History, Memory, and the Literary Left Modern American Poetry, 1935–1968 by John Lowney contemporary north american poetry series history, memory, and the literary left contemporary north american poetry series Series Editors Alan Golding, Lynn Keller, and Adalaide Morris History, Memory, and the Literary Left Modern American Poetry, 1935–1968 by john lowney university of iowa press iowa city University of Iowa Press, Iowa City Copyright © by the University of Iowa Press http://www.uiowapress.org All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. The University of Iowa Press is a member of Green Press Initiative and is committed to preserving natural resources. Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lowney, John, –. History, memory, and the literary left: modern American poetry, – / by John Lowney. p. cm.—(Contemporary North American poetry series) Contents: The janitor’s poems of every day: American poetry and the s — Buried history: the popular front poetics of Muriel Rukeyser’s “The book of the dead” — Allegories of salvage: the peripheral vision of Elizabeth Bishop’s North & South — Harlem Disc-tortions: the jazz memory of Langston Hughes’s Montage of a dream deferred — A reportage and redemption: the poetics of African American counter- memory in Gwendolyn Brooks’s “In the Mecca” — A metamorphic palimpsest: the underground memory of Thomas McGrath’s “Letter to an imaginary friend” — The spectre of the s: George Oppen’s “Of being numerous” and historical amnesia. Includes bibliographical references and index. --- (cloth) . American poetry—th century—History and criticism. Right and left (Political science) in literature. Politics and literature—United States—History— th century. Poets, American—th century—Political and social views. Depressions——United States. I. Title. II. Series. '.—dc For Ashley Contents Acknowledgments and Permissions ix 1. The Janitor’s Poems of Every Day: American Poetry and the s 2. Buried History: The Popular Front Poetics of Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead 3. Allegories of Salvage: The Peripheral Vision of Elizabeth Bishop’s North & South 4. Harlem Disc-tortions: The Jazz Memory of Langston Hughes’s Montage of a Dream Deferred 5. A Reportage and Redemption: The Poetics of African American Countermemory in Gwendolyn Brooks’s In the Mecca 6. A Metamorphic Palimpsest: The Underground Memory of Thomas McGrath’s Letter to an Imaginary Friend 7. The Spectre of the s: George Oppen’s Of Being Numerous and Historical Amnesia Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments and Permissions Having spent quite a few years writing this book on American poetry and collective memory, I appreciate more than ever how scholarly books are col- laborative efforts. I am fortunate to have had the support of a number of intellec- tual communities that have enhanced the experience of researching and writing this book. I want to acknowledge those whose generosity, enthusiasm, and wis- dom have made this experience so gratifying. My colleagues in the St. John’s University English Department have collab- orated on this project in innumerable ways, as they have continually reminded me how vital the relationship of research to teaching is. I thank especially Steven Sicari and Derek Owens, whose friendship and intellectual support since the ear- liest stages of this book have meant so much to me. My conversations with them and with Gregory Maertz, Willard Gingerich, Jennifer Travis, Robert Fanuzzi, Granville Ganter, and Lee Ann Brown have influenced my thinking about mod- ernism and American cultural studies as the book has evolved. I also want to thank my undergraduate and graduate students at St. John’s, who continue to challenge me and confirm my purpose as an educator and scholar. This book has become what it is largely because of the classes in twentieth-century American and African American literature that I have taught at St. John’s. Finally, I am grateful to St. John’s University for the institutional support I have received while writ- ing this book, specifically for the Summer Support of Research grants that have facilitated my research. I express my gratitude in particular to Jeffrey Fagen not only for his support of my work but also for his leadership as dean of St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I thank the editors of the Contemporary North American Poetry Series for their vision and perseverance in making this series possible. Alan Golding, Lynn Keller, and Adalaide Morris have provided me with exemplary guidance as this project has found its home at the University of Iowa Press. Holly Carver, the director of the University of Iowa Press, has impressed me not only with her pro- fessionalism but also with her patience, kindness, and sense of humor. I also want to thank Charlotte Wright, Allison Thomas, Karen