Mosaic of Fire by Caroline Maun

Author:Caroline Maun
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611172676
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press

Five

“THE MIND SPINS FROM THE MIND”

Charlotte Wilder and Evelyn Scott

Charlotte Wilder was the third child and oldest daughter in a family of gifted writers. When mentioned at all, she is now remembered as the younger sister of playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder. Her story is told briefly and in general terms in Gilbert A. Harrison’s The Enthusiast: A Life of Thornton Wilder (1983). More attention is paid to her in The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder (2008), where she is still, and rightly so, of secondary interest. She is also mentioned briefly in both biographies of Evelyn Scott as well as in Katherine H. Adams’s A Group of Their Own: College Writing Courses and American Women Writers, 1880–1940 (2001) for her involvement in the Federal Writers’ Project.1 As a poet in her own right, Wilder has remained unnoticed in contemporary criticism. Her collections of poetry, Phases of the Moon (1936) and Mortal Sequence (1939), are now rare books, listed in no more than one hundred library catalogs worldwide. They have not been the subject of any recent critical inquiry, but in their own time they were favorably reviewed in periodicals such as the New York Times Book Review, the Saturday Review of Literature, the Southern Review, Scribner’s Magazine, and Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. These books, particularly the experimental collection Phases of the Moon, warrant attention for their craft and their contribution to modern American literature.

Charlotte Wilder and Evelyn Scott’s friendship was among the most important and life-changing relationships in each woman’s life—and also among the most tragic. It is not clear precisely how Scott and Wilder first encountered one another, but the record of their correspondence begins in medias res during the summer of 1932. Late in her life Wilder recalled in a letter that they met in 1930; they were both residents at Yaddo, a writer’s retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York, in July 1931 but may or may not have made a connection during that brief time. They also overlapped there in the fall of 1933 and were definitely well acquainted by that point.2

During the early to mid-1930s, Scott and Wilder had a lot to offer one another personally and professionally, and they exchanged encouragement, advice, philosophical conversation, and discussions about writing craft, as well as helping one another professionally. Through Scott’s contact with Charlotte, Wilder’s oldest brother, Amos Niven Wilder, incorporated a brief discussion of Scott’s Escapade in his study The Spiritual Aspects of the New Poetry, published in 1940.3 Although Scott’s novels and other works were widely reviewed, this was the first scholarly treatment of Scott’s writing, and she was exceedingly appreciative, even for a short mention.4 Charlotte Wilder also provided supportive commentary on Scott’s work in progress and inspiration for her writing.5

For Wilder in the early 1930s, Scott represented a dedicated and successful artist, one with a large writing and publishing network that she was willing to share with her friend. Scott possessed an uncompromising intensity and believed in Wilder’s work with all her heart.

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