First Advisor

James Heath

Term of Graduation

Winter 1979

Date of Publication

2-14-1979

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in History

Department

History

Language

English

Subjects

Oregon -- History -- 20th century, Federal Writers' Project (Or.), Federal Writers' Project

DOI

10.15760/etd.2889

Physical Description

1 online resource (4, 102 pages)

Abstract

The Federal Writers’ Project was created in 1935 as part of the Works Progress Administration. This project represented an example of the highest evolution of work relief philosophy of the New Deal during the depression of the 1930's. Unlike previous work relief programs, the Federal Writers' Project sought to employ people in their chosen profession. This task was accomplished with the establishment of writers' projects in each state under the guidance of a national office. The major goal of these individual projects was to research, write and edit a state guidebook. This current study surveys previous research on this program and looks at the program nationally before it concentrates on the Oregon Writers' Project as an example of this type of work relief.

Oregon's major goal in implementing the program was to employ as many unemployed writers as possible. The project was hindered somewhat in doing this because of the lack of "good" writers on relief and the national office's failure to establish a definition of a writer. This lack of definition allowed any would-be author to apply for a job. In spite of these problems Oregon managed to put together a fairly competent staff including many unemployed college professors, newspaper persons and locally published writers. Those who were not qualified to write were kept busy working on necessary research.

Oregon's major problems occurred in the administration of the program. Alfred Powers, first State Director of the project, generated much enthusiasm for the project but his actions eventually forced his resignation. He was criticized for lack of attention to his job, for spending too much of the project's time on unauthorized publications, and for nearly precipitating a strike by the writers. T. J. Edmonds, Powers' successor, was an excellent administrator though he also allowed the project to spend too much time on unauthorized publications. These publications were often of poor quality. As with the guide books, they were designed to avoid controversy. Today these written works are dated and serve little useful purpose. The truly worthwhile materials of the project, such as the oral histories and research notes, remain unused in the State Archives in Salem, Oregon.

Administratively, the largest failure occurred with the poor relations between the national editors in Washington, D.C. and the writers in Oregon. In many cases Oregon was at fault in using poor writers, verbose style, inaccurate or incomplete materials, and creating delays in sending copy to Washington. The national editors, on the other hand, could equally be faulted for delays in editing materials, confusing and constantly changing guidelines and unnecessarily harsh criticisms of Oregon writers.

In conclusion, this study takes exception with some of the other works on the Federal Writers' Project. First, this study argues that the Oregon Writers' Project cannot be used as a measurement for the effectiveness of government subsidy of the arts. The people who ran the program never claimed to be supporting art but to be supporting unemployed writers. In fact, the administrators tried to discourage any freedom or flexibility which would have provided a climate for the writer to flourish in the artistic sense. With this recognition in mind, one may not validly use the Writers' Project as a tool for accurate measurement of governmental subsidization of art.

This study also takes major exception to a previous work presented on the Federal Writers' Project in the Pacific Northwest. That study argued that a project was unnecessary in the Pacific Northwest due to the area's "literary and intellectual backwardness." In Oregon the program certainly had its problems, but the project was generally successful in meeting the major intent of the program--employing the unemployed in their self-selected profession. This program was not only useful but also humane; furthermore, it managed to preserve important history and the skills of people out of work in a time of severe depression.

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/17366

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