Chasar - Everyday reading: poetry and popular culture in modern America

EVERYDAY READING

Everyday Reading

Poetry and Popular Culture in Modern America

Mike Chasar

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

Publishers Since 1893

NEW YORK CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX

cup.columbia.edu

Copyright 2012 Columbia University Press

Cover design: Noah Arlow

All rights reserved

E-ISBN 978-0-231-53077-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chasar, Mike, 1970

Everyday reading : poetry and popular culture in modern America / Mike Chasar

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-231-15864-0 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-231-15865-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-231-53077-4 (e-book)

1. American poetry20th centuryHistory and criticism. 2. PoetrySocial aspectsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. Literature and societyUnited StatesHistory20th century. 4. Public opinionUnited StatesHistory20th century. 5. PoetryPublic opinionHistory20th century. 6. PoeticsHistory20th century. I. Title.

PS325C49 2012

811.5209dc23

A Columbia University Press E-book.

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CONTENTS

. Election poster

. Notebook of Edgar A. Guests poetry, mid-1930s

. Rejection letter from Liberty: A Weekly for Everybody, circa 1930

. Page spread from Doris Ashleys scrapbook, circa 1930

. Page spread from Myrtle Eckerts scrapbook, circa 1921

. Cover and table of contents for turn-of-the-century scrapbook

. Depression-era scrapbook

. Scrapbook assembled inside 1909 Bowdoin College yearbook, circa 1930s

. Page from Anne Sextons scrapbook, circa 1948

. Pages from Mark Twains Adhesive Scrap Book

. Page from Elbert Hubbards Scrap Book, 1928

. First page of scrapbook assembled in the 1930s and 1940s

. First page of Odell Shepards scrapbook, circa 19181920

. Page from Joyce Fitzgeralds scrapbook with autograph, circa World War II

First page of Fitzgeralds scrapbook

. Page from Fitzgeralds scrapbook with poems by Burt, Owen, and Olson

. Page spread from Fitzgeralds scrapbook with poem and image by Leonard

. Page from Fitzgeralds scrapbook with poem Somebodys Boy

. Scrapbook page with Between the Bookends magazine feature, circa 1940s

. Jim and Bobs Victory Album of Poems, 1943

. Postcard from Tony Wons, 1933

. Tony at Work, frontispiece from Tonys Scrap Book, 1930

. Tony at Work and Play, frontispiece from self-published edition of Tonys Scrap Book, 1930

. Tonys Scrap Book used as a scrapbook, circa 19301960

. Frontispiece and title page from Ted Malones Scrapbook, 1941

. Scrapbook page with inspirational poems, circa 1930s and 1940s

. Untitled image captioned to Washington on business, from scrapbook page in previous figure

. Cover, The Burma-Shave SignsA National Institution, 1938

. Twitter comic strip, 2008

. Indiana billboard advertising Taystee Bread, circa 1930s to 1940s

. Crankshaft comic strip, October 24, 2010

. Sing, O Sing of Billboards, Holiday magazine, September 1947

. Cover, Burma Shave Jingle Book, 1931

. Interior pages, Burma Shave Jingle Book, 1931

. Cover, Burma-Shave Jingle Book, 1936

. Interior pages, Burma-Shave Jingle Book, 1936

. Burma-Shave advertisement from Sports Afield, May 1963

. Indiana Shell gasoline station, circa 1930s to 1940s

. Infiniti G35 Enjoy the View magazine advertisement, 2004

. Frontispiece from Billboards and Aesthetic Legislation, 1931

. Erin Brockovich Screwed My Dog Skip, movie marquee, circa 2000

. Fantastic 4 Knocked Up Nancy Drew, movie marquee, circa 2007

. Graffiti from mens bathroom, University of Iowa

. Pages from Fall 2010 CB2 sales catalog

. Cover of Contact, 1921

. A Message at Easter, Hallmark greeting card, circa 1960

. Interior of A Message at Easter

. The Wise Men, Hallmark greeting card, circa 1960

. Interior of The Wise Men

. Sophia and James Salvatore, 1944

In opening the study that follows, which traces the forgotten and often anonymous readers and writers who sustained and fueled the culture of popular poetry in twentieth-century America, it is a particular pleasure for me to identify and remember the people and institutions that helped to make this book possible.

I am especially grateful to Willamette University, which in a time of economic uncertainty, unyieldingly provided me with a wide range of support mechanisms, including an early junior-faculty research leave as well as monetary grants for research, publication, and travel; without these resources and gifts, and without the support of Gretchen Flesher Moon in the English Department and Marlene Moore in the College of Liberal Arts, the book as it has been produced would not have been possible. Much of the research and early writing for this project began at the University of Iowa, with the assistance and support of the English Department, the Graduate College, the University of Iowa Center for the Book, and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies. The final stages of this book were completed with the financial help of a National Endowment for the Humanities summer stipend.

Dee Morris, Loren Glass, Cary Nelson, Ed Folsom, and Garrett Stewart were early and influential readers, respondents, and inspirations; this book would have been worthwhile if only for the chance it afforded me to experience and learn from their generosity and guidance. Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Edward J. Brunner, Stephen Burt, and Virginia Jackson offered especially close and valuable feedback, assistance, and encouragement during the later stages of this project, and I am also grateful to Heidi R. Bean, Jeff Charis-Carlson, Melissa Girard, and Catherine Keyser for the intellectual insight, wit, and friendship they extended to me as this book took shape. Many other individuals deserve my gratitude as well, including Bartholomew Brinkman, Matthew P. Brown, Holly Carver, Kathleen Diffley, William Fogarty, Jeffrey Gore, Jenna Hammerich, Everett Hamner, Jessica Helfand, Kembrew McLeod, Frank Miller, and Sean Scanlan; Faith Barrett, Gunnar Benedicktsson, Lauren Berlant, Marsha Bryant, J. P. Craig, Maria Damon, Karen Ford, Steve Healey, Meredith Martin, Phil Metres, Scott Nowka, Jed Rasula, Matthias Regan, Bradley Ricca, Susan B. A. Somers-Willett, Angela Sorby, Jeff Swenson, Michael Thurston, and Mark W. Van Wienen; Roberto Ampuero, Adam Diesberg, Drew Duncan, Patrick Oray, and Cheeni Rao; friends, students, and colleagues at Willamette University and the University of Iowa; and many and various interlocutors at Daves Foxhead, Georges Buffet, Ventis Caf and Basement Bar, and the F/Stop Fitzgeralds Public House.

I would like to thank the Special Collections departments at the Iowa State University, University of Iowa, and University of Missouri at Kansas City libraries, which extended me their assistance and patience on many occasions; the Indiana and Minnesota state historical societies; Kristi Ernsting at Hallmark Cards for her assistance with Hallmark company archives; Clinton Odell, who allowed me access to his family-owned archive of Burma-Vita Company records for the writing of ; Arthur B. Church Jr., Hualing Nieh Engle, and family members of Doris Ashley and Myrtle Eckert; and William Bartlett at NBC, Amanda Chapman at Energizer Personal Care, Ray Daniels at Nissan, and Emily Moran at Crate & Barrel, among others, for helping to guide me through corporate infrastructures in search of permissions.