|
White
arrived in New York in April 1939. His first attempts at finding
a US publisher for Happy
Valley were unsuccessful and he decided to tour. He travelled
by train to California and from there to New Mexico.
|
to Jean Scott Rogers |
'I
spent ten of the most satisfactory days of my life in New
Mexico. So satisfactory that I am thinking of dispersing All
my worldly possessions and settling there in an adobe hovel
[...] Desert is hardly the right word[...] New Mexico is
all pink earth, grey sage-brush, blue mountains, some of them
still streaked with snow[...] So I went up to Taos[...]
on a magnificent plateau surrounded by the Sangre de Christos.
Here I lapsed into a pair of blue jeans[...] and spent about
a week riding the mesa on a hired horse, and talking to local
celebrities[...] Dorothy Brett, who went out to Taos with
the D.H.Lawrences[...] took me up to see Frieda'.
[Letters 17]
|
Frieda
[Lawrence] was 'not at all the turgid earth mother he imagined he
would find guarding the shrine but a witty and amusing woman'. [Marr
184]
While
in New Mexico, White met Walter Willard (Spud) Johnson. Spud ran
a small newspaper, wrote poetry, and did 'literary odd jobs'. 'White
and Spud [...] became lovers, but despite this turn of events White
left Taos in late June after three exhilarating weeks. As usual
in his life the schedule triumphed over happy accidents...'
[Marr 185]
He still had to find a publisher for Happy
Valley and he wanted to start the next novel.
White's
agent had been unsuccessful, so White used
his letters of introduction from London. One letter, from George
Plank, was to Jean Starr Untermeyer. She was a writer herself and
agreed to pass Happy Valley on to her publisher if she liked
the book herself. She did, and handed Happy Valley to Ben
Huebsch, a partner in the Viking Press. [Marr
187]
White
then left New York to find a quiet place to write. He chose Cape
Cod, Massachusetts.
|
'Happy
Valley may have shown
a certain number of critics and readers that I was an author;
now I had to show myself by keeping it up. I imagine this
is how most second novels get written.' [Flaws
77]
|
|
|