american literary west

8/13/2019 American Literary West

1/39

The American Literary West and Its Interpreters: The Rise of a New HistoriographyAuthor(s): Richard W. EtulainSource: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Aug., 1976), pp. 311-348Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3637264 .

Accessed: 12/01/2014 08:35

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Pacific

Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 197.1.130.15 on Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:35:01 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3637264?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3637264?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal


2/39

The AmericanLiteraryWest and ItsInterpreters:The Riseof a NewHistoriography

Richard W. EtulainThe author s a memberfthehistoryepartmentn IdahoStateUniversity.

TWO SIGNIFICANTbooks published in 1950 illustratethemajor trends in the historiography f the American literaryWest. FranklinWalker'sA Literary istory fSouthernaliforniaexemplifiesthe most popular approach to western iteraturebefore 1950, and HenryNash Smith'sVirgin and: TheAmeri-can West s Symbolnd Mythbecame the major paradigm forstudies of westernwritingundertaken after1950. Taken to-getherthese two books and the methods of researchtheyutil-ize provide importantkeystounderstanding nterpretationsfthe literaryWestduringthe presentcentury.'

In the first wodecades of thetwentiethentury, nalysisofwesternAmerican literature agged behind the studyof west-Research for thisessaywas made possible bygrantsfrom he Idaho StateUniversityFacultyResearch Committeeand theAmericanPhilosophicalSociety.'The intentof thisessay is to give a briefglimpseof the historicaldevelopmentofcommentary n the American iteraryWest.Emphasis splaced on book-lengthtudies

311


http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/39

312 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWern history.Though FrederickJacksonTurner announced hisfrontierhypothesis n 1893 and published several importantessays before 1920, American literaryhistorianspaid littleattention o the iteraryWest before he ate 1920s.This patterncontinued throughoutthe firsthalf of the presentcentury:historianswere several steps ahead of literary cholars n thestudyof the American West.The earliest studies by literary cholarscould hardlyhavebeen less promising. n 1900, BarrettWendell,a professor fEnglish literature t Harvard University, ublishedhis subse-quently much-citedbook, A Literary istory fAmericaNewYork, 1900), in whichhe soughttodiscoverwhatAmericahadso farcontributed o the literature f our ancestral anguage(p. 10). The contentsof the thick volume and the author'spointof view llustratehisstrong ies toNew England. Indeed,a literaryhistorian,Fred Lewis Pattee, has suggested thatWendell's volume should have been entitledALiteraryistoryfHarvardUniversity,ithncidental limpsesftheMinorWritersfAmerica.2Wendell dismissedHerman Melville as a writerwhobegan a career of literarypromise, which never came tofruition (p. 229), and he criticizedWalt Whitman orhis deca-dent eccentricity p. 477).Because Wendell chose to discussonlydeceased writers, isbrief chapter entitled The West omittedmentionof BretHarte, Joaquin Miller, Mark Twain, Hamlin Garland, andthat llustratemajor trendsof interpretationnd thathave exerted themost nfluenceon scholars.Discussions are primarily escriptiven nature,althoughsome evaluativecomments are included.Mostfootnotesistfurtherxamplesofthetrendsdiscussed nthe text. To give sharper focus to a subjectthatthreatens o overflow tsfrontiers,discussion s limited oworkspublishedinthe UnitedStates n thepresent enturyndto research dealing with the trans-MississippiWest, although also included iscommentaryon some books that focus on easternfrontiers nd thathave influencedscholarsof western iterature. have notdealt withmaterials hat reatwesternhumor,folklore,or westernfilms s literature.For additional bibliographical istings, ee Richard W. Etulain, Western mericanLiterature: Bibliographyf nterpretiveooks nd ArticlesVermillion, . D., 1972); andEtulain, WesternAmerican Literature:A SelectiveAnnotatedBibliography, nter-pretiveApproachesoWestern merican iteraturePocatello, Idaho, 1972), 67-78. Also,consult the annual listings n the winter ssues of Westernmericaniterature.2Pattee, A Call for a LiteraryHistorian, n TheReinterpretationfAmericaniterature(New York, 1928), 5. For an importantdiscussion of the developmentof Americanliterary nterpretations, ee Richard Ruland, The RediscoveryfAmerican iterature:Premises fCriticalTaste,1900-1940 (Cambridge,Mass., 1967).




4/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 313Frank Norris. The attitudeof the Harvard professor owardthe West was an ambivalent ne thatmixed muchcondescensionwith small amount ofmildpraise. Amid the relaxed inexper-ience of Western ife, he wrote, the lower sortof Americanshad tended to reverttowardsa social stateancestrally xtinctcenturiesbefore America was discovered p. 504). Moreover,observed Wendell, an obnoxious materialisticbent accom-panied the atavistictendencyin the great confused West(p. 505).

Yet aftercondemningthe region for tssocial and culturalbackwardnessand its materialisticpirit,Wendell argued thatthe West held promiseof importantiterary evelopment.Therich varietyof experience in the West-its vitality,ts goodhumor,and its eagernesstodelight nexcellence -could leadto livelyforms of literary xpression.The mostsignificantfthese literaryypeswerelocal colorstories, opular ournalism,and newspaper humor. These genres appealed to the large,untutoredpublic in theWest. The stories,whilefactual ndaccurate, were innocent of lasting vitality. he newspaperswere often thoroughly icious n style, ffensiven taste andto civil morals as well (p. 507), yettheirdirectness nd read-abilitysaved them. And the most importantwesternhumor-ists-George Horatio Derby ( JohnPhoenix ),Charles FarrarBrowne ( ArtemusWard ), and David Ross Locke ( PetroleumV. Nasby )-represented the future possibilitiesof westernliterature. But Wendell contended thatthe Westhad notyetproven itself n theAmerican iterarycene; its varied, wiftlychanginglifehas notyetripenedintoan experiencewhich anpossiblyfind asting expression (p. 513).Though Wendell indicated that he would stressAmerica'scontributions o English literature,he did not emphasize thewesternpart of those contributions.He obviouslyknewlittleabout theregionand seemed unawareofTurner'sthen recentemphasis on the significanceof the frontier.And thoughWendell saw promise n theliterature f theregion,he did notseem to care much for thegreatconfusedWest. f the viewsof Barrett Wendell were taken as representative f the firstinterpreters f the American literaryWest,the futureof thegenre looked bleak.




5/39

314 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWWendell was not alone in his negativeappraisal of westernliterature.Five yearsafterthe appearance of hisbook,he was

joined byAlphonso Newcomer,3 a professor t StanfordUni-versity,who argued in his American iterature hat westernwritingswere the product of unletteredmen of the soil andmustbe gauged bysomewhat ltered standards p. 272). Hisshortchapter, Prose and Poetry n theWest, ncluded a fewpages on Mark Twain and Bret Harte and briefglimpsesofJoaquin Miller, E. R. Sill, Eugene Field, and Helen HuntJackson. Newcomer was convinced that no book publishedbefore or after the work of Harte and Twain is worthrecording to-day (p. 276), thoughhe felt t was too earlytoevaluate the work of Mary Hallock Foote, Hamlin Garland,and H. B. Fuller.Like most iterary istorians fhistime,Newcomerwascon-vinced that the West was too immatureto produce first-rateliterature.He praised the humor and thecharacters f Twainand the strongrealism and piquantdialect ofHarte,but heimpliedthatthe West acked sufficientulturalrootstonourishan impressiveliteratureor even a distinctive egional litera-ture. Newcomer was not yetwillingto identifyhe San Fran-cisco school of authors of the 1860s and 70s or such othernovelistsas Garland, Norris,and London as westernwriters.Holding a different iew was Bliss Perry, he noted editorand literary nterpreter.n a bookpublished n 1912he agreedwith Turner that the settlingof the West had been a majortheme in American history.4Many Americans,he observed,were stillenthralled with thewinningof theWestand wantedto play Indian (p. 148). Perry mplied thatthe speculative,boastful,and unreflective ualitiesof western ife had shapedthe American character. Americanswere addicted to adven-ture,to the excitementof the frontierWest.For Perry,Twain epitomized American humor. His back-ground and experiencesin the West were the raw materials orhisAmericanness.The Westhad added newingredients otheEuropean mix,and thewriting f Twain illustrated heseaddi-

3AmericaniteratureChicago, 1905). A similarview s apparent in George EdwardWoodberry,AmericanLiteratureNew York, 1903).4TheAmericanMind (Boston, 1912).




6/39

TheRiseofa NewHistoriography 315tions. PerryconcurredwithLord Brycethat theWest was themost typical part of America and the region most unlikeEurope. Westernershad perceivedtheneed forboth individ-ualism and fellowship, nd the essonstheyhad learnedoughtto be taughtto others. Americansmust realize thatwhiletheywere custodians of tradition, heywere also embracersof thenew. Perry itedJackLondon and FrankNorris s examplesofwesternerswho were not tied to thepast and who continuallysought to front he freshexperiencesand ideas of theirtime.

