The Home of the Contemporary Literary Renaissance

Present-day literature in the Anglo-Saxon world is passing through a great renaissance such as it has not known for generations. And the primary elements of literature — poetry, drama, and criticism — have two principal homes to which the credit for its flourishing and richness belongs: Blackmur's circle at Princeton in America, and Leavis's at Cambridge in England.

As for Princeton, it currently holds such brains as no other comparable spot in the world can boast. In addition to the university that bears its name, the town contains the Institute for Advanced Study, where the greatest scientist of the entire twentieth century works: Albert Einstein. The university and the institute have made Princeton the focus of scholars' eyes wherever they may be, and it has become the foremost center for mathematical and physical research. There is also the Westminster school of music, among whose teachers are a number of the greatly gifted. And there is a number of world-renowned lecturers who come to it one after another, such as Hu Shih, the greatest of China's men of letters; Robert and Gaby Casadesus, the two most famous musicians; the well-known historian Arnold Toynbee; the first poet of this half of the century, T. S. Eliot; the philosopher Jacques Maritain; the physicist Robert Oppenheimer; the novelist John O'Hara; and others besides. And if we have named these great ones, it is not to neglect saying that there is a number of other personalities who, if they fall short of these in fame, fall short of them not at all in genius and weight — some of them connected with the university or the institutes, and some dwelling in the town so as to remain within that literary and intellectual milieu, and so that their names may be mentioned along with its name!

What has endeared Princeton to these men is that this town, which holds no more than 16,000 souls, offers ivory towers if the resident wishes them, and connection with the outside world if he wants it — for it lies but an hour's journey from New York.

In Princeton there are places of amusement where some of those "great ones" gather from time to time — theaters, tennis courts, and swimming pools. But there is no salon or intellectual forum that imposes itself and brings together the city's prominent intellectual personalities. This regrettable lack, however, is made good by certain occasions at which they meet one another, and meet others among the "lesser ones" in whom the contemporary poetic, literary, and intellectual renaissance is centered.

Foremost in standing among these occasions is the "Pure Literary Circle," led by two men of contemporary letters: R. P. Blackmur, chief of the school known as the school of the New Criticism, and Francis Fergusson, the specialist in dramatic literature. Both are among the pillars on which the fine literary magazines of America rest — those known as the "little magazines," because the literary character that prevails in them puts them within reach of the small elite alone! And the circle they conduct is known in the world of Anglo-Saxon letters as the most intricate of all literary circles, the most devoted to art, and the most abundant in benefit and value. It is worth mentioning that the students of the university — even those specializing in literature and those in its graduating classes — have no right to attend this circle; indeed, not even whoever wishes among the university's own professors may become members of it. Belonging to it is restricted to a small number of the masters of letters and of writers, especially poets, known for their creative production — and their admission is subject to Blackmur's personal approval.

It is worth recalling that Blackmur received no schooling at a university or college, and that despite his fame in the first degree as a poet, he is known by the name of "the critic of critics," and as "the greatest and most eminent of those versed in the literary and critical life of America." His method in criticism rests upon treating the literary text itself, without concern for the other aspects that come on the margin of the text, and upon dissecting texts with an ample, scientific dissection which at times comes close to the world of science and mathematics.

Princeton is a university for men and does not accept women! But Blackmur pays no heed to the university's constitution, and does not disdain to admit the well-known women of letters to his circle when he finds them. It will please the readers of this magazine to know that our great poetess Nazik al-Malaika is now a member of his circle.

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As for England, the literary renaissance is centered not in the comparatively young universities but in the old universities that have become part of the English — say rather the world's — heritage, and most particularly in the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, as is well known, comprises a number of colleges, as most universities do. And if we hold that the renaissance of contemporary literature is centered there, we mean specifically one particular college among its colleges: Downing, which is never mentioned without the name of its greatest personality being mentioned with it — the critic F. R. Leavis. A poll recently taken at the university showed that Leavis is the teacher dearest to his students' hearts and the one with the greatest influence upon them. Many writers and men of letters hold that when the history of English literature between 1935 and 1955 comes to be written, Leavis's name will be the most brilliant name of that era, and it will become plain that he is the man of letters with the greatest influence on literature and the greatest hand in directing it.

Leavis is the proprietor and editor of the well-known critical magazine Scrutiny, which was and remains a war without quarter upon the ailments of literature, without regard to the personality or the station of the writer. For this the literary feudalism made war on the man and his magazine — so that you would not find it in the bookshops, and if you did come upon it, it was in the drawers, hidden away with the lewd books! He is the author of "The Great Tradition," which is counted among the finest works of criticism and guidance in our age.

Downing College is young if measured against the university's other colleges; it stands a little apart from its sisters, and its courts are distinguished by an abundance of peacocks frolicking in them. Downing is known as a Bohemian college that departs from the accustomed in its social ways; therefore those of the knitted brows look at it askance, and refuse to let those who join it (especially its literary circle, which parallels Blackmur's circle to a far degree) enroll in the haughty aristocratic clubs! Indeed, the other colleges do not regard it with much satisfaction, calling it the academy of the corrupted, and calling Leavis the corrupter of youth!!

But this prejudice is one thing, and the reality — which even those men do not deny — is another. There is no dispute that Cambridge today, thanks to Downing College and its literary circle, and thanks to them alone, is the home of a comprehensive literary renaissance in England — a renaissance resting on strong and singular foundations, which have stood firm in the face of difficulties; much good has come of it, and much more is yet hoped for.

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In Princeton and Cambridge are two circles for poetry, criticism, and the humanities, which cause English literature to enjoy a great renaissance — and cause the world to acknowledge that literature is still in good health!