Selections from the Diary of Eleanor Anderson, 1933-1940 Compiled by Hilbert H. Campbell

INTRODUCTION

Charles Modlin and I first met Eleanor (Mrs. Sherwood) Anderson on March 1, 1973, at Rosemont, her home in Marion, Virginia, when she was in the seventy-seventh year of her age and the thirty-second year of her widowhood. More than twelve years later, we both served as pall bearers at her funeral and burial in Marion on September 14, 1985, after she died in her ninetieth year. In the years between, she became a cherished friend and mentor to both of us, an unfailing source of inspiration, information, and support in our studies of the life and work of Sherwood Anderson.

The many summer weekend outings that Charlie and I had at Ripshin, Anderson's farm home in Grayson County, with Eleanor during these years are among my most pleasant memories. It was good to get her away from Rosemont, where she seldom seemed to eat regular meals, and get her out to Ripshin, which she loved, for two or three days. She was comfortable with us, would have a drink or two, and tell wonderful stories. We would cook for her (Charlie did dinners; I did breakfasts), and she ate heartily. She also, without much urging on our parts, joined us occasionally on the terrace for a summer-evening cigar.

During the earlier years of our acquaintance with Eleanor, she continued her longstanding practice of regularly spending the winter months (typically October or November through March or April) of each year in an apartment she owned at a co-op on East 50th Street in New York City, where we also sometimes visited her. In early 1979, she fell on a slick sidewalk near her apartment in New York and broke a hip, an occurrence that effectively ended her practice of staying alone in the city for part of each year. She decided not to return for the 1979-80 season, gave up the apartment, and moved her possessions back to the house in Marion, where she lived for the remainder of her life.

Sometime in the later 1970's, Eleanor asked me if I would like to take charge of a personal diary that she had kept during the years of her marriage to Sherwood (beginning July 31, 1933), trusting me to do with it whatever I wanted, as long as it was honorable, including publishing all or parts of it at some juncture. In fact, I have already published small amounts of material from this diary in the Winesburg Eagle, the Dreiser Newsletter, Resources for American Literary Study, and the Thomas Wolfe Review.

The present "Selections" (representing less than half the material in the surviving diary) aspire to include those parts that are most revealing of Eleanor's relationship with Sherwood Anderson and of significant details of Anderson's life and career. This is in line with her own consistent practice of keeping the diary more to record his life and experiences than her own and with the editorial policy of The Sherwood Anderson Review "to help further Anderson scholarship and to broaden interest in the man and his work."

Eleanor's "job," about which she agonizes frequently in the diary over whether she should "keep" or "give up," was at this time with the National Board of the YWCA in New York. Thus, beginning with the marriage in 1933, the Andersons spent much of a typical year living in the city. Prior to October, 1938, however, Eleanor was working at what amounted to about half-time, leaving her opportunity to travel with Sherwood and to spend a good portion of each summer with him at Ripshin. In 1935 they began to travel to the south or southwest for some of the late winter months each year, seeking relief for Anderson's chronic sinus condition, traveling in 1935 to Corpus Christi and Brownsville, Texas; in 1936 to Tucson, Arizona; in 1937 to Corpus Christi again; and in 1938 to Mexico.

Not only did Eleanor never figure out how to "give up" her job, but in 1938 she actually took on a position with much heavier responsibilities, as Head of the YWCA's Industrial Department. Not only were there no more leisurely winter trips south, but her diary-keeping also effectively ended when she took on the new position in October. The only entries after September of 1938 are a few scattered remarks in a daybook that she had for 1940, there being no surviving segment of the diary at all for 1939 or 1941.

Other than Sherwood and Eleanor herself, the most consistent presence in the diary is Mary Emmett, the wife and later widow of Burton Emmett, the wealthy New York advertising man and collector who had become a generous patron of Anderson in the late 1920's and early 1930's. After Emmett's death in 1935, Mary continued to support Anderson, making him regular gifts of money and inviting Sherwood and Eleanor to live when they were in New York in her home at 54 Washington Mews. But, as the diaries of both Sherwood and Eleanor attest, Mary Emmett also represented a major problem for them, as her constant presence and emotional dependence grated on Sherwood's nerves.

As one would expect, the members of Eleanor's and Sherwood's immediate families also figure prominently in the diary. Her family during this period consisted of her father and mother, B. E. and Laura Lu Copenhaver of Marion, her army air corps physician brother Randolph Copenhaver, her sister and brother-in-law Mazie and Channing Wilson of Baltimore, her sister and brother-in-law Katherine and Dr. Henry Van Meier of Stillwater, Minnesota, and "Aunt May" Scherer, an unmarried sister of Laura Lu who lived with the Copenhavers at Rosemont.

Sherwood's son Bob lived in Marion and had taken over from his father the publishing of the newspapers there; his son John, an artist, visited Sherwood and Eleanor frequently; and Mimi, his daughter, moved with her young family in early 1934 from Massachusetts to Madison, North Carolina, where she and her husband Russell Spear began publishing a newspaper and brought their family for regular summer visits to Ripshin.

Sherwood and Eleanor also had groups of friends in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans who regularly appear and reappear in the diary, such as, for example, critic Paul Rosenfeld, painter Georgia O'Keeffe, editor Maxwell Perkins, and artist Karl Anderson (Sherwood's brother) in New York; publisher Roger Sergel and professors Ferdinand Schevill and Robert Morss Lovett in Chicago; and socialites Marc and Lucille Antony, businessman and author Julius Friend and wife Elise, philosopher James Feibleman and wife Dorothy, and writer Elma Godchaux (Lucille Antony's sister) in New Orleans.

Although the most substantial sections of Eleanor's diary (both in the original and in these selections) are for the years 1936 and 1937, I have included here proportionally more of the scarcer material surviving from 1933 to 1935 than for the later years. Sherwood kept his own daily record from 1936 until a few days before his death in 1941 (The Sherwood Anderson Diaries, 1936-1941, edited by Hilbert H. Campbell. University of Georgia Press, 1987); and some of Eleanor's reporting of factual detail duplicates material already available. The 1933-35 sections (especially the material for 1934) are, on the other hand, richer in information and observation that is not duplicated anywhere else.

In 1936 and 1937, Eleanor (like Sherwood) used small desk diaries with dated spaces for each day's entry, whereas earlier (and also later, in 1938) she used whatever blank pages (either loose or bound) she had at hand. The more structured format lends itself to a different sort of entry, encouraging the diarist to write both more and less: more because one is expected to write something every day, whether there is anything interesting to report or not, and less because there isn't much room for detail or elaboration in the small dated space. The entries for 1936 and 1937 are therefore both more numerous and more disjointed than in some of the other sections, where the unlimited space for writing led Eleanor to give much fuller accounts of matters that especially interested her.

In making selections, I have also tried to include material which represents adequately the more interesting "set pieces" of the diary, including, for example, sections on contacts with Theodore Dreiser in 1933 and 1934, on the premiere of the Winesburg play at Jasper Deeter's Hedgerow Theatre in July 1934, on Anderson's return to Ohio in late 1934, on path-crossings with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas during Stein's lecture tour in America (1934-35), on Anderson's serious illness in Corpus Christi and Eleanor's frantic worry over it in early 1937, and on the meetings with Thomas Wolfe at Ripshin and in New York in 1937. In all these cases, Eleanor's diary is the only available source of any real substance or detail.

I have footnoted but sparsely, thinking that this record can be used along with other published records of Anderson's career and/or of his relationship to Eleanor, records which include far more detailed documentation, such as, for example, Letters of Sherwood Anderson, ed. Jones and Rideout (1953); Sherwood Anderson's Memoirs: A Critical Edition, ed. R. L. White (1969); Sherwood Anderson: Selected Letters, ed. C. Modlin (1984); The Sherwood Anderson Diaries, 1936-1941, ed. H. Campbell (1987); Sherwood Anderson's Love Letters to Eleanor Copenhaver Anderson, ed. C. Modlin (1989); or Sherwood Anderson's Secret Love Letters: For Eleanor, a Letter a Day, ed. R. L. White (1991).

Hilbert H. Campbell

1933

July 31 [Mon]
A dull time to begin recording -- Perhaps I'll write the 1st three weeks of marriage later -- more likely not. Returned from New York by way of Baltimore, seeing Channing and Mazie for an hour. Spent Sunday [July 30] at home. Everybody -- especially S -- seemed happy. Left for Ripshin about 6. Puncture on mountain -- young mountaineer with 6 children helped S. Home late with Louis waiting.1 He very eager to hear about publishing deal -- more eager I noted than S's children unless John the silent one covers up interest.
Louis agrees with Mother and Sherwood that Scribners is much the best publisher.2 S was quite taken with Max Perkins, who told him that he thought he was the best writer in America but he had been mismanaged. Liveright stressed the idea of him being a sex writer. It pleased S very much that Perkins said this was false. Perkins told him A Story Teller's Story was a great American book, and publishers should have sold it the length and breadth of the land.
S has fallen hard too for Miss [Luise] Silcox of the Authors League -- I hope she is as wise as she seems.
S wouldn't see [Erich] Posselt of the International Library Association. He argued with me that S could make a lot of money if rightly managed. His short stories should sell for $1500 to magazines like Delineator. Foreign publishers want him, but this has been bungled too. He thinks S should go to Knopf -- the character of that list suits. He says Viking has a radical list -- and no matter how a few of us intellectuals may think S is radical, the throngs think of him as an essentially American story teller and therefore not radical.
Louis has a week's work on Helen of Troy, and then expects to do the collaboration on the Mississippi opera. I am torn on how to advise S. He is full just now of a book called "I Build My House," a story of the building of this house, bringing in a lot of contact with men of letters, etc. Also a mountain play -- also a book of advertising stories. Also he is afraid of Gruenberg -- a sort of grasping quality in Gruenberg. I fear S will give him the idea of the opera and let someone else work it out.

Aug. 1 [Tues]
S's first start on "I Build My House" is delightful.
Applebee of the Radford paper wired that Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace wanted to come by and see Sherwood on the 10th. We shall have a swarm for the musical festival.

Aug. 2 [Wed]
I rode [horseback], and L, S and I went in the creek. After dinner beat S three games of croquet when Marc and Lucille Antony drove up from New Orleans. It's good to watch her adoration of Sherwood ­ evidently real and lasting.

Aug. 3 [Thurs.]
Richard Smith of Stokes sent a cordial special wanting to come and talk to S regarding being his publisher. S adamant on Scribners. I did not realize that he had promised them. Henry Wallace wired he'd be here next Thursday. It's interesting to see such different men as Father and S so impressed and eager to talk to Wallace ­ a love of soil and of farm people in both I guess.
Last night L and M Antony read the last of Gertrude Stein's autobiography in Atlantic dealing with Hemingway et al. Lots of stories S had told me about her. I was so thrilled for once for S to get a good critical word for a change. He beamed at her saying he was "in the tradition" and "the only man who could write a passionate sentence in America." Later he got sad though ­ grieving that Hemingway got such a dig. Gertrude Stein is evidently a great thing in his life and to him.

Aug. 4 [Fri.]
Letter from Scribners insisting that next book must be a "continuous narrative."

Aug. 5 [Sat.]
Roger [Sergel] writes that [drama critic] Barrett Clark says French should publish Winesburg and wants to regardless of whether it's a Broadway success. So we are changing the Scribner letter.

Aug. 7 [Mon.]
Back to Ripshin noon Sunday and to the Negro convict camp where we hoped to get convict work songs. Instead such gems as "5 feet 2, hootcha-koo." S moved by their faces ­ longed to get them under communism and give them dramatics, etc.
Home again ­ many mushrooms cooked on fireplace and a long argument on the "Southern" bunk ­ S and Louis contending that the South had produced nothing in art, etc., Mother to the contrary notwithstanding.

Aug. 9 [Wed.]
"Cavalcade," S's first Marion movie, much over-rated. Mostly good picture taking ­ a few gorgeous war shots. I think it made S itch to do a movie with a Russian photographer.
Before we left got a letter from Viking much more enthusiastic than they talked and making a much better offer than Scribners. Scribners letter (Maxwell Perkins) was less enthusiastic than they talked. So there we are. I wish I knew what made Miss Silcox change to Scribners when she told me he should go to the man who would advertise him ­ and make up for way the sales were run down by Liveright.
Went for mushrooms in the afternoon. S still very happy. So am I, I guess, although marriage doesn't solve anything.
I must answer about my job the 15th. The 2 days in New York convinced me I cannot work with S there, and yet when I talk of giving it up S gets frightened. I don't know whether it is chiefly money or whether he is afraid I'll be bored. He works at most 3 hours a day and wants me with him the rest.
Read Paul [Rosenfeld]'s article in Trend to S. He happy at what Paul said about him but does not think the article need have insisted on the artist's calling.

Aug. 10 [Thur.]
Dashed to Marion to get the couple from Rosenwald Foundation. Want to start a magazine ­ have $25,000 a month for next 3 years ­ can buy the Mercury cheap or Atlantic. Long talk on America and art. Woman insulted Louis. Not clear what they want S to do other than lend his name. It's clear that he will never make money. He sat on them and told them it frightened him to think of being associated as an editor with a regular thing. Well, that's that ­ I love him for it.
A grand letter from Mary Emmett offering her Washington Mews house. They are real friends. We are both fond of both of them.

Aug. 30 [Wed.]
I should have known I'd never keep a diary. Since August 10th I have not had a minute. Henry Wallace came that night. Dinner at Mother's and Ripshin for the night. He is the perfect type of young American Midlander ­ simple and nice. I don't gather that he is big enough for the job of Secretary of Agriculture, but who is? Maybe he had a cold which kept him from shining, or maybe he was so relieved to be away from crowds. I think he has his tongue in his cheek on N.R.A. and is more radical than he can let be known under Roosevelt. I sat next to him, and he told me of running onto [Assistant Secretary of Agriculture] Rex Tugwell at a Country Life meeting in Chicago when Wallace was holding forth on inflation. Tugwell got in a fight with him on inflation, beginning an acquaintance so that Wallace remembered him when he was made Secretary of Agriculture ­ this explaining my remark that I was surprised Tugwell knew anything on agriculture. Wallace said he didn't ­ also illustrating my hateful conviction that contacts are what get you ahead in the world.
Wallace had with him his son and a Dr. Schofield of the Dept. of Agriculture ­ an amazing man. Knew the ultimate piece of information in dozens of fields and yet not a bore. An incessant conversationalist ­ think Wallace needs him for this.
I took Bob Wallace horseback riding before breakfast. At breakfast Wallace tried to read Sherwood's Notebook with little luck because so much talk. Sherwood presented him with the book.
On August 15th I went to Little Rock for a week. Missed S. Also found I worked much better and freer. Perhaps marriage has made me unafraid of losing my job. I don't know why as S hasn't a cent and prospects are low.
The Guild wrote today that they too, don't like the third act of Winesburg. I don't know what this means.

Aug. 31 [Thur.]
My plans not settled. My salary has been cut, so it hardly pays me to work, and yet I must, as S has nothing and will worry.
I think "To Build My House" is glorious prose and throws light on the times. Of course the critics will say it's a repetition of A Story Teller's Story.

Sept. 23 [Sat.]
New York
Friday night went to dinner at Luchow's with Dreiser and Helen ­ much talk. On the way down D used the work mysticism about 10 times -- leading me to think he had gone mystic and thus explaining his going N.R.A. Later I told him I'd heard it. He laughed and said it was the Times headlines ­ that if I'd read it all I'd see he believes only in communism.
Talked about Mencken ­ how he had no mysticism -- how they were never friends ­ how he was very grateful to him nevertheless. Told Sherwood he was the most significant American figure ­ that they regarded him as most American, etc. Teddy is really an evangelist raving about how you can get anything over (referring to his Jews to Kansas article in Spectator). He's now all hipped on a big exposure of Catholicism. Lots of elementary talk on Russia.
Helen looks sad. Rumor is that she has lost D. D wants S to go on the board of the Spectator.3 I don't know.
The Emmetts' house is heavenly, but S is in an awful slump. Of course I should entertain and create a gay atmosphere, but I am generally too tired after work.

Oct. 6 [Fri.]
Washington ­ A F of L. Out to dinner with Jerome Frank ­ a brilliant young Jew ­ head of legal force of Department of Agriculture.4 Henry Wallace and wife came in. Sheer intellectual in Frank stands out somewhat against moral fibre or something in Wallace. They all think they are radicals and that the capitalist system must go. Say they would want it now but "lefts" have no technical ability or leadership, etc. I asked if the capitalistic system went, wouldn't they as technical men go left too? Answer: we don't know anything ourselves ­ just learning. Think now [will] be a little boom. A Hoover will be re-elected, then a worse depression and a real swing to the left.
Wallace told of their publicity man leaving and offered it to Sherwood, who immediately protested that he couldn't do it, etc. Later he wrote Wallace saying he would love to do interpretation driving through the South and telling what farmers are thinking.
Home Saturday ­ a good night with Mazie. She is grand. Paul Rosenfeld for dinner Sunday. Sherwood loves him and hangs on his words. Saxe Commins came in. S is wild about Saxe.5

Oct. 12 [Thur.]
Went to movie "Be Mine Tonight." To my amazement S sat through it twice. Later at dinner he said it made him sad because it had a freshness and lilt he had lost in his work. He is in a terrible low mood. Maybe it's the play. I can't get whether the Guild has turned it down or is slow. [Frieda] Fishbein is pushing him to accept an offer from a new producer. I am afraid he has the $500 in mind.

Oct. 16-20 [Mon.-Fri.]
In Chicago. Fine talks with Ferdinand Schevill ­ loves Sherwood ­ wants him to be an artist and not a political economist.
Saxe Commins wild over Wallace article.6 Says it's a marvelous piece of writing ­ giving the setting ­ full of poetry -- indirect ­ yet telling all.

Nov. 16 [Thur.]
Sherwood racing day and night at play. I almost wish he hadn't started it. The last producer wanted to cut in on Barton's name and per cent. [Producer Sigourney] Thayer has given S more help than anyone who has worked with him, he says. I hope it's a go.
The likeness to O'Neill's "Ah Wilderness" in certain spots is funny and unfortunate. Do you suppose the Guild could have held it up knowing this? Now it will probably get out too late for the winter crowds. George Nathan told S that the Guild was crazy about "Winesburg" until they got O'Neill's play, but then they were too much alike.
S has had great praise for the Wallace article in Today last week. [Editor Raymond] Moley is crying for more, but I don't see how he can do many unless he has gone pro administration completely. I am afraid to say anything.
S had a fuss with Dreiser Tuesday over "Harry Breaks Through," a story he sent the Spectator. Dreiser said it wasn't poignant enough, whereupon S said, "Who is Dreiser to tell me what a short story is, etc." Sherwood said he would resign as editor on it. Dreiser said he would be glad for him to and put the story in the Spectator saying so. I couldn't tell how much was cocktails and how much serious. I hope a lot the former. S says Nathan and Boyd won't go against Dreiser. I hope it's that and not that they too think the story no good.

1.Louis Gruenberg, a composer, wanted to collaborate with Anderson on an opera about the Mississippi River.

2.Anderson was looking for a new publisher because the firm headed by Horace Liveright, which had been his publisher since 1925, had gone bankrupt.

3.The American Spectator was a monthly of intellectual commentary in newspaper format begun in November, 1932, with Dreiser, George Jean Nathan, and Ernest Boyd as principal editors. The September issue had an article irreverently suggesting that the "Jewish Question" might be solved by moving all Jews to Kansas. Anderson later joined the Spectator editorial board for awhile.

4.Frank, later a federal judge, had been a friend of Sherwood's in the early 1920's in Chicago.

5.Commins had been an editor at Liveright when the firm was publishing Anderson's books (1925-1933); later he would have a career as a noted editor at Random House.

6. Anderson's "No Swank," Today, Nov. 11, 1933, pp. 4-5, 23-24.

1934

Jan. 29 [Mon.]
Finally got off for Washington to Cause and Cure of War. Washington seething. First night went to speakeasy with Jerome Frank. Jerry still enthusiastic about things at Washington. Says Tugwell and Wallace the mainstays of the left. Wants the Department of Agriculture to take up tenant farmer problem. Frank really thinks the administration is moving leftward and being effective.
S just wrote a good thing on Gertrude Stein for the Spectator. He read it to Mother and me. Both of us urged him to give it to the Atlantic, but he says he couldn't let down the Spectator.
We talked of George Borrow. Sherwood says Stein knew right off that he'd soaked himself in Borrow. No other critics had mentioned it. S is thrilled with my pictures from Harris and Ewing. They are all so good we cannot choose.
S is enjoying the Today articles, but every now and then he bursts out against them, saying he doesn't want to write anything but pure poetry.

Feb. 28 [Wed.]
Left Marion for Nashville on January 31st. Good time there. Drove by Harriman strike ­ same mountain strikers, spirit and innocence as at Elizabethtown. Sherwood went to Norris, saw T.V.A. people and Brookside strike people while I worked.
Monday we started through Smoky National Park and were run into by a huge truck. Not my fault though man lied that we were on wrong side. S had to stay in Murphy, N.C. I went on to Macon. Met S Friday at Gainesville. Stayed at Carolina Inn nearly a week ­ much in love ­ then to Charlotte, Salisbury and home February 17th. I fell down steps and felt rotten ­ thought of how easy it would be to die and what S would do without.
Then to Richmond ­ old college friends and S pursued by book clubs, etc. James Branch Cabell called but no time to see them. Inter-racial conference rather hot.
To Durham through strangely beautiful frozen world ­ S writing a labor article.