Though Perrydealt only brieflywith the West,he showedmore awarenessof its mpacton American ulture han mostofhis contemporary nterpreters. e recognizedthattherewas awestern literature,and in this foreshadowed the largerunderstandingof the literaryWestapparent in the 1920s. Hewas one of the few students of American civilizationwhorealized as earlyas 1912 that a fullunderstanding f nationalculture required comprehensionof western ulture.Other commentators devoted more attention to westernliterature. n hisHistoryfAmerican iteratureChicago, 1919),Leonidas W. Payne,a professor fEnglishat theUniversityfTexas, emphasized the democraticspiritof theWest and theimpactof thatspiriton westernwriting.n words reminiscentof those of Twain, he concluded thatthe expressionof pureAmericanism,of the democraticspirit n its broadest signifi-cance, is the characteristicnote of our Western literature(p. 316). Payne pushed his thesis furtherby suggesting hatwesternwriterswere literary railblazers; heyhad abandonedthe well-markedpaths of eastern authorsand had set out tofind new paths of their own. Twain, he believed,was the bestexample of this nnovative endency n westernwriting.Payne, like most of his contemporaries,was not a closereader of the literature hat he discussed. His commentswereusually biographicalor historicalnnature.Sometimeshe usedbrief quotes to illustrate generalization,but there were noprobing comments about the form or specificcontent ofHarte's short stories or Twain's sketchesand longer works.And had he paid closer attention o thestructurend contentof Miller's work,he could not have said thatMiller was noimitatorof the European bards,but an original poet whowas




7/39

316 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWwillingto put down in his own waywhat his eyes saw and hisheart felt (p. 338). These comments miss how much Millerowed to Byron, Browning, nd otherEuropean writers.And ifPayne had been morewidelyacquainted withwesternwritingof the nineteenthcentury, speciallythe significant roup ofwriters hatgatheredaround theOverlandMonthlynthe 1870sand 80s, he would not havewrongly oncluded that herewereno literary oteries n the West.Though Payne argued that heculture of the West was distinct from that of the rest ofAmerica, he did not demonstrate the uniqueness of westernliterature. He discussed Twain, Harte, and several westernpoets, but the discussions were primarilyplot summariesorbiographical sketches,which did not explain whythese menwere westernwriters,how theyreflectedthe experiences hefound common to theWest,or how the sectionhad branded itsregional qualities into the consciousness of itswriters.5The mostsignificantllustration f the paucityof commentabout the literaryWest in the 1900-1920 era is seen in TheCambridge istoryfAmericaniterature,hichwas published nfour thick volumes (1917-1921).6 Intended as the firstmulti-volume studyof American literature, he Cambridgehistorywas broadlyconceived as a surveyof the Americanpeople asexpressed in theirwritings atherthan a history fbelles-lettresalone (p. iii).These volumes,put together y he eading iteraryscholars of America,were designed to avoid what the editorsviewed as thenarrowerapproach of most iterary cholarship.Several chapters in the Cambridge volumes dealt withfrontier nd westernsubjects.The first wo books of the setcontained a long chapteron James FenimoreCooper, brieferdiscussions of the eastern frontier nd such writers s JamesHall and TimothyFlint, nd sectionson westerndialect and achapter on the short story,which included treatmentsofHarte, Garland, and London. The third volume had a fullchapter on Twain, a short section on Miller,and a chapterentitled Travellers and Explorers, 1846-1900, whichdealt

5Foran example of the same problem, ee StuartP. Sherman,AmericansNewYork,1922).'William P. Trent,JohnErskine, tuartP. Sherman,Carl Van Doren, eds. TheCam-bridge istoryfAmerican iterature4 vols.,New York, 1917-1921).




8/39

TheRiseofa NewHistoriography 317primarilywith the West. The final volume contained ananalysis of cowboy songs and an interesting chapter onAmerican Indian literature ythe well-knownwestern uthor,MaryAustin.In spiteof the commendable intentions f theeditors, heirvolumes offered no chapter devoted to the impact of thefrontier n Americanliterature.Nor did the editors nclude achapter on western regional literature,though they didprovide sections on the regional literature f the North andSouth. Writers like Twain, Harte, and Garland were nottreated as westernwriters,but as recent American authorswhose major interests were viewed as nonregional. Theinattentionto the frontier nd to western iterature n theseprestigious volumes may have been the major reason whyseveral scholars in the 1920s complained of the lack of schol-arship on the literaryWest.

If literaryhistoriansbefore 1920 slightedthe literature fthe American West, a rising nterest n thatsubjectbegan toemerge after1925. The new interestwas notsurprisingnviewof the intellectual urrents weeping throughAmericaduringthe twenties.Too often nterpreters f the era afterthe FirstWorld War overstressthe Lost Generationwriters. t is nowevidentthatthe Lost Generationwas a smallgroupwhose lifestylesgarnered such inordinate attention hat commentatorstended to overlook others who were at work in that sameperiod.Reacting against the internationalism f Woodrow Wilson,manyAmericansin theyearsafterVersailles turned nwardtofindmeaning in national or regional ideas. Some, like H. L.Mencken, stressed the importance of American ideas andcustoms. Others, like the southernerswho contributed o thesignificantcollection, I'll Take My Stand (New York, 1930),emphasized regional themes. These writerswere reactingmuch as Americans had afterthe War of 1812 and the CivilWar. After both of these conflicts,Americans relished liter-ature that was national or regional and avoided givingequalattention oEnglishor Continental ubjects.Especiallywas thistrue aftertheCivilWar,whenAmericaexperiencedits argest




9/39

318 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWoutburst of local color writing. n the twenties, herewas asimilarreactionto the nternationalismf thewar,and, inturn,therewas an attempt o findnewmeaning n regional writing.The twenties were also torn between acceptance of anurban-industrialpresent and nostalgia for an agrarian pastthatwas frequently een as a vanishingfrontier.As RoderickNash has pointedout,manyAmericans n the twentiesongedforthe frontier s a bulwarkagainsta risingtide of cities ndindustrialization. Charles A. Lindbergh and Henry Fordbecame symbolsfor theirage because they ccepted and usedthe machine, but theywere also strong ndividualswho hadroots in the rural past. While these men utilizedproductsofindustrialism, heyretained theirties to the past; theyheld onto symbolsof the agrarianfrontier.7Historians in the twentiesaccepted and emphasized thesignificanceof Turner's frontier hesis;major criticism f hisviews did not appear until the thirties.8 he ideas of Turnerwere a major intellectual influence upon interpretersofAmerican literature, nd thus it is not surprising hat iteraryhistorians urned to the frontier nd its nfluencenan attemptto understand the major forces shaping American writing.No workbetter llustrates hisnew interest han the essayscollected in The Reinterpretationf American iteratureNewYork, 1928).9 Norman Foerster,editorof thispath-breakingvolume, called forless referenceto American iterature s amere reflection f English literature nd more emphasis onthe nativeinfluences n Americanwriting.Whilecomparisons

7See RoderickNash, TheNervousGeneration: merican hought,917-1930 (Chicago,1970), esp. 78-90, for a discussion of the desire to hold on to the frontier ndwilderness n the twenties nd, pp. 153-163, fortherole ofHenryFord. See alsoJohnWilliam Ward, The Meaning of Lindbergh's Flight, American uarterly, (1958),3-16; and Lawrence W. Levine, Progress and Nostalgia: The Self Image of the1920's, in Malcolm Bradbury,ed., TheAmerican oveland the1920's (London, 1971).8RayA. Billington,America's rontierHeritage New York, 1966), 4-16; Gene M.Gressley, The Turner Thesis-A Problem in Historiography, Agricultural istory,XXXII (1958), 227-249.9Subtitled omeContributionsoward heUnderstandingf ts Historical evelopment,hevolume included nine essays,eight by iterarycholars nd one byhistorianArthurM.Schlesinger,Sr. An appendix contained an extensivebibliographywhichincluded asection on the frontierpp. 225-226) and a usefulchecklist fdissertationsompletedor in progress through 1927. The listing s a valuable commentaryon subjectsconsidered worthy f a dissertationn the 1920s.




10/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 319between American and European literature should be con-tinued,he argued, there mustbe morestudyof the distinctlyAmerican qualities of American literature, nd interpretersought to scrutinize he local conditionsof lifeand thought nAmerica thatmolded American literature.Foersterwas con-vinced thatliteraryhistoriansmustrejectthe viewsof BarrettWendell and explore the leads suggestedbysuch historians sTurner, ArthurM. Schlesinger, r., and Charles Beard.The essayists in Foerster's volume agreed that more at-tention should be given to American literature,but theyarrived at no consensus on how the ideal studyshould beundertaken. ProfessorsSchlesingerand Harry Hayden Clarkreflected the chasm of opinion that still separated manystudents of literature. While Schlesinger called for a fullunderstandingof the cultural and historicalmilieuofa writerand his work,Clark insistedthat close scrutiny f the workofart was the startingplace. Schlesinger's approach, explainedClark, too often ed to overemphasison backgroundsand toolittle nalysisof the work tself.Taken together, he articles nFoerster's olumeemphasizedthe need for additional studyof the contributions f Puri-tanism,romanticism, ealism, nd the frontier.n regardto thelast,Foersterpointedout thatthe influence f thefrontier asbeen strangelyneglected p. 28), ? nd he expressedthe beliefthat the frontier ad a large impacton Emerson,Whittier,ndTwain, even though no one had discussed this influence.Admittedly,he added, the frontier pirit ended to turnsourand to become too materialistic.While the frontierwas tooimitativeof Europe, it also became too boastful and anti-European. In a writer ikeTwain, both of thesequalitiesof thefrontier piritwere evident.One of the contributors o thevolume,JayB. Hubbell,wasmore emphatic in stressing he scholarlyneglectof the fron-tier's nfluenceon American iterature.While the literature f

' AtthispointFoerster dds a footnote: Itwouldnow(1928) be truer osaythat heinfluence of the frontierhas been strangely xaggerated. This change of opinionreflects,no doubt, the appearance between 1925, when no major works on frontierliterature were available, and 1928 of the volumes by Ralph Leslie Rusk, DorothyDondore, and Lucy Lockwood Hazard.




