The Two Worlds of William March

388 Pages·1984·25.746 MB·English

by  Roy S. Simmonds

The Two Worlds of
William
March
William March (Courtesy of the William S. Hoole Special Col
lections Library of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, The Uni
versity of Alabama)
The Two Worlds of
William
M a r c h
Roy S. Simmonds
THEUB&ARY
CfALAMMA
ClASSICS
Copyright © 1984 by
Roy S. Simmonds
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
Manufactured in the United States of America
Qyotations from published and unpublished material by William March are reprinted
with permission of Harold Ober Associates on behalf of the copyright holders, the
Trustees of the William E. Campbell (March) Trust U/W, Merchants National Bank
of Mobile, Mobile, Alabama. Material from the Archives of Harold Ober Associates,
held at Princeton University, is published with permission of Princeton University
Library.
The author is grateful to the following publishers, authors, and literary agents for
permission to reprint copyrighted material:
Albert Halper, for Good-bye, Union Square, by Albert Halper. Copyright © 1970 by
Albert Halper. Reprinted by permission.
The Paris Review, for "The Art of Fiction: LXXIII," by John Gardner. Copyright ©
1979 by The Paris Review Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Laurence Pollinger, Ltd., Simon & Schuster, Inc., and Lester & Orphen Dennys,
Ltd., for Ways ofE scape, by Graham Greene. Copyright © 1980 by Graham Greene.
Reprinted by permiuion.
The Pushcart Press, for The Little Magazine in America: A Modern Documentary
History, edited by Elliot Anderson and Mary Kinzie. Copyright © 1978 by Triquar
terly. Reprinted by permission.
Saturday Review, for "Poor Pilgrim, Poor Stranger," by Robert Tallant. Copyright ©
1954 by Saturday Review. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Simmonds, Roy S.
The two worlds of William March.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. March, William. 1893-1954.2. Novelists,
American-20th century-Biography. 1. Title.
PS3505.A53157Z85 1983 813'.52 [B] 83-1100
ISBN 978-0-8173-0167-5 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8173-5687-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8173-8587-3 (electronic)
This book is dedicated to my good and valued
friends William T. Going, Preston C. Beyer,
and the late James Clinton Bolton. Without
their immense assistance, continued
encouragement, and wise counseling, this
book would never have been written.

... everybody must seem crazy if you see deep enough into their
minds.
The Looking-Glass
When I was younger, and lived in a gentler world, I occasionally
wondered at the reason for witches, and for their repudiation of
the human heritage. In those far-away, innocent days, I thought of
them as silly, demented creatures, but as I grow older, I am not so
sure, for sometimes it seems most pleasant to be able to mount a
broomstick and ride off to an imaginary realm behind the clouds.
No matter what that land of witches is like, it can hardly be crueler
or more unbelievable than our own world-the frightening world
in which we are asked to live out our days to their end.
"Warlock"
... man ... is a frail, lost creature, too weak to walk unaided.
"This Heavy Load"

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xviii
1 Early Years 1
2 Service in the U. S. Marines 12
3 Beginnings of Two Careers 21
4 The Two Worlds Established 37
5 Company K and Hitler's Germany 68
6 Come in at the Door and Escape to London 84
7 The Little Wife and Other Stories and Analysis
with Glover 103
8 The Tallons and Resignation from Waterman 121
9 Some Like Them Short and Life as a Full-Time Author 145
10 The Looking-Glass and Wartime New York 166
11 Trial Balance and the Edge of the Abyss 199
12 The Move to New Orleans 221
13 October Island and New Roots Established 249
14 The Bad Seed and Posthumous Success 291
Afterword 316
Notes 326
Selected Bibliography 349
Index 352