Copp, and the staff at the University of Iowa Press for their outstanding work in producing this book. I am especially appreciative of the copyediting work of Robert Burchfield. Walter Kalaidjian and the anonymous reader for the University of Iowa Press have enhanced this book with their thoughtful and thorough comments. I also want to acknowledge those who have read and responded to parts of this book ix x acknowledgments and permissions at earlier stages of its development, including Joseph Skerrett Jr., Anne Herzog, Janet Kaufman, Edgar Dryden, Houston Baker Jr., Arnold Rampersad, Greg Fraser, John McCluskey Jr., William Maxwell, Michael Davidson, and Rachel Blau DuPlessis. My colleagues in the New York Americanist Group provided an invigorating intellectual community as I was writing this book. I am especially grateful for the input of Jean Lutes, Tim Gray, Rachel Adams, Maria Farland, and Michael Trask. Finally, I express my deepest thanks to Rosemary Marangoly George, José Aranda, Randy Bass, Mark Sanders, David Jarraway, Jeffrey DeShell, Lisa Sheffield, Susannah Mintz, and Rocco Marinaccio for their intellectual en- couragement through the duration of this project. I have presented much of the research from this book at conferences, and I want to acknowledge the organizations that have made this possible, including the American Studies Association, MELUS, the Modern Language Association, and the Modernist Studies Association. The most important organization for the development of this book has been the National Poetry Foundation. The dialogue that has taken place between poets and scholars at the National Poetry Foundation conferences has been invaluable for the study of twentieth-century American poetry and for my work in particular. My initial thinking about this book was inspired by the conference, “The First Postmodernists: Ameri- can Poets of the s Generation,” a conference that has had an extraordinary impact on s literary research. I thank Burton Hatlen for organizing these conferences as well as for his interest in my work. I am grateful as well to the William Carlos Williams Society for intellectual camaraderie and the opportu- nity to present research related to this book. I thank especially Christopher MacGowan, Bryce Conrad, Ian Copestake, Virginia Kouidis, Alec Marsh, Glen McLeod, Daniel Morris, Peter Schmitt, and Hugh Witemeyer. A number of poets and scholars have contributed to this book through their responses to my work, including Gene Frumkin, Jenny Goodman, Cary Nelson, Aldon Lynn Nielsen, James Smethurst, Lori Smith, and Lorenzo Thomas. Linda Oppen and William Rukeyser have been generous and helpful in responding to my queries about their parents’ work. My work has benefited from the helpful support of staff members at the fol- lowing libraries: the St. John’s University Library; the Archive for New Poetry, Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego; and the following research collections of the New York Public Library: the Berg Col- lection of English and American Literature, the General Research Division of the Center for the Humanities, the Library for the Performing Arts, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. acknowledgments and permissions xi I am thankful to my families, from my immediate family to my extended and in-law families, for their encouragement and patience as I was working on this project. My parents’ memories of the Great Depression and World War II inspired this project, and I am grateful to all of my relatives whose recollections of this period inform this book. I am especially thankful for the newest mem- ber of our family, Jasmine Cross Lowney, who has brought so much joy to her parents’ lives. Finally, this book would not exist without the intellectual insight, editorial judgment, and sensitivity of Ashley Cross, whose contribution to this book is inestimable. She has enriched my life so much that I cannot express my appreciation enough. I dedicate this book to her with all of my love. Parts of the following chapters have been published previously as essays that have been revised and expanded for this book. Parts of chapters and were published as “‘Littered with Old Correspondences’: Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and the s,” Arizona Quarterly . (Summer ): –, repro- duced with permission of the Arizona Board of Regents. An earlier version of chapter was published as “‘Truths of Outrage, Truths of Possibility’: Muriel Rukeyser’s ‘The Book of the Dead,’” in Anne F. Herzog and Janet E. Kaufman, eds., “How Shall We Teach Each Other of the Poet?” The Life and Writing of Muriel Rukeyser (St. Martin’s, ): –, reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. Part of chapter was published as “Langston Hughes and the ‘Non- sense’ of Bebop,” in a special issue of American Literature, ed.