11/39

320 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWthe United States had been less American than itshistory, easserted, therewas stillstrongevidence of the impactof thefrontier n writing. he frontier rovidedauthors ikeCooperand Whitman with new materialsand other writerswith anative point of view. Discussions of the literaryfrontier,Hubbell insisted, ughtto emphasize threetopics:the frontieras historicalbackgroundfor iterature, he frontier s thesiteof new literary ctivity,nd the frontier s but one of severalinfluences that had shaped the American character.Whilepreviouscommentators ad overlooked the role ofthe frontierin American literature, uture nterpreters, e warned,shouldnot redress theoversightby placingtoo muchemphasison thefrontier.Though theessaysinReinterpretationnderscoredthe insuf-ficient mount of researchconcerningthe frontiern Ameri-can literature, herewere, n fact, hreemajorworks bout thesubject being prepared for publication. The three projectswere completed first as doctoral dissertations and thenemerged quickly as books. Their publicationin 1925-1927signaled thefirstppearance ofbook-length tudiesdevoted tothe interrelationship f the American frontier nd westernliterature.Ralph Leslie Rusk's two-volume tudy,The LiteratureftheMiddleWestern rontierNew York, 1925), was the first f thetriumvirate o appear. Rusk was not so much interested narguing the artisticmeritsof the literature f the earlynine-teenthcenturymiddle western frontier s he was in demon-stratinghow this iterary ctivity as invaluable forthe recordit containsofthegrowth fcivilization uringa unique epoch(p. vii). His coverage ended with1840, when,he argued, themiddle western frontier ame to a close.Rusk discussed the impactof Europe, England,and easternsections of the United States upon the Midwestand showedhow authors from those areas were receivedon the frontier.He devoted chapters to travelers'accounts, magazines andnewspapers, and drama, poetry,and fiction.The major em-phasis was on breadth,and thus Rusk gave little ttention oindividual works nd saved morespace forextensive istings fsignificant books, newspapers, and literaryevents. At times his




12/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 321work seemed encyclopedic,more like an annotated bibliog-raphythana literary istory. he documentation ften hreat-ened to engulf the text. The second volume, for example,contained but fifty ages of textand a bibliography f nearly400 pages. But Rusk seemed reluctantto commenton theliterary ualityof themanyitems he cited,and sometimeshistreatments f major authorswere briefand fragmented.HisdiscussionsofJamesHall, forexample,were scattered hroughseveral chapters because Hall was an editor,novelist, nd anewspaperman. Finally,Rusk did not seem much acquaintedwiththe writings f Turner and was not interested n specu-lating about the impactof the frontier pon middle westernliterature.Dorothy Dondore's The Prairie and theMaking of MiddleAmerica: Four Centuries f DescriptionCedar Rapids, 1926)followed an organization similar to that of Rusk, but hervolume contained more of thenecessary ngredients f literaryhistory.Like Rusk, she dealt with the writingsof foreigntravelers,the impactof the Spanish, French,and Englishonthe Midwest. n addition,shedevotedchapters oearlyroman-ticand realisticfiction f the prairiesand completedher longvolumewith ectionson literature fter1870. UnlikeRusk,sheomitteddiscussionofnewspapersand otherephemeral iteraryworks,and she was morewilling omake udgmentsabout themeritsof thewritings hat she did discuss.Dondore was intriguedwithwhatearlyforeign nd Amer-ican writers aid about the land and the Indians. She demon-strated how these early writingswere products of culturalbiases, and she was aware of the significant elationshipbe-tweenchangingeconomic and social conditions nd a maturingliterary ulture.Dondore also showedhowthedevelopment ftransportation ystems nd towns and thearrivalof explorersand immigrantgroups helped to invoke the varied voices ofthe midwesternfrontier.Throughout her long volume, shestressed the literary reatment f Indians. In fact,she dealtmore extensivelywiththistopicthan did anyofhercontempo-raries.More analyticalthan previous writers n her approach towesternwriting,Dondore pointed out weaknessesin syntax,




13/39

322 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWdiction,and style.She noted stilteddescriptions nd snobbishprose, and she mentioned thefailureof theregion'swriters opaymuchattention o thestructure ftheirworks.Because shewas willingto criticize,her book was a significantnd valuableaccount of the rise of midwesterniterature.In the last section of her book, Dondore argued thatbythemiddle 1920s theemergenceof such authorsas SinclairLewis,Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandburg, and especially WillaCather proved thatmidwestern iteraturehad matured. Theregionwas no longera frontier,writerswereno longertied tooverly dealized descriptions, nd some authorsdemonstratedan ability oproduce first-rateiterature. ikemany iterary is-torians,Dondore seemed convincedthatthe bestproofof thecivilizingof the Midwest was the maturationof its literature.The mostanalytical f the three mportant tudiestoappearin the twentieswas Lucy Lockwood Hazard's TheFrontiernAmerican iteratureNew York, 1927). Hazard waswellaware ofTurner's contentionthatthe frontierwas themajor influencein the shapingofAmericanhistory-and she agreedwithhim.The frontier xperience, she argued, had molded Americanliterature, nd theclosingofthefrontier ad stimulated newburstof writing. he believed that threetopicsdominatedthenew frontier literature: regional pioneering, industrialpioneering, and spiritual pioneering. The New Englandand southern frontiers pawned the first ypeof pioneering,the Gilded Age encouraged the second, and theclosingfron-tier was usheringin the last.Throughout her brief volume, Hazard drew parallels be-tweenthe historicalfrontiershatAmericans had experiencedand the kinds of literature hatthose frontierxperienceshadinspired. Industrialpioneeringof the Gilded Age, forexam-ple, allowed-if not encouraged-the excesses of AndrewCarnegie and the RobberBarons. Like Vernon Louis Parring-ton, whose influence upon her work she acknowledged,

Parrington, unfortunately, id not live to completehis Main CurrentsnAmericanThought, ut the outlineof the thirdvolume,coveringthe period from1860 to 1920,indicates that he would have increased his emphasis on the frontierWest had hefinishedthe book. The published version of the thirdvolume includes sectionsonTwain, Garland, and notes forseveralchapterson westernwriters.




14/39

TheRiseofa NewHistoriography 323Hazard viewed themastersofcapitalas logical productsoftheindividualism of the frontier.NeitherRusk nor Dondore sawthe frontier s a negativeinfluenceon American ife,thoughHazard was less certainon thispoint.She agreedwithParring-ton and Mark Twain thatthefrontierpirit fthe Gilded Ageallowed too much individualism-a rampant individualismthat,she implied,needed to be controlled.The pioneer spiritturned sour in the post-CivilWar period; it became selfish,arrogant, nd inhumane. Americanswere so driven oconquervirgin land, to capture available capital, and to rush up theladder of success thattheypaid scant attention o their nnerneeds. It was this blindness,thisboosterismthat Twain andlater Sinclair Lewis criticized.By the 1920s the frontier s place had vanished,althoughmanyAmericans refusedto admit that t was gone. Hazard feltthat writers of the twenties,especially Vachel Lindsay andSherwood Anderson,realized that the old frontier ad closedand that the frontier f thepresentand futurewas the innerfrontier, he ungle of man's inwardsky nd thewilderness fhis relationshipswithother men. For Hazard, Vachel Lindsay,Sherwood Anderson, HenryJames,and HenryAdams werethe major explorersof this new literary rontier.Thus, of the major studies appearing in the twenties,TheFrontiern American iterature as the boldest in its interpre-tations. Hazard was explicit bouttheimpactof the frontier nthe literary evelopmentofAmerica.Though she sharedwithParrington a tendency to emphasize economic and socialinfluenceson writing,he was harsher han Ruskand Dondorein her udgments about frontier iterature.At the same time,she was more aware than other criticsthat contemporarywriterswere changing theirminds about the frontier nd itsimpacton literature.12

'2AccordingtoJohnT. Flanagan, a long-time uthorityn westernwriting,tudentsinterested in westernregional literatureduring the twentieswere indebted to thestudiesmentioned here and tohistorians urner and FredericL. Paxson (FlanagantoEtulain,Sept. 17, 1974). Russel B. NyefoundHazard's bookhelpful nhisearly areer(Nye to Etulain,Sept. 20, 1974).I should like to acknowledgehere thehelp I have receivedfrommanyspecialistsnwestern iterature. n the fall and winter f 1974-1975, I wrote to nearlya hundred




