AN HOMAGE TO JAIME DE ANGULO: A NORTH AMERICAN OVID by Barry Eisenberg A thesis submitted to Sonoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in English Dr. Gerald Haslam, Chair Dr. Dr. ~-"'-I1_;c-+-'1_l.~?+-1_,_, 8 , Date Copyright 1989 By Barry Eisenberg ii AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION of MASTER'S THESIS ~I grant permission for the reproduction of parts of this thesis without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide ~proper acknowledgement of authorship, _____ Permission to reproduce this thesis in its entirety must be obtained from me. DATED # iii AN HOMAGE TO JAIME DE ANGULO; A NORTH AMERICAN OVID Thesis by Barry Eisenberg ABSTRACT Purpose of the Study: Linguist, story-teller, poet, novelist, illustrator, scholar, homesteader, vaquero, wild-man, sorcerer's apprentice, Jaime de Angulo was a legendary figure in his own time. The scholars and artists he associated with and influenced, such as Carl Jung, Franz Boas, Carl Sauer, Bronislaw Malinowski, Robinson Jeffers and Ezra Pound, make up a veritable "Who's Who" of the first half of this century. But, because of his fame as a linguist rather than an author and poet, his eccentricities, and a self-imposed public silence between 1936 and 1949, his literary achievements remain relatively unknown. The purpose of this study is to collate the various and disparate biographical material written about de Angulo, separating fact from legend where it's possible, presenting the reader with an accurate chronology, and to present the first major book-length critical examination of de Angulo's literary wriiting. Procedure: To present a biography of Jaime de Angulo, as well as a serious critical examination of his literary work, all available biographical material concerning de Angulo, along with pertinent anthropological, historical and critical materials relevant to the many contexts from which de Angulo's work derived, was researched. Findings: Jaime de Angulo was one of a kind. He was a brilliant scholar and extraordinary writer who lived the most colorful of lives. His work, study and life with American Indian societies, especially those of northern iv ;a California. led to a unique contribution to North American letters. His novel. The Lariat. has been compared with The Scarlet Letter. and justly so. And the quality of his entire oeuvre is comparable with the most notable writings from the twentieth century Big Sur-Carmel milieu, literature of the North American West. and the internationalist Modernist movement of his era. Conclusions: A close examination of de Angulo's life and literary work leaves an even stronger impression of extraordinary quality than a first glance, even at the remarkable cast of characters, European, European-American, an American Indian, associated with him. His virtuosity and passion as a writer simply Signature Date M. A. Program: English Sonoma State University v * ¥$ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis is dedicated to my sister, Diane Marilyn Schochet, who originally encouraged me to return to the university and pursue an academic career. I would like to thank my thesis committee for their help and support in the writing of this thesis. In particular I wish to thank and acknowledge Gerald Haslam for his expertise in the fields of California and Western Literature; Jonah Raskin, for his challenging and insightful comments on the critical essay; and Francisco Gaona, for his close reading of the work and his suggestions which led to a clarification of a great many issues. And I would like to thank each of them for the intelligent and humane examples they have set before me and all their students. I would like to thank, as well, the entire English Department at Sonoma State University for their instruction, support and conversation during my graduate study. In particular 1 wish to thank Martin Blaze, who, despite an untold number of difficulties with a quarrelsome student, never gave up on me; David Bromidge, for his wonderfully sensitive "ear;" Robert Coleman, who is "the boss" as far as I'm concerned, and one of the most intelligent, instructive and hard working men I know; Helen Dunn, who made me fall in love with Romanticism and is one of the most understanding and supportive teachers I have ever had; Deidre Lashgari, who for one year brought this place up to date with her contemporary multi-cultural, feminist, poetist point of view; Bill Lee. a simply brilliant teacher to whom 1 am indebted for my understanding of The Scarlet Letter, which was so necessary for this thesis, and whose appreciation is especially valuedj Don Patterson, for his affectionate sense of humor; Gerald Rosen, who has taught me more about fiction than he knows; Nirmal Dhesi, Elizabeth Herron, James Kormier, Hector Lee, Allan Sandy, Gene Soules, J. J. Wilson, for their support and enlightening conversation: to you all, this compound, complex sentence of thanks. 