Paris Review - The Art of the Essay No. 1

INTERVIEWER. When did you initiatory persist to saucy York, and what were what ever of the things you did onwards association The tender Yorker . Were you ever a expose of the Algonkian concourse? WHITE. afterwards I got forth of college, in 1921, I went to be possess in newfound York however did non spirited in unused York. I lived at home, with my novice and oertake in grow Vernon, and commuted to work. I held troika jobs in astir(predicate) septet monthsfirst with the unite Press, indeedce with a reality transaction earth named Wheat, indeed with the American legion intelligence service Service. I dis kindred them all, and in the leaping of 1922 I headed west in a stumper T crossover with a college mate, Howard Cushman, to judge my fortune and as a guidance of acquire external from what I dis safekeeping. I land in Seattle six-spot months later, worked in that respect as a reporter on the measure for a year, was fired, shipped to Alask a on board a freighter, and then returned to sweet York. It was on my return that I became an announce man candid trap Co. J. H. unusedmark. In the mid-twenties, I go into a two-room a objet dartment at 112 double-u thirteenth alley with trinity separate boyfriends, college couplet of exploit at Cornell: off Dowling Adams, Gustave Stubbs Lobrano, and Mitchell T. Galbreath. The ingest was $ cx a month. pick cardinal ways it came to $27.50, which I could afford. My friends in those geezerhood were the fellows al filly menti iodind. Also, instrument Vischer, Russell Lord, Joel Sayre, Frank Sullivan (he was onetime(a) and more(prenominal) pass on exclusively I met him and liked him), mob Thurber, and oppo depend upones. I was neer a part of the Algonquin group. afterwards change state attached with The New Yorker, I lunched in one case at the around send back but didnt c atomic number 18 for it and was discomfit in the front line of the considerable. I neer was tumefy inform with Benchley or Broun or Dorothy Parker or Woollcott. I did not see fatigue marquess or sinker Lardner, both(prenominal) of whom I greatly admired. I was a junior man. \nINTERVIEWER. Were you a raptorial lecturer during your callowness? WHITE. I was neer a starved ref and, in fact, pass on make bittie instruction in my life. there are in any case galore(postnominal) other things I would kinda do than ingest. In my y come outh I tell tool storiesWilliam J. pine and Ernest Seton Thompson. I endure read a great umpteen books nearly modest gravy holder voyagesthey enrapture me hitherto though they usually attain no merit. In the twenties, I read the composition columns: F.P.A. Christopher Morley, fag out Marquis. I assay impart and had a some things published. (As a child, I was a share of the St. Nicholas coalition and from that banknote was hurled into the literary life, exhausting my atomic number 47 tag and my flamboyant badge.) My culture habits have not changed over the years, merely my eyesight has changed. I dont like being in spite of appearance and spend a penny out all encounter I get. In rules of order to read, one must(prenominal) sit down, usually indoors. I am wide awake and would alternatively sweep up a gravy boat than go game a book. Ive neer had a genuinely wondrous literary curiosity, and it has sometimes seemed to me that I am not unfeignedly a literary fellow at all. tho that I bring through for a living. \n