William H. Gass

Lorin Cuoco

A descriptive and informative guide to more than 100 sites of literary significance in the greater St. Louis area, Literary St. Louis: A Guide includes historical and biographical information, maps, literary anecdotes, and photographs. Edited by William H. Gass and Lorin Cuoco, the volume includes selections by T. S. Eliot, Mark Twain, Sara Teasdale, Fannie Hurst, William S. Burroughs, Tennessee Williams, Kate Chopin, Thomas Wolfe, and many others who have helped define American literature over the past 150 years. This book is indispensable for understanding the region's rich literary landscape.

A Guide

Literary St. Louis

William H. Gass and Lorin Cuoco here present an edited but uncut record of the proceedings of the first international conference convened by the International Writers Center at Washington University in St. Louis. The topic—the writer in politics—was divided into three parts: politics as material for the writers’ work ("The Writer in Politics"), politics as a threatening power over the pen ("The Writer under a Politics"), and politics as a viewpoint held by writers ("The Writer with a Politics"). Major addresses were delivered by Breyten Breytenbach, a white South African who was an early critic of apartheid serving seven years in jail before being exiled from his homeland; Nuruddin Farah, the Somali author of a number of internationally recognized novels, including the trilogy Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship, who has also suffered exile; Carolyn Forché, an American poet whose experiences as a Guggenheim Fellow in El Salvador led to her noted second book of poetry, The Country Between Us; Antonio Skarmeta, the Chilean short story writer, screen writer, and novelist whose Insurrection deals with the Nicaraguan Revolution; Luisa Valenzuela, an Argentine novelist and journalist who fled her home country in 1979 and returned a decade later after the restoration of democracy only to find remnants of the former military regime still a legitimate target for her absurdist prose; and Mario Vargas Llosa, the widely acclaimed Peruvian novelist who founded Libertad, the political party under whose banner he unsuccessfully ran for president of his country. The Writer in Politics also includes edited transcriptions of the panel discussions that followed each of the six major addresses. Panelists included Irish poet Eavan Boland, author of seven books of poetry, including In a Time of Violence; Marc Chenetier, professor of American literature at l’Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and translator of numerous American authors—including Gass—into French; Robert Coover, writer-in-residence at Brown University and author of such works as Origin of the Brunists and A Public Burning; Ron Himes, founder of the St. Louis Black Repertory Company, which produces African American and Third World playwrights; Liu Binyan, former special correspondent for China’s official newspaper and author of China’s Crisis, China’s Hope; poet Eric Pankey, whose books include Apocrypha and This Reliquary World; Anton Shammas, Palestinian Israeli author whose works include the novel Arabesque; and Richard Watson, professor of philosophy at Washington University and author of The Philosopher’s Demise: Learning French and the novel Niagara.

The Writer in Politics

For centuries an artist adept in one medium has found solace, encouragement, and inspiration in another, even to the point of merging them. Michelangelo put down his chisel to pick up his pen; Blake pictorialized his poetry; Max Ernst collaged narratives; Gertrude Stein adopted a cubist style. This bicameral interplay of the verbal and pictorial has never been more pronounced than in our own time. "The Dual Muse" explores a range of creative interrelationships between the visual arts and literary media in works by selected modern and contemporary artists and authors.

The Writer as Artist, the Artist as Writer

The Dual Muse

William Gaddis

“Every significant religious system stands upon a sacred text. This text is indeed its temple. Inside, its heroes and their history are enshrined. Although leaders of varying degrees of divinity are always involved in the creation of a new sect, they usually have short lives, often come to bad ends, and their influence, diluted by disciples, soon disappears as water does in sand. What the leader leaves behind is Mein Kampf or its equivalent: his testament. Occasionally, by the indolent, an existent text is chosen, or a compilation selected—a golden treasury. From time to time, other writings may be dubbed divine, as though knighted. This is not a simple social thing, however. It is more important than a nation adding to its territories. Any addition to the divine canon will approve, proscribe, or admit new thoughts, new practices, and in consequence elevate different people to positions of privilege and power.”—William H. Gass These essays and panel discussions made up The Writer and Religion Conference held at Washington University in St. Louis. The six essays, all by writers of international stature, were followed by panel discussions, with audience participation.

Lorin Cuoco

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