Friday, June 29, 2018

New Deal Art, "Robert Louis Stevenson," and the WPA's celebration of poetry

Above: "Robert Louis Stevenson," a lithograph by Douglas Crane, while Crane was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1937. Robert Louis Stevenson is perhaps most-remembered for some of his novels, like Treasure Island, but his book of poetry, A Child's Garden of Verses, has been widely published too, loved by many generations. Image courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Above: California author Lauren Coodley (Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual; Napa Valley Chronicles; California: A Multicultural Documentary History; and others) has long enjoyed the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson, and recently published her own book of poetry, The Same River Twice (Sugartown Publishing, 2018). In her poem, "Aunt Evelyn," about a lively and unconventional relative, Coodley writes: "I never asked enough questions, never paid enough attention, never expressed my affection, If you are anywhere, hear me now at last." This reminded me of one of my great-grandaunts, who had a tremendous amount of family history knowledge, and enjoyed telling it, but she passed away long before I was old enough to appreciate family history. I have a lot of questions for her now, but too late. Image above scanned from a personal copy.

Above: "The Poet," a lithograph by William Samuel Schwartz (1896-1977), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1937. The WPA's Federal Writers' Project (FWP) gave many struggling journalists, novelists, poets, etc. jobs during the tough times of the 1930s. They wrote and published well over 1,000 books, pamphlets, magazine articles, and more. And poems written by FWP writers were included in the 1937 WPA book, American Stuff: An Anthology of Prose and VerseImage courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Above: Quite a few WPA writers had the opportunity to have their poetry included in the July 1938 edition of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. A review of the issue noted: "The poems were chosen with evident care, and while a number of poets are concerned with current problems and issues, and belong to the left wing, both politically and poetically, the emphasis has been placed on literary value, rather than timeliness... The issue has attracted widespread attention, as exhibiting, and in America's foremost magazine of verse, the grade of work being turned out by poets on the WPA" ("New Books Passed in Review," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 7, 1938). Image courtesy of the Poetry Foundationused here for educational, non-commercial purposes (follow the link to visit their site and also read the poetry of the WPA writers).

No comments:

Post a Comment