MID AMERICA VI The. Yea1'book of the Society fo1' the Study of M idwestem Literature Edited by DAVID D. ANDERSON The Midwestern Press The Center for the Study of Midwestern Literature and Culture Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 1979 \\ In Honor of RUSSEL B. NYE Copyright 1979 By the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America . Contents Preface PREFACE 4 The appearance of MidAmerica VI marks the ninth year of Grass/Grassroots-American Metaphor/ the Society's existence, and it marks, too, several important ad­ American Cliche Emma S. Thornton and Pauline Adams 7 vances in the Society's growth: the accelerated evolution of the The Midwestern Town in Midwestern Center for the Study of Midwestern Literature and Culture; the Fiction success of the first of a series of symposia on "The Cultural Herit­ David D. Anderson 27 age of the Midwest"; the growing membership; and the increase The Genteel Poetry of William Dean in scholarly and creative activity suggested by the greater num­ Howells Bernard F. Engel 44 ber of essays and the longer bibliography in this volume. Current efforts to increase the numbers of life and institutional members Image of Womanhood in the Spoon River of the Society will, if successful, provide a financial foundation Portraits Evelyn Schroth 62 strong enough to support continued growth. The Popular Writer, Professors, and During the coming year the Society will pass another mile­ the Making of a Reputation: stone with the retirement of Russel B. Nye, founding member of The Case of Carl Sandburg Paul Ferlazzo 72 the Society, author of such seminal works as Midwestern Progres­ sive Politics and The Unembarrassed Muse, Distinguished Profes­ Myth and Midwestern Landscape: sor of English at Michigan State University, and recipient of the Sherwood Anderson's Mid-American MidAmerica Award for 1978. The dedication of this volume to Chants Philip Greasley· 79 him is testimony to his past contributions to the Society and to scholarship, and it anticipates his continued contributions in The Family in Booth Tarkington's Growth Trilogy the future. Charlotte LeGates 88 DAVID D. ANDERSON Two Regional Stories by Don Marquis J oha E. Hallwas 100 November, 1978 Fitzgerald's Midwest: "Something Gorgeous Somewhere"-Somewhere Else Barry Gross III Penman for the People: Justice Voelker (Robert Traver) Joha C. Hepler 127 ~ Evan S. Connell Jr.'s Mrs: Bridge and Mr. Bridge: A Critical Documentary Ray Lewis White 141 The Annual Bibliography of Midwestern Literature: 1977 Donald S. Pady. and Robert Beasecker, Editors 160 GRASS/GRASSROOTS - , AMERICAN METAPHOR/AMERICAN CLICHE EMMA S. THORNTON AND PAULINE ADAMS When you begin, begin at the beginning. Begin with magic, begin with the sun, Begin with the grass. (Helen Wolfert, "The Grass") The recent bicentennial era stimulated interest in our national experience. This is simultaneously real and superficial, authentic and mischievous. The words, phrases, maxims that we have latched onto as true reHections of our national experience are the same buoys that the cynical manipulators of our society have latched onto as the expedient means to their ends .. Out of the myriad examples of this phenomenon of the union of sincerity and cynicism, the term grassroots stands out. In any presidential election year many speakers celebrate the quadrennial appeal through its use. Through grassroots, the cynical politician calls up a folk wisdom; he embraces masses of people; he hopes to attract the majority. The expensive public opinion pollsters he consults are prima facie evidence of his concern. Once the elec­ tion is over, the grassroots are forgotten for the next four years. But not by the people. The politician's appeal stems from his intuitive belief that there really is an American grassroots and in that he is right. I The term grassroots is so basic to our national ideology ("the consent of the governed"), to our popular culture, and to our treasury of literary symbols that it is startling to discover that the first record of its use appears to be as late as 1876 in the description of a new gold strike. "Gold is found almost every- 7 MIDAMERICA VI 8 Grass/Grassroots-American Metaphor/American Cliche 9 where, in the bars, in the gravel and sand of the beds, even in cultivation was required to rout their hold; if the cultivation the 'grass roots'." H. L. Mencken reported that Dr. Frank H. was even briefly neglected, .the grassroots would return-though Vizetelly told him in 1935 that the phrase "to get down to the never becoming as strong as they had originally been. True, the grass roots" was in use in Ohio circa 1885 but that there was no breaking of the virgin sod, in the incessant series of pioneer diffi­ written record to that effect. We do know, however, that S~nat~r culties, engaged only a relatively brief span of