June 5 [Tues.]
Roanoke
Here after a long drive from Paoli. Rehearsal of Winesburg all day Sunday at Jasper Deeter's Hedgerow. Wonderful experience. He kept telling them it was the best material they ever had. Spoke of it being like Wagner. Marvelous the way Deeter gets what Sherwood is trying to say to the tiniest detail. Libby Holman Reynolds good as Belle Carpenter. The mother not equal to the part but Deeter may be able to tone her down. In the big speech she had about 8 orgasms, tearing it to shreds as Sherwood says. I am glad Deeter is doing it regardless of how it helps or hurts a Broadway sale. The Hedgerow Players declare it's good box office, but I cannot believe it will be a popular play. It's beautiful stuff though, I am sure.
I went to the Bryn Mawr breakfast and was chided by Bertha Blair for not joining the Communist party. I wish I could be convinced that it's the place for a person like me.
The last days in New York were strenuous but fun ­ too many guests. Went to Ticino's the last night. Edmund Wilson came up acting queer and secretive about what he was doing. Then Mary Heaton Vorse came and sat for an hour, most of which was given to a touching and ardent and sincere appreciation of Sherwood's work. Said over and over that she did not like to mention herself (a reporter) in the same breath with him. Praised Beyond Desire as getting what she could not get in Strike ­ the real essence of the whole thing in poetic form too. Very amusing since many critics took pains to contrast the two books to the hurt of Beyond Desire. Mary raved on about how every young storyteller still took Winesburg as a model. Whether Mary was drunk or sober, it was stimulating to Sherwood's ego, bruised by the play's fate.
Memorial Day we went to tea [with] Helen Stallings and others. Later [playwright] Laurence [Stallings] came in ­ perfectly adorable ­ excited to know what the Winesburg play would be like. Sherwood told him he built Ripshin with one review of Dark Laughter. Talk of critic saying that two reviews by Stallings of Sherwood's books were the best things Stallings ever did. Then more talk of a play on Dark Laughter. Much excitement. Stallings gave Sherwood a swell idea. Maybe he's the man for Sherwood to collaborate with. But I am weary of all collaborators after Barton. Sherwood says Mother, Louis Gruenberg, Sigourney Thayer, and Jasper Deeter all gave him much more help on Winesburg than Barton did. I try to be fair to Barton, but it's hard. He couldn't help having nothing to give, but he has been nasty. The minute I saw him I knew he couldn't do it and begged S to not go on with him, but S is so naïve and trusting. I must protect him more from such people.1
On Tuesday, May 29th, Dreiser took us to Luchow's with the French playwright [Henri] Lenormand and his wife. A most amazing dinner. The Lenormands so civilized and sophisticated, and Dreiser so gauche and crude. Sherwood saved the day for Dreiser's dinner and for America's name.
I was surprised at the narrow range of Dreiser's literary field. Maybe he was sleepy. But Teddy has a grandeur and virility that makes him for me a great figure towering above George Nathan and others.
We ran into Edmund Wilson at Ticino's again. He jumped Sherwood about being on the Spectator ­ such a sorry sheet.
Reached Marion June 5, 1934. Good to be home ­ house lovely ­ all done over. Sherwood and I moved into suite so he can have office.

July 4 [Wed.]
Paoli
The Winesburg play is over or maybe just begun -- Heaven knows. Sherwood and Deeter whom he likes were enthusiastic about the dress rehearsal. Mother and I arrived Saturday morning, June 30th. Dreiser and Helen came ­ Mazie and Channing ­ Karl [Anderson] and Mary and Burt [Emmett].
The performance began very late with the actors getting unnerved waiting. Sherwood and I cooking in the little balcony. The first scenes got off terribly ­ a mess ­ not timed right or anything. The whole thing seemed to drag to me, but perhaps it was my nerves. A young critic approached Dreiser, asking how he liked it. Dreiser said, "It's pioneer stuff." Critic: "You mean it's not art?" Dreiser: "I did not say that. I mean it's pioneering in dramatic art." Critic: "Well, I don't think it will be popular on Broadway." Dreiser: "Well, I don't give a damn. It will influence future Broadway."
When the curtain went down S said "Well, it's beautiful. I don't care what anyone says." But the next morning he was blue and hurt by all the people who wanted to cut it.
We got to [Wharton and Letty] Esherick's at 3:30 after having a scene over Dreiser wanting one of the young actresses to go up and "sleep on the grass" with him. Sunday was a long picnic with Dreiser exhibiting his genitals all through a long breakfast. Fortunately Mother didn't notice.
Everybody fell for Mother and danced attendance ­ Burt and Mary Emmett, [Broadway actress] Libby Holman and a gang of Hedgerow actors. Libby is still nice, warm, clever and natural, but of course the obvious question is whether she would be thought a good actress if she were not so notorious.
The Monday night's performance was vastly better and much shorter.
Tuesday Wharton and I sat in the audience and heard the comments ­ a cross between people trying to be sophisticated and literary and those just taking the play. A couple behind us, probably in the arts, began by loudly proclaiming that of course Winesburg couldn't be dramatized, that its essence would be lost, etc. In spite of themselves they cheered and chuckled. The man said at the end of the first Trunion scene that it was the best thing he ever saw on the stage. Then later when the Virgin Mary-Virgin Louise passage came, "That's too far." In between approval they continued to show their culture by labeling the incidents and complaining that certain characters and stories were omitted.
They all complain about the repetitions. Sherwood and Deeter won't listen, saying they are necessary for the "orchestration." The criticisms we saw were obvious and negative, but we heard of good ones. Sherwood has a bad reaction, but I never expected it would be big Broadway. I think he will cut it though. Barrett Clark wrote a good letter. The Hedgerow players adore Sherwood, and the whole experience was nice.
The question of continuing my job came up. Sherwood is afraid for me to stop for fear we starve and yet wants me around all the time.
Both Today and the American wrote begging for more little stories. One or two of these at $300 would keep us going a long time.

July 5 [Thur.]
Wharton, S, Mazie and infant and I drove home in 2 cars, spending night in Baltimore. S loves the road and so do I. S wild to get back to Ripshin.

July 13 [Fri.]
Mimi and child are coming today. S dreads seeing them. Has put off the moment he gets visible evidence that he is a grandfather.

July 22 [Sun.]
Mimi, Russell and child nice.
Bill Stewart2 and wife just left ­ the latter nicer than the former though he a sweet boy fast being turned into a businessman. He is full of stories as to how Moley is still the man behind Roosevelt ­ that Roosevelt submits [Secretary of State Cordell] Hull's feeble ideas to Moley. He says Sherwood is the only person who can give him the sort of stories he wants ­ that Charles Beard wrote to know why they didn't have more things like Sherwood Anderson about people.
Everybody told good stories ­ Sherwood about Harper's buying "There She Is ­ She's Taking Her Bath" for $750. They got afraid to publish it. At one time they wired that they thought they could publish it if they changed the title. S wired "Roll Your Own." They wired back that they did not like that title either. End: S kept the $750 ­ story not used.
Many stories of Dreiser. Stewart says he is on his uppers ­ that his secretary begged Today to take terrible mess ­ little things tacked together with comments like the New Yorker. Maybe Dreiser is finding it hard to get publishers, but I am sure he's not hard up. Wish Sherwood would invite Dreiser and Helen, but he says we are fed up on company. S says Teddy is a bad writer but a great novelist.
Then talk of George Borrow, whom S adores and none of the rest has read. I wish we could get the Winesburg play out of S's way. He can't do anything else until we do.

July 31 [Tues.]
Sunday mobs wandered in to look at Wharton's "whittling." Are the natives interested in art or have they nothing to do? Went to Negro camp meeting with many North Carolina and Tennessee cars ­ more white than Negro. Certainly disproves many sociological statements re Negroes and whites not mixing in south. Seemed no race consciousness though I wasn't there when they ate, which is the test I suppose.
S worries that I don't get pregnant. He doesn't care but says I am the only woman he ever wanted to give a baby to. Even if we could have a baby it would be terribly questionable whether we should. If I can't be economically independent, S will have to do hack work that would probably crush him and even so, if Stewart is right, he might get like Masters and Sandburg, unable to sell a thing.
It's interesting to watch the effect of Wharton on S. He's highly congenial and grand for relaxing S but I fear that subtly his lack of interest in anything social is letting S sag ­ and not read and discuss as he should. I'd rather have him around old Dreiser any day even if it is "bad art." I feel so sure that I must keep S in touch with young labor people, etc.
The Emmetts have come and gone ­ sweet but strenuous. S contends you can't touch money without getting soiled. All they have done for us financially makes a nice relationship difficult.
Now Braver-Mann is here working on the Poor White scenario.3 It seems awfully good to me but guess it won't go financially. They talk now of getting it produced in Russia.
S isn't sleeping ­ worry over Winesburg play I guess. We are very happy and adjusted so that it's too bad. I wish he would give up so many cigarettes.
Much talk of [James Branch] Cabell ­ how he has style and nothing to say. Came along just when critics wanted a sophisticated literary light of a European type. Hence his vogue.

Aug. 10 [Fri.]
Braver-Mann finished the script for Poor White. He is sure it's a "natural" and a potential hit. All sorts of schemes to get it out: Russia, Moley, Dreiser to back it someway, etc.
Marc and Lucille Antony arrived from New Orleans last night. They are always a little strenuous at first, but I guess they are good for S.
S is writing luscious stuff now ­ very witty sort of reminiscences and reflections on persons. It's not stuff that will fit into publications unless it grows into a book.
No plans for the fall. Emmetts hint at us staying in the Mews in October. It makes me ill to think of working as hectically as last winter, but I don't dare stop with S's production so uncertain.

Aug. 14 [Tues.]
Here I am approaching 40 ­ just the time I should be advancing professionally, and yet when opportunities come like that with the government this summer I can't take it because S won't let me be away from him.
An amusing thing happened last night. I am reading Faulkner's Mosquitoes. It's very slight and dull except for occasional cleverness. I came to the story of Al Jackson and the sheep in the swamps and let out a chuckle. "What's the matter?" asks S. "That one story is worth the whole book," say I. "I made it up as I went along and told it to Faulkner," said S.
Check for $49 yesterday for S's share on Winesburg since June 30. Much talk of what an even fair Broadway success would make.

Aug. 29 [Wed.]
Wish I knew which thing to urge S to do. He has the series of advertising stories, the book "I Build My House," the letters for the "Book of Days," and now a most delicious series of sketches on persons and events, and then the book of essays using the Today articles.

Sept. 6 [Thur.]
Sherwood is writing again. Each day I go over it, and it seems delicious.
Viola is obviously interested in John. They went off together one evening much to the amazement of S and me. With all of S's democracy and love of peasant stock he would, I dare say, hate to see his darling John tie up with a fine upstanding country girl like Viola.

Sept. 11 [Tues.]
I just received word that I must be in New York September 17. It's a blow to me and a greater one to S. We had hoped to be here through September. Nevertheless, I don't want him to degenerate into a country squire as he bids fair to this month with his wells, pumps, rock walls, bridges, etc. He has loved it and had a swell rest and feels sure now he is back in a grand mood for his book

Sept. 20 [Thur.]
S went to Philadelphia Tuesday and then to New York. It was his last chance to see the play before the Hedgerow people go on a two months tour. Then he wanted to arrange with Scribners for the book of essays and Today for the two months tour in the Middle West.
Roger Baldwin4 has been wiring S to speak at a meeting against War and Fascism in Chicago. S steadfastly refuses, saying the political racket is not his ­ that if they pay his expenses they will use him to death or he will get there and they will put up a hard times story and he will have to pay his own.

Nov. 11 [Sun.]
Cincinnati
A month in New York and almost a month in Marion and no writings although enough happened inside and out.
Now we are on the midwestern trip for Today. Sherwood loves it and so do I, and he loves me more and more.
The first day we drove through the mountains of Virginia and Kentucky ­ coal mines all around. S started a piece on old age using the little mountain funeral we saw with the woman sitting on the coffin on the wagon.
Last night we saw Green Pastures -- S's first, my third time.5 He not carried away, maybe because he, as well as I, is tired of Negro shows.
We passed Grant's birthplace, which started S on the civil war. He loves it and knows it. I wonder if I should urge him to do the civil war book ­ a new kind of history (book of conversation with Paul Rosenfeld about it.)
I would love this trip more if I were sure S's writing for Today isn't to make money to support me. He doesn't know it but he seems to be veering to the right.
Dreiser certainly left S in the lurch getting off the Spectator as he did.

Nov. 12 [Mon.]
A lovely and exciting day yesterday. We left Cincinnati at noon, drove to Oxford through Miami University, then to College Corners of which Sherwood's mother used to speak and near which she was "bound." Then to Morning Sun where Karl was born. It's a dear little village with a New England flavor. Then S feared Camden would be awful, but it was charming ­ larger but old beautiful trees. We called a boy [Steve Coombs] who had been writing us. His father the town doctor came to the Deems Tavern where we had dined and took us to his house, showing us as we drove up Main Street Sherwood's father's harness shop. At the house we talked of the life of the town ­ of Jim Gift who knew S's father.
Then we drove to the house S was born in. It's perfect! For George Washington, General Grant, but most of all for S. A Mrs. Pierce over 80 lives there surrounded with exquisite antiques. She's a snappy soul full of interest in the past and present. I sat wondering which room he was born in, how his mother looked, etc.
The boy had been going around asking old people about S's father. He wrote asking if S wanted him to tell what he found. We inferred that at least it was that S was illegitimate or worse. Finally with much embarrassment the boy said, "He was very talkative." S helped him by adding, "Yes, and drank a lot." This was the worst skeleton we could drag out, alas. I think S was disappointed that no one remembered his mother. There was a man in town who was supposed to remember a party in the house when the people (S's mother and father) were there.
We left and drove in snow to Springfield to see S's alma mater Wittenberg. Then up the street where Mrs. Folger lived, but the house from which he walked to college every day wasn't there anymore.
A day of Andersonia ­ today we go to Clyde.

Nov. 13 [Tues.]
Cleveland
Yesterday we left Urbana and drove to Caledonia where S saw his father's shop but little else he could remember. Then to Clyde where S knows and loves and remembers everything. He showed me the house where they lived, the school, the house where he delivered and warmed the papers for the old lady, the house where the cabbages were thrown, the graveyard his mother was buried in and the hotel around which he built Winesburg and in which the proprietor kept a big barrel full of matches. Sherwood is going to have a hotel where free coffee is rolled through the halls every morning. As we drove away S told many stories of his childhood. Then to Elyria where he showed me the factory he walked out of and the street he thought he lived in, but reluctantly. Says he doesn't want to think of that awful period. Later in the Hollander House where he used to come.

Nov. 16 [Fri.]
Elkhart
Heard Gertrude Stein on the radio. Said she thought her picture of Sherwood was one of the best things she had done. Tuesday we went to dinner at Frederick McConnell's ­ director of the playhouse. A good time was had until 11 when an actor, Elmo Lowe, and wife Dorothy Paxton descended on us. Lowe at once sailed into S, attacking him as to why he had let down his generation ­ why he never thought of him as a radical, what he'd written that was any good, etc. S was a little drunk, and things got pretty nasty ­ a battle between age and youth. The next morning, ironically, I got a letter sent from New York in which M, Head Y secretary at Cleveland, wrote that Mrs. Dilling, author of Red Network, attacked Y in Cleveland largely on ground of my being married to "one of worst communists." An interview in the paper made S say he wasn't sure about Russia, which made me sick but should have appeased them.

Nov. 18 [Sun.]
Chicago
We got to Chicago at sunset and found the Sergels in a lovely home. We have spent the 2 days talking, and now Sherwood is working a little. I am realizing that I need my old contacts to suggest possible leads for stories for this trip. I find S is in a real reaction ­ puzzled and uncertain about Russia and everything. I can't tell yet whether it's the need to make money.

Nov. 19 [Mon.]
Yesterday a nice reporter for the Tribune, Percy Wood and his wife came for dinner. Wood had called up the governor about bringing Sherwood down. The governor, according to Wood, used up $9 of Tribune's long distance telling him what a fine book Triumph of the Egg was and urging S to stay in the mansion. Roger and S will go tomorrow.

Nov. 22 [Thur.]
Sherwood and Roger back from Springfield full of stories of corruption and brazenness of legislators. Governor Horner, nee Levy, had a deer in the house when S breakfasted. He has a marvelous Lincoln library, and I gather they talked Civil War more than 1934.
Henry Wallace told Frank Knight impossible to get Roosevelt to think anything out or be on any one side. Stories [of] Roosevelt with one man of one view, "Yes, you are right 1000%." Another of opposite view, "Yes, you are right 1000%." Eleanor overhearing and coming in, "Franklin, you can't possibly be on both." "Yes, my dear, you are right 1000%."

Nov. 25 [Sun.]
Wisconsin Dells, Wisc.
We left Chicago about 11, drove leisurely enjoying the country until we suddenly decided to try to get to Madison for the Wisconsin-Minnesota game, the latter being according to experts the greatest team in history. We got there for the second half. It was very beautiful ­ the full stadium, the graceful dancing players, the youth, etc. We spent an hour or 2 among the mobs getting to a comfort station & deciding whether to call one or both of the La Follette brothers. Sherwood thought their story already written many times. I thought he might get leads. Both were out of town so we started on.

Dec. 3 [Mon.]
Stillwater
We got here and found Katherine and Henry in a lovely old place. His practice growing and he is having a grand time. Obviously K has put him over with difficulty and made a place for herself in the town. S was in a low mood but went out with Henry and did a good story on relief families. He says Roger and those newspapermen are too far away from people to help him. K has had in several of the farmer-labor leaders. They are fine people and the movement looks good. Many of them are almost starving.
Wednesday we went to a victory celebration ­ Congressman Lundeen with a wife whom he exploits terribly and swell rank and file. They introduced Sherwood with gusto saying that when they ran across his story in American, 6 they said, "This man is a one-half brother of Edgar Allan Poe."
A letter from Gertrude Stein says she will be in Richmond in January. I am afraid we will miss her again. I am terribly puzzled by S's difficulty in writing now.

Dec. 6 [Thur.]
Willmar, Minn.
We are in a small frozen Minnesota town, having reached here through beautiful drive, leaving Stillwater at noon. The last week was interesting and baffling. Monday we had dinner with Governor [Floyd] Olsen. It started off magnificently ­ Olsen courting S and calling me darling at least 20 times. Said he was considered hard-boiled but S's article, which he used in his campaign speech, made him cry. Said of me, "Isn't she a lovely thing?" Began begging S to come out and do a farmer-labor paper. Much talk of the class conscious workers having stuck to Olsen but farmers failed largely because they did not understand. Hence the need for a paper.
The talk was so fast and furious that we never ordered. Then to my amazement just when Olsen was challenging S as to why people like him did not come out and help this real farmer-labor movement, I looked at S and he was purple and dead-looking. S said, "Governor, you shouldn't have got me drunk. I'd like to think clearly."
Henry went out and got some caffeine dope supposed to wake him up, but he got more sodden. I had never seen him this way and made the error of supposing he'd got over it and stayed too long. The governor became more animated, but at 12 I saw there was no hope and left.
Henry says it wasn't drunk but ill ­ a cerebral condition with all blood leaving the head because of no food for so long ­ the drink and then eating rapidly. S was frightened and terribly remorseful. We talked till 2, mostly of how he loved me.
Tuesday Johnson, a grand reporter of St. Paul Dispatch, came over. I was in and out. He is so for Olsen may lose his job. Told of riding across the state with [Postmaster General James] Farley, who raved, "I can't help it that Roosevelt loves Floyd Olsen," this apropos weak democratic support from Washington.
S and I had a long talk about his special problem ­ whether he should expect or want (as Katherine says) recognition here and now. We mentioned Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis. S says he believes he is more significant than either, but it won't be known for 50 years. In spite of this feeling once in a long time, he is torn by doubt and a sense of failure most of the time.

Dec. 11 [Tues.]
Carroll, Iowa
When we left Minnesota we found Dakota with less snow and many Chinese pheasants (We are going to try to get some eggs and raise them at Ripshin). The farmhouses with silos and outbuildings are very lovely against the flat white country.
We first went to Oscar Brekke's at Albee. He is vice-president of the State Farm Holiday Association ­ a gorgeous young Scandinavian farmer, the born leader type. They simply march on the courthouse when they try to foreclose on farmers. Next, to Brookings where the campanile of the State Farm School rises from the plains ­ rather grotesque but symbolic of these farmers reaching for the cultural I suppose. People at once began to rush S. Wires from fraternities to speak and reporters coming from Sioux Falls 60 miles in snow, saying they hardly ever got a real writer out there and just wanted to talk.
We started for St. Paul at 3, having promised Henry to come back for a Gertrude Stein dinner at their house. The drive was beautiful but a strain on S who drove all the way. S wrote a gorgeous article on Olsen. Today came with "S A Returns to Ohio." They omitted the part about some fields being like old maids ­ never plowed.
Stein and Alice B. Toklas arrived with much hugging and kissing. Toklas immediately nailed me and started a stream of conversation, giving me no chance to listen even with one ear to Gertrude and S. If she was nobly steering the wives away from Gertrude as indicated in the book, I must say she disguises it well. Nevertheless I resented it, preferring to listen in. As the evening wore on, A. B. Toklas became more and more animated.
Stein told S she'd worked very hard over her American lectures ­ that she did not want to talk down to people. She's thrilled by everything as the papers say ­ her audiences, the publicity. She'd been offered a good sum by Old Golds and 20,000 cigarettes to lend her name. Says she doesn't smoke but jumped a Henry's suggestion that she might get a Buick free.
Much talk about farming. She had really never seen American farms. She is very eager to help French farmers. Talk of the civil war and Grant. Said she'd written a book which her publishers won't publish ­ "Four Americans." Wonder if she knows S has a title like that. Says she first broke down the paragraph. Says if you stop to think what you write it's not direct writing.
Amazing how Alice B. Toklas calls her "Lovey." I should think they would be too sophisticated to do it publicly. S condemns homosexual tendencies so and yet thinks it all right in her. I asked him if he thought she was a virgin. He said that he didn't think she'd ever had a man but wasn't a virgin (surprising me with his evident definition).
Young [Robert Maynard] Hutchens at Chicago made a hit with Stein, although she says he has one of those clear clouded brains ­ also that he's a little like Hemingway ­ not arrogant but young. Spoke of [Barney] Goodspeed and others sticking by him and saving him. His and [Mortimer] Adler's class the most vital thing she's been in in America.
She dotes on S and wants to take an automobile trip with us in the South. I don't know how we could in our small car.

