Suitable Accommodations: An Autobiographical Story of Family Life: The Letters of J. F. Powers, 1942-1963
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Joseph O’Connell (1927–1995): Artist, sculptor, and printmaker; taught at St. John’s in mid-1950s; later, artist in residence at St. John’s and St. Benedict’s.
Joann Wiley O’Connell (1930–): Called Jody. Joe O’Connell’s wife; five children.
Richard Palmquist (1922–2005): Called Dick. Worked for the Chancery of the St. Cloud Diocese; later owned insurance agency.
Mary Pluth Palmquist (1927–): Called Mary Jean. Richard Palmquist’s wife; teacher; six children.
Fredric Petters (1926–): Called Fred. Owned a fabric and fur shop in St. Cloud; later worked at the Liturgical Press at St. John’s.
Rosemary Boyle Petters (1925–): Called Romy, Rome (only by JFP). Fred Petters’s wife; potter; seven children.
Other Friends and Correspondents
George Barnett: Called Barnhart by JFP. Friend; was at Sandstone with him.
Jack Conroy (1898–1990): Proletarian writer, best known for his 1933 novel, The Disinherited. Good friend.
Father Harvey F. X. Egan (1915–2006): Called Mon pere, Detachismus. Ordained in 1941; JFP’s great benefactor, dispenser of frequent loans.
Sister Mariella Gable, OSB (1898–1985): BWP’s college teacher; editor of collections of Catholic fiction; critic. Introduced JFP to BWP.
Father George G. Garrelts (1918–2003): JFP’s classmate at Quincy College Academy; close friend; ordained, 1942. Was a Detacher in early years; later president of the Newman Clubs of America. Left the priesthood in 1970 and got married.
John Haskins (ca. 1918–1977): Called Hask. Classmate at Quincy College Academy; best man at JFP’s wedding; became music critic for the Washington Evening Star and The Kansas City Star.
John Howe (1913–1997): Called Jack. Draftsman for Frank Lloyd Wright; JFP met him at Sandstone Federal Penitentiary.
Richard Keefe (ca. 1917–1980): Called Dick. Close friend; JFP’s classmate at Quincy College Academy; expelled from the seminary for “worldliness”; became dean of St. Louis University and host of a TV show.
Ted LeBerthon (ca. 1893–1960): Journalist and columnist; reported on racial inequality, migrant workers, from 1930s on; associated with The Catholic Worker; JFP’s roommate in St. Paul in 1945.
Robert Lowell (1917–1977): Called Cal. Poet; JFP met him at Yaddo, 1947; took road trip together in 1947.
John Marshall: Called Marsh by JFP. JFP met him at Sandstone Federal Penitentiary; became a physician.
Michael Millgate (1929–): British biographer, editor, critic, teacher; teaching fellow at Ann Arbor, 1956, when Jim met him.
Seán Ó Faoláin (1900–1991): Irish short-story writer; extremely helpful in practical ways and as a friend in Ireland from 1952 on.
Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980): Short-story writer and novelist; championed JFP’s work.
J. Kerker Quinn (1911–1969): Editor at Accent magazine; accepted JFP’s first short story and a number of subsequent ones.
Theodore Roethke (1908–1963): Called Beast; Champ by JFP. Poet; JFP met him at Yaddo in 1947.
Charles Shattuck (1910–1992): Called Chuck. Married to Suzie; editor at Accent magazine and professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana; Shakespearean scholar; was extremely influential in editing Jim’s work.
Harry Sylvester (1908–1993): Short-story writer and novelist; attended JFP’s wedding; an informal rivalry existed between him and JFP for position of top American Catholic writer; later rejected the Church.
Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966): English writer and novelist; championed JFP’s work.
Harvey C. Webster (1906–1988): Called Clocker by JFP. Professor of English at the University of Louisville; JFP met him at Yaddo; a frequent companion at the Saratoga Springs racetrack.
Gordon Zahn (1918–2007): Sociologist and writer; conscientious objector during the war; critic of the Catholic Church’s position on war; best known for In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter (1964).
