mostly focus on Wright. room assignment. We have in­ the States about African Ameri­ The film is called "Un Sang vited all these to share their re­ cans in Europe but now I am d'encre" andis made by a French­ sponses to reading/teaching mostly working on the culture of man, Jacques Goldstein, and a Wright. Is there anything else the French-speaking Afro-Cre­ Malian, Blaise Ndjehoya. An­ you can think of that we need to oles in Louisiana in the nine­ other important poet is Dudley tell our readers? teenth century. Randall, who was also left out of MF: The prison writer is an the Anthology. A film about him interesting topic, and there is a 00 was shown at the conference in new book coming out by Jerry Tenerife. I think it was done by Bryant on prison writing, which Editor's note: In 1995, Michel Melba Boyd. includes Himes' and Wright's Fabre published African Ameri­ MG: Is Barbara Chase-Riboud work. Bruce Dick is also work­ can Literature: Critical Recep­ still actively writing? ing on Wright and theatre. And tion in France, a must for MF: Yes, she wrote a sequel there is a documentary film on anyone contemplating work on to Sally Hel1lings, but she is bus­ Wright being done in France; itis any African American author. ier now with her art and sculp­ ture. She wrote Echo ofLions, on the Amistad mutiny. MG: Amistadwas produced by Steven Spielberg and Debbie Allen, who worked closely with the whole project. MF: She's black? I knew that John Hope Franklin went to the site to give advice. MG: There has been a major controvery over this film, which will be out in December. We shall have to see what unfolds. * * * MG: We know that Wright is being read all over the world. In fact, we have begun to publish responses from readers of Wright wherever they encounter him. We now have readers in Indonesia, Turkey, Germany, Japan and Spring/Summer 1998 Page 5 An interview with ... picture ofthe United States when HR: There are dozens ofbiog­ she visited in 1947 than the stan­ raphies of writers likeJ ane Austen dard tourist version, and that inter­ and Virginia Woolf and D.H. ested me. My first biography Lawrence. Biography is a form HAZEL ROWLEY was of Christina Stead, the Aus­ of interpretation: your view of a tralian expatriate writer. She lived BY MARYEMMA GRAHAM particular person is never going in New York in the late 30s and to be the same as mine. In fac t, it 40s, married to William Blake, is very rewarding to read the an American of German-Jewish existing biographies of Wright descent who was active in com­ (or sections of them) alongside munist circles. Richard Wright each other. Each biographer has occasionally called in at their quite different personal baggage apartment to talk politics with and they each approach Wright Bill Blake. Richard Holmes, the from a quite different perspec­ British biographer, once com­ tive. Mine will be different again. mented that the subject of his MG: What obstacles are you next biography always seems to confronting with this biography? be someone who played a minor HR: The biggest obstacle is role in his previous book. That that so many people are dead. I seems to be true for me this time! do not have the privilege that MG: What is it about his life earlier biographers had of meet­ Hazel Rowley was born in London that compels you to write about ing many of the people who knew and brought up in England and him? Wright, who could have given Australia. Her biography of HR: I admire Wright -- as a me their personal impressions. Christina Stead (New York, Henry powerful writer and as a public On the other hand, I have the Holt, 1994) won several prizes in intellectual on the left, who had benefit of awesome hard work Australia and was a New York the courage to say what most done by previous Wright schol­ TimesNotable Bookfor 1994. Until people do not dare even to think. ars, and luckily for me, they have recently, she was a Senior Lec­ His writing provoked passionate been very generous. turer at Deakin University, Mel­ responses, from deep admiration MG: How does your back­ bourne. She is currently an Inde­ to vehement hostility. He has been ground--white, female, Au tra­ pendent Scholar. This interview a model and an anti-model to lian--provide a perspective dif­ was conducted in April, 1998. several generations of black writ­ ferent from others? ers. Why such passion around HR: Distance can be a good this man? This has me interested. thing. Especially with such a red­ * * * As someone who has spent hot subject as Richard Wright. I years of my life outside Australia think it is useful to be outside the --mostly in Europe--I have al­ American racial divide. Austra­ MG: You are writing a new ways felt