Newberry Library - Fried, Lewis (Lew), (also works), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1969-1978

Fried, Lewis (Lew), (also works), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1969-1978

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Open book Fried, Lewis (Lew), (also works), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1969-1978

Title Fried, Lewis (Lew), (also works), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1969-1978

Creator Conroy, Jack, 1898-1990

Date n.d., 1969-1978

Place United States

Language English

Subjects Authors, American, Bohemianism, New Left, Radicalism in literature, Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Illinois

Format Correspondence

User-Contributed Transcription written in pencil Fried, Lewis

written in blue ink at top of first page of article
To Jack -
Best wishes & many
thanks for your
help - Lew Fried

Bernard Carr and
His italics Trials of the Mind

LEWIS FRIED

Farrell's major fiction [" the story of America as I knew it"] is funded so greatly
by the struggles of his youth and maturity that we are in danger of
reading the Bernard Carr trilogy2note as mere autobiography. Evidence is not
lacking to support such an interpretation. In the early forties, Farrell had
become interested in the fate of leftist idealogues of the thirties, and "hoped
to convey the 'seething background'"3note of the Depression years. Spanning the
years 1927 to 1936, the Carr novels seem to be a vast roman à clef italics. Both Farrell
and Carr left the University of Chicago, made their way to New York,
clerked in cigar stores, sold advertising space, and returned to the South Side.
Coming back to New York, both signed petitions calling for a writers'
congress, addressed the assembly in speeches that are thematically similar,
and drew fire from Marxist critics. John Keele ( "a chunky little man with an
esoteric critical reputation was monotonously reading his paper in which he
suggested that the slogan 'a people's literature' would be more attractive than
the words 'proletarian literature'"4note ) reminds us of Kenneth Burke. Pat
Devlin, a young, acclaimed proletarian writer from the mid-West ("There is
more of the vigor of proletarian literature in a strike leaflet, however crudely
written, than there is in all of the style and pseudo-erudition of a college
graduate's painful course from the saints to the Revolution"5note) is strikingly
similar to Jack Conroy. The figure of Eldridge seems to be based upon Earl
Browder; Howard Mather upon Granville Hicks; Sherman Scott recalls
Malcolm Cowley; Lloyd Street, Whittaker Chambers.

I want to suggest, however, that the trilogy is an act of, and meditation

upon, the historiography of culture. The novels express--and dramatize--the
problems besieging a writer who wishes to study the politics of social life. For

52

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Jack Conroy papers

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Conroy Box 10 Folder 508

BibID 992006198805867

Projects Tag IMLS Cares 2020

Rights Status Copyright Not Evaluated

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 4028px × 5152px 118.78 MB

Filename 992006198805867_midwest_ms_conroy_box_00010_fl_00508_000036.tif

Unique Identifier NL11A5GC

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