VAK NEV^ RSGI0NALI3M: THE 3CUTHV.^;':T RKVIM* 1950-1960 by STELLA PBAJTE SI-'ITH, B- A. A THESIS IK ENGLISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Technological College in ^*artial Fiafillment of the Requirements for the Degree of JUSTER OF ARTS i\ pproved August, 1962 ^. ^ PREFACE The central purpose of this thesis is to show that ^^® Southwest Review has through its years of existence de­ veloped into a channel for the expression of a new concept of regionalism, usually called the New Regionalism, and to show how the decade from 1950 to I960 in a sense climaxes this development. The thesis begins with a survey of the historical development of regionalism as a literary move­ ment. This discussion, which comprises Chapter I, is fol­ lowed in Chapter II by an account of the history of the Re­ view, with particular attention devoted to the evolution of regional theory as the editors have interpreted it through the years. The next two chapters analyze the content of the Review during the decade beginning with 1950: Chapter III dealing with material that is purely regional as to subject matter and—for the most part—as to the authors* backgroundjujiijiijuu and Chapter IV with v.a*iting which is non-regional in empha­ sis (although approximately half of it comes from southwest­ ern writers) . Chapter V sunimarizes the pattern of the con­ tributions during the 1950's with regard to origin and pro­ fessions, discusses the editorial policies revealed through editorial comment and in the total content of the magazine, and offers conclusions for regarding the Review as a voice of the New Regionalism in the Southwest. ii iii It should be noted that Chapters III and IV are con­ cerned almost entirely with essays and articles, rather than with fiction and verse, because the New Regionalism is most cogently and succinctly revealed through critical discussion rather than literary genres. One exception in this respect is made, however, since the current attitude of the Review toward the minority races of the region is so well revealed in some of the stories; these are examined in the portion of Chapter III considering this problem. The writer wishes to acknowledge the helpful direc­ tion of Dr. Everett A. Gillls, as well as the valuable assist ance of the other members of her committee, Dr. Kline Nail and Dr. Charles Qioalia. She would also like to express her thanks to Dr. Seymour Connor, Director of the Southwest Collection of Texas Technological College, to Ir. R. S. Dunn, the Archivist of the Southwest Collection, and to the Secre­ tary-Curator, Mrs. Mary Doak Wilson, for their help when she was collecting material for the thesis, and for their cour­ tesy and kindness during the time she spent there. Finally, she thanks her family for bearing with her during the months when she was preparixng and vriting this tihesis, and for maintaining an atmosphere of cheerful cooperc tion in the home. t/^lZ OF COhTJiSTS PRKFACS 11 Chapter Pago I. LiTERAHi Ri::oictiAiiaH IM Tim mmd BTf^tm ... 1 Definition ••••••••• 1 Ba«kgro\iiuie of Aisaerlcan Rugionalism • • • . 3 Thtt ^li«w Mgionmlimi . 13 Th« Regional M&gmzin^B ••.•.»..••• 20 The Southweat and the ^Kew Regionaliesi • . • 25 II. HISTCK.i OF THE SO0TH1S3T EWIE¥8 1915-1960 . 32 T^e Texas Ee,yieitf • . • . 32 The ,a?u,^h^sl^ H^Ylgw 3^ larly Mitors, 1924-1927 3B The ^cOinnia ^xa, 1927, 1943 42 Later Miters, 1942*1960 57 III. TH^ 50UTmvE:jT EKVIi::v- 11^ THE Ls>CAD^ OF THK FIFTIES — tHii. ^n*;:V. KSGlC.I-iAL« FCCU3 59 Articles on Regional Culture 59 ii^aminatioB of the Past • • • • 74 The Regional 3cene 80 Racial Minorities • . • . • 82 IV. Ir^iIa^lIC^^•> OF THK vurjms^kh 95 European -.riters ^.n^d ^^riticism 96 ;\i3erican writers and Criticism • 9^^ Assays on General Criticism ••.••••• 102 Eeligion 106 !^ucation 107 I>conoi&ic« 109 Intem.ational f;ri.,drs • • . • • Ill Vorld Feder-ri^tion •...•.«••....• 115 Civil Libc^rties 116 Liberalisii: and the i-cw ^"onservatis?, .... 118 V. 'X'uOlMSKJ- 121 hlhUA.C'U^rm 132 iv CHAPTER I LITSRARY RSGIONALISM IM THE UNITED STATES Definition "Regionalism," according to the dictionary, is "con­ sciousness of and loyalty to a distinct sub-national or supra national area, usually characterized by a common culture, background or interests," or "the theory or practice of se­ lecting a particular locale or region for subject matter and stressing its characteristic aripects in art or literature." Mary Austin, a remarkable and dedicated interpreter of the Southwest, once defined a regional culture as "the sum, ex­ pressed in ways of living and thinking, of the mutual adapta- 2 tions of a land and a people." The United States is a natio composed of regions, each having characteristics that make it unique: the Northeast and its New England; the southeast and its "Old South"; the Middle States and their "Kiddle hest"; the Far West and its Oaiiiornia; the Jiorthwest ana it6 Great r'lains; the