A Community of Writers: Paul Engle and the Iowa Writers' Workshop

Through the recollections of graduates and teachers, this book recalls the early years of the fabled Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. Paul Engle, the program's charismatic founder and director, was uncompromising in his efforts to help writers along, stocking the teaching faculty with luminaries while trolling America for the most promising young writers, for whom he arranged generous fellowships. Engle was also a social force. R.V. Cassill recalls an oyster feast thrown for the students: ""No one can underestimate how much drunkenness there was in those days nor how much Paul incited it, because it was certainly not liquor alone that made us drunk."" But Engle could be uncompromisingly harsh, too: Kiyohiro Miura recounts Engle urging him, about a review of Kenneth Rexroth's translations, ""Make it tough. That's our way."" W.D. Snodgrass recalls suddenly falling out of Engle's favor and having his fellowship cut off without warning. And there were other problems: the geniuses brought in to teach were all deeply troubled--""a whole generation of gifted but dangerously driven poets,"" in Snodgrass's words. Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Randall Jarrell all left indelible marks on their gifted students. But between all the excesses of drunkenness and meanness--remembered here in absorbing detail--their generosity and dedication also emerge. Philip Levine recalls: ""Berryman never failed in his obligations as a teacher... he brought to our writing a depth of insight and care we did not know existed."" Legions of imitator workshops mark the impact of Engle's endeavor. But his fondest hope was that his workshop would be a ""community."" These poetic memoirs confirm his success. (Apr.)