15/39

324 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWIn the two decades after the GreatCrash, a shift n opinionabout the characterof the frontierxperienceand the rise ofa

new approach to literaryinterpretationbecame apparent.FollowingTurner's death in 1932historians egantotake ssuewith his evaluation of the importanceof frontiern Americanhistory. ome argued that he had overemphasizedthe role ofthe frontier n shaping the American character;others con-tended that he overlooked the impact of cities, mmigrants,and European backgrounds nmoldingAmericanhistory. newould thinkthat these historical issenterswould have alteredthe focus of scholars studyingthe literary rontier, ut suchwas not the case.This was the more surprisingbecause literary cholars ikeRobert Penn Warren,John Crowe Ransom,Cleanth Brooks,Allen Tate, and Richard Blackmur-the New Critics-werecallingfor a closerscrutiny f literaryworks nd lessemphasison historicaland biographical backgrounds.Too often,theyasserted, literaryhistorians verstressed he milieu of a poem,novel, or drama and tended to underplaythe significance fthe work itself.The New CriticismdominatedmanyEnglishdepartments n the 1940s, the50s, and into theearly60s. Butthese criticshad littlempacton thestudy fwestern iterature.persons and raised the following ueries:(1) Please summarizeyourown work n progress--ortheprojects hatyou soon planto undertake.(2) What scholarsdealing withthe American iteraryWesthave most nfluencedyourwork? For example, FranklinWalker,Henry Nash Smith,JohnR. Milton,MaxWestbrook,Don D. Walker,John Cawelti, Leslie Fiedler, Wallace Stegner,orothers?(3) In whatdirectionsdo you thinksubsequentwork on westernAmerican iteratureought to move? Are these directionsdifferent romwhatyou see to be themajorthrusts f previousscholarship n the field?(4) Please indicate theprojects hatyoubelieveare mostneeded insubsequent tudy fwestern iterature.I have gained a great deal fromthe more than fifty esponses to my request forinformation.Especially helpful were letters from Richard Astro, Louie Attebery,Edwin R. Bingham, Benjamin Capps, John Cawelti, Brian Dippie, Fred Erisman,John T. Flanagan, James K. Folsom, Thomas W. Ford, Warren French,Edwin W.Gaston, Ir., W. H. Hutchinson,Robert Edson Lee, Sanford E. Marovitz,FrederickManfred, Barbara Meldrum,John R. Milton,Russel B. Nye, Levi Peterson,HenryNash Smith,C. L. Sonnichsen,Wallace Stegner,GaryTopping, Don D. Walker,MaxWestbrook,and DelbertWylder. am grateful o thesescholars and othersnot listedfor allowing me to quote from their etters.Their correspondenceto me is citedbyname and date.




16/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 325In fact,between 1930 and 1950 thepracticeof western iteraryhistoryreached itsapogee.

No writer better illustrates the achievements of westernliteraryhistoriansthan Franklin Walker. AlthoughWalker'sfirst ook was published in 1932 and he has written ive thervolumes that deal withthe literatureof the West,his work,especiallyhis literaryhistories f San Franciscoand southernCalifornia,has not received as much attention s it deserves.This oversight s unfortunate, orWalkerdemonstrateswhatfirst-rateiteraryhistory ught to be, particularlyhrough heinterrelateduse of biography, ocial and culturalhistory,ndliterary riticism.Walker's firstbook, Frank Norris:A BiographyNew York,1932), demonstratesthe chiefstrength f his work-his abili-ties as a superb literary iographer. In his studyof Norris, swell as in his later biographical study,JackLondon and theKlondike San Marino, 1966), and in his literaryhistories,Walker pays close attention to the lives of the writers hediscusses. In addition, his workemphasizes the relationshipsbetween his subjects and their milieus. One knows how andwhy,forexample, frontier an Francisco and Los Angeles atthe turn of the centuryproduced the kinds of writers ndliteraturethattheydid.Walker's talents re seen at theirbest nhis second and mostimportantbook, San Francisco's iterary rontierNew York,1939). The setting sSan Franciscoand itshinterlands etween1850 and 1870, and the focus s on thewriters-Twain,Harte,Miller,Coolbrith,and others-influencedbythisexciting imeand place. Walker illustrateshow themagazines, newspapers,and early social, economic, and cultural organizationsthatsprang up in frontier an Franciscoencouraged literary ctiv-ity. n addition,his evaluation of theprose and poetry f theearly Far West demonstrateswhy so little of this nascentliterary ctivitymerits ontinuedscrutiny. yunitinghistoricalresearch and literary riticism,Walker succeeds in adding tothe rapidly growingbody of informationdealing with theinfluenceof the frontier n American ife and letters p. vii).The samehighstandards remaintainednWalker'sALiteraryHistory fSouthern aliforniaBerkeley,1950), a volume that




17/39

326 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWillustratesthe methodologyWalker uses to construct ll hisliteraryhistories. He beginsby ntroducing hetopicor themeof a section and then describingthe historical riginsof thetheme.This is followedbyan analysisof writersnd booksthatexemplifythe centralidea and, finally, y an extended treat-ment of a singlewriter r workthatbest lluminates he theme.In a brilliant hapterentitled CulturalHydroponics, Walkershows that southern California, like other regions of theUnited States, hungered for a romanticpast that it couldidolize, and he illustrateshow writers ike George WhartonJames, Helen Hunt Jackson, and Charles FletcherLummisplayed importantroles in capitalizingon this need by creatingan idealized past. As in his otherworks,Walker stressesbiog-raphy and culturalhistory nd pays least attention o literarycriticism. n doing so he demonstrateshis abilityto probebeneath the surface of cultural activity nd to see what lieshidden from casual observers, a quality that is especiallyapparent in his perceptivediscussions of Lummis, the SanDiego Exposition,and thePacificElectric.By emphasizing hesymbolic mportanceof authors, events,and economic devel-opment, Walker prefiguresone of the techniquesutilizedinHenry Nash Smith'sVirgin and.The work of FranklinWalker belongs on the top shelf ofimportantwritingsbout the American iteraryWest. His solidand well-researchedvolumes are indispensable groundworkfor a complete history f westernAmerican literature hat sbadly needed. No one has produced better western iteraryhistory han Walker,and his books are stilluseful models forstudents and scholars who wishto pursue westernwriting iathe approach of the literary istorian.14Anotherexample of thehistorical pproach to western iter-ature is found in the three-volume iterary istory ftheUnited

'3Walkerhas not spelled out an explicitphilosophyof literary istoryn hisbooks,essays,or reviews, houghhe acknowledgesthe influences fTurner,Parrington,ndBernard DeVoto upon his work Walker,June30, 1974). But see hisessay n this ssueof thePacificHistorical eview.'4Russel B. Nye states: My generation was powerfully nfluencedby FranklinWalker, first, enryNash Smith,next Nye,Sept. 20, 1974). EdwinR. Binghamfindsuseful Walker's smooth fusion of literary riticism nd social and culturalhistory(Bingham, Sept. 18, 1974).




18/39

TheRiseofa NewHistoriography 327States,edited by Robert Spiller and several other scholars. 5Published thirty earsafterthe Cambridge istory, hichpaidlittle ttention o western iterature, piller'svolumes devotedseveral chapters to the subject. Dixon Wecter,Henry NashSmith,George R. Stewart, nd Wallace Stegnerdealtwiththeregion in such chaptersas LiteraryCultureon theFrontier,Western Chroniclers and LiteraryPioneers, The West asSeen from the East, and WesternRecord and Romance,which stressed the culturaltiesof the West withthe East andthe West's attempts to please eastern readers. Smith, forexample, demonstratedhow earlier writers ikeCooper, H. M.Brackenridge, and Zebulon Pike wrotewith one eye on thedetails theywere accumulatingand the othereye trained onwhateasternliterati, speciallytheRomantics,wantedtoread.Other writers, uch as Josiah Gregg and Lewis H. Garrard,were less tied to eastern literary tandards,more reluctant opolish theirdescriptions, nd hence presentedmore authenticaccounts of lifealong westerntrailsand among the mountainmen. Smith adds that easternersusually saw the West as astrange and wonderful place of Indians, sylvanareas, andwilderness. The West thus became a region of wondroussettingsand characters,both of whichheld scenic and novelimplicationsfor a thirstyeading public in the East.Though thechaptersbyWecter, mith, tewart,nd Stegnerwere noteworthy ontributions,he editors of theLiterary is-tory id not include discussions of twentieth-centuryesternliterature. There were sections on Willa Cather and SinclairLewis and brief mention of Steinbeck and Jeffers, ut theseauthors were not treated as westernwriters.By 1950, then,many iterary istorianswere inclinedto treat omenineteenth-centurywriters s western uthors,buttheywere still eluctantto classify nywriterswriting fter1900 as westernuthors.

Robert E. Spiller,WillardThorp, Thomas H. Johnson,HenrySeidel Canby,et l.,eds., Literary istory f the United tates 3 vols.,New York, 1948). There have beenrevisionsof thisworkbutnone adds measurably o the discussions fthe iteraryWest.Anotherextensive iterary istory f the UnitedStates, ditedbyArthurH. Quinn,TheLiterature f theAmerican eople: A Historical nd Critical urveyNew York, 1951),includes a chapteron twentieth-centuryouthern iterature, utonly cattered ectionson such modern westernwritersas Willa Cather, RobinsonJeffers,Ole R1olvaag,Conrad Richter, nd JohnSteinbeck.




