THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

WASHINGTON 25, D. C.

January 12, 1951

Dear William Carlos Williams:

In order that travel may be authorized and Government
Transportation Requests forwarded to you without delay, prior
to your contemplated visit to Washington to attend a meeting
of the Fellows in American Letters of the Library of Congress,
we would appreciate a detailed reply to the following questions
concerning your trip to Washington:

Proposed itinerary and dates of travel (if possible please
give specific hours of departure for Washington and departure
from Washington):

Mode of travel: Railroad or Airline (name one):

If by train give type of accomodation: Coach or Pullman:

Completion and return of this data (this copy will do) at
your earliest convenience will greatly facilitate arrangements
for your travel and the preparation of vouchers for your signature
upon your arrival here.

A return envelope, not requiring postage stamps, is enclosed
for your convenience.

Dr. William Carlos Williams
9 Ridge Road
Rutherford, New Jersey

Poetry Room
L of O Marhh 10 52

Dear Williams:

We were all damned sorry you couldn't get to the Meeting.

A very important one, as it turned out, and of course in due course you'll receive a report on the doings. Meanwhile, however, I write on another matter--an unofficial inquiry, authorized by Dr. Evans, as to whether you will accept the Chair of Poetry for the coming year, or two years, if at the end of the first it should prove to be an acceptable idea to you and the Library (length of tenure is supposed to be kept thus flexible.) The pay, as you may know, is now $7500. The duties, while not wholly fictitious (as Alexis Leger put it) are somewhat nominal--you can do as much or as little as you like. I myself come in only for three hours or less in the morning, otherwise don't appear except for such as a conference. So you get plenty of time for your own work, and moreover Dr. Evans this year announced that the Consultant could feel free to travel round, particularly if it were in order to make appearances, attend meetings, etc., etc., in connection with literary doings. I do hope you will feel like accepting. There is, as you may have gathered from our letters, a crise about the poetry programs, and we shall need someone who will keep up the guerilla war on those elements who tend too much to kowtow to old Mrs. Whittall. (Money money.) Anyway, will you consider it, and let me have an unofficial answer as soon as you can? Then, if you can say yes, we'll repeat it all more marmoreally.

yours--

poetry room L of C

March 17 52

Dear Bill Williams:

Can't tell you how delighted I am that you will accept the Consultantship, if pushed! The Official Push will follow eventually, but in the meantime I just want to reassure you about it--it ain't all that alarming, it's quite easy to adjust to, and I've found I can deal with the normal routine stuff in two or three morning hours a day--not bad at all. Rest of the day I quietly stay away. And at the annual meeting, Luther Evans remarked that he thought it a good thing for the incumbent to feel free to attend meetings, give lectures here and there (for pay, too), as much as he wished. So you see. (I've myself occasionally taken as much as a week off, when there were Things to be Done in New York that could reasonably justify it.) Also, as for living quarters, perhaps you'd consider ours? Very convenient and pleasant, five minutes walk from the Library, and the very nice scatterbrained landlady would think be glad to have you. $65 per month. You could also, if you want, inherit our garage, round the corner, $5 per month. It's a nice, real, semi-negro neighborhood, one of the best I consider in Washington, not too bloody done up. What I'd suggest is that at some point this spring you come down for a day or two and look it all over--we could even put you up, if you don't mind sleeping in the dining-room. Consider it, anyway.

yrs

321 Second St.S.E.Washington D C

May 10 52

Dear Bill:

Dr. Adkinson yesterday informed me that there had been
a series of crossed letters between Dr. Evans and yourself, of which the purport
was that you must wait and see! He then added that as he was himself to be in
New York for a week at the end of the month, he might then try to arrange to
see you. The idea being to put you au courant with the poetry-recording project,
the project for endowed fellowships, and, of course, the famous issue of the po-
etry programs (though this was soft-pedalled.) All the discussion was most
amiable, and it may be that they have had a change of heart, though I doubt it.
More probably they hope to persuade you that there is no real problem with Mrs.
Whittall, that it's just a matter of humoring the old lady, and letting her play,
for so many years as god may allot to her, and that Basil Rathbone reading
at random isn't so bad, after all. Anyway, I counter-proposed that as you might
be attending the Institute luncheon on the 28th we might all foregather, and
to this Dr. Adkinson assented. I hadn't myself intended to go up, but if you are
planning to go, and could arrange to meet us, I will arrange to go myself. Would it
be possible for you to come in town Wednesday morning, and to my place, 332 East
33d Street, at half-past ten or eleven? Or if that isn't convenient for you, will
you suggest another hour? It occurred to me that if this did suit you, we could then
go on up to the luncheon together. (The discussion shouldn't take very long--half
an hour or so.) I thought too I'd ask Leonie Adams along, as she was present at the
meeting, knows exactly what went on, and what is going on, and thus between us we
could prevent any glib chicanery, at which these boys are unrivalled experts.
Anyway, will you let me know if the 28th at that time is agreeable? or suggest an
alternative? And I'll then fix it with Adkinson and Leonie. I do hope you can
manage it--it seems to me to offer rather a good, because casual, opportunity for
giving the whole thing a turn in the right direction. How necessary that is, you
have no doubt divined. Typical of the entire situation is the fact that my report
to the Librarian and Fellows on the annual meeting, has, in effect, been edited
by Mr. Gooch and the Reference Department with a view to its not giving offense
to Mrs. Whittall IF by any chance it should fall into her hands! I pointed out that
this was not a matter to which we should give even a moment's consideration, and
most improper, and in view of the editing have requested that a full copy of the
minutes of the meeting be sent to the Fellows. No answer to that yet--we shall see
I enclose a letter from Allen Tate--it might interest you to see how he feels
about it. Can I have it back? ... And let me have a line.

Poetry Room

Library of Congress

May 14 52

Dear Bill:

Many thanks for your note, and of course I'm delighted
that you can come in on Wednesday the 28th--any time after ten-thirty.
Adkinson seems to be reasonably sure that he can come then, but I
suggest we meet anyway, even if we have to make another date with
him--which however appears unlikely. I'm asking Leonie to come along
too. Weight of numbers may assist us a little! Tactics which they
employ sometimes with deadly effect, as Leonie can testify. And will
you bring along Allen's letter if you think of it? I want it for the
files here.

We're all very glad indeed to hear you're on the mind--
more power to you.

I've written Miss Geffen that I might or might not go up
to that luncheon. Perhaps we could all go together, if so inclined.
I'm of two minds about it.

yrs

I'm going up the 27th, afternoon--if any complications, I'm in the
phone book--Mu 4-6699.

332 £ 33

332 EAST 33 STREET
NEW YORK CITY
MURRAY HILL 4-6699

Wednesday May 28
4 p m

Dear Bill:

What a damned shame--Adkinson and I were sitting in here from ten-thirty to twelve, and I even ran up Rutherford, while, it appears, you and Leonie were sitting on the steps outside. The bell doesn't work, and I didn't know my small notice to that effect had been removed--and the alcoholic janitor didn't know I was here--hence the pyramids. All of which I found out when I went belatedly up to the Institute lunch, and saw Leonie. I'm awful sorry. For it would have been the best way to take things over. I'm afraid Adkinson or Evans will now try to stalk you alone, and I can't help wondering whether this oughtn't to be avoided--but that's up to you. Best, of course, if you could get down to D. C. on the other hand, I'll be back up here round June 19th, and maybe we could tempt one of the boys up here then, if that would suit you? Meanwhile, these tears of bafflement.

all the best

Toured

332 EAST 38 STREET
NEW YORK CITY
MURRAY HILL 4-6699

Sept 1 52

Dear Florence:

Lest you think us pretty damned
curmudgeohly, this is just to say that on my arrival
here yesterday I found your note roosting in the box,
where of course it has been since July 3d. (We have no
one here who can be relied on to forward mail, so it
simply has to await our return.) But I'm sorry, and
sorry too that we didn't see you fellows again; but
glad on the other hand that your visit to D C was some-
what reassuring to Bill, as I had hoped it would be.
There's really nothing for him to worry about. He must
all firmly like myself make it clear at once that he
will appear in the office in the morning, somewhere
round nine-fortyfive or ten, stay till twelve-thirty
or quarter to one, and then get the hell out of there;
the idea being that appointments must be made during
those hours. Phyllis Armstrong can be relied upon to
sustain him in this, and in every way. Furthermore, if he
will do this, the two of us will have gone some way
towards establishing a precedent. As for the Whittall,
and all that, I'm sure if he's just patiently and sym-
pathetically stubborn about their programs they'll end
by coming to their senses. But Bill I am sure will have
his own way of dealing with this, and Phyllis will of
ourse brief him about the somewhat tawdry background.

