THE SITUATION IN AMERICAN WRITING
121
but how deeply it runs, I cannot know consciously. Other elements of a
"usable past" may be found in the titles of my poems and in the names of
men and places mentioned within them. b.) Most of the names of men and
places in my poems are American: I would say that every writer is con·
ditioned by his time and place and language. c.) Emerson, Randolph
Bourne, Concord, New Milford, New York, Cassandra are among the fig·
ures and places named, but this list does not include the perhaps more sig·
nificant American names I have invented. d.) Is James more or less
relevant than Whitman today? This is a question that excites prejudices
and makes hash of critical values. A good writer can create a "usable
past" out of "The Child's Book of Knowledge"-and make it relevant.
One of the most distinguished of contemporary poets has already done so.
A bad writer can read Shakespeare and come away from the reading with
nothing but the iambic pentameter and high-flown rolling through his
head. As for James and Whitman, it depends upon the ability of the writer
who reads them to make them seem relevant to what he has to say.
2. a.) Never, while I am writing. The poor hack writer or the routine
journalist has to, and that is why most of his writing is at times dishonest
or unclear or both. He has to keep his mind on what the boss will say-in
some cases, this may be necessary discipline, but this is true only on the
lowest levels of writing. Every writer who has something to say is con· ·
cemed with the art of communication-it is that concern and not the con·
cern of "audiences" that makes his writing clear and forceful.
If
he writes
well, his so-called "audience" will be glad to listen to his play, his speech
by radio, or to read his book. This last statement is a resounding platitude
that fairly shrieks at me from the four walls of the room, but it should be
said again today. I might add that no one reads a book and truly values
it merely because it is something called "literature": the writer's first
concern should be with human beings, and he should write well enough
to prevent himself as well as those who read
him
from being bored. A
writer should write
from
his "audience," rather than hope to write
for
or
to
or
at
it. He should write
out of
whatever people, environments, places,
ideas, or emotions have given him a sense of reality, and therefore he
should write
out
OF
the conviction of being identified with them. b.) The
most reliable description of an American "audience" may be found in
Helen and Robert Lynd's "Middletown" and "Middletown In Transition."
c.) Without definite figures at hand, I would say that the quality of sec·
ondary school and university education in the
U.
S. has improved within
the last ten years and that therefore a potential and perhaps an actual
"audience" for "serious" writing has increased.
3. a.) That depends upon the source of the cntiCism, or rather, the
sources of it. Its "value" depends upon the places where it appears and
for each I have a different set of values. I am not one of those writers who
makes a profession of quarreling with his critics: with a few exceptions, I
