THE WRITING OF NATHANAEL WEST Also by Alistair Wisker MARRIAGE TWENTY FOR YOU YOU AND I AND OTHERS The Writing of Nathanael West

Alistair Wisker

Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-20836-4 ISBN 978-1-349-20834-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20834-0

© Alistair Wisker 1990 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990

All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1990

ISBN 978-0-312-04014-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wisker, Alistair, 1945- The Writing of Nathanael West / Alistair Wisker. p. em. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-312-04014-7 1. West, Nathanael, 1903-1940-Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PS3545.E8334Z96 1990 813' .52-dc20 89-24046 CIP For my mother and the memory of my father; for Gina, Liam and !

Acknowledgements viii Chronology ix 1 Introduction: Rooting for West 1 2 A Writer by Reading 15 3 The Dream Life of Balso Snell 36 4 Miss Lonelyhearts 58 5 A Cool Million 83 6 The Day of the Locust 96 7 Conclusion: A World Too Much With Us 121

Appendices West's Unpublished and Uncollected Works 138 I Two Early Poems: 'Rondeau' and 'Death' 149 II Through the Hole in the Mundane Millstone 150 III Some Notes on Violence 152 IV Some Notes on Miss L. 154 V Outline for a New Novel 156 VI Burn the Cities 158 VII Bird and Bottle 161 VIII The Original Final Chapter of The Day of the Locust 168 IX The Adventurer 169 X Western Union Boy 179 XI Tibetan Night 183 XII Mr Potts of Pottstown 187 XIII The Impostor 201

Notes and References 213 Bibliography 218 Index 223

vii Acknowledgements

Grateful acknowledgement is made particularly to Adam West Perelman for permission to include the unpublished material in the Appendices and for encouraging correspondence. Also to the Estate of Nathanael West and the Estate of Patrick McKenney Bransten for permission also related to the material in the Appen­ dices and to use the cover photograph of Nathanael West. Acknowledgement is due to Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. and New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to quote from the published works; and to Gerald Pollinger of Laurence Pollinger Ltd for his help in arranging these permissions. Mark N. Brown of Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island, was helpful in letting me have items from the manuscripts collection. This particularly concerns items from the S. J. Perelman Papers. Thanks also to New Direc­ tions and Carcanet Press for permission to quote 'Young Syca­ more' by William Carlos Williams in its entirety. I am indebted to Frances Arnold and currently Sarah Roberts­ West and Margaret Leach at Macmillan for their help at various points and their patience. In writing this book I have received active and real help from Donald We sling, Gabriel Pearson, Charles Swann, Graham Martin and Brian Lee at various stages. Versions of parts of the book have appeared in Stand, The Times Educational Supplement and The Antigonish Review and thanks are due to the editors of those publications. My parents funded me through the initial stages of research which determined my interest in Nathanael West and I will never forget their help and generosity. Gina, my wife, knows some of this book probably too well. Her help has been invaluable and I thank her for it. Alistair Wisker Cambridge

viii Chronology

1902 25 May Mordecai, the son of Nachman Weinstein, and Chana, the daughter of Eleazer Wallen­ stein, marry on the East Side of New York City. 1903 17 October Nathaniel von Wallenstein Weinstein, their son, born in New York City. 1903--1920 During his childhood and youth West de­ velops his preoccupations with the outdoors and sports, reading, fantasy and the bizarre. 1918 July By now West has gained the nickname 'Pep'. 1920 Publication of Fitzgerald's This Side of Para­ dise. June West leaves De Witt Clinton High School after three years. 1921 September Enters Tufts College. 1922 January Transfers to Brown University. 1922-1923 Forms a lasting and important relationship with S. J. Perelman. 1923--1924 Publications in Casements and the Brown Jug, college magazines. 1924 June Graduates from Brown University. 1925 Publication of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. 1926-1927 West in Paris from October to January. Works on The Dream Life of Balsa Snell which had partially existed since June 1924. 1927-1930 Assistant Manager of the Kenmore Hall Hotel, 145 East 23 Street. Shaping his artistic identity through friendships and reading. 1929 March West's first reading of 'Miss Lonelyhearts' letters in the Brooklyn Eagle. 1930 Fall Begins relationship with Alice Shepard to whom The Dream Life of Balsa Snell is dedi­ cated. After an informal engagement they split up in the winter of 1932-1933. 1930-1933 Writing unpublished stories, 'The Adventur­ er', 'Mr. Potts of Pottstown', 'Tibetan Night' and 'The Sun, the Lady, and the Gas Station'.

ix x Chronology of Important Dates

Rather than the exploration of the estranged individual sensibility in The Dream Life of Balso Snell, West turns to envision the inner life of the masses. Jay Martin has written that in these stories West concentrated his vision' on the vagrant lives of the inarticulate and attempted to originate an art form whereby to express a new state of mass consciousness'. Clearly these unpublished efforts are a link between his first novel and Miss Lonelyhearts. 1931 Publication of Faulkner's Sanctuary. Spring Publication of The Dream Life of Balso Snell by Contact Editions. West accurately pinpoints the central dichotomy of the book by describ­ ing it on one occasion as 'a protest against writing books' and on another as 'a very professional book, a play on styles'. 1932 West becomes associate editor of Contact with William Carlos Williams. The headnote to the magazine helps to place the artistic identity of each writer: 'Contact will attempt to cut a trail through the American jungle without the use of a European compass'. West's in­ fluence on Carlos Williams moves the poet in directions which lead eventually to his Paterson. Publication in Contact and Con tempo of early versions of Miss Lonelyhearts. 1933 8 April Publication of Miss Lonelyhearts by Horace Liveright, Inc. Sadly for West the publishing house quickly went into a decline but was associated with a distinguished list of ex­ perimental works by Pound, Cummings, Eliot, Hart Crane, Hemingway, Faulkner and others. 1933 July Living with the Perelmans in Hollywood. Working as a junior writer for Columbia. October Publication in Americana of a tale titled 'Busi­ ness Deal' which is West's first attempt to use Hollywood material in fiction. Commences work on his third novel, A Cool Million. Chronology of Important Dates xi

1934 19 June Publication of A Cool Million by Covici-Friede. 1935 Becomes increasingly poor and desperate during summer and fall. A Cool Million had not been the success he had hoped for. Living at the Pa-Va-Sed apartment hotel near Hollywood Boulevard which was to become Tod's hotel in The Day of the Locust. Summer Contracts gonorrhea and develops a con­ gested prostate gland. Suffers extreme pain and extreme difficulty in getting a job. Sup­ ported by Perelman. 1936 West's story 'Bird and Bottle' published in Pacific Weekly. This is the material for Chapter 14 of The Day of the Locust, and repre­ sents a further stage in his shaping of Holly­ wood material. 17 July Begins script-writing at Republic Studios. West's work as a script-writer continues here and at RKO, Universal and Columbia until his death. 1937-1938 West writes and revises his new novel end­ lessly. At this stage it is titled The Cheated but it was to become The Day of the Locust. 1938 21 November Opening of Good Hunting, the play West wrote with Joseph Shrank. It closes after two performances. 1939 16 May Publication of The Day of the Locust by Ran­ domHouse. December West proposes marriage to Eileen McKenney about two months after they had been intro­ duced. 1940 19 April West and Eileen marry in Beverley Hills. All the reports are of a completely happy rela­ tionship. 22 December West and Eileen tragically killed in a motor­ ing accident near EI Centro, California.