Archibald Macleish

Archibald MacLeish May 7 1892 – April 20 1982 Was An American Poet Writer And The Librarian Of Congress. He Is Associated With The Modernist School Of Poetry. He Received Three Pulitzer Prizes For His Work. Early Years MacLeish Was Born In Glencoe Illinois. His Father Andrew MacLeish Worked As A Dry Goods Merchant. His Mother Martha Hillard Was A College Professor And Had Served As President Of Rockford College. He Grew Up On An Estate Bordering Lake Michigan. He Attended The Hotchkiss School From 1907 To 1911 Before Entering Yale University Where He Majored In English Was Elected To Phi Beta Kappa And Was Selected For The Skull And Bones Society. He Then Enrolled In Harvard Law School Where He Served As An Editor Of The Harvard Law Review. In 1916 He Married Ada Hitchcock. His Studies Were Interrupted By World War I In Which He Served First As An Ambulance Driver And Later As A Captain Of Artillery. He Graduated From Law School In 1919 Taught Law For A Semester For The Government Department At Harvard Then Worked Briefly As An Editor For The New Republic. He Next Spent Three Years Practicing Law. Expatriatism In 1923 MacLeish Left His Law Firm And Moved With His Wife To Paris France Where They Joined The Community Of Literary Expatriates That Included Such Members As Gertrude Stein And Ernest Hemingway. They Also Became Part Of The Famed Coterie Of Riviera Hosts Gerald And Sarah Murphy Which Included Hemingway Zelda And F. Scott Fitzgerald John Dos Passos Fernand Léger Jean Cocteau Pablo Picasso John O'Hara Cole Porter Dorothy Parker And Robert Benchley. He Returned To America In 1928. From 1930 To 1938 He Worked As A Writer And Editor For Fortune Magazine During Which He Also Became Increasingly Politically Active Especially With Anti-Fascist Causes. Librarian Of Congress American Libraries Has Called MacLeish "one Of The Hundred Most Influential Figures In Librarianship During The 20th Century" In The United States. MacLeish’s Career In Libraries And Public Service Began Not With A Burning Desire From Within But From A Combination Of The Urging Of A Close Friend Felix Frankfurter And As MacLeish Put It “The President Decided I Wanted To Be Librarian Of Congress.” Franklin Roosevelt’s Nomination Of MacLeish Was A Controversial And Highly Political Maneuver Fraught With Several Challenges. First The Current Librarian Of Congress Herbert Putnam Who Had Served At The Post For 40 Years Needed To Be Persuaded To Retire From The Position. In Order To Be Persuaded Putnam Was Made Librarian Emeritus. Secondly Franklin D. Roosevelt Desired Someone With Similar Political Sensibilities To Fill The Post And To Help Convince The American Public That The New Deal Was Working And That He Had The Right To Run For An Unprecedented Third Term In Office. MacLeish’s Occupation As A Poet And His History As An Expatriate In Paris Rankled Many Republicans. Lastly MacLeish’s Lack Of A Degree In Library Sciences Or Any Training Whatsoever Aggravated The Librarian Community Especially The American Library Association Which Was Campaigning For One Of Its Members To Be Nominated. Despite These Challenges President Roosevelt And Justice Frankfurter Felt That The Mixture Of MacLeish’s Love For Literature And His Abilities To Organize And Motivate People Exemplified By His Days In Law School Would Be Just What The Library Of Congress Needed. MacLeish Sought Support From Expected Places Such As The President Of Harvard MacLeish’s Current Place Of Work But Found None. It Was Support From Unexpected Places Such As M. Llewellyn Raney Of The University Of Chicago Libraries Which Alleviated The ALA Letter Writing Campaign Against MacLeish’s Nomination. Raney Pointed Out To The Detractors That “MacLeish Was A Lawyer Like Putnam…he Was Equally At Home In The Arts As One Of The Four Leading