Week #23: June 16 – June 21
Go to bat, get on the bandwagon, throw in your lot…. all these quirky sayings reference taking sides. Taking sides in an argument, any argument, big or small, personal or national. While couples may argue on which movie earns their vote for best motion picture and parents may argue which school their children should attend, politicians take sides on issues ranging from healthcare and firearms to borders and trade… and every issue in between. We live at a time in society where every person has a voice – albeit some louder than others – and everyone has the constitutional right to voice their opinion, to jump on a bandwagon going in their direction, to pick up a bat and swing for their team (figuratively of course) and throw in their lot with their like-minded companions. According to a recent survey conducted at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, arguments are physically healthy because they lower harmful hormones. And they provide psychological benefits because they demonstrate that individuals are thinking for themselves which provides a sense of self-worth. But… on a personal scale, arguments only remain healthy if both sides agree on the fundamental outcome of the argument. For example, if we look at the couple arguing about which movie to choose, as long as they both agree that motion pictures provide a type of entertainment then they can have a healthy argument. If we look at the parents arguing over which school their children should attend, as long as they both agree about the importance of education then they can have a healthy argument. If this concept of having an argument based on a fundamental agreement holds true on the personal level, then logically, it should also hold true on a national level. Let the Democrats and the Republicans jump on their bandwagons for healthcare, as long as those bandwagons are headed in the same direction – fixing healthcare; let them feud over firearms as long as they both aim for increasing safety; let them duke it out over borders as long as they both fight for improved security; let them throw in their lot with trade agreements as long as they all pitch for improved financials. Unfortunately, we tend to get bogged down in selfish interests and pride and lose sight of the fundamentals. And this seems to have happened to two very talented writers that enjoyed their heyday during the 1940s and 1950s: Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy. Born just seven years and one day apart, during a time when women needed to bond together to fight against inequality in the workforce, these two instead butted heads in the ultimate literary cat-fight. So as we honor each one on the anniversary of their birthdays instead of focusing on the feud that divided them, let us focus on their similarities and imagine what they could have accomplished if they had realized they were aboard the same bandwagon for the prevalent issues occurring in society. Lillian Hellman spent the first half of her life in the typical writer fashion – attending college, working menial jobs, marrying (and then divorcing) the wrong man, and indulging in a passionate love affair with a fellow writer. In between all this, she learned to write plays which declared her political philosophies. Overall, she wrote approximately sixteen plays and screenplays, and although audiences loved watching the performances of her all plays, the most controversial and outspoken ones - “The Children’s Hour” (1934), which portrays the ugly consequences of lying, rumors, and the mob-mentality that overtakes a community because of their paranoia, “Days to Come” (1936), which demonstrates the consequences when a factory owner pushes his workers too far, and “The Little Foxes” (1939), which symbolically portrays unsavory capitalist motives through the characterization of three siblings fighting over their family’s business, all provoked the watchful eye of our suspicious government. And Lillian Hellman continued to walk a narrow line writing politically out-spoken plays for the next decade. But when, at the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s, she resurrected her play “The Children’s Hour,” and then within a month Arthur Miller released his similarly themed play “The Crucible,” the House Un-American Activities Committee quickly stepped in and blacklisted both playwrights. Out of work and with time on her hands, she took the first tenuous steps that would lead to her downfall…she began writing her memoirs. As a successful woman with strong political views and an unwavering stance against injustice, she knew she had something to write about. And write she did, publishing Unfinished Woman: A Memoir in 1969 in which she reminisces about events ranging from her childhood travels between New York City and New Orleans to her love affair with fellow writer, Dashiell Hammett, followed with Pentimento: A Book of Portraits in 1973, which as its title suggests portrays how she uncovers her past experiences to portray her original hopes and intentions, and finally Scoundrel Time in 1976 in which she reflects on her experiences during the McCarthy era when the House Un-American Activities Committee ruined and jailed her partner, Dashiell Hammett, a known communist, and then tried to interrogate her. Unfortunately, she wrote the truth as she saw it, not necessarily as it really happened, and people called her out on the inconsistencies, exaggerations, and what some say, just down-right lies. Between Mary McCarthy’s incendiary remarks during a televised interview proclaiming that “Every word [Hellman] write is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’,” Martha Gellhorn’s comments that Hellman distorted the accounts of the Spanish civil war and her friendship with writer and war correspondent Ernest Hemingway, and psychoanalyst Muriel Gardiner’s accusation that the events Hellman wrote about in a chapter of Pentimento were actually based on Gardiner’s life, all led to a turning point in Hellman’s reputation and career. Although Hellman fought back, trying to sue for defamation, the lawsuit continued until her death from a heart attack in June of 1984. Now instead of discussing her as a woman of strength and independence, a woman on the pioneering front of feminism, negativity shrouds her legacy, and few people pay their respects to her at her final resting place in Martha’s Vineyard on a remote hill in Abel Hill Cemetery. Although almost exactly seven years her junior and a literary rival, Mary McCarthy shared many characteristics with Lillian Hellman. As the oldest of four children and the only girl, Mary would have shared that same independent streak as Lillian Hellman also had as an only child. Although their reasons differed, Mary also moved around during her childhood. Born and raised in Seattle, at the age of six she moved to the Midwest to live with her paternal grandparents after the unexpected death of both her parents from influenza. Unfortunately, unprepared