like an expatriate. I lia has a shamefully racist his­ biography of Richard Wright. often muse about the psychologi­ tory, which partly accounts for How did you become interested in cal and emotional state of exile. the fact that the country I was him? Christina Stead never felt at home (partly) brought up in was basi­ HR: I read Black Boy years ago, anywhere, but she was extraordi­ cally white. But it means that in my twenties, when I was read­ narily adaptable and more or less people in my milieu (the edu­ ing a number of autobiographies felt at home everywhere. Rich­ cated, urban middle-class) have for a PhD on autobiographical ard Wright is probably the most simply not had the opportunity to writing and Simone de Beauvoir. extreme 'exile' you'll ever find. develop the prejudices we might Black Boy more than moved me; it He was made to feel an outsider have developed if we had been marked me. Then there was the in his own country. Like many brought up in the United States. intriguing picture of Wright and 'exiles,' he came to embrace this My friends there are often more his family in Beauvoir's America outsider status. interested in black America than Day By Day. Through Wright, MG: Why do you think we in white America, We have never Beauvoir saw a quite different need another biography? thought of black Americans as

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 6 anything other than people. We live in times when we things are more important than a People who are both American shared experience. [ do have a and something else too-- so dou- are supposed only to be useful intellectua1backg round for bly interesting. able to understand our this book. Having written on Black critics, in particular, own group--white or Simone de Beauvoir and have found it hard to accept Christina Stead, both of whom Wright's sometimes negative black, homosexual, were exact contemporaries of portrayal of black characters in heterosexual or whatever. Wright's, I am well acquainted his fiction, his interracial mar- But this theory takes no with the times, and the debates riages, and his leaving the coun- around communism, Existential- try for France. I can note these account of the serious ism, and Cold War politics. It things without feeling personally divisions within groups. . helps, for dealing with Wright's angry or disappointed. I can ab- .. And it takes no period in France, that I speak solutely understand why African account of the power French. I have lots of curiosity Americans are often rather pro- and a dogged persistence: I scriptive about each other's be- of imagination. . . . would say they are important havior; so much is at stake; so Or mutual goodwill. prerequisites for writing a biog- much depends on black solidar- L.::::======::...J ra phy. ity. MG: Will this be an academic MG: What does it mean not to book? have a background in the African tion to Wright is that he wanted to HR: I hope the book will ap­ American experience? Every create bridges, not blow them up. peal to the intelligent general other Wright biographer has had Having said that, not having reader, which includes academ­ this background or a strong rela- an African-American back- ics. My first draft is so far too tionship to the experience: Kin- ground certainly means that I have laden down with detail, but I hope namon, Fabre are African Ameri- to do an enormous amount of by the time I've finished to have can specialists by training; Webb background reading and sensi- an absorbing narrative that wears was actively involved in the black tive listening. But, you know, all its scholarship lightly. political movement and was mar- biographers have to do this. Even I must say, it's more difficul t ried to a black man; Walker is if I was born around the same with Richard Wright than it was black and -a poet and scholar of time as Wright and shared the ex- with Christina Stead to have my the black experience. perience of Mississippi and Chi- reader in mind, because this time HR: I have had to grapple with cago with him, there is no guar- I hope to have black readers and my defensiveness on this score. antee that I could get inside white readers. and white readers We live in times when we are Wright's head better than some- are less familiar with names like supposed only to be able to under- one else. It doesn't seem as if his Arna Bontcmps or words Ii kc stand our own group--white or own brother could. 