PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/147068 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-10 and may be subject to change. Karl Shapiro and Poetry, A Magazine of Verse (1950-1955) • SRsjgy 'Ê \ Diederik Oostdijk Karl Shapiro and Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (1950-1955) Karl Shapiro and Poetry: Λ Magazine of Verse (1950-1955) een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied van de Letteren Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 14 september 2000 des namiddags om 1.30 uur precies door Diederik Michiel Oostdijk geboren op 12 februari 1972 te Tilburg Promotor: Prof dr. G.A.M. Janssens Co-promotor: Mw. dr. M.L.M. Janssen Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. J.Th.J. Bak Prof. dr. G.C.A.M. van Gemert Prof. dr. R.J. Lyall (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) to my mother & the memory of my father Contents Acknowledgments ix Note on Archival Materials xi Preface xm Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Poetry and Periodical Publishing before 1950 1 1.2 Poetry before Shapiro 9 1.3 Shapiro before Poetry 17 Chapter 2. Poetry (1950-1951) 27 2.1 Karl Shapiro and the Board of Trustees 27 2.2 The Poetry Section 34 2.3 The Prose Section 51 2.4 Special Issues 63 Chapter 3. Poetry (1952-1953) 73 3.1 Karl Shapiro and the Board of Trustees 73 3.2 The Poetry Section 85 3.3 The Prose Section 105 3.4 Special Issues 119 Chapter 4. Poetry (1954-1955) 135 4.1 Karl Shapiro and the Board of Trustees 135 4.2 The Poetry Section 146 4.3 The Prose Section 167 4.4 Special Issues 182 Chapter 5. Conclusion 195 5.1 Shapiro after Poetry 195 5.2 Poetry after Shapiro 204 5.3 Poetry and Periodical Publishing after 1950 212 Vili Epilogue 223 Index 225 Samenvatting 237 Curriculum Vitae 241 Acknowledgments I am indebted to a great many people and institutions who helped me along the way The following people contributed, directly or indirectly, to the writing of this book or aided me in compiling my information and I thank them dearly for their vital support Steve Ballerene and Ellen Decherd, Ian Copestake, Molly DeFazio, Edward and Elisabeth Jeep, Suzanne Kooij, Marc Willwerth, and my colleagues at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Nijmegen, especially Jaap van der Bent and Emily Embrçe who proofread my manuscript The Netherlands American Commission for Educational Exchange (NACEE) granted me a Fulbnght scholarship and Indiana University offered me a Helm Visiting Fellowship, which enabled me to visit archives relevant to my research I am also grateful to Hayden Carruth, Hugh Kenner, Laura Joost, Bonnie Nims, the late John Frederick Nims, Juliet Rago, Sophie Wilkins, and Evalyn Shapiro who found time to talk to me about their experiences with Karl Shapiro and Poetry in the 1950s Philip Booth, Cid Corman, and Glenna Luschei, among others, patiently answered my letters or e-mails about Shapiro as editor Joseph Parisi and the staff at Poetry kindly assisted me by letting me peruse and quote from letters, manuscripts, and notes of the meetings of the Modem Poetry Association, which helped make it possible to reconstruct the internal history of Shapiro's editorship I am, however, most indebted to Madeleine Hülsen, Martijn Oostdijk, and my mother for their love, support, and encouragement Note on Archival Materials The manuscript collections quoted from in the footnotes are located in the following repositories. - Conrad Aiken papers: The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. - Barrett-Shapiro papers: Alderman Library, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville. - John Berryman papers: University Libraries, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. - Augustine Bowe papers: Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois. - Rachel Bromberg papers: American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie. - Hayden Carruth papers: Bailey/Howe Library, University of Vermont, Burlington. - Donald Davidson papers: The Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. - George Dillon papers: George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University, New York. - Richard Eberhart papers: Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, New Hampshire. - Isabella Gardner papers: Olin Library, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. - Nicholas Joost papers: Lauinger Library, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. - Kimon Friar papers: Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey. - Galway Kinnell papers: Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. - Lawrence Hart Institute: San Rafael, California. - Modem Poetry Association papers: Modem Poetry Association, Poetry, Chicago, Illinois. - Stanley