Dec. 13 [Thur.]
I forgot to record Gertrude Stein's wildness over the rugs, especially the Rose of Sharon. She says whoever made those is an artist and wants some as the most beautiful carpets she has ever seen.
I am finishing Waldo Frank's Death and Birth of David Markand. A very pretentious and messy book, though of course good in spots and amazingly erudite. I was trying to tell S what the writing was like and said not exactly stream-of-consciousness stuff. "No, it's stream of Waldo I guess," says he. Then told me again of the way Waldo schemed to get himself published in France before S.

Mark Twain Hotel,
Hannibal, Missouri
We got here after a lovely drive along the river. The hotel certainly cashes in on Mark Twain. The most amazing bed spreads with his head woven in. "I'll never have anything like that," says S tragi-comically.
Found grand letter from R. Sergel when got to St. Louis, praising No Swank and saying S in a grand new phase (due to me), etc. Also pitifully thrilled that he can help T. V. Smith. When we were in Chicago, Percy Wood, Tribune reporter, joked about how T. V. Smith, philosophy professor, would be so shocked by mire of politics after month at Springfield he'd be paralyzed. S said, "Why don't you who know it all tip him off when real dirt is about to be done?" Roger, I thought not seriously, said, "If you'll work with him, S will try to get your political novel published." Now it seems that all were deadly in earnest and are going about it in an organized way. Such a liaison between newspapermen (thwarted completely in telling truth) and politicians might be good.
S is now seeing East St. Louis, which is as he says one of most absentee cities in world. Even merchants don't live there.
Today announces interview of Kelly on Olsen, which kills S's grand story I fear.

1.Arthur Barton had begun a collaboration with Anderson on a dramatic version of Winesburg, Ohio, in 1933. The arrangement soon soured; but Anderson had signed a binding agreement with Barton, including an agreement to share royalties. He and Eleanor were plagued by the "Barton mess" for the remainder of Sherwood's life and beyond.

2. William C. Stewart was managing editor of Today, a new pro-administration magazine edited by Roosevelt adviser Raymond Moley, to which Anderson had begun to contribute articles.

3. B. G. Braver-Mann, a film director, was proposing a film version of Poor White, which never materialized.

4. Director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

5. The Marc Connelly play (1930) adapted from stories by Roark Bradford.

6. Apparently "The Corn Planting," American Magazine, November, 1934, pp. 47, 149-50.

1935

Jan. 3 [Thur.]
S accounted for his style by fact that not having had high education he relied on Anglo-Saxon words rather than Latin derivatives and used Anglo-Saxon sources ­ influence of King James version ­ fact he and Dreiser rebelled at getting their America through England by way of New England.
Someone asked S if he had been sought by Saturday Evening Post. He told of their coming after Windy McPherson's Son published ­ but wanting it like first two-thirds of book, which was not experimental, rather than like last one-third, which was. S told them he was only interested in last one-third.
Monday [Dec. 17, 1934] drove to Columbus by way of Indianapolis.
Drove to Gallipolis, and then Charleston, spending Tuesday night there. Home Wednesday [Dec. 19] over icy roads with gorgeous fog.

Jan. 17 [Thur.]
Corpus Christi, Texas
Sitting on the Gulf among upper middle class fishermen. Shall I try to put down events since New Years? S was sick most of the holidays but arose to play acey-deucy with me. Strange, I never thought I'd have to play games with S when I was dying to read. I realize that a creative man can't read much though.
No Swank got out too late for the Christmas trade. The New Yorker and Time had not too good reviews although Fadiman said they were "perceptive" and Time that his style was his and his alone.
We left Marion January 9, driving to Knoxville where Colonel Richards, chief forester of the TVA, sent Bernard Frank, a young engineer, to show us around.
The dam and village are thrilling, but it's even more exciting to sit as we did that night with several officials and specialists. It's also sad because one sees the old professional jealousies creeping in. The New Yorker is the most quoted journal. I believe it will come to be read more out of New York by people who wish to seem metropolitan (New Yorkish) than by the real Gothamites.
One grand Hungarian architect was chief architect, but it got out that he was "practically a communist." He was demoted drastically, and a local man put in. The Norris Town shows this ­ the more recent part being a mess.
I should say that most of the TVA'ers are good liberals but little beyond.
The next day we drove to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, S thrilling at getting in the South and swearing he will go south every year.
Friday [January 11] we drove to Vicksburg, crossed the river and back, and went to Natchez. S wanted me to see the Civil War sites. Saw a few old homes and talked of Stark Young and the $40,000 he's already made on So Red the Rose. How it betrays the South and Stark too. The ride out of Natchez on the sunken road is bewitching.
S got a headache so we only glanced at Huey Long's State house but did see Lucille's grandfather Godchaux high up next to Audubon.
Went on to the Monteleone, New Orleans, where S was immediately pursued by reporters and friends.
Julius Friend and James Feibleman are doing a book of philosophy together and then each is doing over separately. Julius an exquisite sensitive person with fine brain. Jimmie very entertaining, but I am not sure what he is. Maybe his millions prevent him from being the philosopher he thinks he is. He uses the word 'definitive' over and over. He is dogmatic and arrogant, not hesitating to dismiss John Dewey and name only 2 American philosophers and assume that of course S and I couldn't understand any book in his library.
Visiting them makes living on unearned increment seem so simple and my problem of whether to try to get along without a salary more irritating. Jimmy, when I asked him about [economist Thorstein] Veblen, said he had idea which he wrote over and over in 18 books. It was that of conspicuous consumption.
Marc Antony persuaded S to speak before his theatre group. A huge crowd. S very good though he drove me mad pacing around the table the first few minutes. S evidently is deeply interested in the theatre and is going on in it ­ all of which bears on my job. If he writes the book he's starting on his brother Earl and plays, he won't write the sort that will sell. He is so eager for me to quit the job and be free to take trips like this.
Lucille gave a party after the lecture ­ John Peale Bishop and beautiful wife, Mary Rose and Roark Bradford, Ham Basso's sister and the gang. They all adore S. New Orleans should help his ego, but they won't give him time to work so we start for Texas and parts south.
Wednesday we drove to New Iberia and saw [painter and photographer] Weeks Hall and his magnificent 1830 home. He's the weirdest person I ever saw. The minute we got there he began showing his dog in a way that was abnormal to say the least ­ raving about how he could not find anyone good enough to mate her with ­ and she in heat and he wouldn't dare send her off, etc. Then raved in the same way about his Negro Boz who got in trouble with white women. They would have lynched him, but Weeks slipped him out of town. Then about his amazing aunt. He can paint but is crazy ­ involved with Negro women. Feels S has helped him ­ calls him up in Virginia at 1 a.m. Begs us to come back. I'd like to.
I feel a little sheepish for fear we left Gertrude Stein expecting to go through the South with us. S finally wrote her from New Orleans. The drive to Texas was lovely ­ a different civilization from Louisiana certainly.
Now we are in an apartment by the sea. I fear S will be so taken with fishing that we shall never get to Mexico.

Jan. 22 [Tues.]
Corpus Christi
S is so pleased with me as a cook. He's deep in a book which he says is different from anything he ever did. We have been reading [D. H.] Lawrence's Apocalypse ­ good and hard on the Christians but not a great book.
S is more interested in writing as writing and less in economics, causes, life, etc. We have a perpetual fight about Russia.

Jan. 27 [Sun.]
Corpus Christi
S very happy, very much in love with me, and working. Obviously he more and more loves a simple setting with me as the drudging little wife. He'd die if he thought I didn't adore the grease.
S dreamed a whole play out based on Huckleberry Finn ­ the tough life of the period ­ a swell idea.

Jan. 31 [Thur.]
Still at "Corpus" as they say here. S still madly at the book and still very happy fishing every minute he isn't working. To my amazement, he sent a few suggestions to Scribners for boosting the book. If he had only done a little of this before.
The tourists are perfect. We went yesterday with a Kansas homestead farmer who spit tobacco juice in a can every minute or 2 but was full of stories, his grouchy wife whom we were supposed to interest in fishing, and another crude young Kansan. Met a lot of young boys, very wild and ragged looking, who make their living fishing, mostly at night, and with cane poles only.

Feb. 10 [Sun.]
Brownsville, Texas
We have been here over a week and love it ­ the fishing at Boca Chica and the mouths of the Rio Grande ­ both American and Mexican. Every afternoon we go to Matamoros, Mexico, a charming town. An unbelievable transformation ­ not at all American or touristy. All the little and big boys call "Hello, Veergeenia" and beg to shine our shoes.
Sherwood is happier than I have ever seen him. At last he has me fishing. We drove 25 miles through Mexican hinterland to Washington Beach, and S caught four gorgeous red fish. Life was unbelievably primitive from any outward or physical view.
S adores the square. Two fiestas were amazing revelations of mores or something. The men in blocks of two hundred or more march 3 or 4 abreast around and around the square. The women in the same formation head in the other direction ­ on and on with a beat into the earth almost like the dances D. H. Lawrence describes. This is the system by which the boys meet the girls and later pursue the matter. The latter behind the iron grill on each window, the former before.
S and I have read Stuart Chase and some histories. One thing I have learned is that a pat popularization such as Chase's misses the heart of things. If Chase's economics is as superficial as his Mexico, it's too bad he has such a following.
S is reading [William H.] Chamberlain's Russia's Iron Age. He seizes it with a glee which disturbs me. We have had several fights over it. S thinks that I am romantic about Russia. Says that anybody who has an "answer" is wrong, etc. I know Chamberlain is convincing, but nonetheless I hate for S to go terribly anti-revolutionary and pro-democracy and pro-Roosevelt.
S has written a swell thing, I think, on East St. Louis.
A man called from Washington saying [Secretary of the Treasury Henry] Morgenthau wanted S to write something on Franklin County, Va., which the Wickersham report said was the worst bootlegging in the U.S.A. S was pleased but remarked that if it were Russia and the government called he would have to leave tomorrow.

Feb. 18 [Mon.]
Brownsville
I dipped down into Monterrey. S remained to fish and work.
S, whom I now call the Conquistador because of his beard, and I continue to have terrific fights on communism. I have taken it as a joke, but we may develop real incompatibility.
We had a long talk of Jack Reed, who told S the Russian thing killed him now that it "had reached the resolution stage." During the war S attended a meeting with Jack in Chicago. Jack followed him to the men's room to show him a poem and to agree with him that you couldn't mix art and propaganda. This resulted in all of S's mail being stamped "opened by censor."
Also talk of Ben Hecht and his smartness. He told S you could fool everybody in the world on literature but 5 or 6 people. "Yes," said S, "but those 5 or 6 are all you care about." Ben mad still because S asked that a cheap introduction he wrote for Winesburg be omitted.
We have been reading Stein's Three Lives. S and I agree that the third, "The Gentle Lena" is the good one and not "Melanctha" as the critics say. S wonders if Stein isn't one of the great intellects of the day but not a poet ­ this when she disclaims intellect. Of course she made Joyce.

Feb. 21 [Thur.]
New Orleans
Finally we uprooted ourselves from Brownsville and the beloved Matamoros. Drove to Orange, Texas the first day. Arose at six and got to New Orleans at three to find Stein and Toklas here. We had rushed through New Iberia so the headhunting Weeks Hall wouldn't catch us (He had wired S begging him to send Gertie to him).
We went to Roark Bradford's February 20, where Gertie, Alice, Jimmie and Dorothy Feibleman were dining. I fear S took the occasion from Roark. Gertie effused over him and his new beard, calling him the third Napoleon, and from then on S was the hero although I believe he honestly tried not to steal the show.
Toklas, in a dinner gown of billowing taffeta, was amazing. She spits back at Lovey (Stein) and gets the best, I believe. Stein seems a little cowed when she replies "Pussy." Stein's an awful prima donna, but I guess we'd all like to be.
Our life in New Orleans is always exciting but too strenuous.
The poet John Gould Fletcher wants an indigenous culture (Arkansas), this probably because northern publishers won't take him. He wants to keep Yankees out on every issue from Scottsboro to art.
We are to meet [labor revolutionary] Tom Tippett tonight.

Feb. 24 {Sun.]
Went with S to Lucille Antony's where he and poor Elma Godchaux got into an awful jam. S tore into Elma on why did she talk about making money and getting published all the time when he only got paid $80 for all the Winesburg stories ­ the best short stories ever written in America. Elma answered that she liked some of his things but did not see why he was Jesus, and then they were off.
The group theater here seems determined to do Winesburg.
These New Orleans people make over S tremendously, but I guess a little praise won't hurt him.

1936

Jan. 1 [Wed.]
Bad start. Big fight with S over family, puppy and nothing.

Jan. 7 [Tues.]
S's head trouble hangs on. I guess he will have to go south every winter.

Jan. 9 [Thur.]
Always a tussle at leaving S ­ this time only 10 days.

Jan. 18 [Sat.]
Left for Baltimore. S in grand mood for speech ­ audience responsive. Party first at Tudor something club. Then at Mazie's with large crowds of literati.

Jan. 19 [Sun.]
Left at 10. Snow which turned to ice ­ very hard going ­ many wrecks. Two a.m. to Marion. Father had the house warm and nice. Wish we had more time with Mother and Father. Feel such a sense of impending doom.

Jan. 21 [Tues.]
Leave for Chicago via Cumberland Gap. Early start ­ ice and snow. Mountains around Cumberland Gap really dangerous. Made Lexington ­ S insisting dangerous to go farther. Hotel Phoenix. Dispute over room ­ Mary [Emmett] wanting quiet. Race horses all around.

Jan. 22 [Wed.]
Off early supposedly for Chicago. By state capitol at Frankfort. Louisville. At Indianapolis innocently wired Roger [Sergel] we would be there at 9.
Suddenly much colder and blinding snow ­ ghastly roads. Had to give up at Lebanon [Indiana] and rush S on train. Didn't know weather could be like that. Hotel full of people. Blocked all roads north ­ many casualties.

Jan. 23 [Thur.]
In spite of all advice started at 10:30. Soon met 3 mammoth trucks at wild angles blocking road. Little wreckers couldn't move them. Finally a kindly farmer opened a gate and we drove around right through an open field. Roads no more slick than the last 4 days. To Chicago by 4.
Rushed to S's lecture ­ Friends of American Writers. S too serious. They didn't get him. Then to Sergels to find house on fire ­ musical comedy firemen stalking in.

Jan. 25 [Sat.]
Big dinner ­ Ferdinand [Schevill] and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Lewis.1 Lewis misunderstood S's invitation and didn't arrive until dessert. Then amazing 5 hours talk on civil war between Lewis and S, with Ferdinand chiming in and also Roger ­ evening a success.

Jan.26 [Sun.]
Tried to grab a nap but Carl Sandburg arrived. He talked a deluge.

Jan. 28 [Tues.]
Left Chicago. Hotel Jefferson, St. Louis. Night Club ­ S's character read ­ made conquest.

Jan. 29 [Wed.]
Through Ozarks. Shoe factory Joplin. Sad Kansas still bleeding. Then into Oklahoma and Southwest.

Jan. 30 [Thur.]
Claremore, Oklahoma
Much excitement over making Will Rogers' home for the night. He evidently a hero of Mary's. She wrong on nearly every question ­ also very dogmatic. No question she gets from S more than she gives. Ill of hearing of Hay [Diet].

Jan. 31 {Fri.]
Left Amarillo ­ soon hit the most beautiful country I ever saw. Santa Rosa. Northwest all day long. Very happy. To La Honda, Santa Fe. [Author] Witter Bynner called.

Feb. 1 [Sat.]
Started for Taos. Mabel Dodge and Frieda Lawrence in California. Saw Mabel's place. She and Frieda in fight over [D. H.] Lawrence's ashes. Gorgeous country through Rio Grande Canyon.
Dinner Bynner's elegant house. Jade the loveliest I ever dreamed of.
Bynner gave me Indian jade he had strung. S made big hit. Bynner would take him on if not M. Dodge. Bynner asked S to get [poet Arthur Davison] Ficke to New Mexico. He's dying in Southern Pines.
The Pueblo still strange and moving. Place still full of Lawrence.

Feb. 2 [Sun.]
Left Santa Fe ­ beautiful country all day. Stopped at Elephant Butte Dam. Then to Las Cruces for night and long sleep. Talk of Witter Bynner. Nervous about mail but enjoying leisure.
Funny ­ Bynner told me naively that they asked him to give bail to Gallup men but that he'd rather be good to his servants since he could understand their situation and presumably couldn't get the Gallup miners. Seems so easy to be rich.

Feb. 3 [Mon.]
11:30 ­ Sitting in road near Lordsburg, New Mexico. Bad blowout. S went on against Mary's wishes to get help. Finally man to whom S gave $1 against Mary's wishes came and has been working an hour without a jack. I believe, after this trip, story that Mary killed Burt with too much energy.
Hoping S will turn up before tire finished. Mary jubilant ­ remarking never failed to do anything she tried to do. S arrived just as we left. M triumphant. S disgusted. Says he is going to end it with M ­ that he hasn't the time to put up with her.
Tucson at 5:30. Birthday party Mary ­ champagne.

Feb. 4 [Tues.]
Tucson
Stayed in tourist cabin to delight of M and not so much that of S and E. Climate really grand. If it only fixes S's head. It's very touristy though. Dread getting mail with office complications.
Moved to St. Paul Hotel. Explosion of S on M due to row over towel. I out of room but think culmination irritations. M says S told her plan all off, couldn't stand her speed, etc. I spent three hours with M ­ upset and surprised. S maintains glad he did it ­ that we can live without her money ­ that she is impossibly bossy, etc. At 5 a reconciliation effected. I doubt if her pride will let her go on with the relationship. Gay dinner and dancing at Rio Rita. S loves climate. Guess we will live through it.

Feb. 5 [Wed.]
Bad night ­ worry over M lest we seem ungrateful, etc. All calm but M seems crushed.
Made up with M, I hope. Lovely drive ­ weird cactus. Cards. Talked of insomnia. S can't read fiction because goes on with own ending in sleep or half-sleep. Also can't write truthful autobiography because imagination begins to work before he knows it.
S loves climate and atmosphere. Called up Professor Solve.2 G. Stein writes she's doing a geography which will be a good companion piece to S's civil war.

Feb. 6 [Thur.]
S foolishly caught cold so can't work or go to Nogales. M and S reconciled. Gorgeous drive ­ old San Xavier Church. Pictures by cactus. Evening at Solves. He grand ­ also a grand painter. Delightful Irishman and wife ­ Walshes.3 Mrs. Theodore Dreiser has just been here. Amazing place full of very rich as well as cowboy adventurer type. Mary naïve but nice. Accused S of rumpling hair from unconscious literary pose.

Feb. 7 [Fri.]
M made coffee. S cut finger. I noticed a trembling not seen before. Must force him to doctor.
S bought truck, thereby letting Mary know he didn't want to return with her. She had meant to leave money for it. S says it's a good thing he is in love with me or he would go after every girl he sees. They seem to need good lovers and he could do it.
Life ideal. S writes in morning. I work at library, and he reads me what he has written. Kit coming O.K.

Feb. 8 [Sat.]
S talking of Edgar Lee Masters, who wanted to be a great "Shelley." Loved his lyric poetry. Wrote Spoon River for Reedy in 8 hours. The best thing he has done but Masters always a little ashamed of it.

Feb. 9 [Sun.]
Nogales, Mexico. Cave Cabaret. Swell show. Solve's students. Party at Walshes. He swell ­ so she. Newspaperwomen.

Feb. 10 [Mon.]
S can't work ­ too much people yesterday, I fear. Letter from agent saying sold childhood thing to Parents,4 and other stories difficult.
Began 3rd volume Van Gogh [Letters to His Brother].
Understand what S means when he says Van Gogh is as important as a writer as a painter. Don't know why Van Gogh knocks me so when I am not supposed to know much about painting. He is overwhelming.

Feb. 11 [Tues.]
Up to get Mary off. She left every kind of present for our room and a check for the truck. We will miss her as a troublesome child. She is trying hard. Told S she'd give him $2000 this year. Building up civil war bibliography.

Feb. 12 [Wed.]
S has another cold. To Walshes. Talk of Irish Free State ­ whole of Ireland not as large as Pima County.
Van Gogh helps me understand the creative temperament better than anything else. Also what a good artist's wife should be. S deep in [Charles Francis] Adams letters [A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861-1865]. They make Grant out a great hero. S will do 4 volumes ­ 1 on each year of war.

