First Advisor

Gordon B. Dodds

Term of Graduation

Fall 1986

Date of Publication

11-24-1986

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in History

Department

History

Language

English

Subjects

American literature -- Oregon -- History and criticism, American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism, American authors -- Oregon

DOI

10.15760/etd.5486

Physical Description

1 online resource (4, ix, 143 pages)

Abstract

The period of 1919 to 1939 was a significant one for the development of the literature of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The literary work produced in the region prior to the first world war was greatly influenced by the "Genteel tradition" of the late nineteenth century. By 1939, however, the literature of Oregon and the region had emerged from the outdated literary standards of the pre-war period and had found a new, realistic, natural voice, strongly regional in nature and rooted in the modern American tradition.

This change came about in large part through the efforts of a small group of Oregon writers which emerged in the 1920's. These young writers discovered a common ground in their desire to become writers and soon formed a community which was tied together by formal and informal associations and the exchange of information through editorials and correspondence. The early careers of seven of these young writers demonstrate the diversity of background and approach to writing as a career which the young writers followed. For several, the better magazine markets such as the American Mercury offered early publication experience. For the bulk of this generation, however, the learning ground was the market provided by the burgeoning "pulp" magazines of the twenties.

By the mid-twenties, tension was beginning to build within the writing community over the continuing influence of gentility on the region's writing, as represented by Colonel E. Hofer and his literary magazines, The Lariat. A second cause of tension was the growing rift between the writers who were satisfied to confine themselves to the pulp markets and those who wished to see the region's literature elevated to a more literary plane. This tension culminated in 1927 with the publication of Status Rerum, a literary manifesto written by two young writers, H. L. Davis and James Stevens. The publication of this manifesto provided a focal point for the development of the new "Regionalist" theory of Pacific Northwest literature, of which Professor H. G. Merriam, editor of the magazine The Frontier, became the most vocal proponent. Much of the redefinition of literary standards of the region came through the pages of this magazine between 1927 and 1939.

Ultimately, however, the literary community of Oregon, which had contributed greatly to this redefinition, began to dissolve in the early thirties, giving way to a sense of individual isolation on the part of the writers. Attempts to revitalize Oregon's faltering literary community through the establishment of new literary magazines failed, and several of the writers drifted from the region, drawn away by careers and family circumstances.

This dissolution of community was due, in large part, to the economic impact of the Great Depression, which substantially reduced the writers' markets and affected the sales of their books. The Oregon Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration, which might have offered a unifying force to the state's writers, failed to do so because of internal limitations and administrative difficulties. By 1939, the young and energetic community of writers which had emerged in the twenties had dissolved almost completely. The legacy of their generation, the concept of Pacific Northwest regionalism, however, continues to be an important consideration in the literature of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest today.

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/20551

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