Pargellis papers: Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois. - Poetry papers: Regenstein Library, University of Chicago, Illinois. - Ezra Pound papers: Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. - Henry Rago papers: Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. - Seiden Rodman papers: American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie. - Theodore Roethke papers: University of Washington Libraries, Seattle. - Pedro Salinas papers: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. xii - Karl and Evalyn Shapiro papers: McKeldin Library, University of Maryland, College Park. - Karl Shapiro papers: Harry Ransom Humanities Center, University of Texas, Austin. - Allen Tate papers: Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey. - University of Nebraska Press papers: University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska. - Robert Penn Warren papers: The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. - Oscar Williams papers: Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. - William Carlos Williams papers: The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Preface "Someday I hope to write a piece about my experiences at Poetry, but I am afraid it would take a Dostoyevski to do it justice."' -Karl Shapiro- This study of Karl Shapiro's editorship of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse from 1950 to 1955 hardly constitutes a Dostoyevski novel, but I hope it does justice to one of the most exciting and dramatic chapters ofthat magazine's history. During the six years Shapiro edited Poetry, the magazine narrowly escaped folding twice, changed offices a few times, caused serious commotion in the literary world because of the uncompromising criticism it printed, and became national news when Shapiro forced the ex-wife of a Presidential candidate out as head of its Board of Trustees. Throughout, Shapiro gained the most impressive publication record of any Poetry editor except its founder, Harriet Monroe, and restored the magazine's reputation as the most important poetry journal of the English speaking world. Shapiro's editorship of Poetry indeed marked the magazine's second flowering, its renaissance. This book aims at a comprehensive critical evaluation of Poetry as a literary journal under Shapiro. It seeks to determine its importance to American poetry in the 1950s, thereby filling a hiatus in the literary history of American poetry. Only by reconstructing the internal workings of the magazine is it possible to gain true insight into its editorial policy and to judge what led to the successful choices Shapiro made. Therefore, this study is based not only on an analysis of the magazine's contents and on a variety of printed sources, but also on the unpublished editorial correspondence with contributors and benefactors, as well as on interviews with several insiders, including Shapiro's predecessor, Hayden Carruth, Shapiro's favorite reviewer, Hugh Kenner, the current Poetry editor, Joseph Parisi, and Shapiro's erstwhile wife and Poetry's managing editor, Evalyn Shapiro. In order to understand Shapiro's policy at Poetry properly, it is important to address the literary climate and sociocultural situation as well as specific circumstances which may have affected him. What was Shapiro's relationship, for instance, with his editorial staff? Did its members have the power to vote for or against manuscripts or was Shapiro more of an autocrat? A substantial part of Shapiro's job was raising funds as Poetry's financial position was always shaky. Therefore the entrepreneurial side of managing a magazine will also enter the 1 Karl Shapiro, letter to Hayden Carruth, 20 December 1959, Karl Shapiro papers. XIV Preface discussion because it concerned his day-to-day worries. Similarly, Shapiro's rapport with the magazine's Board of Trustees needs to be sorted out to understand what his responsibilities and duties really were and how much he was in control editorially. These and other concerns need to be addressed in order to establish Shapiro's part in Poetry's renaissance. Chapter 1 attempts to contextualize Shapiro's achievement by focusing on his earlier career, Poetry's past, and the state of periodical publishing up to 1950. Shapiro assumed the editorship at the zenith of his popularity right after the noisy Bollingen affair in which he went against widely-held beliefs in contemporary poetry. This decision showed the direction of his editorship of Poetry which found itself in a slump after a glorious start under Harriet Monroe and was struggling with its identity. While still respected, Poetry suffered from the competition of the literary quarterlies with their emphasis on the New