THE WRITING OF NATHANAEL WEST

THE WRITING OF NATHANAEL WEST

Also by Alistair Wisker MARRIAGE TWENTY FOR YOU YOU AND I AND OTHERS

The Writing of Nathanael West Alistair Wisker Palgrave Macmillan

ISBN 978-1-349-20836-4 ISBN 978-1-349-20834-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20834-0 Alistair Wisker 1990 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1990 ISBN 978-0-312-04014-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wisker, Alistair, 1945- The Writing of Nathanael West / Alistair Wisker. p. em. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-312-04014-7 1. West, Nathanael, 1903-1940-Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PS3545.E8334Z96 1990 813'.52-dc20 89-24046 CIP

For my mother and the memory of my father; for Gina, Liam and!<itt

Contents Acknowledgements viii Chronology ix 1 Introduction: Rooting for West 1 2 A Writer by Reading 15 3 The Dream Life of Balso Snell 36 4 Miss Lonelyhearts 58 5 A Cool Million 83 6 The Day of the Locust 96 7 Conclusion: A World Too Much With Us 121 Appendices West's Unpublished and Uncollected Works 138 I Two Early Poems: 'Rondeau' and 'Death' 149 II Through the Hole in the Mundane Millstone 150 III Some Notes on Violence 152 IV Some Notes on Miss L. 154 V Outline for a New Novel 156 VI Burn the Cities 158 VII Bird and Bottle 161 VIII The Original Final Chapter of The Day of the Locust 168 IX The Adventurer 169 X Western Union Boy 179 XI Tibetan Night 183 XII Mr Potts of Pottstown 187 XIII The Impostor 201 Notes and References 213 Bibliography 218 Index 223 vii

Acknowledgements Grateful acknowledgement is made particularly to Adam West Perelman for permission to include the unpublished material in the Appendices and for encouraging correspondence. Also to the Estate of Nathanael West and the Estate of Patrick McKenney Bransten for permission also related to the material in the Appendices and to use the cover photograph of Nathanael West. Acknowledgement is due to Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. and New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to quote from the published works; and to Gerald Pollinger of Laurence Pollinger Ltd for his help in arranging these permissions. Mark N. Brown of Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island, was helpful in letting me have items from the manuscripts collection. This particularly concerns items from the S. J. Perelman Papers. Thanks also to New Directions and Carcanet Press for permission to quote 'Young Sycamore' by William Carlos Williams in its entirety. I am indebted to Frances Arnold and currently Sarah Roberts West and Margaret Leach at Macmillan for their help at various points and their patience. In writing this book I have received active and real help from Donald We sling, Gabriel Pearson, Charles Swann, Graham Martin and Brian Lee at various stages. Versions of parts of the book have appeared in Stand, The Times Educational Supplement and The Antigonish Review and thanks are due to the editors of those publications. My parents funded me through the initial stages of research which determined my interest in Nathanael West and I will never forget their help and generosity. Gina, my wife, knows some of this book probably too well. Her help has been invaluable and I thank her for it. Alistair Wisker Cambridge viii

Chronology 1902 25 May 1903 17 October 1903--1920 1918 July 1920 June 1921 September 1922 January 1922-1923 1923--1924 1924 June 1925 1926-1927 1927-1930 1929 March 1930 Fall 1930-1933 Mordecai, the son of Nachman Weinstein, and Chana, the daughter of Eleazer Wallenstein, marry on the East Side of New York City. Nathaniel von Wallenstein Weinstein, their son, born in New York City. During his childhood and youth West develops his preoccupations with the outdoors and sports, reading, fantasy and the bizarre. By now West has gained the nickname 'Pep'. Publication of Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. West leaves De Witt Clinton High School after three years. Enters Tufts College. Transfers to Brown University. Forms a lasting and important relationship with S. J. Perelman. Publications in Casements and the Brown Jug, college magazines. Graduates from Brown University. Publication of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. West in Paris from October to January. Works on The Dream Life of Balsa Snell which had partially existed since June 1924. Assistant Manager of the Kenmore Hall Hotel, 145 East 23 Street. Shaping his artistic identity through friendships and reading. West's first reading of 'Miss Lonelyhearts' letters in the Brooklyn Eagle. Begins relationship with Alice Shepard to whom The Dream Life of Balsa Snell is dedicated. After an informal engagement they split up in the winter of 1932-1933. Writing unpublished stories, 'The Adventurer', 'Mr. Potts of Pottstown', 'Tibetan Night' and 'The Sun, the Lady, and the Gas Station'. ix

x 1931 Spring 1932 1933 8 April 1933 July October Chronology of Important Dates Rather than the exploration of the estranged individual sensibility in The Dream Life of Balso Snell, West turns to envision the inner life of the masses. Jay Martin has written that in these stories West concentrated his vision' on the vagrant lives of the inarticulate and attempted to originate an art form whereby to express a new state of mass consciousness'. Clearly these unpublished efforts are a link between his first novel and Miss Lonelyhearts. Publication of Faulkner's Sanctuary. Publication of The Dream Life of Balso Snell by Contact Editions. West accurately pinpoints the central dichotomy of the book by describing it on one occasion as 'a protest against writing books' and on another as 'a very professional book, a play on styles'. West becomes associate editor of Contact with William Carlos Williams. The headnote to the magazine helps to place the artistic identity of each writer: 'Contact will attempt to cut a trail through the American jungle without the use of a European compass'. West's influence on Carlos Williams moves the poet in directions which lead eventually to his Paterson. Publication in Contact and Con tempo of early versions of Miss Lonelyhearts. Publication of Miss Lonelyhearts by Horace Liveright, Inc. Sadly for West the publishing house quickly went into a decline but was associated with a distinguished list of experimental works by Pound, Cummings, Eliot, Hart Crane, Hemingway, Faulkner and others. Living with the Perelmans in Hollywood. Working as a junior writer for Columbia. Publication in Americana of a tale titled 'Business Deal' which is West's first attempt to use Hollywood material in fiction. Commences work on his third novel, A Cool Million.

Chronology of Important Dates xi 1934 19 June 1935 1936 Summer 17 July Publication of A Cool Million by Covici-Friede. Becomes increasingly poor and desperate during summer and fall. A Cool Million had not been the success he had hoped for. Living at the Pa-Va-Sed apartment hotel near Hollywood Boulevard which was to become Tod's hotel in The Day of the Locust. Contracts gonorrhea and develops a congested prostate gland. Suffers extreme pain and extreme difficulty in getting a job. Supported by Perelman. West's story 'Bird and Bottle' published in Pacific Weekly. This is the material for Chapter 14 of The Day of the Locust, and represents a further stage in his shaping of Hollywood material. Begins script-writing at Republic Studios. West's work as a script-writer continues here and at RKO, Universal and Columbia until his death. 1937-1938 West writes and revises his new novel endlessly. At this stage it is titled The Cheated but it was to become The Day of the Locust. 1938 21 November Opening of Good Hunting, the play West wrote with Joseph Shrank. It closes after two performances. 1939 16 May Publication of The Day of the Locust by RandomHouse. December West proposes marriage to Eileen McKenney about two months after they had been introduced. 1940 19 April West and Eileen marry in Beverley Hills. All the reports are of a completely happy relationship. 22 December West and Eileen tragically killed in a motoring accident near EI Centro, California.