Feb. 14 [Fri.]
Adams letters morning. Lunch and afternoon working on truck. Cocktail party Solves ­ professional ­ arty. English professor arrived with line alleged from S on his mother's eyes ­ like pools. S furious. Dinner and boxing ­ grand Indian bodies.
Grand letter Paul [Rosenfeld] on hopes for writing as evidenced by material for Caravan and his novel progressing rapid rate ­ 100 words a day. S says he spends all royalties changing books after printers.

Feb. 15 [Sat.]
Tried to see Will Rogers Jr. and Tex Austin's son play polo but couldn't find. Went to Chaplin's "Modern Times," which S liked.
Happy and big day on Kit.

Feb. 16 [Sun.]
Gorgeous day of clouds. Drove ­ walked ­ read ­ worked. Mexican section in evening and dinner.

Feb 17 [Mon.]
Worked on Civil War mostly, copying Adams letters. Went to 2nd hand stores, buying 2 elaborate Civil War Pictorial histories $12.50. Then to ladies' bookstore near University, where girl informed S that Look Homeward Angel was the American novel.

Feb. 18 [Tues.]
Pleasant fight with S over Southern aristocracy ­ perennial subject.
Went over income tax. S's very small ­ brings up question of my cutting mine. S going more and more into Civil War. Will he get back to Kit Brandon?

Feb. 19 [Wed.]
More talk and work on Civil War.

Feb. 21 [Fri.]
Worked on Civil War, organizing notes by years ­ this way the book to be. S always writes a letter to someone to get in the swing of writing. Boxing. Climbed a gorgeous mountain.
Check for thing in the Parents. Agent got $25. Mother and I mad at her for doing this instead of Woman's Home Companion.

Feb. 22 [Sat.]
Feel bad about Mary. S really has let her know he'd as soon she didn't come back. It's a problem.

Feb. 23 [Sun.]
Started with Walshes to Nogales via Patagonia ­ open car. Too beautiful for utterance. Walshes grand people. Talk of what S, Dreiser and western group did ­ why they had to insist on sex in order to get away from New England ­ flesh needed ­ rich middle west versus frozen rocky New England.

Feb. 24 [Mon.]
S has flu. Can't work on Kit so we both work hard on Civil War.
Agent can't sell "Mrs. Wife," which S thought one of most beautiful short stories ever wrote.

Feb. 25 [Tues.]
Every day long talks with S ­ arguments on Civil War, generally ending with the class struggle.

Feb. 27 [Thur.]
S well again. Lots of work on Civil War.

Feb. 28 [Fri.]
To the country and long talks on the Civil War. S's enthusiasm is marvelous ­ like a young boy's ­ goes on for hours over one episode. Marvelous! Kit goes well too.

March 2 [Mon.]
S did grand chapter on Kit. Arguments with S over Civil War. Will it be a military book? No, the implications of the war as the beginnings of industrialism.
Reading as little as I have in the period, it makes war seem attractive, especially Sherman, who thought it hell.

March 3 [Tues.]
S sick again. Long argument about doctor. He refused again.

March 4 [Wed.]
Drove around recreation area. Then to Solves with Walshes for evening. S told story of [his sister] Stella's funeral ­ her putting all boys through college. Also about his whole family being in arts ­ the brother who never could finish things.

March 9 [Mon.]
Wire from Mary leaving Palm Springs. We wired her to come after hesitation. S thinks she has to remain in California. I that she will come with us if one-half a chance. I feel that we let her down in a way since we implied we would re-cross the continent with her ­ and then go get the truck ­ thus cutting her out.

March 10 [Tues.]
Mary came at 3. Walsh's in evening. Talk of Mary's millionaire Palm Springs bunch. She asked should she vote for Roosevelt and vote away her income. Also what to do with money, after S had said making it killed Burt. I said, "Do what you enjoy, but I'd give to ideas that are important," using John Lewis's industrial unionism because she knew that. She, frightened, asked, "Wouldn't you rather give to persons than to ideas?"

March 12 [Thur.]
S thinks he finished the novel this morning. The end I read grand ­ great rejoicing.

March 14 [Sat.]
Wild day ­ packing. Embarrassment over Mary ­ obviously wants to go with us. S doesn't want her. Arranged to get her to Guaymas, Sonora, for fishing. Probably really dangerous for her to drive alone. I prefer her to be with us. She begging to take us on deluxe trip to Mexico. Again raises question of whether I shouldn't give up job.

March 15 [Sun.]
Left Tucson at 7 a.m. Many pangs at leaving Mary. Should we have urged her to come, should not we discourage her going into Mexico alone, etc.? Sad at leaving Arizona.
Reached El Paso at 4. Evening in Juarez. Life gay, abandoned. Usual thoughts and talk about Puritan influence in America so deadly. Border exams on streetcar make it clear America not door of opportunity for Mexicans. No look at us ­ every Mexican's passport carefully examined.

March 20 [Fri.]
Left Orange, Texas 7:30. S relieved to be out of Texas. New Orleans about 4. Dinner at Antonys ­ Jimmie Feibleman, Julius and Elise Friend later. Talk of Winesburg production. People terrifically shocked by it. Only thing changed: "Did you ever have a piece?" to "Did you ever have a woman?" Can't see why play shocks.
Crowd had heard Mrs. Sherwood Anderson was in Mexico divorced ­ much excitement ­ thought it was I, but turned out to be Elizabeth [Prall Anderson] of course.

March 21 [Sat.]
Amazing how long this group have adored and stuck to S. Terribly limp, let down and blue over getting to work.

Apr. 1 [Wed.]
S storming versus South. Says have to write blast.

Apr. 2 [Thur.]
Left S at [Birmingham] at 7 a.m. ­ sad.

May 10 [Sun.]
Paoli, Pa.
Letter Roger [Sergel] re play, urging S to make it easier for audience ­ keep in suspense, cut long speeches, etc. Long talk with S, who says Shaw has long speeches ­ that he won't put in cheap tricks ­ that they (critics) said same thing about his stories at first ­ that he doesn't care to be a popular playwright.

May 11 [Mon.]
Drove to New York.

May 12 [Tues.]
Dinner at Café Royal ­ Joe and Ann, Leane and Carl.5

May 13 [Wed.]
To Y. K. Smith's wife.6 Has beautiful applique portrait of S. Much talk of Russia; She says S could be a millionaire there. S warmed to idea of next winter in the Crimea and then changed. Certain, alas, he will not go where he cannot talk with people in little dumps. She ruined it by stressing that the government wouldn't leave him free.

May 14 [Thur.]
Cocktails with Max Perkins ­ fell completely for him. Like an overgrown country boy with hat too big. Likes Kit, but a little disturbed by incest incident. Evidently wants S to do Civil War.

May 15 [Fri.]
Tore to Washington Mews to start to Hedgerow. S waiting for Jap [Deeter], who burst out against [Anderson's play-in-progress]"Man Has Hands" ­ obviously something personal. I have warned S Jap's ego can't stand S's popularity with cast ­ his greater national reputation.
Drive an ordeal. S very crushed, not only about play but one more man friendship at stake, etc. I had to work with him till 3. It's hard to know. I have been so tempted to urge S not to trust Jap too much; I could see that Jap falls for "good theatre," etc. This will blow over, but it's awful to see S suffer.

May 16 [Sat.]
Drove to Eshericks. Jap rushed out, courting S and me, most obviously trying to make up ­ proposing trip to Mother's, paying our bills, etc. Long talk with S, who agreed not to let him have play. Mary had grand day. S going on with profile for New Yorker on Jap.

May 17 [Sun.]
Mary and I to theatre to sew. She thrilled over being used.
S doing the play over. He got the horses this year in Preakness and Derby as he did last year.

May 31 [Sun.]
Valley Cottage, New York
S finishing profile on Deeter for New Yorker.7 Country beautiful.
Puzzled over plans. Shall we urge Mary not go to Europe? Katherine's maxim ­ no easy way to get money. I feel we use M, but she gets more. It condemns S, not to mention me, to mediocre conversation. Perhaps he needs this instead of stimulation, but I don't like to settle down to it.

July 4 [Sat.]
Ripshin
Mazie arrived with word that Mother has advanced hardening of the arteries ­ cause unknown. Mother has been so beautiful lately and seemed so well. I can't face it.

July 5 [Sun.]
Awful day. S can't take his grandchildren.8

July 6 [Mon.]
Wedding anniversary at Marion. S very happy.

July 7 [Tues.]
Paul [Rosenfeld] wired cannot meet us Hedgerow. S built wooden couch for Paul's tent.

July 16 [Thur.]
Talk with S and Paul ­ men and women. S says women a deep pool into which man plunges ­ that to be beautiful, woman must have man's mind play over her like hands.

July 17 [Fri.]
S says Paul works with his mind and not his emotions. He has emotional flurries over nothing outside work. S finished Kit Brandon proof ­ still thinks it's good.
Mary and Bob to dinner.9 Guess real trouble now is that I am sad we aren't having baby as Mary is.

July 19 [Sun.]
Read proof all day on Kit. Crazy about it.

July 21 [Tues.]
Talk of John Reed and Max Eastman at breakfast. John not deep emotional thinker ­ vacillating. How Eastman a revolutionary politically and so reactionary in the arts. Re Waldo Frank. Paul thinks he is great. S doesn't.

July 22 [Wed.]
S says he has never had such a good time in life as with new book ­ now named "Cousin Rudolph."

July 23 [Thur.]
Worked with S on Kit Brandon till 12. Certainly I shouldn't try to do anything but help him. But how would we live? I must learn to be as good an editor as Mother.

July 24 [Fri.]
Proofreading Kit ­ crazy about it. S says he thinks he has a new power due to objectiveness through Mother and me.

July 25 [Sat.]
Walk with S and Paul. Paul got me re Mary supporting a critical review for him. When I went to S's cabin he had written Paul a beautiful letter re class struggle.

July 27 [Mon.]
Grand letter from Perkins about Kit.

July 29 [Wed.]
To train for Marc and Lucille [Antony]. S put out at too high brow talk ­ Marc on poetry with Paul. Strain between Paul and S he thinks due to Paul's remark that "One good thing about Fascism was that it put down strikes."

Aug. 13 [Thur.]
To town with Marc to get new cook. He likes Kit. Says story easier than most of S's. Says S must write by ear ­ he such a marvelous storyteller.

Aug. 18 [Tues.]
Mother certainly helped S to make Kit a novel by continuing to ask "What made her like this?" S's first drafts are not generally good. He did not "dash" Kit off as he thinks.

Aug. 21 [Fri.]
Talk of Van Wyck Brooks's new book ­ way he retreats to the past. Promised to come out for S, Dreiser, etc. and never did.

Aug. 22 [Sat.]
S working on another introduction to Winesburg which threatens to become a book.

Aug. 30 [Sun.]
S in a bad time ­ probably strain trying to get the Winesburg introduction to say what he is feeling re theatre.

Aug. 31 [Mon.]
Found letter from Stark Young re bad review in New Republic in which said S most important living artist in American fiction, etc. Sorry S did not let him get decent reviewer, etc. S says he does that and yet never comes out for a book of his.

Sept. 1 [Tues.]
S says he has decided that thing he trying to do on Winesburg preface all wrong ­ that he's past that stage of writing about himself. He felt the history of the play was too much passing judgement on writers, etc. ­ I agree.

Sept. 2 [Wed.]
S ill all night with that stomach pain ­ can't get him to doctor.

Sept. 3 [Thur.]
The most horrible night of my life. S's temperature began to rise at 7. He was delirious, talking of Spanish War. Waked me every few minutes to rub him. Finally at 3:30 finding temperature 102, I roused Mary, who went to Troutdale in pouring rain to get Dr. Graybeal. S was better when he got here. But I think he thinks he has chronic appendicitis ­ one more thing to face.

Sept. 4 [Fri.]
Abingdon hospital ­ temperature 104 ­ I wild ­ S gay.

Oct. 1 [Thur.]
New York
Drove up from Philadelphia. S very happy. I puzzled and sad over Mary. S loves Royalton.10 S hopeful for book.

Oct. 2 [Fri.]
S and Amelia Earhart broadcast. S fine ­ couldn't hear Amelia.

Oct. 7 [Wed.]
Reviews of Kit at breakfast. Nasty headline in Tribune ­ otherwise good.
Sherwood fine. Dinner with [George Jean] Nathan. S very happy on new book ­ loves Royalton.
Max Perkins likes book. Also Charlie Scribner. Nathan says should go for movie.

Nov. 20 [Fri.]
Tampa, Florida
S went with de Los Rios to cigar factories ­ touching factory girls with flowers.
Professor of Economics at Rollins [College] told S his struggle in South for liberalism due to S's books
S later to jail ­ maritime strikers. Wrote and signed petition. Got names of others. Alas, only S's appeared.
Preacher asked S to occupy pulpit.

Nov. 24 [Tues.]
Huge outdoor meeting for Palencia.11 Rev. [Ellwood C.] Nance in opening raved over Sherwood's work and influence. Palencia very moving. Talk till one with Palencia and newspapermen. S plans to have Scribners see her book. This [A F of L] convention proving very good for S ­ making me wonder whether I shouldn't make more "contacts" for him.

Dec. 6 [Sun.]
Chapel Hill, N.C.
To Paul Green's at 5:30. James Boyd there,12 having just seen Tom Wolfe, who was raving because the critics were sniping at Sherwood. Wolfe said he owed more to S than to anyone and that S would be remembered.

1. Ferdinand Schevill was professor of history at the University of Chicago and a longtime friend of Anderson. Lloyd Lewis was a newspaper columnist and writer on the Civil War.

2. Melvin T. Solve was professor of English at the University of Arizona.

3. Anderson had met Paddy J. Walsh, professor of mathematics at the University of Arizona, in 1932.

4. "Give A Child Room to Grow," Parents' Magazine, April, 1936, p. 17.

5. Physician Joe Girsdansky and his wife Ann were close friends of the Andersons. Leane Zugsmith was a Kentucky-born novelist, and her husband Carl Randau was a journalist and president of the Newspaper Guild.

6. Yeremya Kenley Smith, an early Chicago friend of Anderson, lived with his Russian-born wife Julie on West 137th Street in New York.

7. Published not in the New Yorker, but as "The Good Life at Hedgerow" in Esquire, October, 1936, pp. 51, 198-99.

8. Anderson's daughter Mimi Spear and her husband and children had been visiting Ripshin since July 2.

9. Sherwood's son Robert and his wife Mary Chryst Anderson.

10. Because of a temporary break with Mary Emmett, the Andersons were staying in New York at the Royalton Hotel on 44th Street rather than with Mrs. Emmett at 54 Washington Mews.

11. Spanish diplomat Isabel de Palencia was in America promoting the cause of the Spanish Republican government.

12. Green was a noted playwright; and Boyd was a novelist from Southern Pines, North Carolina.

1937

Jan. 1 [Fri.]
Left with S and Mary for Asheville.

Jan. 3 [Sun.]
Rush of meeting. Later to Fielding Burke.1 She fine ­ spoke of S's writing contrasted to [Erskine] Caldwell. S loved people. Caldwell head not heart and head made mistakes. She definitely left.

Jan. 4 [Mon.]
Grand drive by side roads and to Gate City for liquor. Mary really beautiful in her reaching for things. S nice to M talking of art. If person really significant he is ahead of his time and cannot make enough money by his art to get along. Also George Moore ­ Art will die when provincialism dies.

Jan. 5 [Tues.]
Up early hoping to work, but S down ­ not flu ­ no temperature and thank heaven no pain in abdomen. Flying around but accomplishing little.

Jan. 6 [Wed.]
Talk between S and Mary. She will give him $150.00 a month but feels she must not be dependent on us so won't go south. Still blue, or S is.

Jan. 7 [Thur.]
Up at 8. Mary off. She very lovely and we sad. Letter from Roger [Sergel] saying that [Susan] Glaspell wants to put Winesburg on in Chicago ­ WPA, but fears that not only words but situations will have to be changed or people will be shocked ­ that they stopped Paul Green's "Hymn to the Rising Sun."

Jan. 9 [Sat.]
Word that S is put in National Institute of Arts and Letters ­ [Henry S.] Canby's racket. Joking that all he needs now is tombstone. Also note Dreiser's name not there. To Ripshin in evening ­ very beautiful.

Jan. 12 [Tues.]
S restless to leave. Usual lovely drive over Fancy Gap with shock of Winston ­ then Southern Pines. Boyds' house so beautiful in every way. They both nice ­ unspoiled by money ­ fine minds.2 Neither of us has read anything of his, alas. Talk of Civil War, on which he knows a lot, communism, etc.

Jan. 13 [Wed.]
Grand night ­ luxurious ­ breakfast in bed. I reading to S from [Sidney and Beatrice] Webb's Soviet Communism. We wonder how long could stand such luxury. Rather long I think ­ this being first morning for years in which I have not driven myself to get at something.
Boyd said S said best thing he had heard about the artist ­ that he must be in love with the world.
S reading Boyd's Drums. I The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf.

Jan. 14 [Thur.]
S writing a little. Luxury and ease ­ nice for a few days.
Stories of [Thomas] Wolfe furious over reviews and mad that someone said he and Hemingway were best, etc. Furious any other American should be mentioned.

Jan. 15 [Fri.]
Baxley, Georgia
Left Boyds at Southern Pines at 9. Rained solidly all day. Columbia, Augusta, to Baxley. S said everyone poisons him but me and he is only rested when alone with me. He happy on trips like this. Back in live oaks and moss.

Jan. 16 [Sat.]
Left Baxley 6:30 a.m. Gorgeous estates between Thomasville and Tallahassee, then long stretch of Florida with Mobile at sunset.

Jan. 17 [Sun.]
New Orleans
Just missed Thomas Wolfe. Lucille [Antony] says he waited several days ­ Hasn't slept six weeks ­ stutters.

Jan. 18 [Mon.]
S got back to work. Says Fred is a lovely guy ­ moving from room to room to room.3 Now on the influence of people in other rooms on him. He is somewhat like Faulkner.

Jan. 19 [Tues.]
Elizabeth [Prall Anderson] seems to have moved to Mexico. Bill Spratling built a room on his house for her. They have gone to England.

Jan. 21 [Thur.]
Corpus Christi
To Corpus at 5 ­ again at Yacht Beach.

Jan. 22 [Fri.]
It's awful the number of letters S has to write from day to day ­ people who expect a personal answer.

Jan. 24 [Sun.]
S went out for bait, fished an hour in the cold ­ came in, had a hot toddy and played rummy ­ Said he felt bad. I found his fever 100, then 10l, then 102.

Jan. 25 [Mon.]
Horrible night. Imagined pneumonia. Swore when light came I'd get a doctor. Then S better ­ temperature down. Implores me not to. If I only knew when to rush him to hospital and when to just keep him quiet.

Jan. 26 [Tues.]
S about well. To dock twice. I caught a nice flounder, much to S's delight.

Feb. 2 [Tues.]
S's terrible cough and weather keeps him from working.

Feb. 5 [Fri.]
At 7 S's pain so excruciating that I had to get [Dr. Jerome] Nast. He said only flu. S was willing to be operated on, and I knew the doctor has a reputation for cutting whenever he got a chance. To my relief he said simply flu. I wanted to move him to Houston or San Antonio but too sick ­ temp. 103.

Feb. 7 [Sun.]
Godchaux sisters and Marc Antony arrive at 3. S ill ­ he trying to eat but still pain.

Feb. 8 [Mon.]
Tried to fish to show Godchauxs a good time but nervous away from S -- slightly delirious.

Feb. 9 [Tues.]
Horrible days of no sleep ­ I up with S all night.

Feb. 10 [Wed.]
S agreed to go to hospital. Marc took him at 11 ­ Catholic. Marc says he will tell doctor that S not an ignorant worker. All my hatred of special privilege gone and I willing to get concessions for S.

Feb. 11 [Thur.]
Moved S to hospital yesterday ­ he became much worse ­ no food and violent vomiting.
S asked sister to pray for him (Marc says this to be nice to sister ­ I think he desperate).

Feb. 12 [Fri.]
S horribly ill ­ violent vomiting. I went to doctor's office and demanded to know [S's condition]. He less casual than formerly.

Feb. 13 [Sat.]
Doctor vain, pathetic, yet he has S's life in his hands.

Feb. 16 [Tues.]
I broke down and bawled for 1st time when doctor wouldn't give me result of chest x-ray ­ a sister smacked me, saying, "You stop it."
Can't sleep at all and each night I curse myself that I haven't [done all I could].

Feb. 19 [Fri.]
S talked about his attitude to his sickness and mine. Said he never thought he was anything special and why should he have special favors? I admitted that I was willing when I saw how casual the doctor was to get special consideration by giving the newspaper a story.

Feb. 20 [Sat.]
Left hospital at 1:30 ­ S on pier by 3. A little trouble in night but not much.

Feb. 23 [Tues.]
Reading Boswell's Hebrides aloud with great delight. S says he is a good writer because so detailed.

Feb. 25 [Thur.]
First night I have slept for 4 weeks from 11 to 7. S better but refuses to do anything about a doctor either in New Orleans or St. Paul. I feel desperate, fearing another attack. He insists it's just flu, but I fear another attack in some out of the way place.
S caught 2 fish. He says illness due to fact that he hasn't been writing ­ that he can't produce all the time ­ adding that he knows he is hard to live with at such times.

