William Phillips
FOUR PORTRAITS
Harold Rosenberg was too much of a maverick and too
wrapped up in his own cocoon to be a reliable member of an inner
core. But his intellectual style makes one think of him as a charter
member of the New York literary community. My first impression
of him was that of a larger, gaunter, darker, more genial Ezra
Pound. Because of a stiff leg, he was usually to be seen sitting,
and my earliest recollection of Rosenberg is of him in a chair in
the middle of a large room in an apartment so laid out that one
had to go through the room he occupied to get to any other room.
There he sat, holding court, as it were, talking to everyone who
passed through. He was one of the great talkers of our time, at
the beginning more of a talker than a writer, though later his
verbal gifts became more and more evident in his writing. Sylvia
Marlowe, the harpsichordist, once said Rosenberg was a verbal
magician, which was not a reference to a prose style but to a
phenomenal articulateness. I rarely saw Rosenberg in aconversa–
tion he did not dominate in some way, by doing most of the talk–
ing, or designating the subject, or setting the tone. Unless
crossed, he was always genial and witty. He seemingly enjoyed
drinking and eating as much as talking, though all these activi–
ties appeared to be inseparable.
Rosenberg's ego was as large as his body. He always thought
issues of
Partisan Review
that contained something by him were
particularly good.
In
the forties, Harold wanted to be an editor
of the magazine, and he tried to persuade me by saying that it
was not fulfilling its cultural mission, which it could do only if he
were an editor. The assumptions were overbearing, the manner
genial. One day I brought these proposals to an end by suggest–
ing that with his editorial vision he could start his own maga–
zine, which would immediately outshine all others.
Rosenberg's mind could be described as literary, the
Editor's No te: Excerpted from
A Part isan View : Fiue Decades of the L iterary L ife
by Willi am Phillips, to be p ublished this fall by Stein and Day Publishers.
Copyright
©
1983 by William Phillips.