'ofay.' What do I do') I havc to black, homosexual, heterosexual Michel Fabre, by the way, find some way around this proh­ or whatever. Butthis theory takes was not an African Americanspe- lem, which is what Wright him­ no account of the serious divi- cialist when he started his proj- self had to do. It's what black sions within groups. (For ex- ect; he became so through his writers writing in a mainly white ample, I really resent Anais Nin work. One always has to start publishing world have always had saying she is writing on behalf of somewhere, and I can think of no to do. all women. She is not writing on better starting place than a pas- MG: Are you hoping for an behalf of me!) And it takes no sionate interest. Then you ex- authorized biography? Will that account of the power of imagina- plore the questions that spring title still be held by Fabre? tion. (What better portraits of up. How does this writing spring HR: Ellen Wright trusted women than Flaubert's Madame out of that life? Where are the Michel Fabre with the sorting of Savary or Tolstoy's Anna Karen- connections? What are the recur- Wright's papers; no one will ever ina?) Or mutual goodwill. (My ring patterns in the life and work? write another 'authorized biogra- two closest friends could hardly Writing, at its most exciting, is phy' of Richard Wright in the be further from my own cultural an act of exploration. sense that Fabre did. But I have background.) Part of my attrac- I personally believe that other (continued next page)

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 7 (Rowley, continued) Wright Essay had several fruitful meetings with Ellen Wright, and I very much Native Son and the Book .. of-the-Month Club hope to talk to Julia Wright. (This selection was excerpted from a longer essay) MG: How do you think today's obsession with indiscreet per­ by MARK MADIGAN sonal detail will affect the writ­ University of Vermont, Burlington ing and ultimate reception of this biography? Does it tempt you? Native Son was the first book Canfield Fisher, a 61 -year-old HR: I'm interested in the total by a Black author to be selected White woman from an upper­ person, not in salacious detail for by the Book-of-the-Month Club middle-class background, and a its own sake. I personally like bi­ or, as a matter of fact, to be se­ best-selling popular novelist; ographies to be 'dignified,' and I lected by any American book Henry Seidel Canby, a former think this depends as much on the club. Whether or not the Book­ Yale professor in English, also in biographer as on the subject. of-the-Month Club ever consid­ his sixties, and the founder of the MG: There is considerable dis­ ered the works of Black authors Saturday Review of Literature; cussion about the role of the bi­ before 1940 is uncertain, but the the 72-year-old William Allen ographer in reconstructing the life evidence suggests that if it did, it White, a long-time editor of the of an individual. What are some certainly never came close to Kansas Emporia Gazette, a po­ of the pitfalls you've learned to making one a Book ofthe Month. litical analyst, and also a writer of watch out for? The reasons for this are not hard popular books for which he re­ HR: The main one, I think, is to imagine. First of all, when one ceived two Pulitzer prizes; and putting in everything. When you considers how conservatively the finally Christopher Morley, a 50- come across another detail in club behaved right from the be­ year-old journalist and long-time some obscure journal in some ginning with White authors them­ colleague of Canby at the SRL. faraway archive, it is tempting to selves, it is not surprising that it Fisher and Canby were by far the put it in. But ultimately, I am was even more conservative with two most influential members of more interested in conveying the Black authors. Who among the theboard and were responsible sweep of Wright's life and the readers of the club would care to for many of its final decisions. spirit of the man than in tracking read them and did the judges As soon as Native SOil ar­ his every movement like an FBI themselves care? There is some rived at the offices of the Book­ agent. indication that at least one did, of-the-Month Club, Dorothy MG: When is your projected Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who Canfield Fisher read the novel in completion date? When will we served as a judge in the literary manuscript and reported to see the book? contests of the Opportunity and Meredith Wood that she was HR: I am due to pass the book Crisis magazines of the twenties. "enormously interested by it ," to my publishers, Henry Holt, in What then were the circum­ though "not at all sure what I' d June :WOO . I think - I hope! - that stances that created the condi­ thinkofitasachoice." "Canyou I'm just about on schedule. tions necessary for the selection tell me something abollt the au­ of Native SOil? How was it that thor?" she asked [I]. As