Feb. 26 [Fri.]
S says we will leave as soon as stronger. Heaven hope it's soon. I loathe this place and fear a relapse for S with that doctor.

Feb. 28 [Sun.]
S dictated preface [to book of plays]. Really his feeling about writing, how he started, etc. It's good but I can hear [Clifton] Fadiman saying that he is retelling A Story Teller's Story.

March 4 [Thur.]
On [boat] Ann again. S caught huge drum ­ Played it 45 minutes with whole boat watching.
S dictates to me every day and likes it.

March 6 [Sat.]
Galveston
Left at 10. Great load lifted to start north. S happy as usual to be driving. To Galveston at 5.
Counting precious days till go to work ­ lazy I guess.

March 8 [Mon.]
New Orleans
Left [Franklin, La.] at 9:30 ­ to New Orleans at 1.

March 10 [Wed.]
Julius [Friend] says Sherwood will be known as first proletarian writer since he was first to write of people of that group as human beings and not people related to class struggle.

March 13 [Sat.]
Brewton, Alabama
Left New Orleans amid wails. S glad to be away ­ stood drive well but obviously not back to normal.

March 14 [Sun.]
Atlanta
Rainy drive to Montgomery. Then to see Tuskegee. Then to Atlanta. S tired and discouraged.

March 15 [Mon.]
Back in saddle. S likes hotel life -- got good stenographer. He still tired after work.

March 18 [Thur.]
Margaret Mitchell called begging to come down. S lied out of it, saying feared to give her flu. She pretended to hate publicity and did not need money, etc. I wanted to see her.

March 19 [Fri.]
Knoxville
Left before 8. S really like himself first time since illness. Lovely drive to Chattanooga. S always tells Civil War stories as we near it. To Knoxville at 7.

March 22 [Mon.]
Marion
Have been working on material for S's radio textile play. Today he got it a sort of group choral speaking thing ­ very beautiful, I think and hope.

April 5 [Mon.]
Chicago
S having grand time in New York ­ Thomas Wolfe, Dreiser, etc.

April 9 [Fri.]
Marion
S back feeling fine. Very successful trip. Making textile play longer.

April 10 [Sat.]
S hard at work on play. Gather Mary's affections are somewhat weaned from S. Too bad no way S could have a tiny bit of her money and not be devoured by her.

April 18 [Sun.]
Drove to Abingdon. S stopped coming back by State Police ­ reckless driving.

April 21 [Wed.]
Letter from [Maxwell] Perkins that Thomas Wolfe might show up ­ that seeing S before did him good.

June 16 [Wed.]
Ripshin
S happy as a country gentleman. I have to do 4-5 hours of housework a day, and with all my other work will be too exhausted when conference comes.

July 6 [Tues.]
Wedding anniversary
When most happens I write least.
Returned from Marion to find Red Book would pay $750 for a story Mother doctored up, renamed, and made S send off. Big news.4

July 8 [Thur.]
Mary returned ­ a problem we must face.
S very happy with house and plumbing.

July 9 [Fri.]
S sorry he agreed to go to Colorado. He loves Ripshin so.

July 10 [Sat.]
Problem of what Mary will do when we go. I want to take her to Colorado, but S insists that we go alone.

July 11 [Sun.]
[Marion attorney] Burt [Dickinson] brought a paper for S to sign away his 15 per cent of the [Marion newspapers] business. I remonstrated, but S said, "Let Bob be the successful businessman. I don't want to."

July 19 [Mon.]
Louisville
Left home at 8:30, always sad at leaving Mother and Father. Mary left Sunday.

July 21 [Wed.]
Chicago
Discouraged over cost of clothes ­ whether to dress smartly or not?

July 22 [Thur.]
I woke ill after terrible night. Had to let Sherwood leave alone for Hays, Kansas ­ discouraging when we have looked forward so to this trip.

July 23 [Fri.]
Sergels in Chicago
Miserable day ­ tried to hold up head and be pleasant.

July 24 [Sat.]
Aboard Burlington Aristocrat
Glad to be going to S but let down after illness.

July 25 [Sun.]
Denver
Train late ­ S at station.

July 26 [Mon.]
Boulder, Colorado
Left Brown Palace for Greeley. S spoke on realism to normal school. Beautiful drive to Boulder.

July 28 [Wed.]
Walked to village with Howard Mumford Jones ­ nice. Then to John Crowe Ransom's poetry workshop. Then to Whit Burnett on humor. Robert Morss Lovett grand ­ also Howard Mumford Jones. Ransom weakening on agrarianism. S fed up on writing talk.5

July 29 [Thur.]
S led round table on limitations of short story. Burnett heralded him as second master ­ Chekov being the other. S threatening to leave ­ so sick of talk.

July 30 [Fri.]
S's talk gorgeous ­ Real quality tone ­ People moved. S's voice good. S talked in workshop in afternoon ­ also good.

Aug. 2 [Mon.]
Ford Madox Ford very ill ­ couldn't be heard.

Aug. 6 [Fri.]
Lovett's lecture on Matthew Arnold. Round table on regionalism. S good and short. Rest except Bishop showing off. Then to Ford Madox Ford ­ he very ill.

Aug. 10 [Tues.]
S suggested [John] Cournos for next year. I very nervous during S's lecture. He very serious but I think people liked it.
Many people spoke to S of what his talk on the artist's morality meant to them. Davison said never heard such distinguished thing done, etc.6

Aug. 11 [Wed.]
Aboard Burlington Zephyr
S and I luxuriated in Zephyr -- played cards and to bed early.

Aug. 12 [Thur.]
Chicago
Hated for trip to end. Spent day at Sergels.

Aug. 14 [Sat.]
Richmond, Ky.
Left Chicago at 9. S drove most of the way. He happy at getting back. I sad at taking up duties.

Aug. 15 [Sun.]
Marion
Left at 8. Drove by Harlan recalling Dreiser & Waldo Frank and my early trips there.7

Aug. 16 [Mon.]
Ripshin
To Ripshin at 10. S happy. Day to unpacking and mail. First day we were here alone this summer.
S and I are cooking up a scheme to really get Mary into trotting horses.

Aug. 17 [Tues.]
Went through stuff with Mother for [Ted] Lilienthal's press, Arrowhead Press, and two or three other people after S for things. He has pages of manuscript that may be full of short stories.

Aug. 19 [Thur.]
Sherwood feeling let down and unable to work. Think it's the result of seeing too many people in Colorado. Hope S's lowness isn't that I tried to work Sanka off on him.

Aug. 20 [Fri.]
Book of plays came ­ very nice looking. S all well again ­ both very happy. I begrudge every day alone here.

Aug. 22 [Sun.]
Mimi and Russell arrived in downpour. S all to pieces over children tearing up house.

Aug. 25 [Wed.]
S still all to pieces over Mimi and children. Says he thinks it is because it brings back Cornelia and the way she irritated him for years, never considering him ­ always herself and children.

Aug. 27 [Fri.]
S has figured out his irritation over Mimi and the children. He says it brings back the days when Cornelia tried to kill the artist in him again and again by insisting he make money for the children.

Sept. 1 [Wed.]
Can't bear to think of summer gone. S has been so well and working madly ­ and happy. He attributes it to having over $500 in bank and other things.
Continuous problem and strain of running house that should have at least 2 skilled servants, with constant company and weak help.

Sept. 2 [Thur.]
11:30 -- Just down [to writing cabin] to take S's coffee. He in high glee ­ crazy about book ­ Having swell time with "Fred."
S talked of Cornelia telling him over and over that he couldn't write because he wasn't educated ­ trying to keep him a businessman.

Sept. 5 [Sun.]
Paul [Rosenfeld] came at 4. He is in grand mood ­ pleased over having the big room.

Sept. 6 [Mon.]
Preparing food for the trencherman Thomas Wolfe.

Sept. 8 [Wed.]
Word that Mother said Thomas Wolfe on way with Bob. Bob stole show, not letting anyone say a word, but he left early and Wolfe unpoured the most amazing line of talk. He's out with Scribners, says Charles told him to go somewhere else. Wolfe implies it's because he's more & more interested in "conditions" and justice, and even Max [Perkins] (with 2 million) thinks people and not systems bring about conditions.
S says Scribners wouldn't mind a radical turn, but it's his constant libel suits.
Wolfe says he knows he can't write yet but that he intends to keep on even if he has to publish himself.

Sept. 9 [Thur.]
Thomas Wolfe has left. It's hard to know whether he is a great one of the earth or a gigantic adolescent -- gusto he has and warmth and so American.
I told him S had made the wine. "If it's good enough for Jesus it's good enough for me."
S took him to lunch with Mother.
Paul says Sherwood is like the people of the U.S. and Wolfe the soil.
Sherwood told Wolfe he should get married. Tom was very serious about it ­ asked me where to get a good girl.

Sept. 13 [Mon.]
S's birthday
S a fight with Paul at table, Paul saying that workers weren't educable, and why put country in hands of the least educable element -- S furious.

Sept. 18 [Sat.]
S says Fred and characters have suddenly left him, so have to let them rest. He came in at 11 saying felt he was using all his energy keeping warm and we'd better move to Marion ­ We did.

Sept. 19 [Sun.]
Marion
S wrote letter to Tom Wolfe telling him Mother and he felt he shouldn't listen to people who said he wrote too much, etc.

Sept. 21 [Tues.]
I am spending most of my time on S's old manuscripts. Such a world of things he has. I don't like to take up too much with him for fear it interferes with new work.

Sept. 23 [Thur.]
S thrilled about his farm. Came to me just like a child saying, "I never thought I'd own a cornfield like that."

Sept. 25 [Sat.]
The most beautiful and tragic letter from Thomas Wolfe ­ unbelievable.
Mildred writes I am to go to Chicago for a month. This unfortunate when S has made plans for lectures in Charleston and Philadelphia.

Sept. 26 [Sun.]
Blue over leaving.

Sept. 28 [Tues.]
Last day at Marion and farm ­ trying to get S's papers in shape.

Sept. 29 [Wed.]
Left for New York. S driving me to Roanoke.

Oct. 19 [Tues.]
Washington, DC
To Department of Labor while S went for his [veteran's pension] exam. Even if he doesn't get pension the good exam will be a comfort.

Oct.25 [Mon.]
New York
Met S who had been to [literary agent Jacques] Chambrun. Ran into Georgia O'Keeffe, who took us to her E 54th Street penthouse. She looks marvelous.
Chambrun says S can sell now that popular magazines want to reach young people and have to have class. I wonder if I dare give up my job.
S went to Farm and Fireside, where they told him no writer had meant as much ­ Karl [Anderson] says [Charles] Burchfield says so in his life. Wish we could get Viking to do a deluxe Winesburg with illustrations by Burchfield.

Nov. 30 [Tues.]
S came in saying that he wished he were like Dreiser and Zola ­ just turn it out ­ but he can't write unless he can get the cadences.

Dec. 2 [Thur.]
New York
Dinner party [yesterday evening] ­ Max Eastman & Eliena, Ella Winter, and Tom Wolfe. Incredible clash with Wolfe.8

1. Pen name of Olive Tilford Dargan, author of poetic dramas, poetry, and prose.

2. The Andersons were visiting wealthy novelist James Boyd and his wife Katharine at Weymouth, their estate in Southern Pines, North Carolina.

3. The main characters in this unfinished novel, eventually titled "How Green the Grass," are Fred and Rudolph Wescott.

4. This story, "A Moonlight Walk," had earlier been titled "Mrs. Wife." See entry for February 24, 1936.

5. Eleanor had accompanied Sherwood to the Writers Conference at the University of Colorado, where he delivered two lectures, assisted with daily workshops, and took part in round table discussions.

6. Edward "Ted" Davison was a University of Colorado professor and a principal conference organizer.

7. Dreiser and Frank had gone, with other eastern intellectuals, to Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1931 to speak in support of striking coal miners.

8. An innocuously intended remark by Eleanor had thrown Wolfe, who was drinking too much, into a tantrum. He would continue the attack by publicly insulting Sherwood on December 17 at the Brevoort Hotel.

1938

Feb. 8 [Tues.]
San Antonio
Left New Orleans after 2 nights ­ old gang grand. Month of January omitted, as I had no book.

Feb. 13 [Sun.]
Mary [Emmett] came.

Feb. 17 [Thur.]
Left San Antonio Wednesday the 16th.

Feb. 18 [Fri.]
Mexico City
Left Monterrey at 8 yesterday. S wanted to stay. Gorgeous drive.

Feb. 21 [Mon.]
S still unhappy with bourgeois Americans and inability to speak with casual people in street. Overfed with females. We would go back to San Antonio or Brownsville but S feels obligated to Mary.
Met a nice woman here after bull fight ­ a Mrs. Gillespie from Tazewell ­ great admirer of S ­ very snappy. S enjoyed her, proving that all females are not messes.
The bullfight was horrible and beautiful ­ at first I couldn't look at end but then got interested in the technique. Clear throngs love the danger and daring. Does pleasure have to be this?

Feb. 25 [Fri.]
Sightseeing ruined by constant bossing of Mary and S's determination to leave, to get away from "too many females." He can't sleep. Whether it's the altitude or fretting over Mary I don't know. I'd counted on the high dry air to help his sinus.

Feb. 27 [Sun.]
S so sick of constant boosting of [Diego] Rivera he won't look at a mural.

March 1 [Tues.]
Lunch with [Ambassador Josephus] Daniels at American Embassy.

March 3 [Thur.]
S saying he was going to Acapulco instead of Brownsville. Explained privately his desire was to get away from Mary and not from Mexico and that he was sleeping better.

March 4 [Fri.]
Letter from Barton's wife's lawyer ­ no shock to me as I had begged S not to do it. He now says Roger [Sergel], who at the time insisted that he was legally safe and justified leaving off Barton's name, did not urge him.
The whole incident makes me resolve in the future when I feel as strongly about anything as I did about this to have it down in writing so that S signs it to be sure he listened. S couldn't sleep over it.

March 7 [Mon.]
Iguala, Mexico
Left Mexico City at 11. Car balked ­ water gone. We had ignored Indian boys reaching for us with water as grade grew. S had it out with Mary over her stubbornness. Mary quite dashed that we wouldn't stop in Taxco even after S told her he did not want to see Elizabeth and Bill Spratling.1

March 8 [Tues.]
Acapulco
Hotel Madrid, Iguala, interesting dirty place. Indian girls studying typewriting. S thinking of going native.
Drive down the worst I ever saw. Hundreds of Indians making road with primitive tools. First view of Pacific disappointing.

March 9 [Wed.]
Acapulco
Amazing town. Filthy, seething. Scared S will get germs.
S had it out with Mary, telling her she shouldn't have come and saying he'd cut her entirely if she couldn't get the relationship straight and give us a little time alone ­ and that he did not want her money. Eased her by saying she was fine on big things but bad on little ­ bossy

March 11 [Fri.]
Up early. S so afraid Mary wouldn't leave. Lazy day. S very happy. So am I.

March 12 [Sat.]
Am going over S's new book, which he says shan't be published until he is dead. So far I think it could be published now. It is beautiful but won't please Scribners, who want a novel.
Have been very happy here ­ the first time alone with S for so long. I begrudge every minute and dread returning to my job.
Mary left yesterday.
People beginning to recognize S.
S and I had tiff over Mary, he saying I was irked by her. I contending that for nearly a year there had been no emotional tension between her and me except fear he was going to explode.

March 13 [Sun.]
S never has been so well, sinus gone for first time since I knew him. He evidently needs very hot climate. This raises the old question of my job and of course Mary.

March 15 [Tues.]
Worked on S's book. He blue about it ­ so much to write. Tried to get him to plan to publish it when done rather than when dead.
A Mrs. Babcock from Akron looked me up here. Her husband knew S and said on introducing him to her, "This is one of the greatest men in the world. What books did you write?"

March 16 [Wed.]
At dinner [yesterday] S thought he recognized Bill Spratling. Rushed over to speak to him to get what seemed an utter denial in Spanish. A few minutes later a man came back saying his friend said Sherwood would not speak and to pretend he was Mexican. I couldn't make out whether Spratling thought S was snubbing him or what. He was very warm and wistful, apologizing for being a button manufacturer.
They are sailing on his yacht now.
Spratling has 102 "boys" working for him. He begged us to go to Taxco, but S said he didn't want to see Elizabeth, that such an experience left a scar. Spratling says Elizabeth happy ­ his boarder.

March 17 [Thur.]
Finally left (I very sad). Spent the night at Chilpancingo. Danced in the square. Boys saying, "Allo," "Goodbye," "Chesterfield."

March 19 [Sat.]
Mexico City
Spent Friday afternoon at Iguala, having got over the bad road by 12 ­ loitered in Square and didn't know we were missing Cardenas broadcast on the oil expropriation.2 Got up early. To Taxco, stopping there for second breakfast and to barely skirt the town. S talked of Elizabeth, saying he thought he would write her that she had no right to use the name "Mrs. Sherwood Anderson," which he says she has been doing right and left.
Got to Cuernavaca to find headlines over Cardenas taking oil wells. Got to Mexico City at 4.

March 20 [Sun.]
Embarrassment over getting away from Mary. S in a stew. He can't sleep and it suddenly dawns on me that oxygen lack makes breathing hard. This is the trouble with S, not too much stimulation. Begged him to leave at once.

March 22 [Tues.]
Villa Juarez
Off at 7. Mary sad ­ I too. Drive more gorgeous than down. S thrilled to be off alone
At Tamazunchale he turned car over to me saying tired and fell into deep sleep. I later learned it was aided by big bottle of tequila. I drove on to here, where after 3 attempts he staggered to the room, fell on bed, saying he did not have to fight to breathe. After 6 hours I waked him. He hadn't known a thing.

March 23 [Wed.]
To Monterrey at 2 to find gigantic parade of 50,000 just over.

March 24 [Thur.]
Brownsville, Texas
Left Continental Hotel at 8 over back road for Reynosa and Texas. Incredibly flat but beautiful. Crossed bridge with no trouble whatever with customs into Texas -- to Brownsville and old Miller Hotel.

March 25 [Fri]
S happy here but coughing, alas. Says he can't settle in Acapulco, the only place he doesn't cough. To new port ­ caught 2 croakers.
My precious vacation is nearly gone, alas.

June 6 [Mon.]
Ripshin
S had a big day. Did a story which he naively thought would do for Red Book's $1500, when they had stipulated "romance" and about people who are in what might be called comfortable circumstances.
S very happy in spite of trouble with teeth and concern over my working more than 1/2 time.
Building door for Mary on porch so room won't seem like servant's quarters, also painting his cabin steps an adorable red.
I went over old manuscripts.

Aug. 2 [Tues.]
Ripshin
Read S note of Dreiser in Spain, adding that I could get sent on delegation if he would like to go. He said with feeling, "I have my battleground here."

Aug. 11 [Thur.]
Orson Welles gave parts of "I'm A Fool" over radio. We realized again from people who called us that everyone likes the story because it does not disturb anything.

Aug. 18 [Thur.]
S came up from his cabin this morning wistful and in a glow. Why couldn't everything like this last so perfectly? He was working well, liked the people [visiting], etc ­ but of course everything has to end. Why can't we hold the now?

Aug. 30 [Tues.]
S woke up reading book of humorous American stories in wild mood, saying, "It's a good thing I was born to teach these Americans how to write ­ those early boys so dull ­ even Poe's bad."

Sept. 1 [Thur.]
Woke up saying, "Only 32 more days." S said, "Don't think of the future. It's too sad." I keep thinking something will happen to keep me from having to take heavy job.3

Sept. 16 [Fri.]
Mother came with [Robert] Lovett and [Ferdinand] Schevill. Ferdinand read Whitman's "When Lilacs Once." Robert repeated the whole of Omar Khayyam.
When we heard of Tom Wolfe's death we said we read to him the Whitman. Sherwood terribly cut up over Tom's death ­ and I.

Sept. 26 [Mon.]
S very blue. Says he thinks it's the fall when he remembers each year his father going off and leaving his mother with no money for food or anything.

1. William Spratling, a prosperous silversmith in Taxco, had been a young professor of architecture at Tulane when Anderson first knew him in New Orleans in the 1920's. Elizabeth Prall, Anderson's third wife, was now living in Spratling's house.

2. Lazaro Cardenas, president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940, announced government expropriation of foreign-owned oil companies.

3. In October, Eleanor would take up her responsibilities as newly appointed head of the YWCA's National Industrial Department.

1940

Jan. 1 [Mon]
Marion, Va.
Sherwood writing at top speed. S doing story of John Emerson and others, which will also tell his own story (what he has thought).1

Jan. 2 [Tues.]
Mary left. Sherwood insists we cannot stay there [54 Washington Mews, NY] ­ she will be crushed.

April 26 [Fri.]
New York
Whit Burnett and Martha Foley ­ talked of O'Brien saying Shakespeare then -- -- -- then Sherwood. Declaration of Independence of American literature.

July 9 [Tues.]
Ripshin
Talk about speaker at Ben Hecht dinner saying how much S had meant to young men in German artists getting out from under Hitler.

July 10 [Wed.]
John Peale Bishop, Augusto Centeno, S and I at cocktails. Chief Spanish poet learned English from Winesburg. S parallels [D.H.] Lawrence but no crazy symbolism.

July 23 [Tues.]
New York
S found one really good writer at Olivet [College], a nearly blind woman who would only show her manuscript to him ­ Marion Judd.