American Poets Now Alive…and While It Was True That He Had Not Attended A Professional School Of Library Science Neither Had Thirty-Four Of Thirty-Seven Persons Presently Occupying Executive Positions At The Library Of Congress.” The Main Republican Arguments Against MacLeish’s Nomination From Within Congress Was That He Was A Poet And Was A “fellow Traveler” Or Sympathetic To Communist Causes. Calling To Mind Differences With The Party He Had Over The Years MacLeish Avowed That “no One Would Be More Shocked To Learn I Am A Communist Than The Communists Themselves.” In Congress MacLeish’s Main Advocate Was Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley Democrat From Kentucky. With President Roosevelt’s Support And Senator Barkley’s Skillful Defense In The United States Senate Victory In A Roll Call Vote With Sixty-Three Senators Voting In Favor Of MacLeish’s Appointment Was Achieved. MacLeish Found The Library Of Congress To Be Extremely Disorganized As Might Be Expected Citation Needed After Being Run By Someone For Forty Years Constantly Trying To Increase The Size Of The Collection. Citation Needed MacLeish Became Privy To Roosevelt’s Views On The Library During A Private Meeting With The President. According To Roosevelt The Pay Levels Were Too Low And Many People Would Need To Be Removed. Soon Afterward MacLeish Joined Putnam For A Luncheon In New York. At The Meeting Putnam Relayed His Desire To Come To The Library For Work And That His Office Would Be Down The Hall From MacLeish’s. This Meeting Further Crystallized For MacLeish That As Librarian Of Congress He Would Be “an Unpopular Newcomer Disturbing The Status Quo.” Library Of Congress Reading Room It Was A Question From MacLeish’s Daughter Mimi Which Led Him To Realize That “Nothing Is More Difficult For The Beginning Librarian Than To Discover What Profession He Was Engaged.” Mimi His Daughter Had Inquired About What Her Daddy Was To Do All Day “…hand Out Books?” Similar To Any Incoming Executive To A New Position Citation Needed MacLeish Created His Own Job Description And Set Out To Learn About How The Library Was Currently Organized. In October 1944 MacLeish Described That He Did Not Set Out To Reorganize The Library Rather “…one Problem Or Another Demanded Action And Each Problem Solved Led On To Another That Needed Attention.” MacLeish’s Chief Accomplishments Had Their Start In Instituting Daily Staff Meetings With Division Chiefs The Chief Assistant Librarian And Other Administrators. He Then Set About Setting Up Various Committees On Various Projects Including Acquisitions Policy Fiscal Operations Cataloging And Outreach. The Committees Alerted MacLeish To Various Problems Throughout The Library. First And Foremost Under Putnam The Library Was Acquiring More Books Than It Could Catalog. A Report In December 1939 Found That Over One-Quarter Of The Library’s Collection Had Not Yet Been Cataloged. MacLeish Solved The Problem Of Acquisitions And Cataloging Through Establishing Another Committee Instructed To Seek Advice From Specialists Outside Of The Library Of Congress. The Committee Found Many Subject Areas Of The Library To Be Adequate And Many Other Areas To Be Surprisingly Inadequately Provided For. A Set Of General Principles On Acquisitions Was Then Developed To Ensure That Though It Was Impossible To Collect Everything The Library Of Congress Would Acquire The Bare Minimum Of Canons To Meet Its Mission. These Principles Included Acquiring All Materials Necessary To Members Of Congress And Government Officers All Materials Expressing And Recording The Life And Achievements Of The People Of The United States And Materials Of Other Societies Past And Present Which Are Of The Most Immediate Concern To The Peoples Of The United States. Secondly MacLeish Set About Reorganizing The Operational Structure. Leading