The Interior Castle (70 page)

55
“without money” to “cannot be appealing”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

56
“Bring a number”: Atlas,
Delmore Schwartz
, p. 253.

57
“I have been grateful”: JS to Peter Taylor, Aug. 4, 1947, Vanderbilt University Library.

58
“It was more”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

59
“a fit of trembling”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

60
“returned to me”: JS to Peter Taylor, Apr. 27, 1947, Vanderbilt University Library.

61
“I am studying” to “feeding upon a fungus”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

62
“You will be”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

63
“the first of [her] saviours”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

64
“Dr. Cohn”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

65
“Before we meet”: Dr. Alfred Cohn to JS, Mar. 25, 1948, JS Collection, U. of Co.

66
“It has been rather rough” to “what happiness is”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

67
“I cannot truly”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

68
“Alas, I am”: JS to Peter Taylor, Dec. 17, 1947, Vanderbilt University Library.

69
“I went to Bard” to “my principal ambition”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

70
“low pitch”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

71
“[My lecture] is so foolish”: JS to John Crowe Ransom, n.d., courtesy of the Greenslade Special Collections of Olin and Chalmers Libraries at Kenyon College.

72
“Uncle Ransom”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

73
“loutishly well-adjusted”: JS, “The Psychological Novel,”
Kenyon Review
10 (Spring 1948), p. 218.

74
“It is fashionable”: Ibid., p. 215.

75
“drive toward being”: Ibid., p. 220.

76
“in the respect”: Lionel Trilling, “Art and Neurosis,” in
The Liberal Imagination
, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), p. 170.

77
“detachment from our characters’ ”: JS, “The Psychological Novel,” p. 220.

78
“We must be experts”: Ibid., p. 221.

79
“Naturally I go” to “do not make sense”: Ibid., pp. 223–224.

80
“lowers the story”: Ibid., p. 217.

81
“At forty I’ve written”: Robert Lowell to William Carlos Williams, Dec. 3, 1957, quoted in Axelrod,
Robert Lowell: Life and Art
, p. 91.

82
In December she sold: Roberts,
Jean Stafford
, p. 275.

83
“secretly enjoyed”: James Thurber,
The Years with Ross
(Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press Book, Little, Brown and Co., 1959), p. 97.

84
“the word ‘casual’ ”: Ibid., p. 13.

85
“not edited for the old lady in Dubuque”: Ibid., p. 85.

86
“for many years” to “that had style”: Brendan Gill,
Here at The New Yorker
(New York: Random House, 1975), p. 390.

87
“one of her best friends”: Linda H. David,
Onward and Upward: A Biography of Katharine S. White
(New York: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 152.

88
“a remarkable reviser”: Ibid., p. 154.

89
“a vague, little man”: Thurber,
The Years with Ross
, p. 131.

90
“the pointless and inane”: Edmund Wilson to Katharine White, Nov. 12, 1947, quoted in Edmund Wilson,
Letters on Literature and Politics, 1912–1972
, ed. Elena Wilson (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1977), p. 410.

91
“It’s easy to”: Delmore Schwartz, “Smile and Grin, Relax and Collapse,” in
Selected Essays of Delmore Schwartz
, ed. Donald A. Dike and David H. Zuckor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 416.

92
“powerful and pernicious”: Ibid., p. 412.

93
“in
The New Yorker
”: Ibid., p. 416.

94
“The chief recent tendency” to “fiction and personal history”: Ibid., p. 413.

95
“It is probably needless”: Ibid., p. 414.

96
“The day I came”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

97
“the last familiar face”: JS, “Children Are Bored on Sunday,”
Collected Stories
, p. 379.

98
“Eisenburg’s milieu” to “laughed at”: Ibid., p. 374.

99
“cunning” set, “on their guard”: Ibid., p. 373.

100
“the cream of the enlightened”: Ibid., p. 375.

101
“These cocktail parties”: Ibid., pp. 374–375.

102
“opinions on everything” to “calling in itself”: Ibid., p. 377.

103
“she was not even”: Ibid., p. 378.

104
“had never dissuaded her” to “apologetic fancy woman”: Ibid., p. 379.

105
“Neither staunchly primitive”: Ibid., p. 378.

106
“the months of spreading” to “art and religion”: Ibid., p. 381.

