convocation of the University of the State of New York in his native Albany on October 24, 1952. His words were immediately carried across the country on the news wire services, and the
Saturday Review
made the speech its feature article in the November 22, 1952, issue. Given the political climate at the time, Hand’s words comprised an impassioned, if understated, plea against the status quo. See above. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
19. Frank Yerby began his career as a writer of protest fiction, but turned to popular historical romance novels in the ’40s. Emmet Kelly was a famous American circus clown. For the rest of this section, Algren scornfully refers to Yerby as “Kelly.”
20. 1887 letter from Anton Chekhov to M. V. Kiseleva. From
Letters of Anton Chekhov
, Selected and edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky (New York: The Viking Press, 1973), p. 41. Algren attacks Chekhov here under false pretenses, since Chekhov’s view of the writer’s responsibility closely approximated his own, and had little or nothing to do with the kind of dressed-up entertainments Algren is attacking.
21.
The Trial
, by Franz Kafka. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. (New York: Schocken, 1968), p. 121.
22. Fitzgerald, p. 81.
23. Hearn (1850-1904) wrote stories and essays based in the Far East; Sterling (1869-1926) was a lyric and dramatic poet.
24. André Gide’s journal entry for October 8, 1891, included this observation: “This terrifies me: To think that the present, which we are living this very day, will become the mirror in which we shall later recognize ourselves; and that by what we have been we shall know what we are.”
The Journals of André Gide
, Volume I: 1889-1913, Translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Justin O’Brien (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), p. 16.
25. Fleur Cowles was an editor for
Look
magazine.
26. “Books” by Joseph Conrad, a 1905 essay reprinted in
Joseph Conrad on Fiction
, edited by Walter F. Wright (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1964), p. 81. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
27. Clarence Budington Kelland was an author of juvenile novels and editor of
The American Boy
.
28. Algren seems to have taken this passage from an English language edition of
The Illuminations
available at the time he was writing, and then perhaps condensed it—or he was quoting from memory. The Louise Varèse translation of this passage differs substantially: “The poet makes himself a
visionary
through a long, a prodigious and rational disordering of
all
the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, keeping only their quintessences. Ineffable torture in which he will need all his faith and superhuman strength, the great criminal, the great sick-man, the accursed,—and the supreme Savant! For he arrives at the unknown! Since he has cultivated his soul—richer to begin with than any other! He arrives at the unknown: and even if, half crazed, in the end, he loses the understanding of his visions, he has seen them!” From an 1871 letter from Arthur Rimbaud to Paul Demeny, printed as a preface to
The Illuminations
, by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Louise Varèse (New York: New Directions, 1946), pp. xxx-xxxi.
29. Popular 1940s novels by Frank Yerby and Louis Bromfield, respectively.
30. Conrad, pp. 81-2.
31. The
Saturday Evening Blade
was a Chicago tabloid newspaper, hawked by Algren in his boyhood. See Algren’s “Merry Christmas Mr. Mark” in
The Last Carousel
, pp. 293-4.
32. “Our April Letter” in “The Note-Books” in Fitzgerald, p. 165.
33. Fitzgerald, p. 81.
34. Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and short story writer, author of dozens of books, including
The Magnificent Ambersons
and
Alice Adams
, both winners of the Pulitzer Prize.
35. Fitzgerald, p. 84.
36. Ibid., p. 80-3.
37. In his autobiography,
Nice Guys Finish Last
(New York: Simon and Schuster,
Saturday Review
made the speech its feature article in the November 22, 1952, issue. Given the political climate at the time, Hand’s words comprised an impassioned, if understated, plea against the status quo. See above. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
19. Frank Yerby began his career as a writer of protest fiction, but turned to popular historical romance novels in the ’40s. Emmet Kelly was a famous American circus clown. For the rest of this section, Algren scornfully refers to Yerby as “Kelly.”
20. 1887 letter from Anton Chekhov to M. V. Kiseleva. From
Letters of Anton Chekhov
, Selected and edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky (New York: The Viking Press, 1973), p. 41. Algren attacks Chekhov here under false pretenses, since Chekhov’s view of the writer’s responsibility closely approximated his own, and had little or nothing to do with the kind of dressed-up entertainments Algren is attacking.
21.
The Trial
, by Franz Kafka. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. (New York: Schocken, 1968), p. 121.
22. Fitzgerald, p. 81.
23. Hearn (1850-1904) wrote stories and essays based in the Far East; Sterling (1869-1926) was a lyric and dramatic poet.
24. André Gide’s journal entry for October 8, 1891, included this observation: “This terrifies me: To think that the present, which we are living this very day, will become the mirror in which we shall later recognize ourselves; and that by what we have been we shall know what we are.”
The Journals of André Gide
, Volume I: 1889-1913, Translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Justin O’Brien (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), p. 16.
25. Fleur Cowles was an editor for
Look
magazine.
26. “Books” by Joseph Conrad, a 1905 essay reprinted in
Joseph Conrad on Fiction
, edited by Walter F. Wright (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1964), p. 81. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
27. Clarence Budington Kelland was an author of juvenile novels and editor of
The American Boy
.
28. Algren seems to have taken this passage from an English language edition of
The Illuminations
available at the time he was writing, and then perhaps condensed it—or he was quoting from memory. The Louise Varèse translation of this passage differs substantially: “The poet makes himself a
visionary
through a long, a prodigious and rational disordering of
all
the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, keeping only their quintessences. Ineffable torture in which he will need all his faith and superhuman strength, the great criminal, the great sick-man, the accursed,—and the supreme Savant! For he arrives at the unknown! Since he has cultivated his soul—richer to begin with than any other! He arrives at the unknown: and even if, half crazed, in the end, he loses the understanding of his visions, he has seen them!” From an 1871 letter from Arthur Rimbaud to Paul Demeny, printed as a preface to
The Illuminations
, by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Louise Varèse (New York: New Directions, 1946), pp. xxx-xxxi.
29. Popular 1940s novels by Frank Yerby and Louis Bromfield, respectively.
30. Conrad, pp. 81-2.
31. The
Saturday Evening Blade
was a Chicago tabloid newspaper, hawked by Algren in his boyhood. See Algren’s “Merry Christmas Mr. Mark” in
The Last Carousel
, pp. 293-4.
32. “Our April Letter” in “The Note-Books” in Fitzgerald, p. 165.
33. Fitzgerald, p. 81.
34. Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and short story writer, author of dozens of books, including
The Magnificent Ambersons
and
Alice Adams
, both winners of the Pulitzer Prize.
35. Fitzgerald, p. 84.
36. Ibid., p. 80-3.
37. In his autobiography,
Nice Guys Finish Last
(New York: Simon and Schuster,
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