1 would also like to thank other members of the faculty for their instruction and assistance: George Jackson, Le VeIl Holmes, William Morehouse, Pablo Ronquillo, and in memoriam, the remarkable Rosa Vargas-Arrandia. vi _;~ ____~,~g;~ .... __________________________________________________________ .. __ .... ¥.. ________ .. ma_=~R I would be remiss if I failed to thank my fellow students, especially my fellow graduate students, who have instructed me, turned me on and listened: without you there is no university. vii - PREFACE Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and they that dwell therein. (Zora Neale Hurston 174) The purpose of this thesis, this homage, is to present a comprehensive biography of Jaime de Angulo and examine his literary work, with special attention given to his novel, The Lariat. De Angulo was a unique character and his work has mUltiple correspondences. It is the purpose of this preface to argue for strategies I have made use of in order to address compositional problems arising from the extremes of de Angulo's personality and experience as well as the numbers of contexts from which his work can be regarded. In doing so I hope to e.pand. however modestly, formal possibilities for other budding artist/scholars and encourage them to make use of the thesis form to do significant work with a contemporary appropriateness to their own particular study. I also hope that I've uncovered, in my presentation, a multitude of thematic possibilities for others to expand upon. viii • &'-8"; = At the very least I hope I can point others in a helpful direction. Knowledge, after all, is a collaborative affair. Accuracy is the major problem in presenting a biography of Jaime de Angulo. Accounts of his life conflict. Although I generally followed de Angulo's daughter, Guiomar, for the chronology of events, many, many people have written about him. Where there are conflicting versions of the same event I try to present as many of those versions as are germane to the incident and de Angulo's character. There are, unavoidably, times when I weight the evidence toward a particular version that I feel/think is truest to the composite picture I have of him from my research. The sheer volume of colorful writing about about de Angulo presents, albeit fortuitously, another problem. Everything written about him is tremendously colorful. It's hard to restrain oneself from writing about every single incident, quoting every fabulous turn of phrase about the man. Well of course that simply wasn't possible. Some things had to be left out so that the biography might not dissipate into merely an overlong list, however fabulous. I especially regret, however, the exclusion of Rosalyn Sharpe ix Wall's delightful account of the de Angulo-Boronda feud. It was, as I say, simply impossible to fit it in along with everything else. The third and final problem posed by the matter of de Angulo's biography was the fact that new material continually popped up at different times. And from not altogether likely places: an introduction to an Achumawi (Pit River Indian) dictionary; a book found in the Sonoma State University bookstore that was originally written in lieu of a master's thesis for the English department here. As a result, the biographical essay has undergone a number of revisions. And I am certain that I have not uncovered all the literature concerning de Angulo's life. I do have enough material at hand, however, to present the reader with a flavorful chunk. The problems arising from an examination of de Angulo's writing are another matter entirely. I have placed a special emphasis on his novel, ~ Lariat, because I think it is his most significant and best work. I am not alone in this appraisal. Both Ezra Pound and de Angulo's second wife. anthropologist, L. C. Freeland, have expressed the same opinion. However, I frequently refer to de Angulo's other work in both the biographical and x p t t the critical essays. At the very least I hope to intrigue the reader as well as illuminate whatever matter is at hand. One difficulty in dealing with de Angulo's work, however, is that there is Burprisingly little critical response available. My approach to this problem was to follow up and elaborate upon suggestions from existing critical material. Thus what might have been a limitation became a number of possibilities to bring to bear my own interests and insights into the matter. I was forced to investigate the text more deeply on my own than I might have if the critical response to The Lariat had been somewhat more proportionate to the literary response to de Angulo, himself.