19/39

328 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWThe publication of Henry Nash Smith's VirginLand: TheAmericanWest s SymbolndMyth Cambridge,Mass., 1950) has

proventobe a major turningpoint nthehistoriographyftheAmerican literaryWest. VirginLand increased interestinwestern literature,helped place westernwriting n a newperspective,and provided studentswith new research tech-niques fortheir tudies of the iteraryWest.Smith's timulatingbook has influenced nterpretationsfwestern iteraturemorethan any other study.In the twenty-fiveearssince itspubli-cation, specialists n the fieldplace it at the top of the list ofbooks that have shaped theirthinking nd writing.Portions of VirginLand, whichwas completed at HarvardUniversityn 1940 as the first issertationn the new fieldofAmerican Studies, appeared initially s a series of journalarticles in the 1940s. When the completed volumewas pub-lished in 1950, it was hailed immediately s an importantnewinterpretation f theWestin Americanthought nd culture.16Smith opens his book with a discussion of the views ofBenjamin Franklinand Thomas Jeffersonbout the West. Heuses the ideas of these two men as examples of whatmanyAmericansthought bout the frontierWestas itbecamepartoftheir culturalexperience. These thoughtsgraduallyclusteredaround three themes: Passage to India, The Sons of Lea-therstocking, nd The Garden of the World. Smith'sap-proach in discussing these themes is an holistic one; heemphasizes that the West as symbol nd mythwas ust part-albeit an importantpart--of what Americans were thinkingand experiencing in the nineteenthcentury.Through thisholisticapproach, Smith s able to show how Turner's famousessayof 1893 was partfact nd partof themythologyhathadgrown up about the West in the previous hundred years.

'6A fewwritershave taken ssuewith ome of Smith'sresearchtechniques nd inter-pretations.Laurence R. Veyseydiscusses some of thedangers nvolved n theconceptsof mythand suggeststhat regional stereotypesmay be of more use to studentsofwestern iterature han the symbolic nalysisused in Virgin and. See his Myth ndReality nApproachingAmericanRegionalism, Americanuarterly,II (1960), 31-43.Barry Marks, a former tudent of Smith,challengeshis mentor n The Concept ofMyth n Virgin and, American uarterly, (1953), 71-76. The mostrecentdiscussionofSmithand otherscholars nthe AmericanStudiesfield an be found nCecilF. Tate,The Search ora Method nAmerican tudiesMinneapolis,1973).




20/39

TheRiseofa NewHistoriography 329The final chapter in VirginLand deals with Turner anddemonstrates Smith'suse of symbolic nalysis.He shows how

the idea of the West as the Garden of the World capturedTurner's imagination nd caused himto linkmanyof his viewsabout the importanceof the words nature nd civilizationoAmerica's cultural history. mith shows that Turner's use ofnature ften moved beyond social analysis ntopoetry, movethat reflectedTurner's ties towhat historianshave called theagrarian myth. Using theclose-readingtechniquesof literarycritics,Smith demonstrates that Turner's use of naturewasfrequentlymoremetaphorical han factual. n this hapter ndin several other sectionsof his book, Smithcalls for a closestudyof the relationshipbetweenthe factsof westernhistoryand the mythsthat have grown up about westernexperi-ences.17Virgin and also demonstrates hatscholarsneed not-in factshouldnot-limit theirdiscussions oelite authors forexample,Cooper, Whitman,and Garland) iftheywishto conveya fullunderstandingof what the West meant to nineteenth-centuryAmericans. The two chapters in Smith'svolume devoted toheroes and heroines of the dime novel illustrate he author'scommitmentto studyingall typesof writing bout the West.Through close studyof thecharacters, lots, nd themesof thedime novel, Smith shows how this popular genre reflectedmany of the controlling assumptions of the day about thenatureof theAmerican West. Smith'suse ofhistory,iterature,sociology,and culturalanthropology eveals his strong ttach-ment to an interdisciplinarypproach to his subject.The sec-tions on the dime novel are stillmodels for subsequent re-search, and, as we shall see, theyhave been paradigms forrecent researchdealing withthe formulaWestern.The workof Smith,then,has been instrumentaln encour-aging two kinds of approaches to the literaryWest. The firstmethod-the one that has attractedthe most followers-hasbeen called the American Studies school. These interpreters

Smith xplainsomeofhisresearchmethodsn Can Americantudies' evelopMethod? mericanuarterly,X (1957),197-208.Also, ee his ntroductoryommentsin the twenty-yearnniversaryditionof Virgin and (Cambridge,Mass.,1970).




21/39

330 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWstress in following mith)thatwhatpeople havethought boutthe West has frequentlybeen more important n moldingwestern literaturethan what actuallytook place in the West.These writershave consistentlyplayed up the differencesbetween what has been termedthe real and themythicWest.For them,theWest as stateof mind is a conceptthatwarrantscontinued study.Other scholarshave been influencedmore bySmith'streat-ment of popular culture,particularly is analysisof the dimenovel. These writers have recentlyshown a great deal ofinterest n theWestern, genreof formula iterature hathasarisen in the twentieth entury.There is considerableoverlapbetween the American Studies and popular culture schools,but the differences etween the twogroupsare emphasizedinorder to plot the larger impactof Virgin and upon westernliterary tudies.In the quarter century ince the publicationof Virgin and,numerous scholars have relied on Smith'sbook for researchmethods and for nsightsntotheAmerican iteraryWest.KentL. Steckmesser, n his The Western ero inHistorynd Legend(Norman, 1965), acknowledges large intellectualdebts toSmith. For example, he utilizes ome of Smith'stechniques ntrying o separate fact from fictionn accounts of Kit Carson,Billythe Kid,Wild BillHickok,and GeorgeArmstrong uster.In the onlybook-length tudypublishedon thewesternnovel,James K. Folson also admitsthathe owes a greatdeal to thework of Smith. '8olsom is interestednthe myth f theWestand the manner in which popular concepts about the Westhave spilled over intonovels written bout Indians, farmers,and frontierociety. mith'spointof viewand hismethodologyare particularly pparent in Folsom'schapteron Cooper. In hisfirst-ratemonograph on TheMiddle WesternarmNovel in theTwentieth enturyLincoln, 1965), Roy Meyer draws uponSmith'streatment f farmersnnineteenth-centurymaginativeliterature.Several historianshave utilizedSmith'sfindings.Earl Pom-

8Folsom,TheAmericanWestern ovel (New Haven, 1966); Folsom,Oct. 6, 1974. Ihave triedto detailsome of the nfluences fSmith n Steckmesser, olsom, nd RobertEdson Lee in RecentViews oftheAmericanLiteraryWest, JournalfPopularCulture,III (1969), 144-153.




22/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 331eroy, in his studyof tourism n the West, 9 mployssome ofSmith's discussions of western ravelers o show how theirviewsshaped subsequent ideas about the West. Joseph G. Rosa,without cknowledgingthe influence fVirgin and,neverthe-less adopts Smith's methods in his analysisof westerngun-fighters.20ven some of the recentwesternhistoryexts estifyto the influence of Smith'sapproach to the West. The best ofthese is RobertV. Hine's beautifullywritten heAmericanWest:An InterpretiveistoryBoston, 1973), which containschapterson farmers,westernheroes, and The FrontierExperiencethat reflect mith'spointof view.During the last decade, two books have appeared thatillustratethe American Studies approach so evident n VirginLand. Both are wide-ranging tudies,bothadvance controver-sial theses, and although both deal with literature of theeastern United States,theyhavealready eft heirmarkson thefield of western iterary tudies.

Edwin Fussell's Frontier: mericaniteraturend theAmericanWest Princeton,N. J.,1965) is a reinterpretationf Americanliteraturefrom 1800 to the CivilWar. The book deals primarilywithCooper, Hawthorne, Poe, Thoreau, Melville,and Whit-man, and Fussell argues that these authors were inspiredbythe frontier, he meetingplace betweenthe civilized East andthe barbarousWest. But Fussell's frontiers noteasytodefine.Sometimes it is the highseas ofMobyDick,the dark forests fThe ScarletLetter,he sitesof Poe's conflicts etweennightmareand reality, nd the locationsof Thoreau's clashingEssentialWest and Real West. On otheroccasions the frontiers Poe'sSouth, or Hawthorne'sSalem, orThoreau's Walden Pond. ForFussell, these frontiers re notspecific ocations but primarilythe statesof mind of the authors. He repeatedly tresses hatthe frontiersan idea, a metaphor.The mistake f Turner andother historians who emphasized the frontier s place, hecontends,was their failuretocomprehendthe frontiers idea.Had theyunderstood themetaphoricalpossibilitiesfthe fron-tier, they would have realized that it was the real West.Other views about the frontierwillhave to be changed if

19Pomeroy, In SearchoftheGoldenWest:The Tourist n Western mericaNew York,1957).2Rosa,TheGunfighter:an orMyth?Norman, 1969).