July 27 [Sat.]
Lexington, Ky.
Ferdinand Schevill and S met me at Sandusky. Both in great mood ­ Olivet [writer's conference] a success. Mary Colum: "If you want to know what an artist is, it's Sherwood Anderson."
Took Ferdinand by Clyde. Saw Herman Hurd who was sweet ­ Story of his father buying a barrel of olives ­ Clyde people didn't buy. S and Herman reached in and got a handful each until whole barrel gone.

July 30 [Tues.]
Ripshin
Letter from lawyer [Sidney R.] Fleischer saying that the Irving Place group had gone to Barton's lawyer saying S was withholding Winesburg and demanding that it be released ­ very ugly.

July 31 [Wed.]
Went to Blountville [Tennessee] airport to meet Stanley Young. He thinks S one important remaining figure and thinks his memoirs would sell ­ wants them for Harcourt.

Aug. 3 [Sat.]
Ferdinand, S and I read one of Dreiser's letters at breakfast. S talked about how Dreiser's bad writing used to hurt him ­ then about how Dreiser's courage made up for bad writing.

Aug. 6 [Tues.]
S came in with an entire story written this morning, which he said he dreamed in the night, "Henry and 2 Women." Good, but no one will publish it and if they do will say he is sex-obsessed.

Aug. 10 [Sat.]
Long talk with Mother over whether S should change to Harcourt Brace.
Putting off talk with S about my job. He insists I give it up. I should have let him pay for everything so he would know what it costs us.
S irritated at Mazie's children. This morning he says it's because they bring back how messy Cornelia was and how he loathed it.

1. Anderson was now working on material for h is memoirs, which would be published posthumously (1942). John Emerson, wealthy motion picture producer and husband of author Anita Loos, had begun life as Clifton Paden and was a boyhood friend of Anderson in Clyde, Ohio.

1935

Jan. 3 [Thur.]
S accounted for his style by fact that not having had high education he relied on Anglo-Saxon words rather than Latin derivatives and used Anglo-Saxon sources ­ influence of King James version ­ fact he and Dreiser rebelled at getting their America through England by way of New England.
Someone asked S if he had been sought by Saturday Evening Post. He told of their coming after Windy McPherson's Son published ­ but wanting it like first two-thirds of book, which was not experimental, rather than like last one-third, which was. S told them he was only interested in last one-third.
Monday [Dec. 17, 1934] drove to Columbus by way of Indianapolis.
Drove to Gallipolis, and then Charleston, spending Tuesday night there. Home Wednesday [Dec. 19] over icy roads with gorgeous fog.

Jan. 17 [Thur.]
Corpus Christi, Texas
Sitting on the Gulf among upper middle class fishermen. Shall I try to put down events since New Years? S was sick most of the holidays but arose to play acey-deucy with me. Strange, I never thought I'd have to play games with S when I was dying to read. I realize that a creative man can't read much though.
No Swank got out too late for the Christmas trade. The New Yorker and Time had not too good reviews although Fadiman said they were "perceptive" and Time that his style was his and his alone.
We left Marion January 9, driving to Knoxville where Colonel Richards, chief forester of the TVA, sent Bernard Frank, a young engineer, to show us around.
The dam and village are thrilling, but it's even more exciting to sit as we did that night with several officials and specialists. It's also sad because one sees the old professional jealousies creeping in. The New Yorker is the most quoted journal. I believe it will come to be read more out of New York by people who wish to seem metropolitan (New Yorkish) than by the real Gothamites.
One grand Hungarian architect was chief architect, but it got out that he was "practically a communist." He was demoted drastically, and a local man put in. The Norris Town shows this ­ the more recent part being a mess.
I should say that most of the TVA'ers are good liberals but little beyond.
The next day we drove to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, S thrilling at getting in the South and swearing he will go south every year.
Friday [January 11] we drove to Vicksburg, crossed the river and back, and went to Natchez. S wanted me to see the Civil War sites. Saw a few old homes and talked of Stark Young and the $40,000 he's already made on So Red the Rose. How it betrays the South and Stark too. The ride out of Natchez on the sunken road is bewitching.
S got a headache so we only glanced at Huey Long's State house but did see Lucille's grandfather Godchaux high up next to Audubon.
Went on to the Monteleone, New Orleans, where S was immediately pursued by reporters and friends.
Julius Friend and James Feibleman are doing a book of philosophy together and then each is doing over separately. Julius an exquisite sensitive person with fine brain. Jimmie very entertaining, but I am not sure what he is. Maybe his millions prevent him from being the philosopher he thinks he is. He uses the word 'definitive' over and over. He is dogmatic and arrogant, not hesitating to dismiss John Dewey and name only 2 American philosophers and assume that of course S and I couldn't understand any book in his library.
Visiting them makes living on unearned increment seem so simple and my problem of whether to try to get along without a salary more irritating. Jimmy, when I asked him about [economist Thorstein] Veblen, said he had idea which he wrote over and over in 18 books. It was that of conspicuous consumption.
Marc Antony persuaded S to speak before his theatre group. A huge crowd. S very good though he drove me mad pacing around the table the first few minutes. S evidently is deeply interested in the theatre and is going on in it ­ all of which bears on my job. If he writes the book he's starting on his brother Earl and plays, he won't write the sort that will sell. He is so eager for me to quit the job and be free to take trips like this.
Lucille gave a party after the lecture ­ John Peale Bishop and beautiful wife, Mary Rose and Roark Bradford, Ham Basso's sister and the gang. They all adore S. New Orleans should help his ego, but they won't give him time to work so we start for Texas and parts south.
Wednesday we drove to New Iberia and saw [painter and photographer] Weeks Hall and his magnificent 1830 home. He's the weirdest person I ever saw. The minute we got there he began showing his dog in a way that was abnormal to say the least ­ raving about how he could not find anyone good enough to mate her with ­ and she in heat and he wouldn't dare send her off, etc. Then raved in the same way about his Negro Boz who got in trouble with white women. They would have lynched him, but Weeks slipped him out of town. Then about his amazing aunt. He can paint but is crazy ­ involved with Negro women. Feels S has helped him ­ calls him up in Virginia at 1 a.m. Begs us to come back. I'd like to.
I feel a little sheepish for fear we left Gertrude Stein expecting to go through the South with us. S finally wrote her from New Orleans. The drive to Texas was lovely ­ a different civilization from Louisiana certainly.
Now we are in an apartment by the sea. I fear S will be so taken with fishing that we shall never get to Mexico.

Jan. 22 [Tues.]
Corpus Christi
S is so pleased with me as a cook. He's deep in a book which he says is different from anything he ever did. We have been reading [D. H.] Lawrence's Apocalypse ­ good and hard on the Christians but not a great book.
S is more interested in writing as writing and less in economics, causes, life, etc. We have a perpetual fight about Russia.

Jan. 27 [Sun.]
Corpus Christi
S very happy, very much in love with me, and working. Obviously he more and more loves a simple setting with me as the drudging little wife. He'd die if he thought I didn't adore the grease.
S dreamed a whole play out based on Huckleberry Finn ­ the tough life of the period ­ a swell idea.

Jan. 31 [Thur.]
Still at "Corpus" as they say here. S still madly at the book and still very happy fishing every minute he isn't working. To my amazement, he sent a few suggestions to Scribners for boosting the book. If he had only done a little of this before.
The tourists are perfect. We went yesterday with a Kansas homestead farmer who spit tobacco juice in a can every minute or 2 but was full of stories, his grouchy wife whom we were supposed to interest in fishing, and another crude young Kansan. Met a lot of young boys, very wild and ragged looking, who make their living fishing, mostly at night, and with cane poles only.

Feb. 10 [Sun.]
Brownsville, Texas
We have been here over a week and love it ­ the fishing at Boca Chica and the mouths of the Rio Grande ­ both American and Mexican. Every afternoon we go to Matamoros, Mexico, a charming town. An unbelievable transformation ­ not at all American or touristy. All the little and big boys call "Hello, Veergeenia" and beg to shine our shoes.
Sherwood is happier than I have ever seen him. At last he has me fishing. We drove 25 miles through Mexican hinterland to Washington Beach, and S caught four gorgeous red fish. Life was unbelievably primitive from any outward or physical view.
S adores the square. Two fiestas were amazing revelations of mores or something. The men in blocks of two hundred or more march 3 or 4 abreast around and around the square. The women in the same formation head in the other direction ­ on and on with a beat into the earth almost like the dances D. H. Lawrence describes. This is the system by which the boys meet the girls and later pursue the matter. The latter behind the iron grill on each window, the former before.
S and I have read Stuart Chase and some histories. One thing I have learned is that a pat popularization such as Chase's misses the heart of things. If Chase's economics is as superficial as his Mexico, it's too bad he has such a following.
S is reading [William H.] Chamberlain's Russia's Iron Age. He seizes it with a glee which disturbs me. We have had several fights over it. S thinks that I am romantic about Russia. Says that anybody who has an "answer" is wrong, etc. I know Chamberlain is convincing, but nonetheless I hate for S to go terribly anti-revolutionary and pro-democracy and pro-Roosevelt.
S has written a swell thing, I think, on East St. Louis.
A man called from Washington saying [Secretary of the Treasury Henry] Morgenthau wanted S to write something on Franklin County, Va., which the Wickersham report said was the worst bootlegging in the U.S.A. S was pleased but remarked that if it were Russia and the government called he would have to leave tomorrow.

Feb. 18 [Mon.]
Brownsville
I dipped down into Monterrey. S remained to fish and work.
S, whom I now call the Conquistador because of his beard, and I continue to have terrific fights on communism. I have taken it as a joke, but we may develop real incompatibility.
We had a long talk of Jack Reed, who told S the Russian thing killed him now that it "had reached the resolution stage." During the war S attended a meeting with Jack in Chicago. Jack followed him to the men's room to show him a poem and to agree with him that you couldn't mix art and propaganda. This resulted in all of S's mail being stamped "opened by censor."
Also talk of Ben Hecht and his smartness. He told S you could fool everybody in the world on literature but 5 or 6 people. "Yes," said S, "but those 5 or 6 are all you care about." Ben mad still because S asked that a cheap introduction he wrote for Winesburg be omitted.
We have been reading Stein's Three Lives. S and I agree that the third, "The Gentle Lena" is the good one and not "Melanctha" as the critics say. S wonders if Stein isn't one of the great intellects of the day but not a poet ­ this when she disclaims intellect. Of course she made Joyce.

Feb. 21 [Thur.]
New Orleans
Finally we uprooted ourselves from Brownsville and the beloved Matamoros. Drove to Orange, Texas the first day. Arose at six and got to New Orleans at three to find Stein and Toklas here. We had rushed through New Iberia so the headhunting Weeks Hall wouldn't catch us (He had wired S begging him to send Gertie to him).
We went to Roark Bradford's February 20, where Gertie, Alice, Jimmie and Dorothy Feibleman were dining. I fear S took the occasion from Roark. Gertie effused over him and his new beard, calling him the third Napoleon, and from then on S was the hero although I believe he honestly tried not to steal the show.
Toklas, in a dinner gown of billowing taffeta, was amazing. She spits back at Lovey (Stein) and gets the best, I believe. Stein seems a little cowed when she replies "Pussy." Stein's an awful prima donna, but I guess we'd all like to be.
Our life in New Orleans is always exciting but too strenuous.
The poet John Gould Fletcher wants an indigenous culture (Arkansas), this probably because northern publishers won't take him. He wants to keep Yankees out on every issue from Scottsboro to art.
We are to meet [labor revolutionary] Tom Tippett tonight.

Feb. 24 {Sun.]
Went with S to Lucille Antony's where he and poor Elma Godchaux got into an awful jam. S tore into Elma on why did she talk about making money and getting published all the time when he only got paid $80 for all the Winesburg stories ­ the best short stories ever written in America. Elma answered that she liked some of his things but did not see why he was Jesus, and then they were off.
The group theater here seems determined to do Winesburg.
These New Orleans people make over S tremendously, but I guess a little praise won't hurt him.

1936

Jan. 1 [Wed.]
Bad start. Big fight with S over family, puppy and nothing.

Jan. 7 [Tues.]
S's head trouble hangs on. I guess he will have to go south every winter.

Jan. 9 [Thur.]
Always a tussle at leaving S ­ this time only 10 days.

Jan. 18 [Sat.]
Left for Baltimore. S in grand mood for speech ­ audience responsive. Party first at Tudor something club. Then at Mazie's with large crowds of literati.

Jan. 19 [Sun.]
Left at 10. Snow which turned to ice ­ very hard going ­ many wrecks. Two a.m. to Marion. Father had the house warm and nice. Wish we had more time with Mother and Father. Feel such a sense of impending doom.

Jan. 21 [Tues.]
Leave for Chicago via Cumberland Gap. Early start ­ ice and snow. Mountains around Cumberland Gap really dangerous. Made Lexington ­ S insisting dangerous to go farther. Hotel Phoenix. Dispute over room ­ Mary [Emmett] wanting quiet. Race horses all around.

Jan. 22 [Wed.]
Off early supposedly for Chicago. By state capitol at Frankfort. Louisville. At Indianapolis innocently wired Roger [Sergel] we would be there at 9.
Suddenly much colder and blinding snow ­ ghastly roads. Had to give up at Lebanon [Indiana] and rush S on train. Didn't know weather could be like that. Hotel full of people. Blocked all roads north ­ many casualties.

Jan. 23 [Thur.]
In spite of all advice started at 10:30. Soon met 3 mammoth trucks at wild angles blocking road. Little wreckers couldn't move them. Finally a kindly farmer opened a gate and we drove around right through an open field. Roads no more slick than the last 4 days. To Chicago by 4.
Rushed to S's lecture ­ Friends of American Writers. S too serious. They didn't get him. Then to Sergels to find house on fire ­ musical comedy firemen stalking in.

Jan. 25 [Sat.]
Big dinner ­ Ferdinand [Schevill] and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Lewis.1 Lewis misunderstood S's invitation and didn't arrive until dessert. Then amazing 5 hours talk on civil war between Lewis and S, with Ferdinand chiming in and also Roger ­ evening a success.

Jan.26 [Sun.]
Tried to grab a nap but Carl Sandburg arrived. He talked a deluge.

Jan. 28 [Tues.]
Left Chicago. Hotel Jefferson, St. Louis. Night Club ­ S's character read ­ made conquest.

Jan. 29 [Wed.]
Through Ozarks. Shoe factory Joplin. Sad Kansas still bleeding. Then into Oklahoma and Southwest.

Jan. 30 [Thur.]
Claremore, Oklahoma
Much excitement over making Will Rogers' home for the night. He evidently a hero of Mary's. She wrong on nearly every question ­ also very dogmatic. No question she gets from S more than she gives. Ill of hearing of Hay [Diet].

Jan. 31 {Fri.]
Left Amarillo ­ soon hit the most beautiful country I ever saw. Santa Rosa. Northwest all day long. Very happy. To La Honda, Santa Fe. [Author] Witter Bynner called.

Feb. 1 [Sat.]
Started for Taos. Mabel Dodge and Frieda Lawrence in California. Saw Mabel's place. She and Frieda in fight over [D. H.] Lawrence's ashes. Gorgeous country through Rio Grande Canyon.
Dinner Bynner's elegant house. Jade the loveliest I ever dreamed of.
Bynner gave me Indian jade he had strung. S made big hit. Bynner would take him on if not M. Dodge. Bynner asked S to get [poet Arthur Davison] Ficke to New Mexico. He's dying in Southern Pines.
The Pueblo still strange and moving. Place still full of Lawrence.

Feb. 2 [Sun.]
Left Santa Fe ­ beautiful country all day. Stopped at Elephant Butte Dam. Then to Las Cruces for night and long sleep. Talk of Witter Bynner. Nervous about mail but enjoying leisure.
Funny ­ Bynner told me naively that they asked him to give bail to Gallup men but that he'd rather be good to his servants since he could understand their situation and presumably couldn't get the Gallup miners. Seems so easy to be rich.

Feb. 3 [Mon.]
11:30 ­ Sitting in road near Lordsburg, New Mexico. Bad blowout. S went on against Mary's wishes to get help. Finally man to whom S gave $1 against Mary's wishes came and has been working an hour without a jack. I believe, after this trip, story that Mary killed Burt with too much energy.
Hoping S will turn up before tire finished. Mary jubilant ­ remarking never failed to do anything she tried to do. S arrived just as we left. M triumphant. S disgusted. Says he is going to end it with M ­ that he hasn't the time to put up with her.
Tucson at 5:30. Birthday party Mary ­ champagne.

Feb. 4 [Tues.]
Tucson
Stayed in tourist cabin to delight of M and not so much that of S and E. Climate really grand. If it only fixes S's head. It's very touristy though. Dread getting mail with office complications.
Moved to St. Paul Hotel. Explosion of S on M due to row over towel. I out of room but think culmination irritations. M says S told her plan all off, couldn't stand her speed, etc. I spent three hours with M ­ upset and surprised. S maintains glad he did it ­ that we can live without her money ­ that she is impossibly bossy, etc. At 5 a reconciliation effected. I doubt if her pride will let her go on with the relationship. Gay dinner and dancing at Rio Rita. S loves climate. Guess we will live through it.

Feb. 5 [Wed.]
Bad night ­ worry over M lest we seem ungrateful, etc. All calm but M seems crushed.
Made up with M, I hope. Lovely drive ­ weird cactus. Cards. Talked of insomnia. S can't read fiction because goes on with own ending in sleep or half-sleep. Also can't write truthful autobiography because imagination begins to work before he knows it.
S loves climate and atmosphere. Called up Professor Solve.2 G. Stein writes she's doing a geography which will be a good companion piece to S's civil war.

Feb. 6 [Thur.]
S foolishly caught cold so can't work or go to Nogales. M and S reconciled. Gorgeous drive ­ old San Xavier Church. Pictures by cactus. Evening at Solves. He grand ­ also a grand painter. Delightful Irishman and wife ­ Walshes.3 Mrs. Theodore Dreiser has just been here. Amazing place full of very rich as well as cowboy adventurer type. Mary naïve but nice. Accused S of rumpling hair from unconscious literary pose.

Feb. 7 [Fri.]
M made coffee. S cut finger. I noticed a trembling not seen before. Must force him to doctor.
S bought truck, thereby letting Mary know he didn't want to return with her. She had meant to leave money for it. S says it's a good thing he is in love with me or he would go after every girl he sees. They seem to need good lovers and he could do it.
Life ideal. S writes in morning. I work at library, and he reads me what he has written. Kit coming O.K.

Feb. 8 [Sat.]
S talking of Edgar Lee Masters, who wanted to be a great "Shelley." Loved his lyric poetry. Wrote Spoon River for Reedy in 8 hours. The best thing he has done but Masters always a little ashamed of it.

Feb. 9 [Sun.]
Nogales, Mexico. Cave Cabaret. Swell show. Solve's students. Party at Walshes. He swell ­ so she. Newspaperwomen.

Feb. 10 [Mon.]
S can't work ­ too much people yesterday, I fear. Letter from agent saying sold childhood thing to Parents,4 and other stories difficult.
Began 3rd volume Van Gogh [Letters to His Brother].
Understand what S means when he says Van Gogh is as important as a writer as a painter. Don't know why Van Gogh knocks me so when I am not supposed to know much about painting. He is overwhelming.

Feb. 11 [Tues.]
Up to get Mary off. She left every kind of present for our room and a check for the truck. We will miss her as a troublesome child. She is trying hard. Told S she'd give him $2000 this year. Building up civil war bibliography.

Feb. 12 [Wed.]
S has another cold. To Walshes. Talk of Irish Free State ­ whole of Ireland not as large as Pima County.
Van Gogh helps me understand the creative temperament better than anything else. Also what a good artist's wife should be. S deep in [Charles Francis] Adams letters [A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861-1865]. They make Grant out a great hero. S will do 4 volumes ­ 1 on each year of war.

Feb. 14 [Fri.]
Adams letters morning. Lunch and afternoon working on truck. Cocktail party Solves ­ professional ­ arty. English professor arrived with line alleged from S on his mother's eyes ­ like pools. S furious. Dinner and boxing ­ grand Indian bodies.
Grand letter Paul [Rosenfeld] on hopes for writing as evidenced by material for Caravan and his novel progressing rapid rate ­ 100 words a day. S says he spends all royalties changing books after printers.

Feb. 15 [Sat.]
Tried to see Will Rogers Jr. and Tex Austin's son play polo but couldn't find. Went to Chaplin's "Modern Times," which S liked.
Happy and big day on Kit.

Feb. 16 [Sun.]
Gorgeous day of clouds. Drove ­ walked ­ read ­ worked. Mexican section in evening and dinner.

Feb 17 [Mon.]
Worked on Civil War mostly, copying Adams letters. Went to 2nd hand stores, buying 2 elaborate Civil War Pictorial histories $12.50. Then to ladies' bookstore near University, where girl informed S that Look Homeward Angel was the American novel.

Feb. 18 [Tues.]
Pleasant fight with S over Southern aristocracy ­ perennial subject.
Went over income tax. S's very small ­ brings up question of my cutting mine. S going more and more into Civil War. Will he get back to Kit Brandon?

Feb. 19 [Wed.]
More talk and work on Civil War.

Feb. 21 [Fri.]
Worked on Civil War, organizing notes by years ­ this way the book to be. S always writes a letter to someone to get in the swing of writing. Boxing. Climbed a gorgeous mountain.
Check for thing in the Parents. Agent got $25. Mother and I mad at her for doing this instead of Woman's Home Companion.

