Frank Waters: Man and Mystic ed. by Vine Deloria, Jr. (review)

336 Western American Literature In TheAchievement ofBrotherAntoninus (1967) William Stafford remarks on the secular Everson and the monastic Antoninus: “Between these two selves, or aspects of one self, there hums a line of poems held closely along a sustained documentary sequence, portraying, overall, the slow turning of a character under duress.” He calls the secular Bill “the aggressively secular anarchist rebel,” and Antoninus becomes “the intense, religious, wholly committed per­ sona of Brother Antoninus.” Despite the tension between these two personali­ ties, Stafford concludes that “Racked out in the spread of poetry. . .”Everson is “one of the most notable, extreme,jagged figures of modern American poetry.” As one listens to William Everson talking in these interviews one encoun­ ters a gifted, erudite, loquacious critic of the Christian faith, of contemporary poetry and the American culture. This is a book that records the shifts of mind and heart of one whose engagement with the culture has been headlong. Here is a restless spirit, unlikely ever to settle down, always ready to battle his way toward the truth. GARYH. HOLTHAUS Center oftheAmerican West; Boulder, Colorado Frank Waters: Man and Mystic. Edited by Vine Deloria, Jr. (Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1993. 249 pages, $29.95/$15.95.) A recent New Mexico Magazine article highlights the state’s literary tradition beginning with writers who visited or settled there in the 1910s and 1920s (Austin, Luhan, La Farge, Cather, Lawrence) and continuing into a second generation, including Anaya, Hillerman, Evans, and Frank Waters. Waters? The nonagenarian who continues to publish spans both generations. Yet the imme­ diacy and relevance of Waters’writing make the magazine’s error understand­ able. It is sometimes startling to realize that TheMan WhoKilled theDeerhas been in circulation for over fifty years. Despite such proven ability of his works to stand the test of time, Waters has never received the extensive critical recogni­ tion that is his due. Martin Bucco’s useful pamphlet in the Southwest Writers Series (1969) and Tom Lyon’s fine Frank Waters (1973) provided his earliest academic and critical recognition. More recently, the Frank Waters Society has issued a yearly Studies in Frank Waters. Terence Tanner’s bibliography, Charles Adams’ anthology, and Alexander Blackburn’s A Sunrise Brighter Still have also advanced the cause for Waters’literary significance. Vine Deloria Jr.’s Frank Waters: Man and Mystic assists this effort through twenty-one diverse contributions. In the first section, “The Memories,” con­ tributors such as William Eastlake, Max Evans, and Rudolfo Anaya present personal glimpses of Waters by detailing anecdotes, meetings, and friendships. Psychotherapist Barbara Waters explores four of her husband’s dreams. Reviews 337 “The Commentaries” focuses on Waters’writing. This section begins with T. N. Luther’s valuable bibliographic update and includes Stephen Wall on Waters’use of regionalism to portray universal themes; Alexander Blackburn’s stylistic analysis;Joe Gordon on Waters’fictional incorporation of his Colorado College experience; Charles Adams on Waters’ “deep ecology”; Thomas Lyon on academic biases affecting readers’responses to Waters; Win Blevins’tribute to The Man Who Killed theDeer, Quay Grigg on characters who mediate between individual and collective selves; Deloria’s celebration of Waters as prophet and explorer in his religious/historical books; PeterJ. Powell on Waters’identifica­ tion of the Holy in the people and the land; Bobby Bridger on Waters’ quest into the meaning of becoming indigenous in North America; Will Wright on Waters’ dramatization of the implications of Indian cultures. The volume con­ cludes with Larry Evers’ edited transcript of a 1978 dialogue on Pueblo living between Waters and University of Arizona students and faculty. Vine Deloria,Jr.'sFrank Waters:Man and Mysticenriches our understanding of a writer whose books, as Eastlake asserts, “will conquer the next, approaching century with ease.”The biographical and critical insights here will alleviate the dearth of resources plaguing earlier Waters scholars. FRANCES M. MALPEZZI Arkansas State University The Steinbeck Question: NewEssays in Criticism. Edited by Donald R. Noble. (Troy, New York: The Whitston Publishing Company, 1993. 278 pages, $29.50.) The Steinbeck Question proposes an interrogative as a unifying theme: why has John Steinbeck never been fully accepted by the critics, the liberals, the conservatives, or the anthologists...