William March

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William March

William March, 1918
Born September 18, 1893(1893-09-18)
Mobile, Alabama
Died May 15, 1954 (aged 60)
New Orleans, Louisiana
Occupation Novelist
Genres Fiction
Literary movement The Lost Generation
Influences
Influenced

William March (born William Edward Campbell September 18, 1893 – May 15, 1954) was an American World War I veteran, short-story writer and novelist cited as being "the unrecognized genius of our time."[1] His novels intertwine his own personal torment (he was a deeply closeted homosexual[2]) with the conflicts spawned by unresolved class, family, sexual, and racial matters.[3] His innovative writing style is characterized by a deep compassion and understanding of suffering. A champion of the poor and disadvantaged,[4] March often presents characters who, through no fault of their own, are victims of chance and that freedom can only be obtained by being true to one's nature and humanity.[5]

Contents

[edit] Early life

William March was born and raised in and around Mobile, Alabama to a poor, itinerant family. Having ten other siblings, March was afforded no privileges and by the age of 14 had dropped out of school and taken employment in Lockhart, Alabama in the office of a lumber mill.[6] Two years later March had returned to Mobile and found employment in a local law office. By 1913, March had saved enough money to take a high school course at Valparaiso University in Indiana and later returned to Alabama to study law at the University of Alabama. March thrived as a student but lacked the necessary tuition to complete his law degree. In the fall of 1916, March moved to a small boarding house in Brooklyn, finding work as a clerk in the law firm of Nevins, Brett and Kellog, in Manhattan.[7]

[edit] World War I

Military Awards, c. 1918
Military Awards, c. 1918

On June 25, 1917, March volunteered for the U.S. Marines, a little over a month after the U.S. entered World War I. On January 7, 1918, after completing Marine recruit training on Parris Island, March joined the 133d Company in the Marine barracks at Quantico, Virginia. Along with two other future World War I literary figures, John W. Thomason (Fix Bayonets) and Laurence Stallings (What Price Glory), March embarked on USS Von Steuben at Philadelphia. March reached France in March 1918, serving as a sergeant in Co F, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 4th Brigade of Marines, Second Division of the U.S. Army Expeditionary Force.[8]

March's company took part in every major engagement in which American troops were involved, incurring heavy casualties. As a member of the 5th Marines, March saw his first action on the old Verdun battlefield near Les Eparges and shortly thereafter at Belleau Wood, where he was gassed and wounded in the head and shoulder. He returned to the front in time for Saint-Mihiel and an attack on Blanc Mont. March then participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive and, along with his company, started preparing for a new assault, crossing the Meuse River at Mouzon when the war finally ended.

As a result of his actions during the assault on Blanc Mont, March received the French Croix de Guerre with Palm and the Army Distinguished Service Cross for valor. The Distinguished Service Cross is the second highest Army decoration, next only to the Medal of Honor, and a number of Marines earned the decoration in World War I while serving in the 4th Marine Brigade of the Army's Second Division.

The official citation to the Croix de Guerre reads as follows:

"During the operations in Blanc Mont region, October 3-4th, 1918, he left a shelter to rescue the wounded. On October 5, during a counter-attack, the enemy having advanced to within 300 meters of the first aid station, he immediately entered the engagement and though wounded refused to be evacuated until the Germans were thrown back."[5]

The citation for March's Distinguished Service Cross (under his birthname William E. Campbell) reads as follows:

"The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to William E. Campbell, Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the 43d Company, 5th Regiment (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F. in action near Blanc Mont, France, October 3 - 5, 1918. On October 3 and 4, while detailed on statistical work, Sergeant Campbell voluntarily assisted in giving first aid to the wounded. On October 5, when the enemy advanced within 300 yards of the dressing station, he took up a position in the lines, helping in defense. Although twice wounded, he remained in action under heavy fire until the enemy had been repulsed."[9]

When the Navy Cross, the United States Navy's second highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor, was established in 1919, March received that award as well (326 Marines who had previously received the Army Distinguished Service Cross in World War I would receive the Navy Cross for the same action). March's citation for the Navy Cross reads as that for the Army Distinguished Service Cross.[10]

[edit] Literary aftermath of World War I

Company K
Company K

In 1919, March returned to civilian life, but was marred by bouts of anxiety and depression, which was a common occurrence with many returning veterans.[11] Consequently, March rarely spoke of his war experiences or awards, coping instead by writing short stories about his experiences. In 1921, March became an organizer and eventually vice-president of the Waterman Steamship Corporation. As vice-president, he was relocated for an extended period of time to New York, where his duties also led him abroad, back to Europe.

