JAMES SCHEVILL - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 2/10 - HFSID 201616

JAMES SCHEVILL
The American playwright, poet and university professor sends letter discussing "important poems", signs name in black ink
Typed letter signed: "James Schevill" in black ink. 1 page, 8½x11. Written on Brown University Department of English letterhead. Providence, Rhode Island. February 10, no year. Address to a Mr. Norbutt. In full: Thank you for your letter. I admire what you are doing. Your questions are difficult, but I will do my best to answer them. To be "important," I think, a poem must have two qualities. It must deal with a subject that has its own importance and it must have a unique structure to deal with that subject. Too often, as you know, the problem of form gets separated from the problem of content, but the two are inseparable. The good poem not only has a unique voice, but it is about something meaningful in human terms. As to your other question, is a poet created or born, I think it takes a little of both. An artist, in my experience, must have a natural talent, but then it takes years of hard work and experience to find the right voice to shape one's experiences. Once I heard a well- known American composer say, "What counts for American artists is endurance," living in the arts in this country, so persistence, courage, struggle, are essential. Incidentally, we have tree Black writers teaching here at Brown who would be willing to send a word to your kids I'm sure. They are the poet, Michael Harper, who is currently head of our Creative Writing program here in the English Dept.; Barry Beckham, the novelist; and George Bass, the playwright and head of our Black Theatre program, Rites and Reasons. With all good luck to you and your work. Best wishes". James Schevill (1920-2009) was an American poet, critic, playwright and professor at San Francisco State University and Brown University, best known as a recipient of Guggenheim and Ford Foundation fellowships. His best known play was Lovecraft's Follies (1971) which was based on the life and work of Providence horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, but he also wrote The Ushers, Shadows of Memory, The Last Romantics, and Cathedral of Ice. He furthermore wrote ten volumes of poetry and biographies of Bern Porter and Sherwood Anderson. Toned. Normal mailing folds. Light surface creases. Otherwise, fine condition.