Source Notes
Letters
To Jack Conroy: Jack Conroy Papers, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections, Newberry Library, Chicago
To Father Harvey Egan: Powers family collection
To Sister Mariella Gable: Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict Archives, St. Joseph, Minnesota
To George Garrelts: Powers family collection
To Charlotte and Bill Kraft: Powers family collection
To Robert Lowell: Robert Lowell Papers, MS Am 1905, Houghton Library, Harvard University
To John Marshall: Mrs. John Marshall collection
To Ken McCormick: Powers family collection
To Michael Millgate: Michael Millgate collection
To “the Movement” (Doyle, Humphrey, O’Connell, Palmquist, Petters): Collections of the families
To Katherine Anne Porter: Special Collections, University of Maryland
To Betty Wahl Powers: Powers family collection
To Kerker Quinn and Charles Shattuck: University of Illinois Archives: Charles H. Shattuck Papers, 15/7/39; J. Kerker Quinn Papers, 15/7/30; George Scouffas Papers, 15/7/38
To Wahl and Strobel: Powers family collection
To Evelyn Waugh: Alexander Waugh collection
Other
J. F. Powers’s and Betty Wahl Powers’s journals: Powers family collection
Milwaukee Journal questionnaire typescript: Powers family collection
Illustrations
Frontispiece: Drawing by Joseph O’Connell for Morte D’Urban: Powers family collection
Powers family collection
Powers family collection
Powers family collection
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Powers family collection
Powers family collection
Powers family collection
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Powers family collection
Powers family collection
Powers family collection
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page 27: Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archives
Photograph by J. F. Powers: Powers family collection
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Photograph by J. F. Powers: Powers family collection
Drawing by Jody O’Connell: Powers family collection
Photograph by Russell Roe: Powers family collection
Photograph by Lee Hanley: Powers family collection
Humphrey family collection
Photograph by Lee Hanley: Powers family collection
J. F. Powers’s montage for writing Morte D’Urban: Powers family collection
Photograph by Donald Black: Minneapolis Star Tribune
Photograph by Herb Snitzer: Powers family collection
O’Connell family collection
Doyle family collection
Petters family collection
Saint John’s University Archives, Collegeville, Minnesota
Palmquist family collection
Acknowledgments
The greatest thanks for this book belong to the late Fr. Harvey Egan, who not only preserved over a half century’s worth of Jim’s letters, but also provided him with an exceptionally congenial correspondent. Great thanks, too, belong to those members of the Movement, Jim’s good friends, living and dead, who did the same: Leonard and Betty Doyle, Don and Mary Humphrey, Joe and Jody O’Connell, Dick and Mary Pluth Palmquist, Fred and Romy Petters. Beyond their number, I thank Jim’s other friends and correspondents, whose letters gave him such pl
easure and who, in return, didn’t throw his letters away.
I am most thankful for the valuable assistance of one sort or another given to me by Daniel Aaron, Mike Aquilina, Rich Arpi, Robert Barros, Michael Bitzan, Pat Bitzan, the late Tom Brown, Christopher Carduff, Chris Cotton, Justin Doyle, Katherine Doyle, Kevin Doyle, Rosemary Hugo Fielding, Rachel Humphrey Fischer, Roland Fischer, Anita Fore, Susannah Humphrey, the late Sister Nancy Hynes, OSB, X. J. Kennedy, Elizabeth Knuth, Jim Kraft, Sister Mary Kraft, CSJ, Hilary Bracken McGhee, Mrs. John Marshall, Michael Millgate, Cassandra Nelson, Jody O’Connell, Mary Pluth Palmquist, Catherine Petters, James A. Powers, Julianne O’Connell Restani, Peggy Roske, David Scott, Susan Stepka, Bob Tholkes, John Thorn, Michael True, Nicole Luthman Turnbull, Alexander Waugh, and Sister Mariterese Woida, OSB.
I also thank my agent, Andrew Blauner, and editor, Sean McDonald.
Much more than thanks belongs to my sister Jane and my brothers, Boz and Hugh; to my sons, Hugh and Thomas Blaisdell; and to my particular friend, Bob Groves.
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Aaron, Daniel; Writers on the Left
Abbey Press
Accent (magazine)
Adelphi College
Albany, New York
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Aldington, Richard
Alfrink, Card. Bernardus Johannes
Algonquin Hotel, New York
Algren, Nelson; Who Lost an American?
Allen, Walter
Alonzo, Russ
Alston, Walter
Alvin Theatre, Minneapolis
America (magazine)
America, SS
American Academy of Arts and Letters
American Forces Radio
American Indians
Ames, Elizabeth
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Anthony, St.
Anvil, The
Archer, Chub
Arden, Elizabeth
Ard na Fairrge; lack of central heating
Arlington Handicap
Armed Forces Radio
Army, United States
aspergillum
Atlantic Monthly
atomic bomb
Augustine, St.
Avon, Minnesota
Avon Commercial Club
Bader, A. L.
Baius, Michael
Bak, Bronislaw (Bruno)
Bak, Hedi (Hetty)
Baldwin, James
Bandas, Fr. Rudolph G.
Barcelona
Barkley, Alben W.
Barnett, George
Barrett, O’Connor
Bartholome, Mrs.
Bartholome, Bp. Peter W.
baseball
basketball
Baudelaire, Charles
BBC
Beardsley, Minnesota
Beaverbrook, Lord
Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot
bees
Belfast
Bellow, Saul; Seize the Day
Benedictines
Bennington College
Benvenisti, J. L.
Berlin, Irving
Berra, Yogi
Berryman, John
Best Sellers
Big Spunk Lake, Avon, Minnesota
bingo
birth control
Bitzan, Donald J.