Scutirv/est anci its iexas.3 ;i constant pnenomenon in our literatur'e since the American ]:evolution, literary •^Viebster *5 Third hea Internatior:al Dictionary, In- abridged, G. & C. ^8^riam Co., pub. (Sprin^^fieid, lass., 1961), p. 1912. IVary Austin, 'Vre^ional Culture m the '^ouLi'.Vvest," Southvvest Review (iuinaarj 1929), pp. 474-47a. Hereafter the Southwest Review will be cited as 3^R. hoiard V. Cdum and Harr;, hstilj. hoor.:, iu eri c a'l i e- jTionalism (lew Yorl;, 193^), P* 3« Her'::, fter cited aa whujr end b\oore y Anierican ae/;ionali3n.. regionalism is important as one of the prime sources of crea­ tive inspiration. Musing upon man^s attachment to his native soil, J. Frank Dobie wrote: As rural life gives way to urban life and as mobility overcomes stability, human attachments to certain patches of the earth*s surface become less common. Yet the potentiality of such attachment remains uni­ versal. ... It is behind much of patriotism. Ivith some people it goes deeper than principles and embodies the profundity of life.^ Because regionalism springs from a kind of state of mind brought about in the writer by the effect of the cli­ mate, the lay of the land, and its past history on the indi­ vidual spirit, a regional writer would be one who attempts to impart these colorful qualities to others through his writing—one who is affected by theaa himself, and whose basic values are in turn associated with them. A writer need not necessarily be born in a region in order to interpret it, but he must feel a sense of kinship with it; he must, ii order to be able to interpret it with any degree of sensi­ tivity, be affected by it. >;hether a native or not, a writer must be sympatico with a region in order to grasp tao truths about it. Regions do, as a matter of course, prociuce their own interpreters, who find that the very marrow of their thought is derived from the lar • that nurtured them. Dobie, for example, speaking of the ranch where he vvas born, says that, although he did aot know at at the time, he began liste ing to that piece of land talk when he was the mej-est chil: , ^J. Frank aobie, "A riot of ..rth," o R (Coring, 1953), p. ^9. and that until his death his roots in it, invidible and un- material, will be ineradicable.^ Backgjrounds of American Literature The regional impulse has been a noticeably active force in American letters for one hundred and fifty years. The interested scholar can trace its development from the romantic sectionalism of the first half of thie nineteenth century, through the realistic localism of the second half, to the "local color" and "counterromanticism" prevalent dur­ ing the last decades of the century. Localism did not lead into a particularly significant literature, and American writing during the first decade of tlie nineteen hundreds v.as weak and inferior. About 1912, a "loving localism," tran­ scendental in emphasis, made its appearance. This movement did not necessarily lead tov/ard regional interpretation, but rather toward universal insight. JuFt before 1920, re­ gie nalisiu returned, but vdth new conceptions, American literature in the period i.naaediately follovv-- ing the Revolution and for the first h:If of the nineteenth century was mainly romantic in spirit. The v.orks of ".'aching- ton Irvirie,, Jai'^es Fenimore Cooper, and v^illiaa Culler, ryant gave imerican romanticism characterization by just a few simp traits. It follov/ed in general the tendencies of the urcpf^ ^Ibid., p. 90. movement, but reflected native characteristics that gave to the literature a distinctive American flavor. There was in it no profound passion, no philosophy nor revolt, especially no morbidness. The American writers apparently wished to establish a national literature upon the basis of American self- reliance and independence by virtue of which the colon­ ists had carved a civilization out of a virgin wilder­ ness, had freed themselves from foreign domination, had founded a Union from diverse creeds and peoples, and had pushed expansion westward into a new prindtive area.^ One feature of American romanticism was that ... a major portion of American romantic writings directed the characteristic romantic sm^ge of pov/ei ful emotion and passion tov/ard the expression of individual pride and patriotism, thus maki:]g the writing highly national, full of local color and the folklore elements of the times.' Litarary nationalism, growing out of the Romantic Movement, spawned the first phase of regionaliam in the Unite( Gtates—sectioraiism. That the nuvr nation had no single uni­ fying cultui^e, but v-.as a composite of the cultures of its different sections, hah soon become apparent to thuse hi.ari- can i:ritera 'v/ho were eager to express the spirit of their nsv; nation, but i,/ho, in attei-ptinr to do so, al^^ays fouiiu tnSii.- selves interpreting that particular portion of it with Lvnich they were individually iamiliar.