302 Graduate Club
Chapel Hill, N. C.

January 27, 1938

Robert Penn Warren, Esq.
The Southern Review
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Dear Mr. Warren:

I enclose for your reading an essay, "James Harrington, Agrarian". Mr. Stone read this essay and wanted it for his new publication, The Examiner, but I did not know at the time that this quarterly does not pay for contributions. I have not pushed any comparisons or analogies between the position of Harrington and the Agrarian group, as you will see in reading the essay. However, the definiteness of Harrington's proposals--more definite, I should say, than the Agrarians have even intended to be--gives some interest, political interest, to the modern movement. More importantly, the agrarianism of Harrington is a substantial part of our American political tradition. As I told Mr. Ransom during the Christmas vacation, you Agrarians might well, in your traditionalism, appraise the persistent agrarian theory which came to the American Fathers out of England. Because Harrington is not well known--not nearly so well known as he should be to Americans conscious of our past--I have tried to be somewhat objective in the presentation of his theory.

303 Graduate Club
Chapel Hill, N. C.

May 18, 1939

Dear Mr. Warren,--

I enclose an essay on criticism and literature departments (unlike Mr. Ransom's in that it is written from the point of view of a student); which deals with a common situation which you probably understand. I sent this essay first to the Saturday Review (which pretends to be interested in the problem), and Mr. Stevens seemed favorable until Mr. Canby came back from somewhere and read it. When they wish to slap the hands of the professors they get the sort of snivel-drivel that Jones puts out; who has got so fat off the system that he can safely give it a mild rebuke. This essay is a little academic and technical: that seemed to me the only way to attack the issue from my angle without unleashing a personal tirade against professors I have had and have not liked. In magazines like The English Journal there seems to be a conspiracy of silence against this type of essay: it's all right to argue the issue if you're a professor, but for a student to complain about what he's getting labels him as an upstart and his opinion as out of the question.

over

Chapel Hill, N. Car.

October 8, 1939

Dear Mr. Brooks, et al.:

I am sending you an essay, "Conversion in Poetry,"
Mr. Ransom says it "sees" too much, which therefore
makes me, he thinks, like you and Mr. Empson. I do
not object. Maybe you will see something in the essay.
I am consoled that sometimes John Ransom can't see
anything, such as "dusty death." I hope I am thinking
straight in this essay; in any case I'd appreciate
your report.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
CHAPEL HILL

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Box 344

February 22, 1940

Cleanth Brooks, Esq.
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, La.

Dear Mr. Brooks:

This letter is about Mr. Archibald Henderson, Jr., who
is applying for a fellowship in English there. I have
just written Dr. Pipkin about him. He is applying there
at my suggestion, and I offered to write this letter.

He was graduated in economics and political science and
history here two years ago, and held a graduate appointment,
$600, in political science for a year; then he changed to
English, and will receive his M. A. this spring or summer.
His change to English must have been made because of sheer
interest; he has done extremely well with it, and in a re-
markably short time has developed an unusual critical
faculty. Of all the graduate students I know here, and
there are a good many, Henderson seems to be one best
able to distinguish the good and bad in literature; and
he reads the best modern criticism. Let me say, here,
that though his interest in critical, he has done good
graduate work; he is not a romantic misfit or a "case,"
and he takes things as he comes to them. His thesis is,
I believe, the influence of Hazlitt on Keats.

Henderson has real native intelligence, and he is
rapidly acquiring a lot of information, tasty information,
about literature. He will not be the usual graduate
student; however, he understands the methods, and can do
anything the usual product can. I believe that working
with you and Warren would really bring him out. He is
neat, intelligent, and well balanced; when he says some-
thing, he says it forcibly, so that you listen. He really
ought to be a first-rate teacher, though he has not yet
taught. He wants to get away from here because, as he
says, he lives under the shadow of his father; and I
understand his father can offer him very little financial
assistance. I hope you will do all possible for him; he
is the sort of student a critic will value, and he has
likewise made a fine impression on rigorous scholars. He
is thoroughly dependable.