she later the Book-of-the-Month Club, a explained in a 1956 interview, pretty conservative literary insti­ " ... that year ( 1940), there was a 00 tution from the start, went out of very controversia~ book, again its way to pick what was not only something written from the in­ its first book by a Black author side, almost for the first time: but also what can safely be de­ Richard Wright's book, Native scribed as one of the most daring Son . . . . It was a disturbing and novels ever written by a Black dreadful topic: the life of a poor author up until that time? Negro in a highly industrialized First, let us take a look at city, Chicago, by a Negro who some of the initial reactions of had lived in that life and had been the judges who sat on the board at brought up in it but who also was that time -- namely: Dorothy a very gifted writer. It was the

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 8 already knew that oppression think that the book was appropri­ Whether or not the could generate fear and violence ate for a seventeen-year-old to Book-of-the-Month Club but that racial oppression could, read. ever considered the under certain circumstances, lead Then, on top of that, for to such violent actions and crimes Wright to have chosen the young, works of Black authors as those that are depicted in the rich, good looking, White Mary before 1940 is uncertain, novel was rather shocking news. Dalton as the catalyst of Bigger's but the evidence The connection between race, assault on White America--un­ violence, and sex was empha­ premeditated as that assault is-­ suggests that, if it did, sized in another comment that was nothing short (on Wright's it certainly never came Fisher made in the interview. The part) of a crime against White close to making one a novel, she pointed out, came America's most precious icon. In Book of the Month. "pretty early in the discussion of this respect, I think it is particu­ the race situation, when there had larly interesting that Fisher been very little crack in the solid thought mainly in terms of her first book of that kind which had crust of prejudice against the daughter when she said that the come out, telling with savage Negro, and we were not sure that book was inappropriate for a sev­ frankness not only what it meant the book would be at all accept­ enteen year old to read, even to be poor and downtrodden in able, because it wasn't--and by its though she also had a son. With­ the industrial world, but a Negro. nature, couldn't be--the kind of out wanting to stretch things too And it did not spare the reader book which could be given to my far, it seems that Fisher felt that any of the tragedy, hOITor, fear seventeen year old daughter." [3]. Mary could have been her daugh­ which the true depiction of a What could have made the novel ter--which certainly would have human being, forced into a situ­ so unsuitable for Fisher's daugh­ caused some of the fears that she ation of hopelessness, always ter to read in the context of the talked about in the interview. creates in the reader [2]. racial climate of the late thirties? Disturbing as Native Son was, Adjectives and phrases like First of all, when the novel Fisher found the novel to be "disturbing," "dreadful," and came out, White Americans generally convincing. It was, as "savage frankness" show just how generally knew very little about she said, "a true depiction of a troubled Fisher was by what she the living conditions of Black human being, forced into a situ­ read. In her comments, she did Americans in the cities, even ation of hopelessness" [my em­ not really specify what it was that though they were the ones who phasis]. Herevaluation was based troubled her, aside from the over­ created these conditions. The so­ on the fact that Wright, as she all feeling of "tragedy, horror, called "Great Migration" was still indicated, had written "from the [and] fear" that the novel created underway and Northern segrega­ inside" and that contemporary so­ in her (and here it is important to tion limited social contact be­ ciological studies backed up what emphasize that she is talking tween Whites and Blacks outside he said. Wright therefore had about her own fears, the fears that the South. Furthermore, White treated a contemporary issue tbat the novel aroused in her--not Northerners often continued to had immediate relevance to the Bigger's fears), but her emphasis believe that racism was primarily times and he had done so in a on the hopelessness of Bigger's a Southern problem and that the truthful manner. situation suggests that this feel­ North was in comparison far more Following Fisher's lead in his ing of" tragedy, hOITor, [and] fear" liberal