23/39

332 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWFussell's ssertionsre accepted. orexample,onsider isbelief hat hefrontiernded t east hreendpossiblyourdecades before urner's nnouncementn 1893.Fussell r-guesthat 855-1860was hewatershederiod f hefrontier.After his ra,therewasno longer viablefrontier;tnolonger ired he maginationfwritersndthus advanishedas a shapingorce. esides his ubiouspinion,ussellffersno additional roof orhisclosinghefrontiernthe 1850s.On the otherhand, n hisstress n thedualitiesn thewritingsf theAmerican omantics,ussell s solidlyntheAmericantudies chool. or heRomantics,he ssencef hewestward ovement asexpressednconflictsetween astandWest, ivilizationndwilderness,ast ndpresent,eadandheart, ark nd ight. he firsthree fthese ichotomiesaretensionshat mithtressednVirginand, articularlynhisessays nCooper.Fussell'section nCooper, neofhismost ersuasivehapters,raws eavilypon mith'snalysis.)Fussell lsoshares mith'sttachmentosymbolicnalysis,techniquehatmphasizesntensivetudyfdiction.hrough-outhisbook, ussell ays lose ttentiono ymbols,uthis seof thetechniquesparticularlyvidentnthe astpart fhisbookwhere eargues hatwhenhefrontierlosedAmericanliteratureeerednother irections.Fussell's rontiersa provocativetudy. hediscussionsfthemetaphoricalualitiesf frontiernd West restimu-lating,utmore onvincingrethe ectionsnCooper,Whit-man, nd Thoreau.Onewondersfthe uthor'seadingfthese hreewritersndtheir isionsf he rontierasnot heimpetus or his olume. he thesis f thebookfits horeaubest-andPoe east.ButFussell resses is hesisoohard.fallhis ontentionswere ersuasive,isbookwould ave eplaced.O. Matthies-sen's TheAmerican enaissances the best nterpretationfearlynineteenthcenturyAmerican iterature. ut it has notdone so,and one reason is Fussell'sfailuretoemphasize sufficientlyheimpactofEurope and the Far Weston the writers e discusses.And surelyThe Scarlet etter, oby ick, nd LeavesofGrasshaveother major and more significantmeanings than Fussell iswillingto assign to them.




24/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 333Most of all, Fussell seems discontentedwithhistorians.He isconvinced that interpreters ike Turner, because theyover-stressedthegeographicalfrontierwhich s notentirely rueofTurner), sent later readers up the wrong trails. No doubtFussell's views are a corrective orthose too tied to a Turnerianinterpretation f the frontier, ut in an attempt o prove histhesishe distorts he evidence. To argue that the frontierwasgone by 1860 is to omit much of thefrontier. his terminationdate missesthe cowboy, everalof theminingrushes,someof

the overland trail years, and the sod house frontier.Whatseems closer to the truth is that after the Civil War,industrialism and cities caught up with the West asattention-gatheringubjects. But writers ike Twain, Harte,several frontierhumorists, nd such authors as E. W. Howe,Hamlin Garland, and Owen Wisterproved that the frontierWest was not as moribund as Fussellsuggests.Had Fussellbeenmore willingto qualifyhis thesis,to say that the frontier splace and idea was one of themajor nfluences nwriters ftheRomantic period, his stimulatingwork would occupyan evenmore important pot in western iterary tudies.21Another volume that illustrates ome of the strengths ndlimitationsfound in Fussell's book is RichardSlotkin'sRegen-eration hrough iolence:TheMythologyftheAmerican rontier,1600-1860 (Middletown, Conn., 1973). Much longer thanFussell's study,thisheftybook (nearly700 pages) is an out-growthof the author's doctoral dissertation n the AmericanCivilizationprogram at Brown University. lotkinpursues alarge goal: He is interested in discussing the ideas thatemerged from heAmerican frontierxperiencebetween 1600and 1860. He wants to trace the impactof European viewsupon the New World wilderness and to describethe nationalmythsthat emerged fromthe conflicts etween the old andnew cultures.

2 Someof the same topicsdiscussedinFussell are takenup inWilsonO. Clough,TheNecessaryarth:Nature nd SolitudenAmericaniteratureAustin,1964).Lesswellknownthan the book byFussell,Clough's volumeis, however,frequentlymorepersuasiveontopics that both authors treat.Another little-known olume that deals withthepost-frontierera is Harold P. Simonson, The ClosedFrontier: tudies n American iteraryTragedyNew York, 1970), which s a stimulatingtudyof several writers' eactions othe closingfrontier.




25/39

334 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWLike Fussell, Slotkinemphasizes the contrapuntal tructureof his findings: Europe and America, civilization and

wilderness,white and Indian. He is much more interested nthe role of the Indian than were Fussell and Smith,who havelittle o sayabout Americanaborigines. n fact, lotkin'smajorthesis is thatEuropeans, especiallyPuritans, n theirdesire tomake sense out of their rrandinto thewilderness, ormulateda mythof regeneration throughviolence. Graduallythesenewcomers, as they became Americanized, persuadedthemselves that in destroying he wildernessand conqueringthe Indians theywere savingthe continentforcivilization.nhis finalchapter,Slotkinponderstherelationship etweenthisdestructivephilosophy and modern American imperialism.In addition to theuseful comments n earlyfrontierxperi-ences foundthroughout hevolume,the ntroductoryhaptersin Slotkin's book on myth-making re instructivefor thestudentof the literaryWest. And his discussionsof the riseofthe popular hunter hero likeDaniel Boone and the treatmentsof this hero in regional literatures ast of the Mississippi rewell done. Moreover, Slotkin has read widely in originalsources; he deals with heworks fmajorwriters ikeBenjaminFranklin,Cooper, Thoreau, Melville, nd with hewritingsfahost of minor authors. No one should fault his extensiveresearch in primary ources.ButRegenerationhrough iolencehould be used with aution.Slotkin's treatment f the Puritans nd theirrelationshipswithIndians does not take into account the views of AldenVaughan, Edmund S. Morgan,and Ola Winslow, ll of whomare less critical than he of the Puritans. The section onThoreau is also distorted;the author makes too much of theIndianness of Thoreau. And other readers will questionSlotkin'sfailure to use the accounts of Lewis and Clark,JosiahGregg, and numerous other explorerswho traveled nto thetrans-MississippiWest and wrote mportant ccounts of whattheysaw and experienced.Slotkin'smajor problemsare those often found in the workof historians of ideas. He moves from work to work forevidence of histhesis,but he failstogivesufficientttention othe changingmilieu ofwhat he examines. And the tone of his




26/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 335book reflects he point of view of a youngman discontentedwithwhat he has seen and felt n the late 1960s and drawn tootherpopular ideas thought obe corrective:moresympatheticviews of the Indian, increased interest n back-to-the-landmovements, and the search for the purported causes ofviolence inJudeo-Christian varice.Despite theseweaknesses,thevolume is a majorbook in the field.Slotkin s sometimes oogeneral and simplistic, ut he is alwaysstimulatingnd shouldbe read and reread by all students nterested n the literaryWest.Leslie Fiedler,who has influencedSlotkin greatdeal, putseven more emphasis than Slotkinon themythic atureof theWest. In some of his earlier interpretiveworkson Americanliterature,Fiedler discussed western iterature, ut it is in TheReturn ftheVanishing mericanNew York, 1968) thathe putsmajor stress on the subject. In this brief volume, Fiedlercompletes his venture n literary nthropology with a studyof the role of Indians in writing bout the frontier nd theWest. For Fiedler, American geography is primarilymythological,and it is the presence of the Indian whichdefines the mythologicalWest (p. 21). Thus, the Western sthe storyof the conflictbetweenthe WASP and the Indian.And, as he had in his earlierworks,Fiedler stresseshere thehesitancyof whiteAmericans to write boutwhitewomen andtheirtendencyto deal withmasculineworlds.In the finalsectionsof his book, Fiedlercenterson what hecalls the New Western. His comments n thisnewgenrearenot surprisingwhen one realizes thatFiedler believes that tounderstand theWest as somehow a joke comes a little loser togetting it straight p. 137). He is convinced that the NewWestern has arisen because theolder Western nd writers ikeA. B. Guthrie,Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and Frank Watersfailed to deal with the Indian in a believable fashion.Hence,such writers s Thomas Bergerand Ken Keseyhave producedNew Westerns that treat Indians as returned or vanishedAmericans whose relationshipswithwhites are similar to therelationshipsfound between Huck and Jim n Twain's novelsand NattyBumppo and Chingachgook n theLeatherstockingTales. The meeting n thewildernessbetweenthewhiteEuro-




27/39

336 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWpean and the red man is the heme of theWest,and Fiedlerisconvinced that writersof New Westerns have taken up thisidea. These authorsdo not involvetheirprotagonistsnthe oldmythsofJohn Smithand Pocahontas; instead the heroes areplaced in male-to-malerelationships ike those found in theworks of Cooper, Melville, and Twain. Brotherhood is themajor themeof the New Western.22As Henry Nash Smithpointedout in a reviewof TheReturnoftheVanishing merican,he reader is not alwayscertainhowseriouslyto take Fiedler.23His description f the New Westerndoes fitKen Kesey's One Flew Over theCuckoo'sNest,ThomasBerger's Little igMan, and some of the workof suchnovelistsas David Wagoner andJohn Seelye.But his newgenredoes notdescribe the recent novels ofWrightMorris,Wallace Stegner,Vardis Fisher,or A. B. Guthrie.Contemporarywesternnovel-ists have stressed historical iesbetweenthe frontier nd con-temporaryWests,utilizedthe theme of a youngman's initia-tion into manhood, and emphasized the importanceof thearid, spacious West as setting.Fiedler does notmention nyofthese important hemes, nd because he does not, nyonewhohas taken the time to read a large number of novels writtenabout the Westin the lasttwenty-fiveearsbecomes convincedof the narrownessof Fiedler's approach. His contention hatwriting bout the contemporaryWest should be a journeyintomadness defines the central emphasis in Seelye's TheKid (anovel dedicated to Fiedler),but thisargumentdoes notapplyto Wallace Stegner'sPulitzerPrize-winning ngle fRepose, henovels of Richard Brautigan,and most ofthewriting fLarryMcMurtry.The Return ftheVanishing mericans an importantaid inunderstanding ome fictionwrittenbout the West nthelast twodecades, but it s nota convincing uide tomostrecentwesternwriting.24

22In a recent address before the WesternLiteratureAssociation (JacksonHole,Wyoming,October 1972), Fiedlerargued that he NewWestern,whichhe renamedthemeta-Western, eals exclusivelywithviolence, sex, and racism.Smith's reviewofThe Return ftheVanishingmericanppears inAmericaniterature,XL (1969), 586-588.4Several cholarsfindFiedler's book more useful than have indealingwithrecentwestern fiction.For example, Edwin R. Bingham, Sept. 18, 1974; John G. Cawelti,Oct. 24, 1974; and C. L. Sonnichsen,Sept. 19, 1974.




