Modern American Literature and the New Twentieth Century Twentieth American Literature and the New Modern The Little Art Colony and US and Modernism The Little Art Colony ‘The Literary Afterlife of Raymond Carver offers us a way to read Carver that appreciates his art while understanding it in its historical The Little Art Colony context, which then itself becomes a way to trace Carver’s aesthetic and political influence on later artists. It is a significant contribution to studies of Carver and contemporary art.’ and US Modernism Samuel Cohen, University of Missouri Carmel, Provincetown, Taos The first major book-length study of Carver’s cultural influence Geneva M. Gano The Literary Afterlife of Raymond Carver examines the cultural legacy of one of America’s most renowned short story writers. Pountney contextualises Carver’s legacy amongst contemporary debates about authenticity and craftsmanship in the neoliberal era, drawing new socioeconomic connections between Carver’s work and American neoliberalism. This study presents new explorations of Carver’s relationships with other contemporary writers, filmmakers and artists such as Murakami and Iñárritu, shedding fresh light on Carver’s influence. Jonathan Pountney is an Independent Scholar, specialising in American fiction and political and economic cultures in the Geneva M. Gano M. Geneva neoliberal era. Cover image: iStockphoto.com ISBN 978-1-4744-5550-3 Cover design: www.hayesdesign.co.uk edinburghuniversitypress.com The Little Art Colony and US Modernism Modern American Literature and the New Twentieth Century Series Editors: Martin Halliwell and Mark Whalan Published Titles Writing Nature in Cold War American Literature Sarah Daw F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Short Fiction and American Popular Culture: From Ragtime to Swing Time Jade Broughton Adams The Labour of Laziness in Twentieth-Century American Literature Zuzanna Ladyga The Literature of Suburban Change: Narrating Spatial Complexity in Metropolitan America Martin Dines The Literary Afterlife of Raymond Carver: Influence and Craftsmanship in the Neoliberal Era Jonathan Pountney Living Jim Crow: The Segregated Town in Mid-Century Southern Fiction Gavan Lennon The Little Art Colony and US Modernism: Carmel, Provincetown, Taos Geneva M. Gano Forthcoming Titles The Big Red Little Magazine: New Masses, 1926–1948 Susan Currell The Reproductive Politics of American Literature and Film, 1959–1973 Sophie Jones Ordinary Pursuits in American Writing after Modernism Rachel Malkin Sensing Willa Cather: The Writer and the Body in Transition Guy Reynolds The Plastic Theatre of Tennessee Williams: Expressionist Drama and the Visual Arts Henry I. Schvey Class, Culture and the Making of US Modernism Michael Collins Black Childhood in Modern African American Fiction Nicole King Visit our website at www.edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/MALTNTC The Little Art Colony and US Modernism Carmel, Provincetown, Taos GENEVA M. GANO Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Geneva M. Gano, 2020 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/13 ITC Giovanni Std Book by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 3975 6 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 3977 0 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 3978 7 (epub) The right of Geneva M. Gano to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). CONTENTS List of Illustrations vi Acknowledgements viii Introduction: Modernism beyond the Metropolis 1 Part I: Carmel 1. Race, Place and Cultural Production in Carmel-by-the-Sea 31 2. Robinson Jeffers, the Art Worker and the ‘Carmel Idea’ 58 Part II: Provincetown 3. Building the Beloved Community in Provincetown 89 4. Eugene O’Neill: Superpersonalisation and Racial Spectacularism 128 Part III: Taos 5. Cultivating the Taos Mystique 167 6. ‘Something Stood Up in my Soul’: D. H. Lawrence in Taos 204 Epilogue: The Afterlife of the Little Arts Colony: Institutionalising Creative Collectivities 239 Notes 245 Index 288 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1.1 William Adam, ‘Chinese Fishing Village. Monterey’, c. 1890s. (Courtesy of Harold A. Miller Marine Biology Library, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University.) 43 1.2 Edmund Waller Gale, ‘The Carmelites Picnic on Point Lobos’, 1910. 46 2.1 ‘Robinson Jeffers’, TIME magazine cover, 4 April 1932. Photo by Edward Weston. (Courtesy of Occidental College Special Collections and College Archives, Robinson Jeffers Collection.) 