than the South. In this review of Native Son for the came especially from realizing context, Bigger was a startling Book-of-the-Month Club News, that Bigger's social condition, his revelation, a clear statement that Henry Seidel Canby argued that condition of racial and class the North was in many ways not the theme of the novel was "the oppression combined, could cre­ much better than the South, if mind of the Negro we see every ate the kind of fear and violence less overtly racist, in some re­ day; whose emotion is the emo­ that explode in the unintentional spects. Like Fisher, most White tion of that native born under the killing of Mary Dalton, in the American readers of that time stress of a social situation diffi­ way Bigger subsequently dis­ were not prepared for the vio­ cult in the extreme ... " [my em­ poses of her body, and in the lence that Wright argued was gen­ phasis] [4]. Bigger, he wrote, is deliberate and very brutal rape erated by Bigger's environment, "the essential Negro-in-America" and murder of Bessie, Bigger's which was undoubtedly one of for both the North and the South girlfriend. Undoubtedly, Fisher the reasons why Fisher did not in modern times. Spring/Summer 1998 Page 9 (Book-of-the-Mollth Club, cont. ) thought, and what they wanted, if despite his stereotyping of Big­ they wanted more than we gave ger Thomas, he was not totally To understand what Canby them, was not significant. They unimpressed by Wright's argu­ meant by "the essential Negro­ lived, naturally, in slums of their ment that Bigger was to a large in-America" in the context of the own, where it always smelled extent a product of his environ­ 1940s, one first needs to take a 'darky,' and they were supposed ment. In another review he wrote look at the autobiography he to like it that way. Perhaps they of the novel for the Saturday wrote in 1947, American Mem­ did" [5]. Review of Literature, he admit­ oir, in which he recalled the happy One can say without any hesi­ ted that Wright had asked an days of his upper-middle class tation that the "essential Negro" important and relevant question­ childhood in his native town of of Canby's childhood memories -namely, what could America do Wilmington, Delaware, at the turn was the stereotypical "sambo," about Bigger Thomas?--and that of the century, and where he "mammy," "coon," "pickan­ he had done so in such a way that described what might be called ninny," that originated with the one could not dismiss Bigger as a "the essential Negro" of his child­ institution of slavery and perme­ mere victim of his own flaws [6]. hood, such as he perceived him. ated American culture for dec­ What "first concerns vice and All the good families in town, ades, as Marlon Rigg's documen­ violence and crime," he wrote in he explains, had "Negro wait­ tary film, Ethnic Notions, has so that review, "slowly becomes ers," and this is how he remem­ well demonstrated. To say the ethical, political, and psychologi­ bered them in the autobiography: least, Canby's description is jam­ cal, without once separating it­ "they would steal little things and packed with these stereotypical self from an intensely human lie, but in important matters they images, along with stereotypes context." Wright asked ques­ could be trusted. They sang spiri­ of black ignorance, incompe­ tions, he stated, that called for tuals while they polished the tence, uncleanliness, deceitful­ "the responsibility for some an­ knives in the pantry, and only ness, and so on and so forth. swer." Had Canby completely ha-ha-ed when a watermelon rind In this context, Canby's defi­ rejected Bigger as a victim of hi s found a mark in the wool. Their nition of Bigger as the "essential own self, he would not have felt wives, who did the washing, Negro-in-America" for the any sense of responsibility to­ helped when we had company, 1940s" was the antithesis of what wards him. filling the kitchens with chuckles he remembered from the days of There was at least one person when they came. They were part his childhood. Bigger, he reveal­ on the board who strongly ob­ of Us, molded to our needs, a ingly wrote in his review, "is jected to the novel and was to­ powerful element in that easy mean; he is a coward; he is on tally opposed to the idea of se­ good-humor which ran all round occasion liar, thief, and bully." lecting it. William Allen White, the town. When they were sick From the first, "he is a bad actor," as one biographer has shown, or destitute, we took care of them or, as he said, in another part of believed that "the functi on of the if they were our darkies, but of the review, a "bad nigger," and judges who selected books" was course what