On November 14, 1995, Jack Finney died of pneumonia at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California. He had turned 84 on October 2, and obituaries appeared in newspapers across America and abroad. He was survived by his wife, Marguerite, his son, Kenneth, his daughter, Marguerite, and his granddaughter, Annelise, to whom his final novel had been dedicated. According to the Dayton Daily News, "the family said no funeral service would be held" ("Body Snatchers Author Dies at 84").
Since his death, Jack Finney's books and stories have continued to serve as the basis for adaptations in other media, including the television movie "The Love Letter" and the Broadway musical, Time and Again. His best novels — The Body Snatchers and Time and Again — are also his most popular, and both have remained easy to find in libraries and bookstores. His short stories, which comprised such a large part of his career, have not been as fortunate. The original two collections ( The Third Level and I Love Galesburg in the Springtime) have been out of print for years, and About Time is now almost twenty years old.
Jack Finney never made pretensions to serious literature, and he can best be remembered as a popular author. From his earliest stories to his last novel, he wrote about Americans and their place in history; often, his most evocative work dealt with characters that either succeeded or wished they could succeed in traveling back to an earlier time. Hopefully, his short stories will again become available to readers in the near future; his lesser known novels also deserve reprinting. In short, Jack Finney's work stands as an example for readers of the sort of lives Americans led in the middle part of the twentieth century, as well as of their longings and dreams of a simpler time in a world that grew increasingly more complicated and confusing.
SIXTEEN
The Galesburg Letters
In the early 1930s, Jack Finney attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. The yearbook issued in conjunction with his senior year, The 1935 Gale, includes a photo of a serious young man with glasses next to the following entry:
WALTER BRADEN FINNEY, A.B.
Forest Park
Tau Kappa Epsilon; R.O.T.C. 1,2;
Student staff 1, 2, 3; intramural swimming
1, 2, 3, 4; varsity swimming 4 [18].
Another photograph of the graduating senior was included in the yearbook's page of members of the fraternity to which Finney belonged, Tau Kappa Epsilon (103).
Over the next two decades, Finney married, divorced, and married again, worked in radio and advertising, and began his career as a writer. He became well known for his short stories and wrote several novels. One story and three novels were even adapted for television and film. In late 1959, he was working on a new story entitled "I Love Galesburg in the Springtime," which would eventually see publication in the April 1960 issue of McCall's magazine. As part of his research into the story's setting, he wrote a letter to the president of Knox College requesting information about Galesburg. This letter began a correspondence that would last, on and off, for almost twenty-five years, with some lengthy breaks in between. The letters to and from Finney have been preserved in the Knox College archives, and they show a side of the publicity-shy author that has been hidden from public view.
The President
Knox College
Galesburg, Illinois
November 14, 1959
Dear Sir:
I wonder if I could ask a favor of someone at Knox College; I don't know to whom I should address this.
I am a professional writer, and have just written a short story about Galesburg. I'm the author of a good many stories, which have appeared over the past ten years in Good Housekeeping, Collier's, McCall's, The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, etc.; and of four novels, the last of which was just recently published, by Simon & Schuster [Assault on a Queen], During these ten years I've written about Galesburg in my stories every once in a while.
But this newest story is entirely about Galesburg, and is full of references to the town, both contemporary and in the past. Trouble is that I haven't been in Galesburg since the late 30s, and I'm sure some of my references are inaccurate, out of date, or wrong for some other reason. This story will be published by McCall's magazine, and I told them when I sent it to them what I said above; that it undoubtedly is not accurate as it now stands.
McCall's wants me to go to Galesburg, to research my factual references, and I am delighted at the chance to come to Galesburg again, and will do so as soon as I can arrange a time for my visit.
It would help me enormously, though, if someone at Knox who knows Galesburg, past and present, might be willing to read my story in advance of my visit. Is there anyone at the college, do you think, who might be willing to do this? I ask, because of course my story (I was graduated from Knox in 1934, and am listed in your records under my real but seldom-used name of Walter B. Finney), contains references to Knox which I've got to check, too.
I have written to the editor of the Galesburg Register-Mail, asking him if he will, to read my story, and tell me where I've gone wrong. So there would be no need for whoever at Knox might be willing to read my story to correspond with me about it. All I'd like, if that's possible, is to have someone at Knox with whom I could talk when I get to Galesburg, who has read my story in advance of my visit.
It may very well be that this is a request which cannot be met; and I will certainly understand it if this is so. Please don't hesitate to let me know if it's impossible. I've enclosed a stamped addressed envelope for your convenience in letting me know about this, if you will.
Sincerely yours,
Jack Finney
223 Ricardo Road
Mill Valley, Calif.