time. But an Albert J. Beveridge in a speech at the Bull Moose Convention m original pioneer farmer never forgot the meaning of grassroots. Chicago in 1912 claimed: "This party, comes from t~~ g~ass roots. (Ironically, in dust bowl.times, he or his descendants had a bitter It has grown out of the soil of people s hard necessIties. Exactly occasion to review the implications of this extensive conquest of where and exactly when the term was first used may be a matter the sod.) of speculation, but it is clear that its various meanings started ~o Naturally, in the settler's muscles and mind, grassroots became gain currency in the last quarter of the nineteenth century m inextricably entwined with his notion of rudimentary principles, the Midwest. And that should not come as a surprise given the of first things first, of pragmatic choice, and of his Own (arid American adventrrre of settling the prairie in the post-Bellum otllers') basic worth. This universal experience dealt with the period. exigencies of daily life and in the course of these dealings re­ Homesteaders, such as Robert Shore' in Minnesota early in enforced many of the dreams and authenticated many of the the 1870's, saw the grass accosting them like the wav~s .of the realities of America. sea. Its above-ground growth was tall, seemingly unlimIted as A centmy ea~lier, Thomas Jefferson realized that all of us, in it rolled to the far horizons apparently unmarked by tree or some part, are products of our environment. Hence, he believed bush. And when the homesteader, his horse, and his plow were strongly in the importance of rural life in shaping a nation of tested against the sod, the stubborn resistance and the depth of citizens able· to participate in the democracy he envisioned as the roots flung up an awesome challenge. A botanist, David E. the ideal for America. Jefferson associated the virtues of "loyalty, Costello marveled at these roots. "The roots of grasses are fibrous prudence, frugality and indeed common honesty" with rural more and their branches may be so abundant that a square yard of than with urban dwellers. Another major concept from the soil four inches deep may contain roots that would stretch for Jeffersonian legacy rests upon "the essential dignity of man and twenty miles if all were placed end to end."2 In Gi~nts in the worth of the indiVidual"; it asserts that the government draws Earth, Ole Rolvaag's fictional homesteader Per H~~sa, m com~on its authority from the consent of the governed. Jefferson, an with all his real-life counterparts, discovered that The sod, whIch astute politician as well as a political philosopher, knew instinc­ had been slumbering there undisturbed for countless ages, was tively where the political power was, where indeed it must be, tough of fibre and would not give up its hold on eartll without in the nation. He would have embraced the metaphor g1"aSfn"oots a struggle. It almost had to be turned by main streng~h, piece. by to express the philosophical foundations and practical reality he piece; it was a dark brownish colour on the un~~rsld:a nch, black mould that gave promise of wonderful fertilIty; It actually was helping to build. In truth, Jefferson did not create a political gleamed and glistened under the rays of the morning s~n, wher.e and social legacy,. but rather he set down in words the grassroot the plow had· carved and polished its upturned face. In thIS beliefs of his compatriots. As he himself wrote almost half a description lies much of what grassroots meant to. the original century later about tl,e Declaration of Independence: "Neither settler of the prairies. The grass grew tall and laVIsh; the roots aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied fulfilled a rooting function, strongly fixing the plant and drawing from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be water and nutrients from the soil. The roots were deep, inter­ an expression of the American mind." Perhaps that is why, more twined, and resistant to dislodgement. More than one season's tl,an a century after, Robert Frost would write: MIDAMERICA VI Grass/Grassroots-American Metaphor/American Cliche 11 10 contribution to political rhetoric entered the standard guidebook But never mind, the Welshman got it planted for political communication. Where it will trouble us a th~us~d years. The Farmer-Labor Party used grassroots as. its catchword in Each age will have to reconslder It. 1920. In June of 1935, the Republicans organized a Grass Roots Because of the American experiential milieu, t~le phrase.grass­ Conference in Springfield, Illinois, in a vain attempt to discover roots became a philosophical shorthand connotmg the lin;a~e the grassroots issues that would unseat Franklin Delano Roose­ between man and nature, man and his neighbors, hman I an t s velt in the upcoming election.