they thought, if they even though Canby used quota­ primarily "to pick books that most tion marks around the phrase to exactly suited their customers." suggest its inappropriateness, his These customers, White argued, In this context, Bigger very description of Bigger indi­ were "average intelligent Ameri­ cates that he was unable to make cans, who had had college train­ was a startling a clear distinction between the ing ortheequivalent," who "knew revelation, a clear stereotype and the social reality something of the artistic currents statement that the that lay behind it. In describing of the day, were occasionally Bigger, Canby once again fell interested in politics, and were North was in many back on stereotypes, particularly familiar with the classics," but ways not much post -slavery stereotypes of Black who did not "appreciate subtlety, better than the South, men as violent creatures who are made impatient by stylists, if less overtly racist, needed to be held in check. and are not much interested by So what did Canby like about fashions, by newness [7]. They in some respects. the novel that might have per­ also did not like books with" dirt" suaded him to endorse it? Well in them. "Dirt" is how White

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 10 referred to anything that he con­ ready had one book published by there was definitely a feeling there sidered inappropriate in litera­ 1940, a collection of short stories that the club was going out on a ture--an overemphasis on the entitled Uncle Tom's Children, limb with this book, not knowing seamy side of life, for example, which came out in 1938 and was how it would come out. As it too much violence, too much sex, generally well received by the turns out, the club did not lose etc. critics when Harper published it subscribers--perhaps a few but Not surprisingly, then, White that year. there is no evidence of a major was totally against Wright and And, even before the publi­ drop out--and nobody wrote that his novel. "I am hardboiled and cation of the book, Wright had the novel "wasn't fit for his sev­ mean in my tremendous dislike received a literary award for his enteen year old daughter to read, of Native Son as Book of the short stories; among the judges although it certainly was not," Month choice," he wrote in a who gave Wright the award was Fisher quips at the end of the telegram to the club. "It would no other than Harry Scherman, interview, but the club had taken queerus with alargecrowd. Why the founder and president of the chances, and in doing so, it made take a questionable book when Book-of-the-Month Club. a significant contribution to the you have a dozen sure shots? The decision to select Native contemporary debate on race Now is not the time to cross the Son was historically significant, relations in America. Rubicon on the dirt question." even though it may not have been [8] What is certain is that, if it motivated by purely selfless rea­ 00 had only been for him, Native sons, and even though we do Son would not have become a know that Wright had to pay a NOTES: Book of the Month in 1940. price for it. As documented by Why then did the board as a Arnold Rampersad, the selection [1] See, for example, David whole decide to select the novel? was contingent upon Wright's Levering Lewis, When Harlem First and foremost, I think that agreement to making changes in Was in Vogue (New York: Ox­ Native SOI1 conveyed a sense of his manuscript, the main cuts ford University Press, 1989), 113 . urgency. Here was a novel, as involving the sexual explicitness [2] Dorothy Canfield Fisher, let­ both Fisher and Canby empha­ of the novel which was not en­ ter to Meredith Wood, August sized, that had immediate rele­ tirely censored but considerably 24, 1939, Dorothy Canfield vance to what was going on in toned down. These imposed Fisher Papers, University of American society at the time with conditions do take away from the Vermont, Box 23, Folder 5. respect to race relations and that historical meaningfulness of the [3] Dorothy Canfield Fisher, raised issues that would need to selection. It is also true, how­ interview, Oral History Project, be addressed by the nation if the ever, that the club did select the Columbia University, 1956, 88- problems represented by Bigger's novel when it couM have chosen 89. experience were to go away. to play safe. As William Allen [4] Ibid, 89. I also think that in the proc­ White asked, "Why take a ques­ [5] Henry Seidel Canby, review ess of discussing the appropriate­ tionable book when you have a ofNative Son, Book-olthe-Month ness of making Native Son a se­ dozen sure shots?" The club did Club News, February 1940,2-3. lection