Scholars In Library Science Were Assigned A Committee To Analyze The Library’s Managerial Structure. The Committee Issued A Report A Mere Two Months After It Was Formed In April 1940 Stating That A Major Restructuring Was Necessary. This Was No Surprise To MacLeish Who Had Thirty-Five Divisions Under Him. He Divided The Library’s Functions Into Three Departments Administration Processing And Reference. All Existing Divisions Were Then Assigned As Appropriate. By Including Library Scientists From Inside And Outside The Library Of Congress MacLeish Was Able To Gain Faith From The Library Community That He Was On The Right Track. Within A Year MacLeish Had Completely Restructured The Library Of Congress Making It Work More Efficiently Bringing The Library To The Center To “report On The Mystery Of Things.” Last But Not Least MacLeish Promoted The Library Of Congress Through Various Forms Of Public Advocacy. Perhaps His Greatest Display Of Public Advocacy Was Requesting A Budget Increase Of Over A Million Dollars In His March 1940 Budget Proposal To The United States Congress. While The Library Did Not Receive The Full Increase It Did Receive An Increase Of $367 591 The Largest One-Year Increase To Date. Much Of The Increase Went Toward Improved Pay Levels Increased Acquisitions In Under Served Subject Areas And New Positions. World War II During World War II MacLeish Also Served As Director Of The War Department's Office Of Facts And Figures And As The Assistant Director Of The Office Of War Information. These Jobs Were Heavily Involved With Propaganda Which Was Well-Suited To MacLeish's Talents He Had Written Quite A Bit Of Politically Motivated Work In The Previous Decade. He Spent A Year As The Assistant Secretary Of State For Public Affairs And A Further Year Representing The U.S. At The Creation Of UNESCO. After This He Retired From Public Service And Returned To Academia. Return To Writing Despite A Long History Of Criticizing Marxism MacLeish Came Under Fire From Conservative Politicians Of The 1940s And 1950s Including J. Edgar Hoover And Joseph McCarthy. Much Of This Was Due To His Involvement With Left-Wing Organizations Like The League Of American Writers And To His Friendships With Prominent Left-Wing Writers. In 1949 MacLeish Became The Boylston Professor Of Rhetoric And Oratory At Harvard. He Held This Position Until His Retirement In 1962. In 1959 His Play J.B. Won The Pulitzer Prize For Drama. From 1963 To 1967 He Was The John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer At Amherst College. Around 1969/70 He Met Bob Dylan Who Describes This Encounter In The Third Chapter Of Chronicles Vol. 1. MacLeish Greatly Admired T. S. Eliot And Ezra Pound And His Work Shows Quite A Bit Of Their Influence. He Was The Literary Figure That Played The Most Important Role In Freeing Ezra Pound From St. Elisabeths Hospital In Washington DC Where He Was Incarcerated For High Treason Between 1946 And 1958. In Fact Some Critics Charge That MacLeish's Poetry Is Derivative And Adds Little Of His Own Voice Citation Needed . MacLeish's Early Work Was Very Traditionally Modernist And Accepted The Contemporary Modernist Position Holding That A Poet Was Isolated From Society. His Most Well-Known Poem "Ars Poetica " Contains A Classic Statement Of The Modernist Aesthetic "A Poem Should Not Mean / But Be." He Later Broke With Modernism's Pure Aesthetic. MacLeish Himself Was Greatly Involved In Public Life And Came To Believe That This Was Not Only An Appropriate But An Inevitable Role For A Poet. Legacy MacLeish Worked To Promote The Arts Culture And Libraries. Among Other Impacts MacLeish Was The First Librarian Of Congress To Begin The Process Of Naming What Would Become The United States Poet Laureate. The Poet Laureate Consultant In Poetry To The Library Of Congress Came From A Donation In 1937 From Archer M. Huntington A Wealthy Ship Builder. Like Many Donations It Came With Strings Attached. In This Case Huntington Wanted The Poet Joseph Auslander To Be Named To The Position. MacLeish Found Little Value In Auslander’s Writing. However MacLeish Was Happy That Having Auslander In The Post Attracted Many Other Poets Such As Robinson Jeffers And Robert Frost To Hold Readings At The Library. He Set About Establishing The Consultantship As A Revolving Post Rather Than A Lifetime Position. 