Feb. 22 [Sat.]
Feel bad about Mary. S really has let her know he'd as soon she didn't come back. It's a problem.

Feb. 23 [Sun.]
Started with Walshes to Nogales via Patagonia ­ open car. Too beautiful for utterance. Walshes grand people. Talk of what S, Dreiser and western group did ­ why they had to insist on sex in order to get away from New England ­ flesh needed ­ rich middle west versus frozen rocky New England.

Feb. 24 [Mon.]
S has flu. Can't work on Kit so we both work hard on Civil War.
Agent can't sell "Mrs. Wife," which S thought one of most beautiful short stories ever wrote.

Feb. 25 [Tues.]
Every day long talks with S ­ arguments on Civil War, generally ending with the class struggle.

Feb. 27 [Thur.]
S well again. Lots of work on Civil War.

Feb. 28 [Fri.]
To the country and long talks on the Civil War. S's enthusiasm is marvelous ­ like a young boy's ­ goes on for hours over one episode. Marvelous! Kit goes well too.

March 2 [Mon.]
S did grand chapter on Kit. Arguments with S over Civil War. Will it be a military book? No, the implications of the war as the beginnings of industrialism.
Reading as little as I have in the period, it makes war seem attractive, especially Sherman, who thought it hell.

March 3 [Tues.]
S sick again. Long argument about doctor. He refused again.

March 4 [Wed.]
Drove around recreation area. Then to Solves with Walshes for evening. S told story of [his sister] Stella's funeral ­ her putting all boys through college. Also about his whole family being in arts ­ the brother who never could finish things.

March 9 [Mon.]
Wire from Mary leaving Palm Springs. We wired her to come after hesitation. S thinks she has to remain in California. I that she will come with us if one-half a chance. I feel that we let her down in a way since we implied we would re-cross the continent with her ­ and then go get the truck ­ thus cutting her out.

March 10 [Tues.]
Mary came at 3. Walsh's in evening. Talk of Mary's millionaire Palm Springs bunch. She asked should she vote for Roosevelt and vote away her income. Also what to do with money, after S had said making it killed Burt. I said, "Do what you enjoy, but I'd give to ideas that are important," using John Lewis's industrial unionism because she knew that. She, frightened, asked, "Wouldn't you rather give to persons than to ideas?"

March 12 [Thur.]
S thinks he finished the novel this morning. The end I read grand ­ great rejoicing.

March 14 [Sat.]
Wild day ­ packing. Embarrassment over Mary ­ obviously wants to go with us. S doesn't want her. Arranged to get her to Guaymas, Sonora, for fishing. Probably really dangerous for her to drive alone. I prefer her to be with us. She begging to take us on deluxe trip to Mexico. Again raises question of whether I shouldn't give up job.

March 15 [Sun.]
Left Tucson at 7 a.m. Many pangs at leaving Mary. Should we have urged her to come, should not we discourage her going into Mexico alone, etc.? Sad at leaving Arizona.
Reached El Paso at 4. Evening in Juarez. Life gay, abandoned. Usual thoughts and talk about Puritan influence in America so deadly. Border exams on streetcar make it clear America not door of opportunity for Mexicans. No look at us ­ every Mexican's passport carefully examined.

March 20 [Fri.]
Left Orange, Texas 7:30. S relieved to be out of Texas. New Orleans about 4. Dinner at Antonys ­ Jimmie Feibleman, Julius and Elise Friend later. Talk of Winesburg production. People terrifically shocked by it. Only thing changed: "Did you ever have a piece?" to "Did you ever have a woman?" Can't see why play shocks.
Crowd had heard Mrs. Sherwood Anderson was in Mexico divorced ­ much excitement ­ thought it was I, but turned out to be Elizabeth [Prall Anderson] of course.

March 21 [Sat.]
Amazing how long this group have adored and stuck to S. Terribly limp, let down and blue over getting to work.

Apr. 1 [Wed.]
S storming versus South. Says have to write blast.

Apr. 2 [Thur.]
Left S at [Birmingham] at 7 a.m. ­ sad.

May 10 [Sun.]
Paoli, Pa.
Letter Roger [Sergel] re play, urging S to make it easier for audience ­ keep in suspense, cut long speeches, etc. Long talk with S, who says Shaw has long speeches ­ that he won't put in cheap tricks ­ that they (critics) said same thing about his stories at first ­ that he doesn't care to be a popular playwright.

May 11 [Mon.]
Drove to New York.

May 12 [Tues.]
Dinner at Café Royal ­ Joe and Ann, Leane and Carl.5

May 13 [Wed.]
To Y. K. Smith's wife.6 Has beautiful applique portrait of S. Much talk of Russia; She says S could be a millionaire there. S warmed to idea of next winter in the Crimea and then changed. Certain, alas, he will not go where he cannot talk with people in little dumps. She ruined it by stressing that the government wouldn't leave him free.

May 14 [Thur.]
Cocktails with Max Perkins ­ fell completely for him. Like an overgrown country boy with hat too big. Likes Kit, but a little disturbed by incest incident. Evidently wants S to do Civil War.

May 15 [Fri.]
Tore to Washington Mews to start to Hedgerow. S waiting for Jap [Deeter], who burst out against [Anderson's play-in-progress]"Man Has Hands" ­ obviously something personal. I have warned S Jap's ego can't stand S's popularity with cast ­ his greater national reputation.
Drive an ordeal. S very crushed, not only about play but one more man friendship at stake, etc. I had to work with him till 3. It's hard to know. I have been so tempted to urge S not to trust Jap too much; I could see that Jap falls for "good theatre," etc. This will blow over, but it's awful to see S suffer.

May 16 [Sat.]
Drove to Eshericks. Jap rushed out, courting S and me, most obviously trying to make up ­ proposing trip to Mother's, paying our bills, etc. Long talk with S, who agreed not to let him have play. Mary had grand day. S going on with profile for New Yorker on Jap.

May 17 [Sun.]
Mary and I to theatre to sew. She thrilled over being used.
S doing the play over. He got the horses this year in Preakness and Derby as he did last year.

May 31 [Sun.]
Valley Cottage, New York
S finishing profile on Deeter for New Yorker.7 Country beautiful.
Puzzled over plans. Shall we urge Mary not go to Europe? Katherine's maxim ­ no easy way to get money. I feel we use M, but she gets more. It condemns S, not to mention me, to mediocre conversation. Perhaps he needs this instead of stimulation, but I don't like to settle down to it.

July 4 [Sat.]
Ripshin
Mazie arrived with word that Mother has advanced hardening of the arteries ­ cause unknown. Mother has been so beautiful lately and seemed so well. I can't face it.

July 5 [Sun.]
Awful day. S can't take his grandchildren.8

July 6 [Mon.]
Wedding anniversary at Marion. S very happy.

July 7 [Tues.]
Paul [Rosenfeld] wired cannot meet us Hedgerow. S built wooden couch for Paul's tent.

July 16 [Thur.]
Talk with S and Paul ­ men and women. S says women a deep pool into which man plunges ­ that to be beautiful, woman must have man's mind play over her like hands.

July 17 [Fri.]
S says Paul works with his mind and not his emotions. He has emotional flurries over nothing outside work. S finished Kit Brandon proof ­ still thinks it's good.
Mary and Bob to dinner.9 Guess real trouble now is that I am sad we aren't having baby as Mary is.

July 19 [Sun.]
Read proof all day on Kit. Crazy about it.

July 21 [Tues.]
Talk of John Reed and Max Eastman at breakfast. John not deep emotional thinker ­ vacillating. How Eastman a revolutionary politically and so reactionary in the arts. Re Waldo Frank. Paul thinks he is great. S doesn't.

July 22 [Wed.]
S says he has never had such a good time in life as with new book ­ now named "Cousin Rudolph."

July 23 [Thur.]
Worked with S on Kit Brandon till 12. Certainly I shouldn't try to do anything but help him. But how would we live? I must learn to be as good an editor as Mother.

July 24 [Fri.]
Proofreading Kit ­ crazy about it. S says he thinks he has a new power due to objectiveness through Mother and me.

July 25 [Sat.]
Walk with S and Paul. Paul got me re Mary supporting a critical review for him. When I went to S's cabin he had written Paul a beautiful letter re class struggle.

July 27 [Mon.]
Grand letter from Perkins about Kit.

July 29 [Wed.]
To train for Marc and Lucille [Antony]. S put out at too high brow talk ­ Marc on poetry with Paul. Strain between Paul and S he thinks due to Paul's remark that "One good thing about Fascism was that it put down strikes."

Aug. 13 [Thur.]
To town with Marc to get new cook. He likes Kit. Says story easier than most of S's. Says S must write by ear ­ he such a marvelous storyteller.

Aug. 18 [Tues.]
Mother certainly helped S to make Kit a novel by continuing to ask "What made her like this?" S's first drafts are not generally good. He did not "dash" Kit off as he thinks.

Aug. 21 [Fri.]
Talk of Van Wyck Brooks's new book ­ way he retreats to the past. Promised to come out for S, Dreiser, etc. and never did.

Aug. 22 [Sat.]
S working on another introduction to Winesburg which threatens to become a book.

Aug. 30 [Sun.]
S in a bad time ­ probably strain trying to get the Winesburg introduction to say what he is feeling re theatre.

Aug. 31 [Mon.]
Found letter from Stark Young re bad review in New Republic in which said S most important living artist in American fiction, etc. Sorry S did not let him get decent reviewer, etc. S says he does that and yet never comes out for a book of his.

Sept. 1 [Tues.]
S says he has decided that thing he trying to do on Winesburg preface all wrong ­ that he's past that stage of writing about himself. He felt the history of the play was too much passing judgement on writers, etc. ­ I agree.

Sept. 2 [Wed.]
S ill all night with that stomach pain ­ can't get him to doctor.

Sept. 3 [Thur.]
The most horrible night of my life. S's temperature began to rise at 7. He was delirious, talking of Spanish War. Waked me every few minutes to rub him. Finally at 3:30 finding temperature 102, I roused Mary, who went to Troutdale in pouring rain to get Dr. Graybeal. S was better when he got here. But I think he thinks he has chronic appendicitis ­ one more thing to face.

Sept. 4 [Fri.]
Abingdon hospital ­ temperature 104 ­ I wild ­ S gay.

Oct. 1 [Thur.]
New York
Drove up from Philadelphia. S very happy. I puzzled and sad over Mary. S loves Royalton.10 S hopeful for book.

Oct. 2 [Fri.]
S and Amelia Earhart broadcast. S fine ­ couldn't hear Amelia.

Oct. 7 [Wed.]
Reviews of Kit at breakfast. Nasty headline in Tribune ­ otherwise good.
Sherwood fine. Dinner with [George Jean] Nathan. S very happy on new book ­ loves Royalton.
Max Perkins likes book. Also Charlie Scribner. Nathan says should go for movie.

Nov. 20 [Fri.]
Tampa, Florida
S went with de Los Rios to cigar factories ­ touching factory girls with flowers.
Professor of Economics at Rollins [College] told S his struggle in South for liberalism due to S's books
S later to jail ­ maritime strikers. Wrote and signed petition. Got names of others. Alas, only S's appeared.
Preacher asked S to occupy pulpit.

Nov. 24 [Tues.]
Huge outdoor meeting for Palencia.11 Rev. [Ellwood C.] Nance in opening raved over Sherwood's work and influence. Palencia very moving. Talk till one with Palencia and newspapermen. S plans to have Scribners see her book. This [A F of L] convention proving very good for S ­ making me wonder whether I shouldn't make more "contacts" for him.

Dec. 6 [Sun.]
Chapel Hill, N.C.
To Paul Green's at 5:30. James Boyd there,12 having just seen Tom Wolfe, who was raving because the critics were sniping at Sherwood. Wolfe said he owed more to S than to anyone and that S would be remembered.

1. Ferdinand Schevill was professor of history at the University of Chicago and a longtime friend of Anderson. Lloyd Lewis was a newspaper columnist and writer on the Civil War.

2. Melvin T. Solve was professor of English at the University of Arizona.

3. Anderson had met Paddy J. Walsh, professor of mathematics at the University of Arizona, in 1932.

4. "Give A Child Room to Grow," Parents' Magazine, April, 1936, p. 17.

5. Physician Joe Girsdansky and his wife Ann were close friends of the Andersons. Leane Zugsmith was a Kentucky-born novelist, and her husband Carl Randau was a journalist and president of the Newspaper Guild.

6. Yeremya Kenley Smith, an early Chicago friend of Anderson, lived with his Russian-born wife Julie on West 137th Street in New York.

7. Published not in the New Yorker, but as "The Good Life at Hedgerow" in Esquire, October, 1936, pp. 51, 198-99.

8. Anderson's daughter Mimi Spear and her husband and children had been visiting Ripshin since July 2.

9. Sherwood's son Robert and his wife Mary Chryst Anderson.

10. Because of a temporary break with Mary Emmett, the Andersons were staying in New York at the Royalton Hotel on 44th Street rather than with Mrs. Emmett at 54 Washington Mews.

11. Spanish diplomat Isabel de Palencia was in America promoting the cause of the Spanish Republican government.

12. Green was a noted playwright; and Boyd was a novelist from Southern Pines, North Carolina.

1937

Jan. 1 [Fri.]
Left with S and Mary for Asheville.

Jan. 3 [Sun.]
Rush of meeting. Later to Fielding Burke.1 She fine ­ spoke of S's writing contrasted to [Erskine] Caldwell. S loved people. Caldwell head not heart and head made mistakes. She definitely left.

Jan. 4 [Mon.]
Grand drive by side roads and to Gate City for liquor. Mary really beautiful in her reaching for things. S nice to M talking of art. If person really significant he is ahead of his time and cannot make enough money by his art to get along. Also George Moore ­ Art will die when provincialism dies.

Jan. 5 [Tues.]
Up early hoping to work, but S down ­ not flu ­ no temperature and thank heaven no pain in abdomen. Flying around but accomplishing little.

Jan. 6 [Wed.]
Talk between S and Mary. She will give him $150.00 a month but feels she must not be dependent on us so won't go south. Still blue, or S is.

Jan. 7 [Thur.]
Up at 8. Mary off. She very lovely and we sad. Letter from Roger [Sergel] saying that [Susan] Glaspell wants to put Winesburg on in Chicago ­ WPA, but fears that not only words but situations will have to be changed or people will be shocked ­ that they stopped Paul Green's "Hymn to the Rising Sun."

Jan. 9 [Sat.]
Word that S is put in National Institute of Arts and Letters ­ [Henry S.] Canby's racket. Joking that all he needs now is tombstone. Also note Dreiser's name not there. To Ripshin in evening ­ very beautiful.

Jan. 12 [Tues.]
S restless to leave. Usual lovely drive over Fancy Gap with shock of Winston ­ then Southern Pines. Boyds' house so beautiful in every way. They both nice ­ unspoiled by money ­ fine minds.2 Neither of us has read anything of his, alas. Talk of Civil War, on which he knows a lot, communism, etc.

Jan. 13 [Wed.]
Grand night ­ luxurious ­ breakfast in bed. I reading to S from [Sidney and Beatrice] Webb's Soviet Communism. We wonder how long could stand such luxury. Rather long I think ­ this being first morning for years in which I have not driven myself to get at something.
Boyd said S said best thing he had heard about the artist ­ that he must be in love with the world.
S reading Boyd's Drums. I The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf.

Jan. 14 [Thur.]
S writing a little. Luxury and ease ­ nice for a few days.
Stories of [Thomas] Wolfe furious over reviews and mad that someone said he and Hemingway were best, etc. Furious any other American should be mentioned.

Jan. 15 [Fri.]
Baxley, Georgia
Left Boyds at Southern Pines at 9. Rained solidly all day. Columbia, Augusta, to Baxley. S said everyone poisons him but me and he is only rested when alone with me. He happy on trips like this. Back in live oaks and moss.

Jan. 16 [Sat.]
Left Baxley 6:30 a.m. Gorgeous estates between Thomasville and Tallahassee, then long stretch of Florida with Mobile at sunset.

Jan. 17 [Sun.]
New Orleans
Just missed Thomas Wolfe. Lucille [Antony] says he waited several days ­ Hasn't slept six weeks ­ stutters.

Jan. 18 [Mon.]
S got back to work. Says Fred is a lovely guy ­ moving from room to room to room.3 Now on the influence of people in other rooms on him. He is somewhat like Faulkner.

Jan. 19 [Tues.]
Elizabeth [Prall Anderson] seems to have moved to Mexico. Bill Spratling built a room on his house for her. They have gone to England.

Jan. 21 [Thur.]
Corpus Christi
To Corpus at 5 ­ again at Yacht Beach.

Jan. 22 [Fri.]
It's awful the number of letters S has to write from day to day ­ people who expect a personal answer.

Jan. 24 [Sun.]
S went out for bait, fished an hour in the cold ­ came in, had a hot toddy and played rummy ­ Said he felt bad. I found his fever 100, then 10l, then 102.

Jan. 25 [Mon.]
Horrible night. Imagined pneumonia. Swore when light came I'd get a doctor. Then S better ­ temperature down. Implores me not to. If I only knew when to rush him to hospital and when to just keep him quiet.

Jan. 26 [Tues.]
S about well. To dock twice. I caught a nice flounder, much to S's delight.

Feb. 2 [Tues.]
S's terrible cough and weather keeps him from working.

Feb. 5 [Fri.]
At 7 S's pain so excruciating that I had to get [Dr. Jerome] Nast. He said only flu. S was willing to be operated on, and I knew the doctor has a reputation for cutting whenever he got a chance. To my relief he said simply flu. I wanted to move him to Houston or San Antonio but too sick ­ temp. 103.

Feb. 7 [Sun.]
Godchaux sisters and Marc Antony arrive at 3. S ill ­ he trying to eat but still pain.

Feb. 8 [Mon.]
Tried to fish to show Godchauxs a good time but nervous away from S -- slightly delirious.

Feb. 9 [Tues.]
Horrible days of no sleep ­ I up with S all night.

Feb. 10 [Wed.]
S agreed to go to hospital. Marc took him at 11 ­ Catholic. Marc says he will tell doctor that S not an ignorant worker. All my hatred of special privilege gone and I willing to get concessions for S.

Feb. 11 [Thur.]
Moved S to hospital yesterday ­ he became much worse ­ no food and violent vomiting.
S asked sister to pray for him (Marc says this to be nice to sister ­ I think he desperate).

Feb. 12 [Fri.]
S horribly ill ­ violent vomiting. I went to doctor's office and demanded to know [S's condition]. He less casual than formerly.

Feb. 13 [Sat.]
Doctor vain, pathetic, yet he has S's life in his hands.

Feb. 16 [Tues.]
I broke down and bawled for 1st time when doctor wouldn't give me result of chest x-ray ­ a sister smacked me, saying, "You stop it."
Can't sleep at all and each night I curse myself that I haven't [done all I could].

Feb. 19 [Fri.]
S talked about his attitude to his sickness and mine. Said he never thought he was anything special and why should he have special favors? I admitted that I was willing when I saw how casual the doctor was to get special consideration by giving the newspaper a story.

Feb. 20 [Sat.]
Left hospital at 1:30 ­ S on pier by 3. A little trouble in night but not much.

Feb. 23 [Tues.]
Reading Boswell's Hebrides aloud with great delight. S says he is a good writer because so detailed.

Feb. 25 [Thur.]
First night I have slept for 4 weeks from 11 to 7. S better but refuses to do anything about a doctor either in New Orleans or St. Paul. I feel desperate, fearing another attack. He insists it's just flu, but I fear another attack in some out of the way place.
S caught 2 fish. He says illness due to fact that he hasn't been writing ­ that he can't produce all the time ­ adding that he knows he is hard to live with at such times.

Feb. 26 [Fri.]
S says we will leave as soon as stronger. Heaven hope it's soon. I loathe this place and fear a relapse for S with that doctor.

Feb. 28 [Sun.]
S dictated preface [to book of plays]. Really his feeling about writing, how he started, etc. It's good but I can hear [Clifton] Fadiman saying that he is retelling A Story Teller's Story.

March 4 [Thur.]
On [boat] Ann again. S caught huge drum ­ Played it 45 minutes with whole boat watching.
S dictates to me every day and likes it.

March 6 [Sat.]
Galveston
Left at 10. Great load lifted to start north. S happy as usual to be driving. To Galveston at 5.
Counting precious days till go to work ­ lazy I guess.

March 8 [Mon.]
New Orleans
Left [Franklin, La.] at 9:30 ­ to New Orleans at 1.

March 10 [Wed.]
Julius [Friend] says Sherwood will be known as first proletarian writer since he was first to write of people of that group as human beings and not people related to class struggle.

March 13 [Sat.]
Brewton, Alabama
Left New Orleans amid wails. S glad to be away ­ stood drive well but obviously not back to normal.

March 14 [Sun.]
Atlanta
Rainy drive to Montgomery. Then to see Tuskegee. Then to Atlanta. S tired and discouraged.

March 15 [Mon.]
Back in saddle. S likes hotel life -- got good stenographer. He still tired after work.

March 18 [Thur.]
Margaret Mitchell called begging to come down. S lied out of it, saying feared to give her flu. She pretended to hate publicity and did not need money, etc. I wanted to see her.

March 19 [Fri.]
Knoxville
Left before 8. S really like himself first time since illness. Lovely drive to Chattanooga. S always tells Civil War stories as we near it. To Knoxville at 7.