107
“To [Emma’s] own heart”: Ibid., p. 383.

108
“never knew where”: Ibid., p. 378.

109
“in the territory of despair”: Ibid., p. 382.

110
“If you think your snide remarks”: Peter Taylor to Robert Lowell, May 1, 1952, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

111
“John Berryman came”: JS to Peter Taylor, Mar. 8, 1948, Vanderbilt University Library.

112
“he announced that”: JS to Peter Taylor, Jan. 17, 1950, Vanderbilt University Library.

113
“Please consider it”: JS to Peter Taylor, Mar. 8, 1948, Vanderbilt University Library.

1
signed a contract: memo on
In the Snowfall
, Nov. 28, 1947, Harcourt, Brace, JS Collection, U. of Co.

2
allotting her $6,500: JS and Robert Lowell, divorce decree, March 1948, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

3
“good friends”: JS to Mary Lee Frichtel, Apr. 10, 1948, JS Collection, U. of Co.

4
“I want us both” to “at a low pitch”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

5
“I am now divorced”: JS to Edward Joseph Chay, July 3, 1948, JS Collection, U. of Co.

6
“was a triumph”: JS to Mary Lee Frichtel, April 10, 1948, JS Collection, U. of Co.

7
“For the three”: Nancy Flagg Gibney, “People to Stay,”
Shenandoah
30, no. 3 (1979), p. 67.

8
“Pull yourself together”: Dr. Mary Jane Sherfey to JS, Apr. 28, 1948, JS Collection, U. of Co.

9
“He is an altogether”: JS to Peter Taylor, June 28, 1948, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 133.

10
“stifled by the terrible rush” to “without ever maturing”: JS to William Mock, Oct. 24, 1948, Dartmouth College Library.

11
“Alas, alas”: JS to Edward Joseph Chay, July 3, 1948, JS Collection, U. of Co.

12
at least not to his friends: Frank Parker interview with author, Nov. 23, 1990.

13
At a later stage: Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 155.

14
“Cal is in a sanitarium”: JS to Paul and Dorothy Thompson, Apr. 25, 1949, courtesy of the Thompsons.

15
“It is an awful irony” to “that poor boy”: JS to Mary Lee Frichtel, postmarked Apr. 12, 1949, JS Collection, U. of Co.

16
Les Maudits
: from “For John Berryman,” Robert Lowell,
Day by Day
, p. 27.

17
“Is it wrong”: JS to John Berryman, May 17, 1948, John Berryman Papers, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.

18
“analysands all”: “The Lightning,” John Berryman, in
The Dispossessed
(New York: William Sloane Associates, 1948).

19
“There’s a strange fact” to “book of the age”: Robert Lowell to Theodore Roethke, July 10, 1963, quoted in Hamilton,
Robert Lowell
, p. 337.

20
“It is not news”: JS to Paul and Dorothy Thompson, Feb. 13, 1947, courtesy of the Thompsons.

21
“is impolite” to “memory by writing of it”: JS, “Truth and the Novelist,” pp. 187–189.

22
“very hard at work”: JS to Peter Taylor, Apr. 26, 1949, Vanderbilt University Library.

23
“I feel that I have”: JS to Mary Lee Frichtel, June 10, 1949, JS Collection, U. of Co.

24
“hidden pathological tortures” to “writer you’ll be”: Dr. Mary Jane Sherfey to JS, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

25
Alfred Kazin: Alfred Kazin interview with author, Oct. 1, 1986.

26
“I so terribly want”: JS to Peter Taylor, Dec. 6, 1949, Vanderbilt University Library.

27
“When the whole thing”: JS to Oliver Jensen, Jan. 19, 1950, JS Collection, U. of Co.

28
“all of life”: JS to Oliver Jensen, n.d., JS Collection, U. of Co.

29
“Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Jensen”: JS Collection, U. of Co.

30
“it was fitting”: JS, “A Modest Proposal,”
Collected Stories
, p. 68.

31
“To be quite frank”: JS to Cecile Starr, n.d., courtesy of Cecile Starr.

32
“I think Tommy”: JS, “Polite Conversation,”
Collected Stories
, p. 131.

33
“fascinating and poetic”: Katharine White to JS, Oct. 20, 1948, JS Collection, U. of Co.

34
“From every thought”: JS, “A Country Love Story,”
Collected Stories
, p. 140.

