Glenway Wescott Personally Glenway Wescott Personally A BIOGRAPHY Jerry Rosco The University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street, 3rd Floor Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059 uwpress.wisc.edu 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England eurospanbookstore.com Copyright © 2002 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys- tem, or transmitted, in any format or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without written permission of the University of Wisconsin Press, except in the case of brief quotations em- bedded in critical articles and reviews. 5 4 3 2 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rosco, Jerry. Glenway Wescott personally : a biography / Jerry Rosco. pp. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-299-17730-0 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Wescott, Glenway, 1901– 2. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. 3. Amer- icans—France—Paris—History—20th century. 4. New York (N.Y.)—Intellectual life—20th century. 5. Paris (France)—Intellectual life—20th century. 6. Gay men—United States— Biography. 7. Wisconsin—Biography. I. Title. PS3545.E827 Z84 2002 813'.52—dc21 2001005410 ISBN 978-0-299-17734-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) To my great friend Peter Adelman. Also in thanks to John Stevenson and Ian Young. And in memory of Glenway’s editor, Robert Phelps (1923–89), and my companion, Jack Bissell (1962–95). Contents Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv 1. Wisconsin Farm Boy to Midwest Prodigy 3 2. The Next Step: New York and Europe 21 3. The Expatriate Twenties 32 4. Paris and a New Family 47 5. Lost in America: The Thirties 62 6. The Little Masterpiece and Willie Maugham 89 7. The Bestseller 108 8. Dr. Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research 126 9. Inside the Circle: Farewell to George 152 10. Beyond Fiction: The Valley Submerged 164 11. The Great Divide and Images of Truth 191 12. “Quail and Strawberries” 217 13. Golden Leaves and the Birthday Book 244 Epilogue: Other Voices and Continual Lessons 260 Notes 271 Index 297 vii Illustrations Glenway Wescott in Paris, 1925 81 Glenway Wescott, Paris, 1930 82 Glenway and Lloyd Wescott with Monroe Wheeler, 1934 83 “Acteon,” advertisement 83 Monroe Wheeler, W. Somerset Maugham, and Wescott at Stone-blossom 84 Nelson Lansdale 85 Baroness Pauline de Rothschild 85 Ralph Pomeroy with Wescott 86 Raymond Mortimer visits Wescott at Stone-blossom 86 Wescott with Alfred C. Kinsey at the Institute for Sex Research, 1952 87 Wescott and his mother at Stone-blossom, 1959 87 Wescott and John Connolly in the farmhouse kitchen 88 Wescott’s elegant script, from “The Valley Submerged” 88 Wescott and Wheeler at Stone-blossom, 1959 181 “Luncheon at Haymeadows,” painting by Harold Bruder 181 Katherine Anne Porter with Wheeler and Wescott, Summer 1960 182 Anatole Pohorilenko, 1977 182 Wescott with attentive barn cat at Haymeadows 183 Dinner conversation with Wescott 184 At home on the farm, Wescott in denim overall 185 Wescott and Marianne Moore at the artists’ colony, August 20, 1967 186 ix