March 22 [Mon.]
Marion
Have been working on material for S's radio textile play. Today he got it a sort of group choral speaking thing ­ very beautiful, I think and hope.

April 5 [Mon.]
Chicago
S having grand time in New York ­ Thomas Wolfe, Dreiser, etc.

April 9 [Fri.]
Marion
S back feeling fine. Very successful trip. Making textile play longer.

April 10 [Sat.]
S hard at work on play. Gather Mary's affections are somewhat weaned from S. Too bad no way S could have a tiny bit of her money and not be devoured by her.

April 18 [Sun.]
Drove to Abingdon. S stopped coming back by State Police ­ reckless driving.

April 21 [Wed.]
Letter from [Maxwell] Perkins that Thomas Wolfe might show up ­ that seeing S before did him good.

June 16 [Wed.]
Ripshin
S happy as a country gentleman. I have to do 4-5 hours of housework a day, and with all my other work will be too exhausted when conference comes.

July 6 [Tues.]
Wedding anniversary
When most happens I write least.
Returned from Marion to find Red Book would pay $750 for a story Mother doctored up, renamed, and made S send off. Big news.4

July 8 [Thur.]
Mary returned ­ a problem we must face.
S very happy with house and plumbing.

July 9 [Fri.]
S sorry he agreed to go to Colorado. He loves Ripshin so.

July 10 [Sat.]
Problem of what Mary will do when we go. I want to take her to Colorado, but S insists that we go alone.

July 11 [Sun.]
[Marion attorney] Burt [Dickinson] brought a paper for S to sign away his 15 per cent of the [Marion newspapers] business. I remonstrated, but S said, "Let Bob be the successful businessman. I don't want to."

July 19 [Mon.]
Louisville
Left home at 8:30, always sad at leaving Mother and Father. Mary left Sunday.

July 21 [Wed.]
Chicago
Discouraged over cost of clothes ­ whether to dress smartly or not?

July 22 [Thur.]
I woke ill after terrible night. Had to let Sherwood leave alone for Hays, Kansas ­ discouraging when we have looked forward so to this trip.

July 23 [Fri.]
Sergels in Chicago
Miserable day ­ tried to hold up head and be pleasant.

July 24 [Sat.]
Aboard Burlington Aristocrat
Glad to be going to S but let down after illness.

July 25 [Sun.]
Denver
Train late ­ S at station.

July 26 [Mon.]
Boulder, Colorado
Left Brown Palace for Greeley. S spoke on realism to normal school. Beautiful drive to Boulder.

July 28 [Wed.]
Walked to village with Howard Mumford Jones ­ nice. Then to John Crowe Ransom's poetry workshop. Then to Whit Burnett on humor. Robert Morss Lovett grand ­ also Howard Mumford Jones. Ransom weakening on agrarianism. S fed up on writing talk.5

July 29 [Thur.]
S led round table on limitations of short story. Burnett heralded him as second master ­ Chekov being the other. S threatening to leave ­ so sick of talk.

July 30 [Fri.]
S's talk gorgeous ­ Real quality tone ­ People moved. S's voice good. S talked in workshop in afternoon ­ also good.

Aug. 2 [Mon.]
Ford Madox Ford very ill ­ couldn't be heard.

Aug. 6 [Fri.]
Lovett's lecture on Matthew Arnold. Round table on regionalism. S good and short. Rest except Bishop showing off. Then to Ford Madox Ford ­ he very ill.

Aug. 10 [Tues.]
S suggested [John] Cournos for next year. I very nervous during S's lecture. He very serious but I think people liked it.
Many people spoke to S of what his talk on the artist's morality meant to them. Davison said never heard such distinguished thing done, etc.6

Aug. 11 [Wed.]
Aboard Burlington Zephyr
S and I luxuriated in Zephyr -- played cards and to bed early.

Aug. 12 [Thur.]
Chicago
Hated for trip to end. Spent day at Sergels.

Aug. 14 [Sat.]
Richmond, Ky.
Left Chicago at 9. S drove most of the way. He happy at getting back. I sad at taking up duties.

Aug. 15 [Sun.]
Marion
Left at 8. Drove by Harlan recalling Dreiser & Waldo Frank and my early trips there.7

Aug. 16 [Mon.]
Ripshin
To Ripshin at 10. S happy. Day to unpacking and mail. First day we were here alone this summer.
S and I are cooking up a scheme to really get Mary into trotting horses.

Aug. 17 [Tues.]
Went through stuff with Mother for [Ted] Lilienthal's press, Arrowhead Press, and two or three other people after S for things. He has pages of manuscript that may be full of short stories.

Aug. 19 [Thur.]
Sherwood feeling let down and unable to work. Think it's the result of seeing too many people in Colorado. Hope S's lowness isn't that I tried to work Sanka off on him.

Aug. 20 [Fri.]
Book of plays came ­ very nice looking. S all well again ­ both very happy. I begrudge every day alone here.

Aug. 22 [Sun.]
Mimi and Russell arrived in downpour. S all to pieces over children tearing up house.

Aug. 25 [Wed.]
S still all to pieces over Mimi and children. Says he thinks it is because it brings back Cornelia and the way she irritated him for years, never considering him ­ always herself and children.

Aug. 27 [Fri.]
S has figured out his irritation over Mimi and the children. He says it brings back the days when Cornelia tried to kill the artist in him again and again by insisting he make money for the children.

Sept. 1 [Wed.]
Can't bear to think of summer gone. S has been so well and working madly ­ and happy. He attributes it to having over $500 in bank and other things.
Continuous problem and strain of running house that should have at least 2 skilled servants, with constant company and weak help.

Sept. 2 [Thur.]
11:30 -- Just down [to writing cabin] to take S's coffee. He in high glee ­ crazy about book ­ Having swell time with "Fred."
S talked of Cornelia telling him over and over that he couldn't write because he wasn't educated ­ trying to keep him a businessman.

Sept. 5 [Sun.]
Paul [Rosenfeld] came at 4. He is in grand mood ­ pleased over having the big room.

Sept. 6 [Mon.]
Preparing food for the trencherman Thomas Wolfe.

Sept. 8 [Wed.]
Word that Mother said Thomas Wolfe on way with Bob. Bob stole show, not letting anyone say a word, but he left early and Wolfe unpoured the most amazing line of talk. He's out with Scribners, says Charles told him to go somewhere else. Wolfe implies it's because he's more & more interested in "conditions" and justice, and even Max [Perkins] (with 2 million) thinks people and not systems bring about conditions.
S says Scribners wouldn't mind a radical turn, but it's his constant libel suits.
Wolfe says he knows he can't write yet but that he intends to keep on even if he has to publish himself.

Sept. 9 [Thur.]
Thomas Wolfe has left. It's hard to know whether he is a great one of the earth or a gigantic adolescent -- gusto he has and warmth and so American.
I told him S had made the wine. "If it's good enough for Jesus it's good enough for me."
S took him to lunch with Mother.
Paul says Sherwood is like the people of the U.S. and Wolfe the soil.
Sherwood told Wolfe he should get married. Tom was very serious about it ­ asked me where to get a good girl.

Sept. 13 [Mon.]
S's birthday
S a fight with Paul at table, Paul saying that workers weren't educable, and why put country in hands of the least educable element -- S furious.

Sept. 18 [Sat.]
S says Fred and characters have suddenly left him, so have to let them rest. He came in at 11 saying felt he was using all his energy keeping warm and we'd better move to Marion ­ We did.

Sept. 19 [Sun.]
Marion
S wrote letter to Tom Wolfe telling him Mother and he felt he shouldn't listen to people who said he wrote too much, etc.

Sept. 21 [Tues.]
I am spending most of my time on S's old manuscripts. Such a world of things he has. I don't like to take up too much with him for fear it interferes with new work.

Sept. 23 [Thur.]
S thrilled about his farm. Came to me just like a child saying, "I never thought I'd own a cornfield like that."

Sept. 25 [Sat.]
The most beautiful and tragic letter from Thomas Wolfe ­ unbelievable.
Mildred writes I am to go to Chicago for a month. This unfortunate when S has made plans for lectures in Charleston and Philadelphia.

Sept. 26 [Sun.]
Blue over leaving.

Sept. 28 [Tues.]
Last day at Marion and farm ­ trying to get S's papers in shape.

Sept. 29 [Wed.]
Left for New York. S driving me to Roanoke.

Oct. 19 [Tues.]
Washington, DC
To Department of Labor while S went for his [veteran's pension] exam. Even if he doesn't get pension the good exam will be a comfort.

Oct.25 [Mon.]
New York
Met S who had been to [literary agent Jacques] Chambrun. Ran into Georgia O'Keeffe, who took us to her E 54th Street penthouse. She looks marvelous.
Chambrun says S can sell now that popular magazines want to reach young people and have to have class. I wonder if I dare give up my job.
S went to Farm and Fireside, where they told him no writer had meant as much ­ Karl [Anderson] says [Charles] Burchfield says so in his life. Wish we could get Viking to do a deluxe Winesburg with illustrations by Burchfield.

Nov. 30 [Tues.]
S came in saying that he wished he were like Dreiser and Zola ­ just turn it out ­ but he can't write unless he can get the cadences.

Dec. 2 [Thur.]
New York
Dinner party [yesterday evening] ­ Max Eastman & Eliena, Ella Winter, and Tom Wolfe. Incredible clash with Wolfe.8

1. Pen name of Olive Tilford Dargan, author of poetic dramas, poetry, and prose.

2. The Andersons were visiting wealthy novelist James Boyd and his wife Katharine at Weymouth, their estate in Southern Pines, North Carolina.

3. The main characters in this unfinished novel, eventually titled "How Green the Grass," are Fred and Rudolph Wescott.

4. This story, "A Moonlight Walk," had earlier been titled "Mrs. Wife." See entry for February 24, 1936.

5. Eleanor had accompanied Sherwood to the Writers Conference at the University of Colorado, where he delivered two lectures, assisted with daily workshops, and took part in round table discussions.

6. Edward "Ted" Davison was a University of Colorado professor and a principal conference organizer.

7. Dreiser and Frank had gone, with other eastern intellectuals, to Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1931 to speak in support of striking coal miners.

8. An innocuously intended remark by Eleanor had thrown Wolfe, who was drinking too much, into a tantrum. He would continue the attack by publicly insulting Sherwood on December 17 at the Brevoort Hotel.

1938

Feb. 8 [Tues.]
San Antonio
Left New Orleans after 2 nights ­ old gang grand. Month of January omitted, as I had no book.

Feb. 13 [Sun.]
Mary [Emmett] came.

Feb. 17 [Thur.]
Left San Antonio Wednesday the 16th.

Feb. 18 [Fri.]
Mexico City
Left Monterrey at 8 yesterday. S wanted to stay. Gorgeous drive.

Feb. 21 [Mon.]
S still unhappy with bourgeois Americans and inability to speak with casual people in street. Overfed with females. We would go back to San Antonio or Brownsville but S feels obligated to Mary.
Met a nice woman here after bull fight ­ a Mrs. Gillespie from Tazewell ­ great admirer of S ­ very snappy. S enjoyed her, proving that all females are not messes.
The bullfight was horrible and beautiful ­ at first I couldn't look at end but then got interested in the technique. Clear throngs love the danger and daring. Does pleasure have to be this?

Feb. 25 [Fri.]
Sightseeing ruined by constant bossing of Mary and S's determination to leave, to get away from "too many females." He can't sleep. Whether it's the altitude or fretting over Mary I don't know. I'd counted on the high dry air to help his sinus.

Feb. 27 [Sun.]
S so sick of constant boosting of [Diego] Rivera he won't look at a mural.

March 1 [Tues.]
Lunch with [Ambassador Josephus] Daniels at American Embassy.

March 3 [Thur.]
S saying he was going to Acapulco instead of Brownsville. Explained privately his desire was to get away from Mary and not from Mexico and that he was sleeping better.

March 4 [Fri.]
Letter from Barton's wife's lawyer ­ no shock to me as I had begged S not to do it. He now says Roger [Sergel], who at the time insisted that he was legally safe and justified leaving off Barton's name, did not urge him.
The whole incident makes me resolve in the future when I feel as strongly about anything as I did about this to have it down in writing so that S signs it to be sure he listened. S couldn't sleep over it.

March 7 [Mon.]
Iguala, Mexico
Left Mexico City at 11. Car balked ­ water gone. We had ignored Indian boys reaching for us with water as grade grew. S had it out with Mary over her stubbornness. Mary quite dashed that we wouldn't stop in Taxco even after S told her he did not want to see Elizabeth and Bill Spratling.1

March 8 [Tues.]
Acapulco
Hotel Madrid, Iguala, interesting dirty place. Indian girls studying typewriting. S thinking of going native.
Drive down the worst I ever saw. Hundreds of Indians making road with primitive tools. First view of Pacific disappointing.

March 9 [Wed.]
Acapulco
Amazing town. Filthy, seething. Scared S will get germs.
S had it out with Mary, telling her she shouldn't have come and saying he'd cut her entirely if she couldn't get the relationship straight and give us a little time alone ­ and that he did not want her money. Eased her by saying she was fine on big things but bad on little ­ bossy

March 11 [Fri.]
Up early. S so afraid Mary wouldn't leave. Lazy day. S very happy. So am I.

March 12 [Sat.]
Am going over S's new book, which he says shan't be published until he is dead. So far I think it could be published now. It is beautiful but won't please Scribners, who want a novel.
Have been very happy here ­ the first time alone with S for so long. I begrudge every minute and dread returning to my job.
Mary left yesterday.
People beginning to recognize S.
S and I had tiff over Mary, he saying I was irked by her. I contending that for nearly a year there had been no emotional tension between her and me except fear he was going to explode.

March 13 [Sun.]
S never has been so well, sinus gone for first time since I knew him. He evidently needs very hot climate. This raises the old question of my job and of course Mary.

March 15 [Tues.]
Worked on S's book. He blue about it ­ so much to write. Tried to get him to plan to publish it when done rather than when dead.
A Mrs. Babcock from Akron looked me up here. Her husband knew S and said on introducing him to her, "This is one of the greatest men in the world. What books did you write?"

March 16 [Wed.]
At dinner [yesterday] S thought he recognized Bill Spratling. Rushed over to speak to him to get what seemed an utter denial in Spanish. A few minutes later a man came back saying his friend said Sherwood would not speak and to pretend he was Mexican. I couldn't make out whether Spratling thought S was snubbing him or what. He was very warm and wistful, apologizing for being a button manufacturer.
They are sailing on his yacht now.
Spratling has 102 "boys" working for him. He begged us to go to Taxco, but S said he didn't want to see Elizabeth, that such an experience left a scar. Spratling says Elizabeth happy ­ his boarder.

March 17 [Thur.]
Finally left (I very sad). Spent the night at Chilpancingo. Danced in the square. Boys saying, "Allo," "Goodbye," "Chesterfield."

March 19 [Sat.]
Mexico City
Spent Friday afternoon at Iguala, having got over the bad road by 12 ­ loitered in Square and didn't know we were missing Cardenas broadcast on the oil expropriation.2 Got up early. To Taxco, stopping there for second breakfast and to barely skirt the town. S talked of Elizabeth, saying he thought he would write her that she had no right to use the name "Mrs. Sherwood Anderson," which he says she has been doing right and left.
Got to Cuernavaca to find headlines over Cardenas taking oil wells. Got to Mexico City at 4.

March 20 [Sun.]
Embarrassment over getting away from Mary. S in a stew. He can't sleep and it suddenly dawns on me that oxygen lack makes breathing hard. This is the trouble with S, not too much stimulation. Begged him to leave at once.

March 22 [Tues.]
Villa Juarez
Off at 7. Mary sad ­ I too. Drive more gorgeous than down. S thrilled to be off alone
At Tamazunchale he turned car over to me saying tired and fell into deep sleep. I later learned it was aided by big bottle of tequila. I drove on to here, where after 3 attempts he staggered to the room, fell on bed, saying he did not have to fight to breathe. After 6 hours I waked him. He hadn't known a thing.

March 23 [Wed.]
To Monterrey at 2 to find gigantic parade of 50,000 just over.

March 24 [Thur.]
Brownsville, Texas
Left Continental Hotel at 8 over back road for Reynosa and Texas. Incredibly flat but beautiful. Crossed bridge with no trouble whatever with customs into Texas -- to Brownsville and old Miller Hotel.

March 25 [Fri.]
S happy here but coughing, alas. Says he can't settle in Acapulco, the only place he doesn't cough. To new port ­ caught 2 croakers.
My precious vacation is nearly gone, alas.

June 6 [Mon.]
Ripshin
S had a big day. Did a story which he naively thought would do for Red Book's $1500, when they had stipulated "romance" and about people who are in what might be called comfortable circumstances.
S very happy in spite of trouble with teeth and concern over my working more than 1/2 time.
Building door for Mary on porch so room won't seem like servant's quarters, also painting his cabin steps an adorable red.
I went over old manuscripts.

Aug. 2 [Tues.]
Ripshin
Read S note of Dreiser in Spain, adding that I could get sent on delegation if he would like to go. He said with feeling, "I have my battleground here."

Aug. 11 [Thur.]
Orson Welles gave parts of "I'm A Fool" over radio. We realized again from people who called us that everyone likes the story because it does not disturb anything.

Aug. 18 [Thur.]
S came up from his cabin this morning wistful and in a glow. Why couldn't everything like this last so perfectly? He was working well, liked the people [visiting], etc ­ but of course everything has to end. Why can't we hold the now?

Aug. 30 [Tues.]
S woke up reading book of humorous American stories in wild mood, saying, "It's a good thing I was born to teach these Americans how to write ­ those early boys so dull ­ even Poe's bad."

Sept. 1 [Thur.]
Woke up saying, "Only 32 more days." S said, "Don't think of the future. It's too sad." I keep thinking something will happen to keep me from having to take heavy job.3

Sept. 16 [Fri.]
Mother came with [Robert] Lovett and [Ferdinand] Schevill. Ferdinand read Whitman's "When Lilacs Once." Robert repeated the whole of Omar Khayyam.
When we heard of Tom Wolfe's death we said we read to him the Whitman. Sherwood terribly cut up over Tom's death ­ and I.

Sept. 26 [Mon.]
S very blue. Says he thinks it's the fall when he remembers each year his father going off and leaving his mother with no money for food or anything.

1. William Spratling, a prosperous silversmith in Taxco, had been a young professor of architecture at Tulane when Anderson first knew him in New Orleans in the 1920's. Elizabeth Prall, Anderson's third wife, was now living in Spratling's house.

2. Lazaro Cardenas, president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940, announced government expropriation of foreign-owned oil companies.

3. In October, Eleanor would take up her responsibilities as newly appointed head of the YWCA's National Industrial Department.

1940

Jan. 1 [Mon]
Marion, Va.
Sherwood writing at top speed. S doing story of John Emerson and others, which will also tell his own story (what he has thought).1

Jan. 2 [Tues.]
Mary left. Sherwood insists we cannot stay there [54 Washington Mews, NY] ­ she will be crushed.

April 26 [Fri.]
New York
Whit Burnett and Martha Foley ­ talked of O'Brien saying Shakespeare then -- -- -- then Sherwood. Declaration of Independence of American literature.

July 9 [Tues.]
Ripshin
Talk about speaker at Ben Hecht dinner saying how much S had meant to young men in German artists getting out from under Hitler.

July 10 [Wed.]
John Peale Bishop, Augusto Centeno, S and I at cocktails. Chief Spanish poet learned English from Winesburg. S parallels [D.H.] Lawrence but no crazy symbolism.

July 23 [Tues.]
New York
S found one really good writer at Olivet [College], a nearly blind woman who would only show her manuscript to him ­ Marion Judd.

July 27 [Sat.]
Lexington, Ky.
Ferdinand Schevill and S met me at Sandusky. Both in great mood ­ Olivet [writer's conference] a success. Mary Colum: "If you want to know what an artist is, it's Sherwood Anderson."
Took Ferdinand by Clyde. Saw Herman Hurd who was sweet ­ Story of his father buying a barrel of olives ­ Clyde people didn't buy. S and Herman reached in and got a handful each until whole barrel gone.

July 30 [Tues.]
Ripshin
Letter from lawyer [Sidney R.] Fleischer saying that the Irving Place group had gone to Barton's lawyer saying S was withholding Winesburg and demanding that it be released ­ very ugly.

July 31 [Wed.]
Went to Blountville [Tennessee] airport to meet Stanley Young. He thinks S one important remaining figure and thinks his memoirs would sell ­ wants them for Harcourt.

Aug. 3 [Sat.]
Ferdinand, S and I read one of Dreiser's letters at breakfast. S talked about how Dreiser's bad writing used to hurt him ­ then about how Dreiser's courage made up for bad writing.

Aug. 6 [Tues.]
S came in with an entire story written this morning, which he said he dreamed in the night, "Henry and 2 Women." Good, but no one will publish it and if they do will say he is sex-obsessed.

Aug. 10 [Sat.]
Long talk with Mother over whether S should change to Harcourt Brace.
Putting off talk with S about my job. He insists I give it up. I should have let him pay for everything so he would know what it costs us.
S irritated at Mazie's children. This morning he says it's because they bring back how messy Cornelia was and how he loathed it.

1. Anderson was now working on material for h is memoirs, which would be published posthumously (1942). John Emerson, wealthy motion picture producer and husband of author Anita Loos, had begun life as Clifton Paden and was a boyhood friend of Anderson in Clyde, Ohio.

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