18 In 1943 MacLeish Displayed His Love Of Poetry And The Library Of Congress By Naming Louise Bogan To The Position. Bogan Who Had Long Been A Hostile Critic Of MacLeish’s Own Writing Asked MacLeish Why He Appointed Her To The Position MacLeish Replied That She Was The Best Person For The Job. For MacLeish Promoting The Library Of Congress And The Arts Was Vitally More Important Than Petty Personal Conflicts. In The June 5 1972 Issue Of The American Scholar MacLeish Laid Out In An Essay His Philosophy On Libraries And Librarianship Further Shaping Modern Thought On The Subject. MacLeish Remarked In The Essay That Libraries Are More Than A Mere Collection Of Books. "If Books Are Reports On The Mysteries Of The World And Our Existence In It Libraries Remain Reporting On The Human Mind That Particular Mystery Still Remains As Countries Lose Their Grandeur And Universities Are Not Certain What They Are." For MacLeish Libraries Are A Massive Report On The Mysteries Of Human Kind. Two Collections Of MacLeish's Papers Are Held At The Beinecke Rare Book And Manuscript Library These Are The Archibald MacLeish Collection YCAL MSS 38 And Archibald MacLeish Collection Addition YCAL MSS 269 . Awards 1933 Pulitzer Prize For Poetry Conquistador 1953 Pulitzer Prize For Poetry Collected Poems 1917–1952 1953 National Book Award Collected Poems 1917–1952 1953 Bollingen Prize In Poetry 1959 Pulitzer Prize For Drama J.B. 1959 Tony Award For Best Play J.B. 1965 Academy Award For Documentary Feature The Eleanor Roosevelt Story 1977 Presidential Medal Of Freedom Works Poetry "The Wild Old Wicked Man" And Other Poems 1968 Actfive 1948 Actfive And Other Poems 1948 Class Poem 1915 Collected Poems 1952 Conquistador 1932 Einstein 1929 Elpenor 1933 Frescoes For Mr. Rockefeller's City 1933 Later Poems 1951-1962 New Found Land New Found Land 1930 New And Collected Poems 1917-1976 1976 Nobodaddy 1926 Poems 1924-1933 1935 Songs For Eve 1954 Songs For A Summer's Day 1915 Streets In The Moon 1928 The Collected Poems Of Archibald MacLeish 1962 The Hamlet Of A. Macleish 1928 The Happy Marriage 1924 The Human Season Selected Poems 1926-1972 1972 The Pot Of Earth 1925 Tower Of Ivory 1917 Prose A Continuing Journey 1968 A Time To Act Selected Addresses 1943 A Time To Speak 1941 America Was Promises 1939 American Opinion And The War The Rede Lecture 1942 Art Education And The Creative Process 1954 Champion Of A Cause Essays And Addresses On Librarianship 1971 Freedom Is The Right To Choose 1951 Jews In America 1936 Letters Of Archibald MacLeish 1907-1982 1983 Poetry And Experience 1961 Poetry And Opinion The Pisan Cantos Of Ezra Pound 1974 Public Speech 1936 Riders On The Earth Essays & Recollections 1978 The American Cause The American Cause 1941 The Dialogues Of Archibald MacLeish And Mark Van Doren 1964 The Eleanor Roosevelt Story 1965 The Irresponsibles A Declaration 1940 Drama Air Raid 1938 An Evening's Journey To Conway 1967 Colloquy For The States 1943 Herakles 1967 J.B. 1958 Panic 1935 Scratch 1971 Six Plays 1980 The American Story Ten Broadcasts 1944 The Fall Of The City 1937 The Great American Fourth Of July Parade 1975 The Land Of The Free 1938 The Trojan Horse 1952 The Wild Old Wicked Man 1968 This Music Crept By Me On The Waters 1953 Three Short Plays 1961 Union Pacific Ballet 1934 read less