for her grandparents’ strict rules and parenting style, she hated her time there, and eventually at the age of eleven moved back to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents who provided a loving home with a rich education. Then much like Lillian Hellman, Mary experienced the typical after-high-school developments: attended college, married prematurely, divorced quickly. Whereas Lillian began her career writing plays, Mary began her writing career as a drama critic for the new magazine, Partisan Review – a platform that encouraged her honest, straight to the point, and often harsh criticism, that not even a spoonful of sugar would help the receiver swallow. As a drama critic, one can easily see how she would cross paths with playwright Lillian Hellman. And their ideological differences quickly sparked a feud between them that simmered for years, regardless of their similarities. But at this time, instead of focusing on other writers, she focused on how to climb the career ladder. Although she felt intimidated by her boss, she knew how to unbalance him… have an affair with him. And that she did much to the dismay of her coworkers. And although the affair became more serious – even to the point where she lived with him – she unexpectedly married another man, fellow literary critic and editor of Vanity Fair magazine, Edmund Wilson, who encouraged her to try writing fiction, supposedly locking her in a room and telling her to write. Whether the door was really locked or if she went willingly, it doesn’t matter because she did write; she wrote what would become the first chapter of The Company She Keeps, a compilation of six controversial episodes that although closely resemble McCarthy’s personal younger years, McCarthy herself can’t say for certain which episodes she made up and which ones are true. Sound familiar? Using her husband’s connections at the magazine, she published the finalized novel in 1942. Although she and Edmund had a volatile marriage, he continued to support her writing by reading and promoting her written works, including The Weeds (September 16, 1944), which fictionalizes the time she fled to New York after a fight with Edmund. With an already established reputation as a “controversial” woman during the 1940s, she divorced Wilson and within a year entered her third marriage; this time to Bowden Broadwater, a fellow writer and teacher at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. While married to Broadwater, she focused on her writing and published eight books. And during these two decades, she also, like Lillian Hellman, understandably became a liberal critic of McCarthyism and communism. Then in 1961 while on a lecturing tour, she met and fell in love with James Raymond West, a former director of information for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. She divorced Broadwater, and entered marriage number four – her final one. During her marriage to West, she published perhaps her most contentious novel, The Group (1963) which follows eight young female friends post college graduation, and explores the theme of the rampant sexism so prevalent in society during the 1930s – the setting of the novel. But she also experienced this sexism, as did Lillian Hellman, because of the choices each made in their lives, especially in regards to their careers and relationships with men at a time when woman married once and raised children as their career. So although these women could have supported one another, during the late seventies, Mary fanned that old simmering spark with Lillian Hellman, causing an explosion. On The Dick Cavett Show she incited Hellman by saying that “every work [Hellman] writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.” Of course, Hellman retaliated with a libel suit. Perhaps Mary forgot her own ‘liberties’ she had taken with some of her own writings, or perhaps she enjoyed playing devil’s advocate just a little too much; either way this one comment would become her legacy – not her talented writing – after she died over a decade later from lung cancer. And sadly, few literary fans visit her grave in Castine Cemetry in Maine. So, had these two women, these talented writers, focused on the bigger picture – the sexism they experienced during their careers, their pioneering feministic endeavors regarding their personal lives, their fight against political repression and the unjust accusations during McCarthyism – they may have realized that they were at bat for the same side, were traveling on the same bandwagon, and had thrown in their lot with the same liberal group. Instead, they lost sight of that fundamental argument and fought against each other, which ultimately lead them both into obscurity. The lesson? Although arguing may provide personal benefits, check to see if your opponent agrees with you on the same fundamental outcome; because if you do agree, by collaborating you become a force to be reckoned with and remembered. In addition to the websites I mentioned in my article, I also reference information from researching these authors on the following sites: Churchwell, Sarah. “The scandalous Lillilan Hellman.” The Guardian. 21 January 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2018 from https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/jan/22/lillian-hellman-childrens-hour-sarah-churchwell Gornick, Vivian. “The Company They Kept.” The New Yorker. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2018 from https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-company-they-kept Kakutani, Michiko. “Mary McCarthy, 77, Is Dead; Novelist, Memoirist and Critic.” The New York Times. 26 October 1989. Retrieved 25 June 2018 from https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/26/specials/mccarthy-obit.html?scp=49&sq=gay%2520catholic%2520voice&st=cse “The Lives of Lillian Hellman: About Lillian Hellman.” American Masters. 30 December 2001. Retrieved 22 June 2018 from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/lillian-hellman-about-lillian-hellman/628/
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AuthorLet me introduce myself. I am Julie Blasofsel. While teaching high school English for the past dozen years, my appreciation for works of literature increased after visiting several locations associated with the authors and their texts. You can't help but feel the presence of Ralph Waldo Emerson as you stand on the shores of Walden pond, the despair of Henry Longfellow as you stand in his house, the loneliness of Edgar A. Poe as you descend into his walled basement, the candor of Samuel Clemons as you reach his men-only study. My goal is to gather information and relate my experiences about these places of literary significance in this literary hive. Please add your literary travel experiences and recommendations. Together we can bring these authors to life and light the flame of passion for reading in others. Enjoy! Archives
October 2018
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