Poetry Room
Library of Congress

Sept. 8.52

Dear Florence:

I am most terribly sorry to hear this about Bill.
So, of course, are we all. It's a wicked shame, and all I can say is--as if
that did any good--that I hope the report will be favorable, and that the
enforced rest will really and completely turn the trick, so that he can
get to Washington. I'm sure the change would do him a world of good--
and as I don't tire of repeating, he can truly take it easy here, on THAT
score he needn't worry for a second. Miss Armstrong is a quite miraculous
assistant, who thinks of everything, knows everything, anticipates every-
thing. And of course, as he must realize, there are many features of the job
that are really fun!--Anyway, do let us know how things go with him, and
give him our love, and not merely officially. And if you're by any chance
in New York do give us a ring and look in on us--we'll be there over the
coming weekend, and then from Wednesday till Monday of next week as well,
and we'd love to see you. And meanwhile my very best to you both.

12 Brunswick Square

London WC 1

Jan 10 53

Dear Bill:

A note from Norman Holmes Pearson about other matters mentions incidentally that you and Floss are greatly distressed by a smear campaign against you for being supposedly pinko. Phyllis Armstrong had made some mention of this, too, but I hadn't really taken it seriously. I've written Katherine Biddle to suggest that she confer with Phyllis in an endeavor to find out where it comes from, if in the Lower Depths of the Library, as I suspect, and how to scotch it. But in the meantime I would seriously, SERIOUSLY, urge you to march straight down to take the Chair as if absolutely nothing had happened--thus putting the burden of action or proof on them, whoever they are. Pronto. And as casually as possible. Quite apart from your own predicament, I have good reason to suspect that in the absence of a Consultant much valuably ground is being lost, the whole position of the Consultant weakened or undermined; the WCFM broadcasts have been suspended "for lack of funds", for example, whereas I'm damned sure that something could be done. If you do go down, ask Phyllis to give you a copy of my farewell "report" to Dr. Basler, for one thing, and for another, arrange at once to meet Huntington Cairns to ask him for news, if he has any, on my application to the Mellon Patch for a renewed grant for poetry recordings and other functions (including broadcasts) of the Chair of Poetry. He was expecting to interview them sometime in the fall. If they've said No, he might perhaps have other suggestions to make... Let me have a line, anyway, and I do hope you'll hie yourself down there and mop them up. And if there's anything at all I can do to help, let me know. We expect to be here for another month or so, then back to dirty third street. Hellish weather, and both of us sick as dogs with flu, and me with a burst eardrum, no fun, but now we perk up a little.

our very best to you both

Jean Putnam, at WCFM, would be worth talking to also Lee Anderson--between them they might come up with something.

12 Brunswick Square

London W C 1

Jan 23 53

Dear Bill and Floss:

Very glad to get Floss's letter, but to say that I am dismayed would be to put it mildly. I'm profoundly shocked by the whole business, and Katherine Biddle's account only makes it look worse. I'm damned sorry for you both, not that that helps any, and as for the Library and these in it, I can only say that it confirms everything I ever thought of them. They are sly, stupid, illiterate, cowardly, and cruel, and to have taken advantage like this of Bill's ill health is the last straw. I'm afraid I agree with you, and with Francis Biddle, that Bill should resign, and with a resounding statement. And that, I fear, should be followed in due course by our mass resignation as Fellows, unless the L of C comes across with a complete backdown, which is obviously most unlikely. But I can't help thinking it's all part of a larger and worser pattern: what I suspect is that this assault on Bill is all of a piece with Basler's statement that there will be no meeting of the Fellows this year (or that he hasn't heard any mention of any) -- with no Consultant, and no Fellows turning up to check on things, they can't go ahead playing marbles with Mrs Whittall, with poor Phyllos Armstrong simply taking orders. All pretty sickening, and all adding up I'm afraid to the fact that they want to be rid of us, and are just going to let us die on the vine. So, after discussing it with Tom Eliot, and his agreeing with me that as the last incumbent of the Chair I could be considered to be still the acting chairman of the Fellows, I've written to Cleanth, suggesting that he and Red Warren call a rump meeting in New York to consider what should be done. I've suggested that maybe we should call a meeting ourselves, with or without Library sanction, and even perhaps at Washington, and with resignation in mind. The record has now become truly preposterous--the withdrawal of the Bollingen Prize, in which left us comparatively functionless; the failure to take any action with regard to our proposal of endowed Fellowships; the total disregard of the Consultant's advice in re the Whittall Poetry Fund and lectures; the "editing" and to some extent the suppression (by deletion) of the Consultant's report; the failure so far to appoint the new Fellows elected at last year's meeting; and now this-- I don't see how with any dignity, or a shred of it, we can stay on. Anyway, you'll be hearing from Cleanth, and I can only hope there will be Action! --Meanwhile, of course we're both awful sorry to hear about Bill's set-back, and I trust that department at least is improving. And we look forward to seeing you both in a month or two, when we should be back in 33d Street.

Our very best to you both--