The letter appears to have been well-received, for a reply was written by M.M. Goodsill, director of public relations for Knox College, on November 16,1959, only two days after Finney's letter was written. He replied:
Dear Mr. Finney:
Acknowledging your letter of November 14, I'll be glad to read your story and search for errors. I used to be on The Mail.
I note you have written the editor of the Register-Mail, who is Chuck Morrow, and if he or Mac Eddy, associate editor, read the story also, I'm sure we'll catch anything that might be wrong. Or we'll know who to check with.
Kellogg McClelland at Knox is an encyclopedia of facts about the town and college also and we can refer unknown questions to him. I presume you've read Earnest Calkins' "They Broke The Prairie." We'll be glad to sec you when you come.
Sincerely,
M.M. Goodsill
Handwritten notes at the bottom of the letter add that, on November 17, 1959, the college sent Finney copies of "Places of Interest in Galesburg" and another pamphlet or book whose name is illegible, and that on November 23, 1959, they sent him something called "Galesburg's Mighty Horse Market."
Finney must have visited Knox College in early December 1959, for he wrote the following letter to Goodsill:
December 14, 1959
Dear Mr. Goodsill:
Thank you again for your great courtesy, and helpfulness, to me when I visited Galesburg early this month. It was very kind of you to take the time and trouble to show me around Knox as you did; I would never have realized or seen the many interesting changes since I was in school which you pointed out to me.
Thanks to you and to Mr. Morrow of the Register-Mail, I was able to get all the material I needed, quickly and easily, for the story I am working on. All in all it was a successful and enjoyable trip, and I'm very happy to have had the pleasure of meeting you.
Finney added a postscript:
I've learned, incidentally, that the story which brought me to Galesburg is tentatively scheduled to appear in the April issue of McCall's magazine.
Goodsill replied on December 18, 1959:
Thanks for your letter of December 14. I'll watch for McCall's in April.
The snapshot I inflicted on you turned out all right, so I plan to run it in The Alumnus. Could you find time to send me a list of books and articles from y
our pen? Also, biographical material up to date?
Happy holidays to you!
Subsequent letters, including the letter with the list of writing, appear to have been lost. However, handwritten notes on the December 18 letter report that "letter with list given to Helen for files 12-18" and "snapshot to Helen 3-8-60 (used in Alumnus winter)." Another "snap to Helen 3-22-60 used & ret'd by R. mail" followed.
The Knox Alumnus issue of winter 1960 included a photograph of Finney under the heading, "Walter B. Finney, '34," and a brief biography. Of interest is the following paragraph:
Finney worked twelve years in advertising agencies in Chicago and New York after finishing Knox. Then moved to Mill Valley, Calif., where he now lives and writes at 223 Ricardo Road. "As my bit in furthering good-neighbor policy," he writes, "am married to a beautiful Canadian. Have daughter nine, named Marguerite after mother; son Kenneth, six, named after Secretary of Agriculture in Millard Fillmore's cabinet; dog Duke, named after English sea hero; have hamster named Harry, after Light-Horse Harry Lee; plus five guppies, unnamed. Very fond of Knox College."
Four more letters were exchanged between Goodsill and Finney in the early months of 1960. On March 22, Goodsill wrote: "The plan to circulate 5,000 extra copies of McCall's worked out. Just to make sure that you receive clips, I enclose two from Register-Mail March 21." The Register-Mail article essentially reprints the piece from the winter 1960 Knox Alumnus and adds some pertinent quotations from the story, "I Love Galesburg in the Springtime."
Finney replied on March 26, 1960:
Many thanks for the clippings you sent me on my Galesburg story in the current McCall's; I was pleased to see them, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness in sending them.
I often think of the fine tour of the college you took me on; it was a wonderfully pleasant experience which I hope to repeat with my family, perhaps this summer.
Goodsill replied on April 22, 1960:
Your letter of March 26 says you may bring your family to Galesburg "perhaps this summer."
When this happens I would like to get a group together to meet them — perhaps a dinner or garden party, provided your plans permit.
Finney's shyness is reflected in his reply of April 27, I960:
Thank you very much indeed for your wonderfully kind idea to have a dinner or garden party for us if my family and I should come to Galesburg this summer.
We do hope to be there — I expect to have business in New York late this spring, or in the early summer, and my wife would like to see her parents in Toronto — and I have, lately, got my family all pepped up about seeing Galesburg. So we may very well be staying overnight in Galesburg before too long, spending parts of the preceding and following days. None of this is yet certain, though.
We'd very much like to see you then, but please don't even think of arranging a dinner, garden party, or anything of the sort. We'd be a little pressed for time, for one thing; I don't meet people in large groups very easily, frankly; we'd have two children along, restless after a long trip; and you must not go to any such trouble, anyway. We would love to have lunch with you, or something of that sort.
