"Children had been so hungry they had been gnawing their fingers."
(69)
1930_children_in_the_depression
Edmund Wilson is describing the effect the Great
Depression had on everyone. Especially in the south where people were known to be less fortunate than those
of the north. But this is a very important quote that the Depression effected children greatly because either
their parents could not afford to feed their children or, worse, did not want to have the responsibility of taking care of their children and therefore left them out on the street to fend for themselves. .
Virginia and the Southwest
"Old low sordid brick buildings, among which a new hotel, office building, insurance company or bank has been expanded as if with sporadic effort. Business streets that suddenly lapse away in a nigger cabins. -Mill district - Hill Acre - don't dare go there after dark - a nigger shot everyday - six niggers to one white. - 1,500 manufactured articles, from locomotives to coffins to snuff. - Nigger section a vast smudge."
(88)
14 Chattanooga,TN.jpg
Edmund Wilson said this to describe the insignificance blacks withheld during the Great Depression. During the Depression, those with African American decent were looked down upon for their skin color. As Edmund
Wilson says, "six niggers to one white," this was considered the worth of their lives. I think its disgusting that we could treat other humans like that. Wilson also gives one more example of the African Americans mistreatment, that thousands of articles were run in the newspaper about a variety of things, but barely anything about blacks.
The Death of Margaret
"At Mrs. Waterman's house, when I began to cry, she said, I've never broke down. - Would look in her face in vain for Margaret's beauty, in Camilla's in vain for any trace of her - but Mrs. Waterman's voice was so sweet, like Margaret's, and her flurried way of saying things - - when I told her to open letter containing will: But its addressed to you! - so like Margaret - how Margaret would say like a child, when she said I was going somewhere: Aren't you going to take me with you? - She said, You're a cold fishy leprous person, Bunny Wilson - - All right then, I am - it was for being so thoroughbred I admired her- "
(236)
38811-004-FD3B3D57.jpg
Margaret was Wilson's second wife, and I think she was his favorite one. Throughout his journals,he pays so much attention to Margaret by ways of how her hair would shine in the sunlight and how beautiful she looked when she laughed. To describe someone in such a manner would seem obvious that he cared very much for her. Then, when the news of her death reached him, it broke his heart. You could see the pain he was enduring when, at the time of her death, he would talk of everything else but her. He only starts to
think and talk of her again until this quote that took place after the funeral. In the quote, in a way,he is trying to defy Margaret's death. He looks for traces of her every where. I wonder how long after her funeral he would think of her. I know he had a few other wives after Margaret, but I wonder
if he thought about her when he married all those
other women.
Back East
"Bourgeoisie: What they think: equilibrium - prices coming down so that money buys more than it did - wages will have to come down too - the Americans have been spoiled, the European countries have had to get along by thrift and hard work, and the Americans will have to learn to do it, too - they may have to do without their car and radio -"
(142)
When I saw this, I thought it was interesting to get a glimpse of what the outside world thought about America's Great Depression. How the Bourgeoisie (the word Bourgeoisie is the name for the upper class of countries outside the U.S.) considered Americans to be lazy and have everything just handed to them on a silver platter without having to work for it. To me, it seemed that they thought we deserved our Depression.
Coming Back to New York, Dec. 22, 1931
"- At New Republic: the Herald Tribune had to arrange extensions in order to make the drops on the chart go low enough - only thing Amalgamated was buying were short-term government bonds - no bonds at all, not even government bonds, otherwise - $ 3 million cash in bank - just trying to stay fluid - every bank insolvent except Chase National, and all the other banks were conspiring to keep that solvent because if that went, the government went."
(156)
I chose this quote because I thought it was an excellent example of how desperately the government needed money during the Depression. When the Amalgamated (the radio network back in the '30s) put 3 million dollars into a short-term bond to ensure the company's survival, banks went crazy over the amount of money that they believed to be the last hope of the government. Picturing this situation, is unfathomable. With the economic crisis we are currently experiencing, I hope it doesn't get as bad as it did back then.
What I learned the most from reading Edmund Wilson's journals from the thirties was about the life people lived during the Great Depression. I was most shocked that in a time of crisis when people should be helping each other out, racial differences drew the line. Killings and crimes to me are the most worthless things ever. I can't understand how people could have been so cruel in such desperate times. How hard it must have been for those who had no money and how banks were strangling to obtain as much money as they could in order to help support the government that threatened to crash at any time. By the description of Wilson's life, I believe he had a simple life and was not as effected by the Depression as other people did. But ultimately was able to do what he loved to do best, writing. He was able to travel to all types of places in order to find the news despite the Great Depression. By his journals I could tell he was a very descriptive man, never in any hurry to not be able to write about the surrounding landscape or about the beauty of his wife (Mary Canby). Then, he was very successful through his reputation as a literary critic. Even now he is still remembered.
