'TALBOT WHITTINGHAM': AN ANNOTATED EDITION OF THE TEXT TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTIVE AND CRITICAL ESSAY Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Nemanic, Gerald, 1941- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 08/10/2021 10:52:02 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290220 This dissertation has been 69-18,397 microfilmed exactly as received NEMANIC, Gerald Carl, 1941- TALBOT WHITTINGHAM: AN ANNOTATED EDITION OF TI-IE TEXT TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTIVE AND CRITICAL ESSAY. University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1969 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan TALBOT WHITTINGI1AK: AN ANNOTATED EDITION OF THE TEXT TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTIVE AND CRITICAL ESSAY by Gerald Carl Nemanic A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of iSe DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 6 9 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA. GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Gerald Carl Nemanic enUHpd Talbo-t Whittinsham: an annotated edition of the text together with a descriptive and critical essay. be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Ph.D. Dissertation Director £ Date After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:*" ¥//7/£9 f-J" /(•<$ /tydtaj T. 1 v/n U.f cxIWK V//•>/6 1 Pr\ r, 1 /<••/'>? This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrov/ers under rules cf the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is m^de. Requests for permission for extended quotation from cr reproduc­ tion of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the ma.jor department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Of those who have made this study possible, I am rr.ost indebted to the staff of the Newberry Library in Chicago. Special thanks must go to Mrs. Amy Nyholm of Special Collections. Her guidance and advice was invaluable. Two Anderson scholsi's have been particularly helpful with valuable information &nd general counsel. William Sutton has allowed me to use Marietta Finley's reader's report, the original of which i-s in his possession. Ray White, whose knowledge of Anderson seems to me enormous, has provided several helpful hints on the datine of Talbot Whittinghaw. Mrs. Eleanor Anderson deserves the thanks cf all Anderson scholars for her steadfast efforts to make the Anderson papers available to all who wish to use them. For thr.ir critical reading of and valuable suggestions con­ cerning this dissertation I v/ish to thank Professors I-. D, Clark, Albert Gegenheimer, Paul Rosenblatt, Richard Smyer, Mary Rucker, and especially Arthur Kay, my director. Final thanks go to my wife, Chris, who helped to edit ancl other­ wise prepare the manuscript cf this dissertation. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page AESTRACT v INTRODUCTION 1 Purpose and Scope 1 The Manuscript 3 History of the Manuscript 3 Physical Description of the Manuscript k The Several "Talbot Whittinghams" 7 Dating the Manuscript 8 Critical Evaluation 18 Anderson's Life to 1916 18 Chronology Relevsnt to Talbot Whittingham 26 The Apprentice Novels: Form and Idea 27 ANNOTATED EDITION OF TALBOT WHITTIWGHAM 63 APPENDIX A. MARIETTA FINLEY'S READER'S REPORT .... 303 APPENDIX B. TALBCT WHITTINGHAM: A FIRST PERSON FRAGMENT . 310 v APPENDIX C. A COMPENDIUM OF CRITICISM 322 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 325 t- y- iv ABSTRACT This dissertation, provides an introduction to and edition of Sherwood Anderson's unpublished novel fragment Talbot Whittingham. The three appendices present additional documents which have a direct- bearing on the novel. The Introduction is divided into three parts: "Purpose and Scope," "The Manuscript," and "Critical Evaluation." The first part, "Furpose and Scope," attempts to give a ccncise overview of the scholarly problems involved in producing an edition of Talbot Whittingham. The second part, "The Manuscript," is primarily concerned with describing and dating the manuscript of the novel. The third part, "Critical Evaluation," relates relevant biographical materials on Sherwood Anderson and also attempts to show the relationship between Talbot Whittingham and other early wcrks by Anderson, including Windy McPherson's Son, Marching Men, and Winesburg, Ohio. The edition of the novel which follows provides all variant readings from the