I had a very nice note from Earnest Elmo Calkins about my story about Galesburg recently.
Again thanks for your nice note, and very kind plans; if we come to Galesburg, you'll surely be hearing from me.
Earnest Elmo Calkins's book, They Broke the Prairie, had been mentioned by Goodsill in his November 16,1959 letter to Finney. This was a book of local history, "first published in 1937 in honor of the Galesburg and Knox College Centenary" ("They Broke the Prairie"). Calkins died in 1964 and, after a six-year lull, the correspondence between Finney and Goodsill resumed. Goodsill wrote to Finney on September 1, 1966:
Knox Alumnus ran a series, "Knox As I Knew It," by Earnest Calkins. There has been a lapse since his death.
I'd like to publish similar articles in different age brackets. For example, the 1930s, by Jack Finney.
Will you please consider doing a page or two for the Alumnus? Just to put you in the mood I enclose copy of a 1913-er's recollections.
Finney replied on September 8, 1966:
Please believe, because it's true, that I gave your request to write something about Knox in the 1930s the most earnest consideration. I feel in your debt for past favors, and do not say no, as I have to, lightly. I thought about as hard as I'm able, to find out whether I might possibly have something to say about Knox in the 30s, and all I can tell you, finally, after mulling it over off and on for several days, is that I do not.
It just isn't true, of course, that a writer can turn his hand to any field; and the field of reminiscence and interesting anecdote is one I don't belong in. There are many people, and not necessarily writers, by any means, whose minds retain a wealth of anecdote, and of interesting bits and snips from earlier times. But not me. I wouldn't know what to say, Max; I mean it. I can't think of anything that made the Knox of the thirties different from today's. I'm sure it was very different, but I don't even know what today's Knox is like. Believe me, you have a lot better people for this job than I, and they probably live in Galesburg, and know both the Knox of the Thirties and of the Sixties both.
I'm sorry not to oblige; I would if I could.
Max Goodsill must have ceased being the Knox College director of public relations soon after this letter was received, for the following, lengthy letter was written to Finney on November 3, 1966, by the new director of public relations, William J. Kilkenny:
The Saturday Evening Post, I should think, might be interested in taking A New Look at Old Siwash. It was the Post, after all, that helped to start the whole Siwash business 58 years ago. Are you, I hope, interested in doing an updating piece for the Post?
In discussing the possibilities for such an article with Max Goodsill and a couple of other alumni, I came to realize that you would be the ideal author of it. Not only are you a well-established writer, but also you have an affiliation with Knox that would give you personal insights which might escape other authors.
A New Look at Old Siwash would be more than a publicity piece of considerable value to Knox; it would be an opportunity for a kind of rehabilitation of the term "Siwash" itself. As most dictionaries of slang, and some plain old dictionaries as well, have it, "Siwash" is a less than complimentary word. Knox seems to be inextricably committed to "Siwash" as a nickname, and although this is fine with the alumni, or at least some of the alumni, there are certain members of the faculty who consider "Siwash" a very heavy millstone around their scholarly necks. I feel that I am not telling you anything new here, but the debate over the propriety of such a nickname for a first-rate college, while it could hardly be the central point of a whole Post article, might provide a peg for a story. Another peg would be the fact that 1967 will be the 70th anniversary of George Fitch's graduation from Knox.
This is a matter that neither I nor anyone else with whom I have talked has discussed with anybody at the Post. We thought it would be best to have the idea suggested to the Post by an established author.
We have accumulated some material that might be of use to you if you are interested in undertaking this project, and we can gather up a great deal more if you wish. It is a matter that you might like to talk over with me on the telephone some day soon.
The letter concluded with a note that the writer was enclosing a number of booklets to help stimulate Finney's interest in the project, booklets such as "Knox Catalog" and "Calendar of Public Events." Kilkenny got no further than Goodsill had, however, as Jack Finney replied by letter of November 7, 1966:
Thank you for the compliment of thinking of me as a possible author of a Saturday Evening Post article on Knox. I appreciate it, but am obliged to say no because I am not an article writer. I write only fiction, and have never in my life written an article.
The two kinds of writing seem to be very different. There may be — no doubt are — writers who have done both, but I think they're rare. I've never known a
writer of fiction who had ever written an article, or vice versa.
I wouldn't even know how to begin, and since my last knowledgeable look at Old Siwash was in 1934, with only one brief visit since, some seven or eight years ago, I don't think I'm your man on any count.
"Siwash" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a small usually inland college that is notably provincial in outlook" ("Merriam-Webster"). The word was coined in stories by George Fitch, a writer who was graduated from Knox College in 1897. Fictional Siwash College was said to bear some similarity to Knox College ("George H. Fitch Papers").
Stealing Through Time: On the Writings of Jack Finney Page 16
