source for poems dealingwithwar, civil
rights, and contemporary issues.
Nomention ismade of Sarton’s best
novel,
Faithful Are theWounds
, set during
the blacklisting eras of 1949 and1954. This
is Sarton’smost political novel, detailing at-
tacks on academic freedomand the treat-
ment of liberals during this time period. The
protagonist is basedonF. O.Matthiessen,
theHarvardEnglishprofessor and literary
criticwho committed suicide in1950. The
entireOctober 1950
MonthlyReview
was a
tribute toMatthiessen, including a poemby
Sarton.Anyone publishing in a leftist peri-
odicalwas suspect and receivedgovern-
ment scrutiny. Nowonder Sarton told
Klaich “Iwas toopolitical”when they
passedon the podium.
Faithful Are theWounds
was a finalist for
theNational BookAward, aswas an earlier
novel,
AShower of SummerDays
. In1958,
Sartonwas the firstwriter tobe a finalist in
both the fiction andpoetry categories, for
TheBirthof aGrandfather
and
InTimeLike
Air
, respectively. Shouldn’t critical acco-
lades have beenmentioned in the speech?
The last twoparagraphs detailKlaich’s
recent perspective onher speech. She seems
stunned that Sartondeclinedher handshake
andgave her “the coldest eye I had ever re-
ceived.”Klaichwonders: “Should I have
savedmypolitical correctness viewfor an
essay rather than a tribute speech?” I
thought the obvious answerwasYes, given
the purpose of the speech, butKlaich con-
cludes: “And if Iwere delivering the speech
today, Iwould still feel compelled topoint
out, however gently, thatMaySarton
stopped short of becoming a hero to the as-
pirations of either the feminist or the lesbian
liberationmovements.”
GivenSarton’s huge popularity among
feminists, lesbians, andgaymen, onewon-
derswhyKlaichwouldmake such an ab-
surdly sweeping statement. Even twenty
years later, her pride andpolitical correct-
ness apparentlyblindher to the inappropri-
ate content of her “tribute.”
Michael Sirmons
Retiredprofessor of English, Austin, TX
The Incomparables
To theEditor:
This is in response toMarkMerlis’ ret-
rospective on JohnRechy’s
City of Night
at fifty in the Jan.-Feb. issue. I find it a
peculiar characteristic of some of your re-
viewers that they are forever drawing liter-
ary parallels between two ormore authors
rather than appraising awork on its own
merits.
For example, I’mnot convinced of the
value ofmentioning JeanGenet’s name
when talking about
City of Night
. Genet is
in the endutterlyFrench, his earlyworks
capture aEurope that is all but gone today.
Rechy, by the same token, is utterlyAmeri-
can, achieving something similar for a lost
gayworld in1960sAmerica. Rechy’s book
is farmore evocative of the syntaxofB
movies and filmnoir than it is ofGenet and
his Frenchworlds of Parisian thieves and
Marseilleswhores.
Is it still a characteristic ofAmerican crit-
icss that they always feel it necessary to
compare themselves toEuropean culture,
and in the processmisappraise their own
culturewhile also appearing terribly self-
deprecating?
JulienTeasdale, London, UK
Corrections
The cover
of theMarch-April 2014 issue
incorrectly listedCassandraLanger as the
author of the aforementioned reviewof
LeonardBernstein’s letters. In fact, the au-
thorwas Irene Javors.We regret the error.
Punkedagain
(it happenedonce before).
The “BTW” column in theMarch-April
issue (“Another SurprisedFather”) riffs on
awidely circulated story about Robert
Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe, whose son
Chipapewas reported tohave come out as
gay. Subsequent reports indicated that the
storywas a hoax.
May–June 2014
7
“ANUNFLINCHINGMASTERPIECE.”
—DAVIDLEVERINGLEWIS, Pulitzer Prize-winning
biographer ofW.E.B. DuBois
“Daringly imagined and beautifullywritten,
Hold Tight
Gently
is a
majorwork ofmodernhistory
that chills
us to the bone even as itmoves us to tears.”
—MICHAELBRONSKI, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies,
HarvardUniversity
“A
deeplymoving
work of largely hidden history.”
—BARBARASMITH, author of
The Truth That Never Hurts
“A
powerful
book that displays both themalice and the
nobility of our species.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“This
marvelous
book will be read by activists
everwhere—and empower the future.”
—BLANCHEWIESENCOOK, author of
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Funny andmoving,
enlightening
and
thoughtful
,
inspiring
and
enraging
, this dual biography reveals the
heartbreaking losses caused by the epidemic as well as
themanyways people fought back.”
—JOHND’EMILIO, Professor of
Gender andWomen’s Studies andHistory, University of Illinois at Chicago
THENEWPRESS
THENEWPRESS
Publishing in thePublic Interest
