Wescott, Glenway, 1901-1987

Glenway Wescott (1901-1987) was the author of novels, poetry, short stories, and essays. He met Katherine Anne Porter in Paris in the 1930s, and they remained friends for many years.

Glenway Wescott was an American author and personality. He was born in Wisconsin, and became part of the Paris literary circle of the 1920s before returning to the United States to live in New York City. Much of his fiction recalls his Wisconsin boyhood, and was greatly admired by his contemporaries. Wescott remained active in the New York artistic community, and, as an openly homosexual man, conducted research for Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey's Institute of Sex Research.

Glenway Wescott was a major expatriate American novelist who lived in France in the 1920s and 1930s. His major writings include Goodbye Wisconsin, The Babe's Bed, and The Pilgrim Hawk.

Glenway Wescott was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, literary critic, and essayist.

Glenway Wescott (1901-1987), poet, essayist, and novelist.

American author.

Glenway Wescott, poet, essayist and novelist. His works include: "The Grandmothers", "The Pilgrim Hawk", and "Images of Truth". Wescott died on February 22, 1987.

Glenway Wescott was the author of novels, poetry, short stories, and essays. Born on a farm outside Kewaskum, Wisconsin, on April 11, 1901, he began his post-secondary studies at the University of Chicago in 1917 but only completed three semesters, because he contracted the Spanish flu in 1919. While recuperating, he made the acquaintance of and began a relationship with Monroe Wheeler, which lasted until Wescott's death in 1987.

After his health improved, Wescott moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and stayed with his friend Yvor Winters. While there, he produced a group of poems, The Bitterns, which was published by Monroe Wheeler in 1920. In late 1921, Wescott and Wheeler made their first trip to Europe. After returning to New York City with Monroe Wheeler in 1922, Wescott finished his first novel, The Apple of the Eye, published in 1924.

In 1925, Wescott and Wheeler returned to Europe and, in 1926, moved to Villefranche, in the south of France. In France, they became friends with many other artists, including W. Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jean Cocteau, Ford Madox Ford, and Isadora Duncan. Wescott published his second work of fiction, The Grandmothers, a series of sketches drawn from his early memories, in 1927. This was followed the next year by his collection of short stories, Good-bye Wisconsin .

Wescott lived with Wheeler in France through 1934, alternating between Villefranche and Paris with occasional trips to New York. During one of these trips to New York in 1927, they met photographer George Platt Lynes. Between 1930 and 1935, Wheeler published fine press editions of belle-lettres texts with Barbara Harrison under the Harrison of Paris imprint. Also, during this period, Katherine Anne Porter became friends with Wescott, Wheeler, Harrison, and Lynes. She remained friends and corresponded with them for many decades. Harrison of Paris published Katherine Anne Porter's French Song-Book in 1932 and Hacienda in 1934. In 1935, Barbara Harrison married Wescott's younger brother, Lloyd, and, with the dissolution of Harrison of Paris, the Wescotts and Wheeler moved back to the United States. Glenway Wescott and Wheeler set up households on a farm in New Jersey owned by Barbara Harrison and Lloyd Wescott and in various New York City apartments with George Platt Lynes.

After returning to the United States, Wescott continued to write, publishing The Pilgrim Hawk in 1940 and Apartment in Athens in 1945. Between 1945 and 1962, when he published Images of Truth: Remembrances and Criticism, Wescott lectured, wrote reviews and criticism, served as president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and worked on a number of novels. In 1963, he began working on the Letters to a Circle of Friends 1933-1962: Thirty Years of Friendship, an edition of letters documenting the friendships among Katherine Anne Porter, Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, Barbara Harrison Wescott, George Platt Lynes, and Russell Lynes, brother of George Platt Lynes and editor of Harper's Magazine. The book was never completed. When Isabel Bayley became Katherine Anne Porter's literary trustee in 1983, Wescott gave all of the materials he had amassed for the project to Bayley, whose edition, Letters of Katherine Anne Porter, was published in 1990.

Wescott died on February 22, 1987.

Glenway Wescott was born on April 11th, 1901 near Kewaskum, Wisconsin, to a farming family. His early education in public schools led to his matriculation at the University of Chicago in 1917. He studied there until early in 1919, when he left, as he writes in an autobiographical sketch (box 358, folder 3500) due to "ill health and melancholia". While recuperating, he made the acquaintance of a Chicago native, Monroe Wheeler. Their relationship began shortly after and the two stayed together as a couple until Wescott's death in 1987.

After recovering his health sufficiently, Wescott moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he stayed for several months in the company of another Chicagoan, Arthur Yvor Winters. In Santa Fe, Wescott produced a group of poems which were published by Monroe Wheeler in 1920 under the title The Bitterns . Wescott and Wheeler traveled to Europe together in late 1921. In 1923, Wescott traveled across Europe as factotum for the Henry Goldman family. Upon returning to Monroe Wheeler, now in New York City, Wescott finished his first novel, The Apple of the Eye, published in 1924.

Wescott and Wheeler moved to Villefranche, in the South of France, in 1926. They quickly made their way into artistic and literary circles, numbering among their friends Jean Cocteau, Ford Madox Ford, Elly Ney, and Isadora Duncan. Wescott's second work of fiction, The Grandmothers, a series of portraits drawn from his early memories, was published in 1927. This novel won the Harper Prize for that year and garnered Wescott a certain measure of reknown. A collection of short stories, Good-bye Wisconsin was issued the following year.

The two men stayed in France through the early 1930s. Wescott continued to write short pieces of fiction, as well as essays, several of which appeared in 1932 as Fear and Trembling . Meanwhile, Wheeler published books under the Harrison of Paris imprint, which he established in 1930 in partnership with Barbara Harrison. After Harrison married Wescott's younger brother, Lloyd, in 1935, Wescott and Wheeler decided to move back to the United States, setting up households both on the farm in New Jersey bought by Barbara Harrison and Lloyd Wescott and in New York City, where they shared a series of apartments with George Platt Lynes.

Lynes, best known as a figural and fashion photographer, came into their world in 1926. Over time, Wescott and Wheeler's relationship expanded to include Lynes as a full-fledged partner. The establishment of a domicile in New York for all three to live together made for a true ménage à trois. (Lynes died in New York City in December, 1955.)

After the dissolution of Harrison of Paris in 1935, Wheeler began free-lance work for the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City, which hired him in 1938 to be Membership Director, then, later, Director of Publications and Exhibitions. Wescott continued to write, publishing The Pilgrim Hawk in 1940 and Apartment in Athens in 1945. Though he did not produce another full-length book until Images of Truth in 1962, Wescott lectured, wrote reviews and criticism, served as a member and president of the National Institute and American Academy of Arts and Letters, and worked on a number of novels. A great deal of creative energy went into another quasi-literary project, his "journals", which he began in earnest in 1938 to document his life and thoughts.

Though much of Wescott's later life was devoted to editing his journals for publication, this project only reached fruition after his death, with the appearance in 1990 of Continual Lessons, a single volume of excerpts. Wescott, who had lived most of his later years in New Jersey, on a second farm owned by his brother and sister-in-law, died on February 22, 1987.