Bitzan, Michael
Bitzan, Patricia Wahl
Blackfoot Indians
Blades, Ray
“Blondie-Dagwood myth”
Bloomington, Indiana
Blue Books
“Blue Island,”
Bonn, Fr. John Louis
Bontemps, Arna
Book of Kells
Books and Brent (radio show)
Boston
Boston College
Boston Herald, The
Boswell, James, Life of Samuel Johnson
Bowen, Elizabeth
boxing
Boxing Day
Bradley, Van Allen
Brady, William Otterwell Ignatius
Brent, Stuart
Brentano’s
Breuer, Marcel
Brewster, Massachusetts
Britannic (ship)
British Columbia
Brooklyn Dodgers
Brown, Curtis
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Robert
Brown University
Bruce Publishing
burlesque
Busch, Joseph F.
Caedmon, Fr., see Wahl, Fr. Thomas Peter
Caesar, Sid
Caliri, Fortunata
Camus, Albert
Canada
Cape Cod
Capote, Truman
Carr, Mr.
Carrington V. C. (film)
cars
Casey, Fr. Marion G.
Catechetical Guild
Catholic Action
Catholic Action News
Catholic Church ; in Ireland and ; JFP’s views on. See also specific reform movements
Catholic Digest
Catholic Herald
Catholic Messenger, The
Catholic rural life movement
Catholic Times, The
Catholic Worker, The
Catholic Worker movement
Catholic World
CBS
Century Transportation Company
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Chesterton, G. K.
Chevrolet
Chez Show (radio show)
Chicago and ; 1944 Democratic National Convention
Chicago Daily News
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune
Children’s Mass Book, The
China
Christian Family Movement
Christmas
Churchill, Randolph
Church of the Sacred Heart, Robbinsdale
CIA
Clark Bars
Claudel, Paul
Clement, Frank G.
Cobh, Ireland
College of St. Benedict
Collegeville, Minnesota
Collier’s
Colonel Blimp (film)
Colorado
Colum, Padraic; Our Friend James Joyce
Columbia (magazine)
Columbia University
Commonweal, The
Communism
Como Park, St. Paul
Conrad, Joseph; Heart of Darkness
Conroy, Jack; The Disinherited and ; JFP’s letters to
Continental League
Cook County Jail
cooking
Coppard, A. E.
Cork, Ireland
Cotton, Carlos
Cotton, Mary Katherine Finegan
“A Couple of Nights Before Christmas,”
Cowley, Fr. Leonard P.
Cowley, Malcolm, The Portable Faulkner
Craine, Clyde
Creighton University
Critic (magazine)
Critics (radio show)
Crocker, Betty
Crosby, Bing
Cross Section
Cuba
cummings, e. e.
Cusack, Cyril
Daily Telegraph, The
Dalkey, Ireland
Dante
D’Arcy, Fr. Martin
Davenport, Iowa
Davies, Rhys, “A Visit to Eggeswick Castle”
Davison, Davy
Day, Dorothy
“Defection of a Favorite,”
Democratic National Convention (1944)
Democratic Party (United States)
Detachment movement
Detroit, Michigan
Deutsch, Alcuin
Dever, Joe; No Lasting H
ome
“The Devil Was the Joker,”
Dickens, Charles
Dickens, Monica
Diekmann, Fr. Godfrey
Diggles, Joe
Dodson, Owen
dogs
Domino, Ruth
Domrese, Walter J.
Dos Passos, John
Doubleday
Downs, Hugh
Doyle, Elizabeth Anne Finegan; JFP’s letters to
Doyle, Leonard J. and; JFP’s letters to
Dryden, John
Dublin
Dulles, John Foster
Dumfries
Dunphy, Fr.
Dupas, Ralph
Dwyer, Jack
Earley, Sister Eugene Marie
Ecclesiastical Directory
Edel, Leon
Edinburgh
Edwards, Phil
Egan, Fr. Harvey F. X.; JFP’s letters to
Egan, Madge
Egypt
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
El Greco
Eliot, T. S.; The Rock
Elmira, New York
El Paso, Texas
England
Esquire
Evans, Bergen
Evening Mail, The
Falque, Fr. Ferdinand C.
Family Rosary Crusade
Fandel’s
Farina, Fr. Louis
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Faulkner, William and ; “A Rose for Emily”; “Spotted Horses”
FBI
Federal Writers’ Project
Fehrenbacher, Fr. Henry
Fennelly, Fr. John
Fiedler, Leslie
Fielding, Rosemary Hugo
Fifield, William
Fighting Flanagan Brothers
films
fish
Fitts, Dudley
Fitzgerald, Barry
Fitzgerald, F. Scott; The Crack-Up; The Great Gatsby; Tender Is the Night; This Side of Paradise
Fitzgerald, Robert
Flanagan, Del
Flanagan, Glen
Flaubert, Gustave
Florida
food
football
Ford, John
Ford Foundation
France
Frazier, George
Freebooter
Freeman, Orville
Freemasons
Fremantle, Anne
Freud, Sigmund
Frost, Robert
Fuller, Buckminster
Gable, Sister Mariella, OSB and ; JFP’s letters to
Gadd, Sam
Galashiels, Scotland
Gallery of Living Catholic Authors
gambling
Garrelts, Fr. George G.; influence on JFP; JFP’s letters to
Gavilan, Kid
Germany
Giardello, Joey
Gibbings, Robert, Lovely Is the Lee
Gill, Eric
Giotto
Glasgow