63 2.2 Postcard, ‘Point Joe on 17 Mile Drive, Monterey Peninsula, California’. (Personal collection of the author.) 65 3.1 Charles Webster Hawthorne demonstrating technique on Provincetown wharf to students and onlookers. (Charles Webster and Marion Campbell Hawthorne Papers, 1870–1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.) 94 3.2 Summer Art School Advertisements in International Studio, April 1914. (Courtesy of Texas State University Libraries.) 98 3.3 B. J. O. Nordfeldt, ‘Figures on the Beach’, c. 1916. (Courtesy of High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.) 107 4.1 Eugene O’Neill and Charles Demuth lounging in Provincetown, 1916. (MS Am 1091 (1390), Houghton Library, Harvard University.) 134 List of Illustrations / vii 4.2 Francis Bruguiere, ‘Slaves auction. Charles S. Gilpin as Jones (scene 5)’, Provincetown Playhouse, 1920. (Photo by Vandamm Studio © Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.) 155 5.1 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, ‘Indian Detours: Roundabout Old Santa Fe New Mexico’. (Courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, US West Photographs, Manuscripts and Imprints.) 169 5.2 E. L. Blumenschein, ‘The Advance of Civilization in New Mexico: The Merry-Go-Round Comes to Taos’, 1899. (Courtesy of New Mexico History Museum/Fray Angélico Chavez History Library Graphics Collection 1–12.) 175 5.3 John Sloan, ‘Indian Detour’, 1927. (Courtesy of Cleveland Museum of Art © 2020 Delaware Art Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York.) 188 6.1 Andrew Dasburg, ‘Rolling Landscapes’, 1924. (Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (1991.205.7).) 213 6.2 D. H. Lawrence, ‘Pueblo Indian Dancers’, c. 1925–6. (Courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.) 217 6.3 Awa Tsireh, ‘Tablita (Corn) Dance’, c. 1920–1. (Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (13/1608).) 218 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This long research project took years of vision, revision and reformation that involved visits to a number of archives and conversations with many brilliant and generous people. It began as a dissertation project at UCLA, where Michael North, Blake Allmendinger, Jennifer Fleissner and Steve Aron guided me through its first stages, but I think it also bears the indelible traces of the notorious Barbara L. Packer and the generous Karen Rowe. The support of Chris Looby and UCLA’s Americanist Research Group was instrumental in moving this project forward, as were the comments of many of my peers in the graduate programme there. At Stanford and Indiana University, Richard White, Paula Moya, Ramón Saldívar and Matthew Guterl offered me early support and congenial atmospheres in which to develop my ideas. Robert S. Fogarty of Antioch College listened to me talk on about little art colonies. John Swift’s patience and encour- agement gave me confidence in the project and kept me going. Jennifer Marshall shared my enthusiasm for all things artsy and modern, and Melissa Homestead was a constant supporter of my writing process. James Karman, Dale Stieber, Rob Kafka, Tim Hunt and Robert Zaller of the Robinson Jeffers Association pro- vided important insights regarding all things Carmel. Don Kohrs freely shared his knowledge about the Pacific Grove Chautauqua with me. Gail R. Scott helped me with deciphering Marsden Hartley’s manuscript hand, and I owe much of my understanding of Provincetown’s early colony to Stephen Burkowski’s wonderful Acknowledgements / ix collections, which are archived with the Provincetown Historical Preservation Project. At Texas State University, I thank my colleagues in the English Department, the History Department, and the Center for the Study of the Southwest for their unflagging support. In particular, Provost Gene Bourgeois, English Department Chairs Dan Lochman and Victoria Smith, and Director of the Center for the Study of the Southwest John Mckiernan-González, who helped connect me to material supports within the university that were essential to this book’s completion. I also am thankful for Texas State’s excellent interlibrary loan team, the tireless staff at the Wittliff Collections, Copyright Officer Stephanie Towery and Digital Media Specialists Erin Mazzei and Harrison Walker of the University Libraries, who helped me access and acquire the rights and images for materials included here. At Edinburgh University Press, Michelle Houston and Ersev Ersoy were a dream to work with. I especially want to thank Mark Whalan, co-editor of