In 1933, while living in New York, March finished his first novel, Company K, encompassing much of his war time experience, it was critically praised and placed him on the literary map. A year later, while living in Hamburg, Germany he finished his second novel Come in at the door, his first novel of the "Pearl County" series of novels and short stories, set in the mythical towns of Hodgetown, Baycity and Reedyville. While living in Hamburg, March witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. Consequently, March prophetically proposed the future that was soon to be, with his short story Personal Letter. March was fearful to publish the story, as he was already well established for being an anti-militarist author and was afraid to place his German friends and associates in undue peril.[12]

Two years later, following a move to London, March finished his third novel, The Tallons, the second in his "Pearl County" series. In 1937, March returned to the US and within two years resigned his position to concentrate more on his writing, which by then had grown to a full time role. In 1943, March completed his most ambitious and critically acclaimed novel, The Looking-Glass, a loose continuation and final submission to his "Pearl County" series.

[edit] Later years

In 1947, after years of depression from his experiences in the war and a continuing bout of writer's block, March suffered a nervous breakdown. He briefly returned to Mobile to recuperate and made many return visits to New York to settle his affairs. On one such visit in 1949, March happened upon the gallery of noted New York art dealer, Klaus Perls.[13] Unbeknownst to March, this visit would prove a turning point in his life. Perls, accustomed to dealing with creative personalities, showed an acceptance to March that he had not felt since his days of therapy in London.[14] Through Perls, March was able to talk openly about his creative process, using Perls as a sounding board to his ideas. Perls also introduced March to a world of other tortured artists. In the works of Pablo Picasso and notably Chaim Soutine, March found a kinship and connection, as March and Soutine both displayed paranoid and schizophrenic tendencies. March returned Perls' friendship with a steady acquisition of works by Soutine, Picasso, Georges Rouault and Joseph Glasco. March continued this friendship with routine visits to New York between 1949 and 1953, until ailing health prevented him from further travels. [15]

In late 1950, March permanently moved from Mobile and purchased a home in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was here that he composed his last two novels, October Island and The Bad Seed. March viewed the latter novel as a meager accomplishment, not being of the same quality of his earlier work. Ironically, it gained the most praise and success, selling over a million copies in one year,[2] launching a long-running Broadway hit penned by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Maxwell Anderson and in 1956, a successful Hollywood movie directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

[edit] Death

William March, c. 1933
William March, c. 1933

On March 25, 1954 March suffered a mild heart attack and was still recovering when The Bad Seed was published on April 8. He was discharged from the hospital on April 24, but after only three weeks, on the night of May 15, 1954, he died in his sleep of a further heart attack, at the age of 61.

March had lived long enough to see his final novel published to much acclaim, but he would not know the full extent of its success. On the morning of March's death, the following paragraph was discovered in his typewriter, entitled "Poor Pilgrim, Poor Stranger", it was presumably written after his discharge from the hospital, it ironically declares:

“ The time comes in the life of each of us when we realize that death awaits us as it awaits others, that we will receive at the end neither preference nor exemption. It is then, in that disturbed moment, that we know life is an adventure with an ending, not a succession of bright days that go on forever. Sometimes the knowledge come with the repudiation and quick revolt that such injustice awaits us, sometimes with fear that dries the mouth and closes the eyes for an instant, sometimes with servile weariness, an acquiescence more dreadful than fear. The knowledge that my own end was near came with pain, and afterwards astonishment, with the conventional heart attack, from which, I've been told, I've made an excellent recovery. ”
 
— William March[16]

