22
PARTISAN REVIEW
she was. He went at it
&
at it; the tall one sat with her hand over her lip;
the short one with her shoulders hunched together, looking down at
the £loor. He overdoes both praise
&
censure, an excess of hostility
&
concealment of hostility.
He clings to whatever will give him comfort. To the repressed
South, the advantages of non-coeducational schools for women, to
academic, non-or-anti-Freudian psychology ("It's not scientific"), etc.
Poet.
Whenever Lowell was present, Randall's talk was a £low of
metaphors. ("She's humorous in a dry, twinkling sort of way.") Still,
he has a real generous impulse to make up for the faults he recognizes
in himself,
&
over
&
beyond that;
&
he has had a good effect on the girls'
poetry, freeing them of imitation. He is a good teacher
&
has done
much for his friends.
Ransom. A mild, elderly gentleman, Southern without much
accent. When he calls a story a "fiction," it suits him; it's not an
affectation. Blue eyes, gray white hair that was once yellow, a round,
small nose, a relaxed manner with little of the usual show of dignity,
but a natural dignity comes out. Admire his openness. He changes
opinions, seems to have no dogma
&
shows considerable courage in
coming, late in life, to accept materialism. (He accepts it
&
is straight–
forward about it, much more than Randall.) Not dogma but something
that functions as dogma (as Willy would say "in his smile"): tradition,
stories about kinfolk, but with the limitation that this is no longer a
basis for politics. Stories: Brother Craig
&
the veteran: ''I'm glad to see
you're back, but I wouldn't want you to think that I'm gladder than I
really am," and the white turkey that showed up one day from
nowhere, nigh unto Thanksgiving.
Willy
&
Herb, schmuck-baiters, at work on Edith, Hilbert, Ray
&
Klonsky.
>II<
They tell Edith that their father was a great scholar, a
gambler, a white slave trader
&
the owner of a string of two-bit
·Willie and Herb Posler, Ray Rosenlhal, Hilbert Schwartz, and Milton
Klonsky. I haven 'l been able lO identify Edilh. Like many of Rosenfeld's
recolleClions and anecdoles, lhis one is probably highly elaboraled and halfway
into ficlional form.
It
is doubtful lhal Klonsky aClually went looking for lhe
Morris Plan lilerary advisor.
