15
Theodore Roethke, Yaddo, 1947
Jim accepted an invitation to travel to the West Coast to speak at the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Reed College in Portland. He chose the topic “reality in fiction.” (“The writer lowers himself into the pit of his experience and imagination, and for a time all is black and hopeless. Then the lines suggest themselves, just a little of themselves showing.”) “For this I’m getting $1,500,” he told Father Egan, “but I continue to doubt that it’s enough.” During the six-week trip he visited Theodore Roethke in Seattle and also traveled to Victoria, British Columbia; San Francisco; Fresno, where he saw Ted LeBerthon; Los Angeles; and finally Albuquerque to see his family.
BETTY, KATHERINE, MARY, AND BOZ POWERS
Hotel Edmond Meany
University District
Seattle 5
April 23, 1954
Dear Betty, Girls, and Boy,
[…] Seattle and the country around here remind me of nowhere else I’ve been. It is the sea, I guess, which makes for all flowers, vines, blooming trees. The grass is green as in Ireland. The homes, though this is a smaller place than Mpls, seem much better, and there seem to be more of them. It must be the sea. The sky has clouds; the green has depth. It is close to heaven, the look and feel of it, and I regret some that I wasn’t born here. Then, despite all the rawness of buildings and signs and streets—what you see everywhere, in every city—it might be a place to think of as home. I read one perfectly wonderful story while here and am asking the author—a doctor’s wife—to send it to Henry. I think she might very well be a real writer. I see The Captain’s Paradise is down the street and may go to it tonight. […] Love to you.
Jim
BETTY POWERS
Aboard Princess Marguerite1
Sunday, 10:00 a.m. [April 25, 1954]
Dear Betty,
I am sitting in a smaller, grubbier version of the lounge of the America. I am surrounded by my compatriots—playing cards, reading the Sunday papers, sleeping upright. […] I can’t remember seeing so many bad neckties in the past. I had thought the worst was over, but the science and industry patterns are very evident here. Out on the deck looking at the water, it’s easy to recall Ireland. […]
I got up at 6:30 this morning. I had dinner and quite a bit to drink at Ted’s2 place last night. I was drinking Jameson’s since he got it in for me (as I got it for Sean). His wife, Beatrice, cooked a very fine meal. Steak—the best I’ve ever tasted. It was very thick, but the steak sauce (Ted’s) is what made it. Beatrice had a sauce on asparagus that was very good—what asparagus needs to offset its wateriness. It is made out of ham fat or drippings. I had a very fine time—laughing as I hadn’t in years. […]
Much love,
James
Jim
DA
Buckeye
BETTY POWERS
Portland, Oregon
Sunday night, May 2, 1954
Dear Betty,
[…] The Pacific was really beautiful. I expected it to be inferior somehow. But the rocky coast reminded me of Ireland as you first (and last) see it. We saw the sea lions—at some distance and with a wind blowing, and still they stank like dogs—at 200 yards. I want to read about them sometime. They live 40–60 years. Most of them appear to be asleep, but there is a honking clamor just the same. Their only enemy—said a sign—is the killer whale. […]
I was happy to hear that your father has turned against [Joseph] McCarthy. I heard a snatch of it the other night = disgusting. I’d hear every word of it, if I could—so you’re lucky I’m not there. In these circles, everyone is convinced that homosexuality is at the bottom of it all. […] All for now. Much love to you—and the other people. XXXX
Jim
BETTY POWERS
Portland
Monday p.m. [May 3, 1954]
Dear Betty,
[…] I saw Portland from a high crest today. The country all around was shrouded in mist. It’s like Ireland, the weather, and texture of the air (and grass); the viny-ness. English ivy everywhere. Things—the way people live—seem more bourgeois than Minnesota. Food is much better. You buy very good breakfast rolls everywhere—and they are always served warm. That’s just one thing—but it’s significant. Things cost more, but you don’t get the atrocious stuff (rolls, hamburgers) I’m used to (in eating places, I mean). […]
Much love,
Jim
BETTY POWERS
Albuquerque
May 15, 1954
Dear Betty,
[…] I was naturally sorry to hear of KA’s falling in with the larger boys and trust you’ll not let it happen again; not that it was your fault. I don’t see why she has to play with boys anyway. I suspect it’s those kids who live in the Atwood house, on the alley, where the yard looks like a country fair all the time. You are right about letting the girls get some experience of other children. But I wouldn’t feel that we’re monsters, in the way we’ve brought them up so far. In this matter, most parents are wrong, and the situation they create is wrong. We must use discretion. There will come a day when the girls will see the point in our prohibitions—which don’t strike me as severe at all, not unless I consider them from a point of view which, in fact, I abhor, popular now and here though it is. And you know how many people are out to break down what order we have managed to establish in our house, where the children are concerned. They will not rest until they’ve made us like everyone else, you yelling pointlessly and me carrying a potty wherever we go.3 I guess, secretly, I’m preparing for the day when we can leave this country for Ireland or England, where, it seems to me, if we continue as we have with the children, it will be possible for them to make the change without too much trouble. So much for that. […]
Here the sky rumbles constantly with the noise of airplanes, mostly jets, like a sick stomach. All for now. Much love to you and the girls. XXXX
Jim
BETTY POWERS
Albuquerque
May 22, 1954
Dear Betty,
[…] I was glad to hear that you’re battling off the red squirrels. That was my constant fear, while away, that they’d get back in again, maybe while you were up the river. […] XXXX
Jim
I dreamed of Marilyn Monroe last night. Nothing serious, just amorous dalliance, when George and a couple of other people, males but not priests, came along and put a stop to it, using ridicule but insinuating that I was a family man. I ended up going down the street—seemed to be in London—with a faulty umbrella, in the rain. Interesting?
HARVEY EGAN
509 First Avenue South
St Cloud
June 5, 1954
Dear Fr Egan,
[…] George was here last weekend with Fr Philip Hughes, the historian. Good time. Refreshing to meet someone now and then, I mean, another human being.
Haircut today, and my barber (knowing my line of work) asked what was the bestseller now. Might have been the beginning of a stimulating discourse, but I had to tell him I don’t keep up with things anymore. […]
Jim
Jim gave a short creative writing seminar at the University of Indiana, stopping in Urbana, Illinois, to visit Charles Shattuck and Kerker Quinn. (“I had a good time,” he told Betty, “not too much to drink in case you think so.”)
BETTY POWERS
Indiana University
Monday, 1:00 p.m., July 12, 1954
Dear Betty,
[…] It is hot here. I had my first class this morning. It went all right. I have more MSS to read than I’ve ever had before. But have plenty of time, I guess. The big occasion today is an escorted tour through the Institute for Sex Research, with a good chance of hearing a few words from Dr Kinsey himself. If he looks my way, I’ll expose myself. Keeping the welfare of Stearns Co.—and its problems—in mind, I’ll inquire as to the work going on in the Bestiality Division. I get the impression we’re lucky to be taken behind the walls. […] Hope you are all well—and not fighting.
BETTY POWERS
Indiana University
Wednesday afternoon, July 14, 1954
Dear Betty,
[…] The visit to the Kinsey’s domain was interesting, and I rather liked the man. I’ll tell you (and everybody) more when I get home. I ought to be in some demand—even though most people don’t care a lot for me. “I spent 2 hours with Dr Kinsey” will be my tentative title. […] Love to you—the girls—Bozzer.
Jim