[edit] Literary significance, criticism and biographies

The Looking-Glass
The Looking-Glass

Commenting on March's complete body of work, the legendary British-American journalist and broadcaster Alistair Cooke wrote that March was “the most underrated of all contemporary American writers of fiction” citing his unique style as “classic modern” and further stating that March was "the unrecognized genius of our time".[1]

[edit] Company K

Company K, published in 1933, was hailed as a masterpiece by critics and writers alike and has often been compared to Erich Maria Remarque's classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front for its hopeless view of war. The professor and author Philip Beidler wrote that "the act of writing Company K, in effect reliving his very painful memories, was itself an act of tremendous courage, equal to or greater than whatever it was that earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross and French Croix de Guerre".[5]

Writing as a literary critic for the Spectator, the writer Graham Greene places it among the most important of all war novels, stating:

"His book has the force of a mob-protest; an outcry from anonymous throats. The wheel turns and turns and it does not matter, one hardly notices that the captain of the company, killed on page 159, is alive again a hundred pages later. It does not matter that every stock situation of the war, suicide, the murder of an officer, the slaughter of prisoners, a vision of Christ, is apportioned to Company K, because the book is not written in any realistic convention. It is the only War-book I have read which has found a new form to fit the novelty of the protest. The prose is bare, lucid, without literary echoes, not an imitation but a development of eighteenth-century prose."[17]

The journalist and writer Christopher Morley had an almost identical response to Company K after reading an advance copy, stating:

"It's queer about this book--it suddenly made me wonder whether any other book about the War has been written in this country. It's a book of extra-ordinary courage--not the courage of hope but the quiet courage of despair. It will make patriots and romanticists angry--yet it is the kind of patriotism that is hardest and toughest. It ranks at once with the few great cries of protest. It is a selected, partial, bitter picture, but a picture we need. It will live. None of the acts of bravery for which the author was decorated during the War was as brave as this anthology of dismay."[18]

[edit] The Bad Seed

The Bad Seed, published in April 1954, was a critical and commercial success. The novel became an instant best seller and was widely praised by critics for its unrelenting use of suspense and horror.[19] James Kelley, writing for the The New York Times Book Review, echoed the overwhelming sentiment visited upon the book when he wrote "...It's pleasant to report that The Bad Seed scores a direct hit, either as exposition of a problem or as a work of art. Venturing a prediction and a glance over the shoulder: no more satisfactory novel will be written in 1954 or has turned up in recent memory."[20] Although March lived long enough to see the critical praise bestowed upon the novel, he died before the novel's full impact was realized. After March's death, famed New York Times critic Gilbert Millstein wrote of The Bad Seed and March's lasting impact, stating:

"William March, who died of a heart attack on May 15 at the age of 60 in his house in the Vieux Carre in New Orleans, was an artist of the most intense perception and the least bravura, and he had been entirely out of the main stream of American literature for the last three decades or so. He was...a talent of almost major proportions, almost invariably received with favor by reviewers but taken up neither by the avant-garde nor by the book clubs... The Bad Seed was his last novel and possibly his best one... March's last novel was a true artistic achievement."

The Bad Seed went on to sell over a million copies, was nominated for the 1955 National Book Award, was adapted into a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson, and an Academy Award nominated film directed by Mervyn Leroy.

[edit] 99 Fables

Six years after March's death, his 99 Fables were published to little acclaim. The collection was published by the University of Alabama Press, thus limiting its exposure and narrowing its audience considerably.[21] Although the collection is among the most obscure of March's work, 99 Fables stands as an almost complete picture of the world March inhabited. Many of the complex themes that populate much of March's previous work are here restated in a more simplistic form.

Speaking of the fables, Harper Lee compares March's sardonic career with that of Ambrose Bierce:

"...As one reads the fables, one is haunted by the resemblance of William March to his natural predecessor, Ambrose Bierce. The two men had much in common: their work is criss-crossed with similar themes; both were ridden with personal demons; both viewed life with bitterness; each was a minor genius; and each was the most neglected writer of his time."[22]

[edit] Short Stories

March was an accomplished short story writer, and published four collections of stories. The Filipino poet and critic José García Villa regarded March as "the greatest short story writer America has produced".[23] He won 4 O'Henry Awards for his short stories, tied for the most wins by any author up until that time.

