Worker-Writer in America: Jack Conroy and the Tradition of Literary Radicalism, 1898–1990 by Douglas Wixson (review)

Reviews Camping Out in the Yellowstone, 1882. By Mary Bradshaw Richards. Edited by WilliamW. Slaughter. (SaltLake City: UniversityofUtah Press, 1994.108 pages, $10.95.) InAugustof 1882, MaryBradshawRichards, a57-year-old touristfrom New YorkCity, spentnine daystouringYellowstone Park. She and her husband hired outfitters and “roughed it”in a period between Yellowstone’swildest days and those of improved roads and plentiful hotels. Though not elegantly written, Mrs. Richards’s account reveals much about Yellowstone at the end of its first decade as a park. It is a place still abundant with wildlife, colorful frontier characters, and approachable natural wonders; yet, it has been marked by humans. She finds the trail of discarded cans and other garbage indicative of tourist travels, and Yellowstone “bruins”already foraging for leftovers. Perhaps most striking is both her annoyance with other tourists who spoil the experi­ ence ofpristine solitude, and her sense that a burgeoning tourist economywill further degrade the wilderness experience. Mrs. Richards’s narrative suffers in comparison with several from the late nineteenth century, but few accounts remain in print. Among those out of print, Georgina M. Synge’s A Ride Through Wonderland (London, 1892) offers more detail and a stronger voice. William Slaughter’sedition brings to print a typical account; its strength isin the useful footnotes, period photographs, and an informative introduction. With Slaughter’s careful help, Richards’s sketch reveals a great deal about the Victorian traveler in America’s great “Wonder­ land.” NANCYCOOK University ofMontana Worker-WriterinAmerica:fack Conroy and the Tradition ofLiteraryRadicalism, 18981990 . ByDouglas Wixon. (Urbana: University ofIllinois Press, 1994. 678 pages, $34.95.) Jack Conroywrote a major proletarian novel, TheDisinherited, and as editor of radical magazines such as RebelPoetand Anvil he published earlywritings of RichardWright, Meridel Le Sueur, andTom McGrath, among manyothers. His earlypromise remained unfulfilled, however, andby1950, he lapsed intovirtual 208 WesternAmerican Literature silence, broken only by the revision of Anywhere but Here, his much-lauded collaboration with Arna Bontemps on the history of black migration in America. He spent the remainder ofhis life as an encyclopedia editor, retiring to Moberly, Missouri, where his life began, in the MonkeyNest coal camp. AsConroysawit, his mission aswriter and editorwas to document the lives ofworking classpeople and toprovide aforum forworking classwriters.Atodds throughout hiscareerwith Partyhard-linerswho equated literaturewith propa­ ganda, he lost his last editorship in a struggle with board members who hoped to increase circulation bypublishing establishedwritersrather than newcomers. McCarthyism effectivelyended radicalwriting, and the rise ofuniversityliterary magazines took over the new-writerforum. While some radicals moved success­ fully into the bourgeois mainstream, Wixon argues that Conroy’s silence re­ sulted from an unwillingness or inability to compromise his beliefs about worker-writing, long after the market for such writing had disappeared. Although tantalizing details about Conroy’s personal life do surface (he and Nelson Algren once established an “escape fund”for an imprisoned bur­ glar, for instance), Wixon’svery readable account is not a biography. Rather, Wixon uses Conroy’s career as a focal point in documenting midwestern literary radicalism. In placing Conroy’scareer in this context, Wixon incorpo­ rates (for the most part unobtrusively) social, political, historical, and cultural references as wide-ranging as Simone Weil and Frederick Jackson Turner. Extensive documentation turns the book into a virtual reference work on literary radicalism. In addition to exhaustive notes and indexing, the book includes a section ofbiographical notes on writers mentioned in the text, a list oflittle magazines and newspaperswhichpublished thesewritersin the ’20sand ’30s, and a thirty-five-page bibliography, which should be the starting point for future research. It’s to be hoped that Worker-Writerin America also provides the boost to Conroy’sreputation needed to merit a full-scale biography. GORDONJOHNSTON Missouri Valley College SoFarFromHome:AnArmyBrideon theWesternFrontier, 1865-1869. ByJulia Gilliss. Edited byPriscillaKnuth. (Portland: Oregon HistoricalSocietyPress, 1993. 231 pages, $14.95.) Julia Gilliss’sletters,written from asuccession ofArmypostsin Oregon, are worth seeking out byreaders interested in familylife shortlyafter the CivilWar. While her letters lack the narrative drive orwell-developed story line ofNannie T. Alderson’sA Bride Goes West, the book provides the many other pleasures of articulate and humorous anecdotes offamily life on the frontier. The reader’s ...