Creative Writing

The departure of George P. Baker in 1924 and of Wallace Stegner, Mark Schorer, and others in recent years for more inviting universities has occasioned a constant dismay in those who would like to see the teaching of creative writing an important part of Harvard's curriculum. Although the prospects for next year show a greater number of courses in the field, the English Department has no program to offer comparable to that of a number of other colleges, notably Iowa and Stanford. At Stanford, for example, there is a creative writing "center", with fat scholarships for young writers, and, perhaps more important, a respect for writing as an integral component in the work of the University.

The responsibility of American universities to be more than museums for the preservation and study of ancient works has increased now that young authors, many of them under the G.I. Bill, are making the campuses a center for their activities. Stanford, which has taken its responsibility seriously, presents an example as the ideal spot for the student writers. It attracts the best teachers by offering them security of tenure, the best promising novelists by giving them scholarships, and it keeps a well balanced curriculum by having an organized division of creative writing.

The writing center would not be an intangible thing; Harvard certainly needs no new buildings for this purpose, and probably no more than the six courses offered in the 1948-49 catalogue, although an increase in the number of sections of English Ala is desirable. The young writer-teachers, who are the backbone of the department's staff, will have to be offered sufficient inducements in tenure and chance of advancement so that they will not leave for the West at the first opportunity. The awarding of five-year professorships and Briggs-Copeland Instructorships to several writing teachers in the last two years has been an advance in this respect. Nevertheless, the departure of Stegner for Stanford during the war still leaves the need for a man who can organize the field and make it a workable unit.

Stanford's system, however, should not be taken as a sacred model for this university. It might be unwise to separate creative writing from the study of literature to the extent of allowing students to write a novel as a doctoral thesis. Rather, creative writing should be a unit within the English Department, with a teaching staff chosen for their ability to teach students writing. The close and healthy relationship between writing and reading should still be preserved in the department, and with it should exist an awareness on the part of the administration that the University is fulfilling an obligation and not doing a favor by teaching creative writing.