[edit] Biographies

Many critics and scholars have attempted to construct a fluid critical assessment of March's work. Critical analysis of March's individual works exist, but only Roy S. Simmonds biography, The Two Worlds of William March incorporate the duality of his nature and encompass the full body of his work. Published in 1984, Simmonds picked up where his fellow critic and friend, Lawrence William Jones had stopped, due to his untimely death in a car accident. Simmonds had only a passing knowledge of March's work, but became increasingly interested in finishing Jones' work after having read through many of the papers that Jones had left behind, notably the 43 page memoir Bill March, by the New Orleans journalist Clint Bolton.

Although March had intimated that he wished for no biography to be written,[24] the Campbell family, after having read the completed manuscript, gave their approval. At 325 pages, the biography offers a complete picture of the anachronistic world and works of William March, it closes with the felicitous:

"The Cruel irony of his death, coming at the moment it did, deprived him of the immense satisfaction of the worldwide recognition he would have enjoyed following the success of The Bad Seed. Now March has been almost forgotten. His reputation, however, if little known at present, remains established and secure. Those of us who know, love, and admire his work live in the belief that one day March will be recognized as one of the most remarkable, talented, and shamefully neglected writers that America has produced in this or in any other century."

[edit] Documentary

A documentary film on March entitled William March/Company K (2004) by Alabama filmmaker Robert Clem includes excerpts from Clem's feature adaptation of Company K and focuses on the effects of March's painful war experience on his later life.[25]

[edit] Posthumous publications

Although much of March's work is obscure and out of print now, during his life he was consistently compared to a less prolific William Faulkner or Ernest Hemingway.[26] His work was championed by the critic Alistair Cooke, whom successfully lobbied for the publication of A William March Omnibus, which was published two years after March's death, complete with a foreword by Cooke himself.

Years before his death, March submitted his 99 fables, a short story collection for publication. It was denied publication, but soon after March's death and the subsequent popularity and success of The Bad Seed, the collection was "found" in his home and posthumously published 6 years later by The University of Alabama Press.

[edit] Awards and honors

[edit] Works

[edit] Novels

[edit] Collections

[edit] Movies based on March's works

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b March, William (1956). A William March Omnibus : with an introduction by Alistair Cooke, First edition, Lanham, Pages vi-xxv. 
  2. ^ a b Bronski, Michael (2006-12-20). "The Rhoda Reaction". The Phoenix.
  3. ^ Baise, Jennifer (ed.) (2000), "March, William: Introduction", Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (Thomson Gale) 96, <http://lit.enotes.com/twentieth-century-criticism/march-william> 
  4. ^ "William Campbell". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
  5. ^ a b c William, March (1989). Company K: with an introduction by Philip D. Beidler, First edition, University of Alabama Press, Pages vii-xxvi. ISBN 0-8173-0480-0. 
  6. ^ Simmonds, Roy S. (1988). William March: An Annotated Checklist, First edition, University of Alabama Press, Page xii. ISBN 0-8173-0361-8. 
  7. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. 11.
  8. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. 12.
  9. ^ "WWI US Marine Corps Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross". Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
  10. ^ "Full Text Citations for Award of the Navy Cross to US Marines in World War I". Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
  11. ^ "National Institute of Mental Health: Alliance for Research Progress" (PDF) (2006-01-20). Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
  12. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. xvii.
  13. ^ Simmonds, Roy S (1984). The Two Worlds of William March, First edition, University of Alabama Press, Page 224. ISBN 0-8173-0167-4. 
  14. ^ Simmonds (1984), p. 226.
  15. ^ Simmonds (1984), p. 228.
  16. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. xxiii.
  17. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. 120.
  18. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. 4.
  19. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. 183.
  20. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. 185.
  21. ^ Simmonds (1984), p. 315.
  22. ^ Simmonds (1988), p. 191.
  23. ^ Simmonds (1984), p. xii.
  24. ^ Simmonds (1984), p. xii.
  25. ^ "Waterfront Picture - William March/Company K". Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
  26. ^ Simmonds (1989), p. 159.

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