28/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 337In additionto its arge impacton AmericanStudiesscholars,Virgin and has also influenced tudentsof Americanpopularculture. Before thepublicationof Smith'sbook,historianswerereluctant odeal withtheformulaWestern.They seemto haveconsidered the popular genre as subliterature nd hence notworthy f study.Before 1950 onlya handfulofnotableessayshad appeared that dealtwith he dime noveland Western.ButSmith showed that the carefulscholar could learn a greatdealfromthe studyofpopular literature,nd in theyearssince the

publicationof his seminal study, here has been an increasingamount of attentionpaid to theWestern.The mostpenetrating f recentwritingbout the Western sJohn Cawelti's The Six-GunMystiqueBowling Green, Ohio,1971). In his extended essay,Cawelti summarizes heviewsofseveral interpretersf the Western nd then outlineshisthesis,which asks readers to take seriouslythe conventionsof theformula Westernand to scrutinize arefully hecomponents fthe formula to see what they reveal about a societythatproduces and reads Westerns. Cawelti reminds studentsthatthe Western can and does provide valuable insights nto achanging American culture. Most of all, Cawelti argues thatstudents of Americanthoughtand culture mustcastofftheirpredispositionsabout the worthlessness f theWestern,mustcomprehend the repeated patterns n thepopular genre,andmust realize what these formulas tell us about Americansociety. Henry Nash Smithfulfilled ome of these demands inVirgin and, but Cawelti movesbeyondSmithbydetailingtheformula that defines the Western. He shows how theambiguities of plot and characterizationapparent in thecontemporaryWestern reflect he growingtensions n recentAmerica. He points out that heroes in the Western arefrequentlycaught between reaffiming ivilizationor townvalues and trying oescape to a wilderness hat s untrammeledby coercive law and order and stillopen to the actionsof thestrong ndividual.Cawelti has produced a rich,highly riginalessay.Through-out his book, he touches on several themes,techniques,andideas that are evidentin theWestern.While he does notdealextensivelywith nyofthesetopics nhis briefvolume,he does




29/39

338 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWillustratehowhiscontentionsmaybe applied to a largenumberof Westerns.

Students have already begun to utilize the techniques ofCaweltiin studying ormulawritingboutthe West. n a recentcollection of essays dealing with the Western,several of theessayistsuse the comments fCaweltion thenatureofformulafiction s the beginning place for their articles.These writersfindespecially pertinentCawelti'sviewsabout the diverserolesof the hero, heroine,and communityn the Western.Judgingfrom the initial reactions of scholarsto The Six-GunMystique,subsequent research on the Westernwillbe stronglyndebtedto the insights f Cawelti.25The otherapproach totheWestern hathas attracted gooddeal of attention n the last fewyears is that of the culturalhistorian.Before thelarge impactofVirgin and wasapparent,W. H. Hutchinson and Bernard De Voto wrote essaysdiscussing the place of heroes, villains,and heroines in theWestern, and theystressed the importanceof Owen Wister,Eugene Manlove Rhodes, and Ernest Haycox in thedevelopment of the popular type.26 wo decades ago Joe B.Frantz and Julian E. Choate attemptedto show how earlierwriters fWesternsutilizedstereotypesmore thanfact ntheirtreatmentof the cowboy.27Also in the fifties avid B. Davisand Philip Durham chronicled the rise of the cowboy n theearly twentieth enturyand demonstrated how Wister's TheVirginian ecame a paradigm for laterWesterns.28 en years25RichardW. Etulain and Michael T. Marsden,eds.,ThePopularWestern:ssays owarda DefinitionBowling Green, Ohio, 1974). Cawelti's recentbook on popular literaryformulas,Adventure,ysteryndRomanceChicago, 1976), ncludesa longsection n theWestern (Cawelti,Jan. 11, 1976). Henry Nash Smith,who read Cawelti's book inmanuscript,feels that themostinteresting athway f advance inthestudy fWesternliterature s thatbeingchartedbyMr.Cawelti, speciallyhis investigationfformulas

and stereotypes Smith,Nov. 11, 1974). Other recentworksbyCawelti on formulaliterature re God's Country,Las Vegas, and theGunfighter: iffering isionsoftheWest, WesternAmerican iterature,X (1975), 273-283; and Myth,Symbol,andFormula, JournalofPopularCulture,VIII (1974), 1-9.26Hutchinson, Virgins,Villains,and Varmints, Huntington ibrary uarterly,VI(1953), 318-392; DeVoto, Birth f an Art, Harper's CXI (Dec. 1955),8-9, 12, 14, 16;and Phaithon on Gunsmoke Trail, Harper's,CCIX (Dec. 1954), 10-11, 14, 16.27Frantzand Choate, The AmericanCowboy:Mythand Reality Norman, 1955).28Davis, Ten Gallon Hero, AmericanQuarterly, I (1954), 111-125; Durham,Riders of the Plains: AmericanWesterns, Neuphilologischeitteilungen,VIII (Nov.1957), 22-38.




30/39

TheRiseofa NewHistoriography 339later Durham and his colleague, EverettJones, in theirmuch-cited TheNegroCowboysNew York, 1965), argued thatthe strong Anglo Saxon prejudices of writers ike Wister,Emerson Hough, and B. M. Bower kept them fromtreatingblack cowboys realistically. urham and Jonesillustratedhowthe studyof popular literature ould reveal the tensions andambiguitiesof Americansin a specificperiod of time.More recentlyRussel B. Nye has discussed the Westernasone significantform of American popular culture.29Histreatment s the best brief studyof the developmentof theWestern. Another nterpreter, ichard W. Etulain,has treatedvarious periods in therise of the Western nd suggestedothertopics and writers hatmeritadditional attention.There areincreasing signs that many historians have overcome theirinitialreluctancetostudy he Western nd thatwecan expectanew series of articles and books on this popular genre.30Atthispoint,one might skifanyscholarshaveattempted ounite the historical approach of Franklin Walker withtheresearchmethods evident nSmith'sVirgin and. The answer syes, and the products of thismarriage indicate thatwesternliteraryscholarship is maturing rapidly. One of the mostimpressiveexamples is G. Edward White'sThe EasternEstab-lishmentnd theWesternxperience:heWest fFredericemington,Theodore oosevelt,ndOwenWisterNew Haven, 1968). White'sbook, which is the publishedversion of a doctoral dissertationin the American Civilizationprogramat Yale University,s astimulating tudybased on an interdisciplinarymethodology.White centerson thepivotal period from1890-1910 and tracesthe lives ofRemington,Roosevelt, nd Wisterfrom heirearlytwenties and their exposure to the eastern establishment fprivate schools, Ivy League universities, nd membership n

29Nye,The Unembarrassed use: The Popular Arts n America New York, 1970),280-304.30Etulain, ErnestHaycox: The HistoricalWestern, outhDakotaReview,V (1967),35-54; LiteraryHistorians and the Western, Journal fPopularCulture,V (1970),518-526; Origins of the Western, JournalofPopularCulture,VI (1972), 799-805;The HistoricalDevelopment of theWestern, ournal fPopularCulture, II (1973),717-726. The Popular Press of Bowling Green University s planning a series ofmonographs on popular Western writers o be edited by Richard W. Etulain andMichael T. Marsden.




31/39

340 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWprestigioussocial clubs to theirsubsequentadventures n theWest. In his analysisof the experiencesof these threemen,White demonstrateshow Americansused the East and West assymbolsofthepresent nd past,ofindustrynd agriculture, furban and rural,and howthey ried toforge consensusfromtheirdisparate experiences.White argues that at the turn of the centuryAmericanswanted frontiergentlemen or gentlemanlycowboys.Or tomake the oxymoron more exact, they wanted westernizedeasterners. The end productwould be a Theodore Rooseveltwho benefitted not only from his eastern upbringingandeducation but also fromhis experienceson hiswesternranch.White contends that comprehension of this desire tohomogenize the East and Westgives larger understanding ftheRough Riders and theconservationistmpulseofthe era ofRoosevelt. He sees both of these activities as products ofAmericans trying o bring togetherthe eastern establishmentand westernexperience.AlthoughWhite should have plunged deeper and traveledmore in the many manuscript materials he lists in hisbibliography, he does make clear at least a part of theconsensus thatmanyAmericans tried to fashionout ofdiverseregional and historicalbackgrounds.He is aware ofthemythsthatgrewup about the Westin the nineteenth entury,nd heshows how these myths ometimescoincidedwith, ometimesdivergedfrom, heactualexperienceofRemington,Roosevelt,and Wister in the West. Because White is able to show therelationshipbetweenthe work of these men and theirmilieu,his book is an excellentexample of what can be accomplishedwhen western literature is studied within the broaderperspectiveof a dynamicAmericanculture.31

Neal Lambert, in his articleson Wister,employsresearchtechniquessimilar tothose of White. See Lambert, Owen Wister'sVirginian:The Genesis of a CulturalHero, Western merican iterature, I (1971), 99-107; Owen Wister'sLin McLean:The Failure of theVernacular Hero, Western mericaniterature, (1970), 219-232;and The Values of the Frontier: Owen Wister's Final Assessment, SouthDakotaReview, X (1971), 76-87. The same approach is utilized n RichardW. Etulain,OwenWisterBoise, 1973). Ben MerchantVorpahl stresses the importanceof WisterandFrederic Remington n the formation f the cowboyhero in hisMyDear Wister: heFredericRemington-OwenWisterLetters Palo Alto, 1972). No full-length iterarybiographyof Wisterhas been published; one is badlyneeded.