of the Book -of-the-Month run the risk of creating an unwel­ [6] Henry Seidel Canby, Ameri­ Club, thejudges on the board had come controversy among its read­ can Memoir, (Boston: Houghton to consider the fact that the novel ers and of losing subscribers as a Mifflin Co., 1947), 16-17. offered them a chance to do the result. To quote one last time [7] Henry Seidel Canby, review right thing, namely to recognize, from Dorothy Canfield Fisher's of Native Son, Saturday Review for the first time in their history, 1956 interview, this was "a red­ of Literature, 23 March, 1940, 8. the work of a Black writer who hot-poker" and "we weren't sure [8] See Walter Johnson, William was not only an apt commentator we were going to manage it." In Allen White's America (New on the racial situation of his time fact, even the publishers, just York: Henry Holt & Co., 1947) but also a talented artist, a fact before the book came out, "began 494; and, Robert Van Gelder, that both Canby and Fisher agreed to get alarmed too, fearing that it "William Allen White Talks of on. would be taken as just horror for Writing and Reading," The New In making its decision, the its own sake." That is when they York Times Book Review, Jan. board may have been encouraged asked her if she would write an 14,1940. by the factthat Wright had al- introduction to the book. So, Spring/Summer 1998 Page 11 Conferences and Symposia

CLA 1998

Abstract from Session 22: Conference of the Society for the Morality, Spirituality and Racial Study of Southern Literature Representation Charleston, 16 April 1998

"The Southern Tradition: Representation of Race in the "The Third Life of Grange Copeland: Alice Walker's debate Work of William Faulkner with Richard Wright's Native Son in the creation of an and Richard Wright" imaginative path to masculinity."

by CANDICE M. LOVE by ANN SUTCLIFFE University of North Carolina, Keele University Chapel Hill In The Third Life ofGrange Copeland (1970), Alice Walker dem­ The uniqueness of Southern lit­ onstrates the impossibility of African American men achieving erature as a subcategory of fully socially recognised masculinity in the South. Escaping "American" literature often lies sharecropping and constant white surveillance in the South, in its racial representation. Afri­ Grange, alienated and marginalised, is shocked by his invisibility can American writers and An­ to whites in the North. In her attempt to create a masculine identity glo-American writers, depending for Grange, Walker reworks Bigger Thomas' initiation in Richard upon their collective and individ­ Wright's Native Son (1940). Both characters "accidentally" kill ual experiences, portray the South white women and are responsible for the deaths of "their" black as they lived it; it is possible that women. Both reject the accidental nature of the white deaths the South never truly material­ because they feel more powerful as murderers. Both Grange and izes in the literature. Differences Bigger believe their subsequent enlightenment has bestowed between African American and clear-sightedness not shared by those around them. However, white Southern literature can be whilst Wright can only lead Bigger (dreaming of masculine investigated by examining works solidarity) to the electric chair, Walker (writing after sixties civil by William Faulkner and Rich­ rights) returns her hero to the South to create a sanctuary in which ard Wright, two of the South's to raise his grand daughter, Ruth. Although he eventually dies most prominent authors who attempting to secure her freedom, the reader believes that, in his dared to tackle the issue of race in lasf life, Grange has benefited from his enlightenment. America. My work-in-progress addresses the racial involvement Whilst critics have noted a connection with Native 5011 in Walker's in Faulkner's The Sound and the , first novel, there has been little consideration of how Walkercrea­ Fury, Light in August, and Go tively reconstructs Wright's narrative. My paper reconsidered the Down Moses and focuses on connection which, I believe, places Walker with other African Wright's Native Son, The Out­ American Women writers who rework earlier narratives (both sider, and The Long Dream, black and white) to represent an other viewpoint. Far from novels which embody the nega­ suffering from an anxiety of influence, such writers often cele­ tive emotions Wright associated brate and honour what has gone before. with the South and his represen­ tations of the races in America. For the CLA presentation, I dis­ cuss only Go Down Moses and 00 The Long Dream. 00

Spring/Summer 1998 Page 12 Renewal Notice

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