512
PARTISAN REVIEW
young man"
&
replied with polite condescension (I fear). He came
up to me afterwards- it was Philip Wheelwright- The effort of read–
ing 7500 words in 50 minutes enormous-to keep up the rhythm and
intensity-! did it well, but ended hoarse and exhausted-wanted
desperately to be praised by Schorer
20
and Fiedler,
21
who said noth–
ing- Scharer having. vanished. The praise of the others profoundly
depressed me- utterly- sickened me with my profession- depressed
all evening, but not as it were personally- very unhappy about my
essay which I consider academic, simple-minded, philistine, regres–
sive- great sense of the superiority of the "others"- Warshow,
22
Fiedler, Rosenberg
23
(who had written slurringly about me in
Com–
mentary)
Bellow, Kaplan
24
(who had liked my book), not Scharer.
On Sunday both Jacques and Philip
25
called me
&
said the piece was
a great cultural statement, both using the same phrase. I had sent it
to Ph.R. to tell me whether it was suitable for
PR
&
now he is wild
for it.- What am I after? ...
(1948)
The man who served with me on the jury who questioned me about
the teaching of writing. He wanted to know why, if the teachers
knew so much, they didn't write themselves. I made the usual dis–
tinctions between the teaching
&
performing gifts
&
impulses
&
made comparison with the teaching of music. I said the teacher of
writing didn't want to write. This he brushed aside impatiently:
"Who wouldn't write if he could?" I pressed him: "Do you mean
everybody wants to write?" "Everybody without exception"- He was
a man of youngish fifty, shabby, intense. He ran a full dress rental
establishment in the Bronx. His son, 25, a graduate of CCNY, was
in process of being a novelist.
(1949?)
Allen Ginsberg in to see me- he is a convalescent patient at the
Psych. Institute. He was very well dressed in a checked suit, yellow
pullover and a good tie. He is very well-treated- no distinction be-
20 Mark Schorer.
21Leslie Fiedler.
22Robert Warshow.
23Harold Rosenberg.
24
Probably H .
J.
Kaplan.
25Philip Rahv.