32/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 341Even more impressive in his marriage of the historicalapproach of Walker and the holistictechniquesof Smithis

Kevin Starr, uthoroftheimportant olume,Americansnd theCaliforniaDream, 1850-1915 (New York, 1973). Starr,whocompleted an earlier draft of his book in the HarvardAmerican Civilizationprogram,owes a greatdeal to the archi-tectonic sense of ideas developed bysuch men as PerryMillerand his student, Alan Heimert, who served as directorofStarr's doctoral dissertation.Starr is interested n the lineardevelopmentofCalifornia'sculturalhistory,nd he also wishesto show, on another level, how the ideas of residents andoutsiders about the regionhelped to shape thehistory f thearea. As Starr puts it, his book seeks to integratefact andimaginationin the belief that the record of their nterchangethroughsymbolic tatement s our mostprecious legacyfromthe past (p. vii).To illustrate what the California dream came to mean,Starrdeals with uchculturalfigures s Thomas StarrKing,anearly Protestantminister;Henry George, social critic;JosiahRoyce, philosopher; John Muir, naturalist;and David StarrJordan,presidentofStanfordUniversity.nterspersed mongthese discussions are sections on such literary igures s JackLondon, Gertrude Atherton,Frank Norris,and the literaryand artistic ommunity t Carmel. These sectionsare thebestand most significant ortionsof the volume. Not only doesStarr exhibit first-ratebilities s an historian f literature, ealso demonstrates a keen eye for close reading of his manyfirst-hand ources. Some readersmayquibblewith fewofhiscommentson London and Atherton nd wishthathe had donemore withHarte and theOverlandMonthly,utthesefaults reminor compared to his brilliantanalysisof the complicatedfabric thatmade up California'searlyculturalhistory.Americans nd theCaliforniaDream is a major book in thehistoriography f the American literaryWest.Utilizing omeof theresearch methodsand thefindings f FranklinWalker,32Starralso stresses heimportanceofunderstandingmythsndsymbols if one is to comprehend the full meaning of the

32See Starr's introduction nd bibliographyfor comments on his indebtednesstoWalker.




33/39

342 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWCalifornia dream. In addition, the author is aware of thearguments among historians about the significanceof thefrontier n American history, nd he seems to side with EarlPomeroy in stressing he continuities etween East and Westmore than the novel experiences of the frontier.33n sum,Starr's volume is well written,full of valuable insights, ndreplete with useful models for research on similarsubjects.Indeed, it is the mostimportantvolumedealingwithwesternliteraturesince Virgin and.

To imply, s I mayhave done thusfar,thatVirgin and hasinfluenceddirectly ll researchcompletedon theliteraryWestin the last twenty-fiveearswould be misleading.Other bookshave made a significantmpacton the field.During the 1960sand 70s, myth critics, like Northrop Frye and RichardChase,34and specialists n Americanculturalhistory, uch asLeo Marx and R. W. B. Lewis,35have influenced tudentsofwestern literature,especially those who completed graduateworkin departmentsofEnglishor American Studies. Scholarsliving n the Southwestor studying he iterature fthatregionfrequently ite the workof Walter P. Webb,J.FrankDobie,and Mody Boatright s crucialin theirresearch and writing.36In addition,thesolidand stimulatingworkof WallaceStegner,

33Pomeroy, Toward a Reorientation f WesternHistory:Continuitynd Environ-ment, Mississippi alleyHistorical eview,XLI (1955), 579-600.34Distinctionsetween theRomance and theNovel inChase's TheAmerican ovel ndIts TraditionNew York, 1957) are essential to an understanding f some of Folsom'scontentions nTheAmericanWesternovel.Edwin W. Gaston also makesextensive se ofChase in TheEarlyNovelofthe outhwestAlbuquerque, 1961).35Students f the iteraryWestswayedbySmith'sVirginandusually ite theworks fMarx (a studentofSmith)and Lewis as major nfluences n their hinkingnd writing.As Richard Astrosays,Marx's TheMachine ntheGardenNew York,1964) has impli-cations whichopened myeyesto certainfeatues fWestern iterature Sept. 19, 1974).Glen Love finds mith,Marx,and Lewishelpfulbecause theirresearch s both clecticand sound in its use of history,myth, nd formal iterarynalysis Sept. 24, 1974).Anotherscholar adds: It's R. W. B. Lewis,and hisbookTheAmericandam,who'shadmore effectupon mythoughts nd work thanalmostanyoneelse (L. L. Lee, Oct. 28,1974).3 Orlan Sawey and Edwin W. Gaston cite Dobie, Boatright, nd Webb as stronginfluences on their work (Sept. 20, 1974; Sept. 24, 1974). SouthwesternnovelistBenjamin Capps writesthat The only scholar who directlynfluencedmywork wasMody Boatright,under whom I studied in the 40s (Dec. 23, 1974).




34/39

The Riseofa NewHistoriography 343who is committed othefruitfulmarriageof western iteratureand history,has placed its markon several students.

Another point of view that owes much to Bernard DeVotohas made its mpactfelt n thelast two or threedecades. In theearly years of the twentieth entury,westernnovelistEugeneManlove Rhodes complained that eastern publishers andreaders knew ittle bout theWest and itswritingnd that heytended to classify ll novels written bout the regionas justanother Western. In the twenties nd thirties eVoto beganhis argumentwith Van WyckBrooks and otherswho,DeVotothought, misread the western influences at work on MarkTwain. DeVoto, and many of those who followed hisoutspoken views,argued that therewas a continuing onflictbetween the East and West in which the latter was theunderdog. When commentators ave applied thisviewpoint owesternwriting, s Vardis Fisher and Robert Edson Lee havedone,38theyhave asserted that the West has produced somefirst-rateiterature, ut it has not been recognizedas such byeastern,effete ritics; r,as another ineofthis rgument uns,westernwritinghas not been consistently etterbecause theEast has dominated Americanculture and has not allowed orencouraged the truthto be written bout the West. These37ThomasW. Fordwrites: I findWallace Stegner lwaysperceptive, speciallyfrom

the standpointofsomeonewho is close to theWest,dearly oves t,yet s able totemperhis love withcriticalperception Oct. 4, 1974). Stegner's provocative ssays,particu-larly Born a Square and History,Myth, nd the WesternWriter, re cited fre-quently ngeneralessaysabout the West.These articles, lushis otherpiecesonwesternliterature nd conservation, re collected nThe SoundofMountainWaterGardenCity,1969). As one advanced graduate student n Americanhistory uts it, I soundlydis-agree with some of his centralcontentions inThe SoundofMountainWater] utI havenever read a book on theWest and its iterature hat iftedmy wnsights igher GaryTopping, Oct. 14, 1974). Otherspecialists nwestern iteraturewho admit toStegner'sinfluenceon theirwork are JohnR. Miltonand Richard W. Etulain.38Thefullest ccountofDeVoto's battleswithVan WyckBrooks, heLostGenerationwriters, nd Marxist nterpretersan be found nWallaceStegner'sbrilliant heUneasyChair: A Biography fBernardDeVoto Garden City,1974). Stegner'sbook provesthatwesternhistorynd biography an also be first-rateiterature. tegnerhas edited someof DeVoto's lively orrespondence n TheLettersfBernard eVotoGardenCity,1975).Orlan Sawey deals withDeVoto's literary rtistrynBernard eVoto New York, 1969).Fisher's position is explicit n The WesternWriter nd the EasternEstablishment,Western mericaniterature,(1967), 244-259. Lee's provocative omments re includedin his well-writtenook, FromWest o East: Studiesnthe iteratureftheAmericanWest(Urbana, 1966).




35/39

344 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEWantieastern commentators have gained several followersamong currentstudentsof westernliterature.39In the 1960s there was a sharp increase in the amount ofmaterial writtenabout the literaryWest. For the first ime,those adventurous scholars who wished to study westernwritingfound severalmarketsopen to theirwork.Previously,editors of literary ournals seemed convinced thatnearlyallwriting bout the West was of an inferior ortand notworthyof scholarly attention. Historical magazines were willingtoaccept biographical articles about well-known authors likeCooper, Twain, and Harte, but reluctantto publish essaysdealing withtwentieth-centuryesternwriters.In 1962, the SouthDakota Review was the firstournal todeclare itsprimary nterest o be western iterature. dited byJohn R. Milton, the quarterly has been one of the fewmagazines known for its encouragementof writi

american literary west

Documents