Edmund Wilson
Works Cited
Edmund Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey May 8, 1895. His father, Edmund Wilson Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. From 1912 to 1916 he was educated at Princeton University, after attending The Hill School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the school's literary magazine, The Record. He began his professional writing career as a reporter for the New York Sun, and served in the first World War.
His first wife was Mary Blair, whom he late divorced. His second wife, Margaret Canby, was described as a charming and cultured lady. Three years after their marriage, Margarets dies in a freak accident. From 1938 to 1946 he was married to Mary McCarthy, who like Wilson was well known for her literary criticism. He later married Elena Mumm Thornton, but continued to have extramartial relationships. He died June 12, 1972.
EDMUND WILSON
THE THIRTIES:
From Notebooks and Diaries
of the Period
"Children had been so hungry they had been gnawing their fingers."
(69)
Depression had on everyone. Especially in the south where people were known to be less fortunate than those
of the north. But this is a very important quote that the Depression effected children greatly because either
their parents could not afford to feed their children or, worse, did not want to have the responsibility of taking care of their children and therefore left them out on the street to fend for themselves. .
"Old low sordid brick buildings, among which a new hotel, office building, insurance company or bank has been expanded as if with sporadic effort. Business streets that suddenly lapse away in a nigger cabins. -Mill district - Hill Acre - don't dare go there after dark - a nigger shot everyday - six niggers to one white. - 1,500 manufactured articles, from locomotives to coffins to snuff. - Nigger section a vast smudge."
(88)
Wilson says, "six niggers to one white," this was considered the worth of their lives. I think its disgusting that we could treat other humans like that. Wilson also gives one more example of the African Americans mistreatment, that thousands of articles were run in the newspaper about a variety of things, but barely anything about blacks.
"At Mrs. Waterman's house, when I began to cry, she said, I've never broke down. - Would look in her face in vain for Margaret's beauty, in Camilla's in vain for any trace of her - but Mrs. Waterman's voice was so sweet, like Margaret's, and her flurried way of saying things - - when I told her to open letter containing will: But its addressed to you! - so like Margaret - how Margaret would say like a child, when she said I was going somewhere: Aren't you going to take me with you? - She said, You're a cold fishy leprous person, Bunny Wilson - - All right then, I am - it was for being so thoroughbred I admired her- "
(236)
think and talk of her again until this quote that took place after the funeral. In the quote, in a way,he is trying to defy Margaret's death. He looks for traces of her every where. I wonder how long after her funeral he would think of her. I know he had a few other wives after Margaret, but I wonder
if he thought about her when he married all those
other women.
"Bourgeoisie: What they think: equilibrium - prices coming down so that money buys more than it did - wages will have to come down too - the Americans have been spoiled, the European countries have had to get along by thrift and hard work, and the Americans will have to learn to do it, too - they may have to do without their car and radio -"
(142)
"- At New Republic: the Herald Tribune had to arrange extensions in order to make the drops on the chart go low enough - only thing Amalgamated was buying were short-term government bonds - no bonds at all, not even government bonds, otherwise - $ 3 million cash in bank - just trying to stay fluid - every bank insolvent except Chase National, and all the other banks were conspiring to keep that solvent because if that went, the government went."
(156)
His first wife was Mary Blair, whom he late divorced. His second wife, Margaret Canby, was described as a charming and cultured lady. Three years after their marriage, Margarets dies in a freak accident. From 1938 to 1946 he was married to Mary McCarthy, who like Wilson was well known for her literary criticism. He later married Elena Mumm Thornton, but continued to have extramartial relationships. He died June 12, 1972.
"14 Chattanooga,TN.jpg" 2 Dec. 2008
<http://freepages.genealogy.
rootsweb.ancestry.com/~elkridge/DepressionYears.htm>.
"1930s_children_in_the_depression" 2 Dec. 2008
<http://www.idenc.com/tah/TAH-PPTS/Unit%207,
%20Chapters%2022,%2023-JM.ppt>.
"38811-004-FD3B3D57.jpg" 2 Dec. 2008
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/books/review/04TOIBIN.html>.
"Edmund Wilson" 2 Dec. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Wilson.
"wilson2.184.jpg" 3 Dec. 2008 <http:www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/books/review/
04TOIBIN.html>.
Wilson, Edmund. The Thirties:From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Ltd., Toronto. 1980.