35
“Sometime, he said”: JS,
In the Snowfall
miscellaneous, JS Collection, U. of Co.

36
“Jean Stafford’s ‘The Nemesis’ ”: Granville Hicks, “Selected Stories—Told with Integrity,”
The New York Times Book Review
, July 15, 1951, p. 5.

37
“fat to the point” to “arrogant self-possession”: JS, “The Echo and the Nemesis,”
Collected Stories
, p. 37.

38
“No doubt remains” to “and so of course also one”: Dr. Alfred Cohn to JS, Dec. 17, 1950, JS Collection, U. of Co.

39
“ ‘I am exceptionally ill’ ” to “Most people do”: JS, “The Echo and the Nemesis,”
Collected Stories
, p. 52.

40
“Are you afraid”: Ibid., p. 53.

41
“with her hands locked”: Ibid., p. 145.

42
“As you described”: Katharine White to JS, Aug. 4, 1951, JS Collection, U. of Co.

43
“empty ecstasy”: JS,
Collected Stories
, p. 105.

44
“a horrible fear”: James,
The Varieties of Religious Experience
, p. 135.

45
“In that hideous grin”: JS, “Life Is No Abyss,”
Collected Stories
, p. 105.

46
“who can’t take anything” to “state of grace”: Ibid., p. 112.

47
“The fact is”: Ibid., p. 418.

48
“I, who never act”: Ibid., p. 420.

49
“penetrate at last” to “something to eat”: Ibid., p. 422.

50
“I think maybe”: JS to Oliver Jensen, Aug. 15, 1951, JS Collection, U. of Co.

51
“I don’t want to go”: JS to Mary Lee Frichtel, Sept. 23, 1951, JS Collection, U. of Co.

52
“the three big topics”: Oliver Jensen letter to author, May 12, 1991.

53
“I feel a desperate fatigue”: JS to Oliver Jensen, July 29, 1952, JS Collection, U. of Co.

54
“I cannot give you”: JS to Oliver Jensen, Aug. 9, 1951, JS Collection, U. of Co.

55
Her reluctance: Alex and Marie Warner interview with author, Dec. 17, 1986.

56
“concluded at last”: JS, “An Etiquette for Writers,” p. 2.

57
“the private-made-public life”: Ibid., p. 7.

58
“In recent years”: Ibid., p. 8.

59
“Writing is a private”: Ibid.

60
“I am all”: JS to Oliver Jensen, Aug. 9, 1952, JS Collection, U. of Co.

61
“Her pessimism”: Oliver Jensen to Mary Lee Frichtel, Nov. 18, 1952, JS Collection, U. of Co.

62
“I will soon be”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

63
“All I ask”: JS to Mary Lee Frichtel, Sept. 23, 1952, JS Collection, U. of Co.

64
“Please do not read”: JS to Caroline Gordon, n.d., Princeton University Library.

65
“I only refurbished”: JS to Oliver Jensen, Mar. 1954, JS Collection, U. of Co.

66
“I don’t know what”: JS to Robert Lowell, n.d., Houghton Library, Harvard University.

67
“It deals with people” to “kindly and uninhibited”: JS, “Truth and the Novelist,” p. 189.

68
“was looking right” to “everything written there”: JS,
The Catherine Wheel
(New York: Ecco Press, 1981), p. 150.

69
“fuse the two manners” to “leisurely … embroidered”: JS interview with Harvey Breit, “Talk with Jean Stafford,” p. 18.

70
“He waited”: JS,
The Catherine Wheel
, pp. 15–16.

71
“Once Andrew had”: Ibid., p. 27.

72
“These fine long faces”: Ibid., pp. 66–67.

73
“in her rarefied world”: Ibid., p. 43.

74
“It struck her”: Ibid., p. 84.

75
“Man’s life is”: Ibid., epigraph.

76
it even made it: Roberts,
Jean Stafford
, p. 370.

77
“At other times”: “ ‘Parsifal’ in Modern Dress,”
The New Yorker
27, (Jan. 12, 1952), p. 78.

78
“Miss Stafford’s prose”: Irving Howe, “Sensibility Troubles,”
Kenyon Review
14 (Spring 1952), p. 348.

79
“You need to get”: JS interview with Harvey Breit, “Talk with Jean Stafford,” p. 18.