Talbot Whittingham manuscript deposited a I the Newberry Library. In Appendix A I have reproduced a summary and critical commentary on the novel by Marietta Finley. Appendix B is a reproduc­ tion of a small fragment of another version of the novel. Appendix C provides a handy compendium cf the critical writings about Talbot Whittingham. v INTRODUCTION Purpose and Scope Talbot WhlttIngham is an apprentice novel, in fragmentary form, by the twentieth-century American writer Sherwood Anderson. The work hsP never been edited or published, ncr has it been the object of thorough critical study. X am here presenting an annotated edition of the novel together with an extended introductory essay. In the essay I have attempted to: 1. Account for the history, physical! description, and dating of the manuscript. 2. Differentiate between this novel and other works of the Anderson canon which deal with characters named "Talbot WhiItingham." Discuss the scant critical history of Talbot Whittingham. *f. Present a critical evaluation of the novel, concentrating on Anderson's development as a novelist in the years before he wrote Winesburg, Ohio. Talbot Whittingham is one of Sherwood Anderson's early novels, probably written about 1912-1915• In 1915 he began' writing the Wine5burg, Ohio stories which launched hie career as a distinguished American writer. As Anderson admitted, he had no inclination to step backward by revising and perhaps even wholly rewriting apprentice novels like Talbot Whit tingham. Anders-ion did publish two novels written sub­ stantially by 1912, Windy McPherson's Son (1916) and Marching Men (1917)* 1 2 By 1917 Anderson was deeply involved in the new writing which was to come forth in Winesburg, Ohio (1919)1 Poor White (1921), The Triumph of the Egg (stories collected in 1521), and Horses and Men (stories collected in 1923)• For the student of Sherwood Anderson, Talbot Whittin^ham supplies valuable scenes of rural Ohio life at the turn of the century. Anderson, often autobiographical in his fiction, provides glimpses into his life through the character of Talbct Whit.tirigham, whom we see grow from boy to man in the novel. Talbot WhittinghanT is also a "Chicago novel" since the last, half of it is set ir. that burgeoning commercial city cf circa 1900. Anderson describes Talbot's life as an advertising copy writer, relates the young man's attraction to the divergent paths of Anderson's own culture heroes, Jesus and Nietzsche, and gives us an important character study in Lucile Bearing, the violently feminist ex-school teacher frcm Indiana. This material is not merely a rehashing or a crude early attempt at'the substance of Anderson's published works. Talbot Whittingham provides an abundance of recognizable Anderson staples, but it also gives us valuable new material with which to help focus more clearly the writer's life, times, and artistic development. Unfortunately, it has been impossible to find the missing pages of manuscript that begin the novel. It is very likely that we mu.it continue to rely on Marietta Finley Hahn's reader's report (reproduced here as Appendix A) for s. summary of the missing material. The research facilities cf the Newberry Library in Chicago have made this project possible. The Newberry contains the largest 5 collection of Anderson manuscripts, letters, journals, and secondary- sources in the world. The Manuscript History of the Manuscript The manuscript of Talbot Whittingham came to the Newberry Li­ brary in Chicago with the great bulk of Anderson papers in 19^7 • Before 19V7 the manuscript was among Anderson's papers at his home in Virginia. It appears that the author had forgotten about this novel during the 1920's and 1930'His wife, Eleanor Copenhaver Anderson, seems to have inquired of him only briefly about it. With the manuscript appears only a scratch paper note in Eleanor's hand—"S says early book." That seems to be all Mrs. Anderson knows about the history of the manuscript. The manuscript (or parts of it) v/as probably one of many that Anderson carried about with him in Chicago after 1912. The novel could have been finished as early as 1912, but more' likely it v/as carried on sporadically between about 1912 and 1915 • The typed manuscript at Newberry is almost certainly a copy of an earlier draft or drafts, and it may also date from different times between 1912 and 1916."1" It is possible that novelist-critic Flovd Dell had the manu­ script for several years.