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Walker Winslow
BornWalker Winslow
(1905-02-02)February 2, 1905
Idaho, U.S.
DiedMay 3, 1969(1969-05-03) (aged 64)
Pacific Grove, California, U.S.
Pen nameHarold Maine (used for an autobiographical work)
Occupation
  • novelist
Notable worksMan in Paradise, If A Man Be Mad, The Menninger Story

Walker Winslow (February 2, 1905 – May 3, 1969) was an American poet and novelist, one of whose books — an autobiographical work describing his experiences in psychiatric hospitals, both as a patient and as a ward attendant — was published under the pseudonym Harold Maine. Winslow was something of a larger than life character: "Walker's forte was people"[1] wrote Henry Miller in his 1957 book Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. Miller also described is friend's writing talent:

The man who could write like a breeze was Walker Winslow. Walker had written several books, under various names, before coming to Big Sur. He had also written heaps of poems. But it was not until he began his autobiographical novel, If a Man Be Mad, that he found his true vein.

— Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957)

Life and work

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Early years — Idaho, Honolulu

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Walker Winslow was born in Idaho. His father, Burt Winslow, died when Walker was two and a half. His mother remarried when Walker was five,[2] and the stern approval-withholding nature of his step-father played a dominating and detrimental role in Walker's psychology.[3] Walker left home at the age of sixteen and joined the peacetime army,[4] and was already drinking heavily by the age of 18.[5]

In the mid 1930s Winslow was writing poetry, working on a novel, and living in Honolulu,[6][7] where he had moved with his wife Kathryn,[8] who was also writing and publishing poetry.[9] In Hawaii Winslow worked in the publicity departments of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce and also in the sugar industry.[10] His writing also appeared in the left wing magazine The Anvil,[11] and Kathryn kept up a correspondence with its editor, the novelist Jack Conroy, for the next dozen or so years.[12] Walker's problems with alcohol continued and worsened, leading to him voluntarily admitting himself to a psychiatric hospital for one month.[13] Walker and Kathryn ended their marriage, which it turned out had never been legal because Walker had not actually divorced from an earlier wife, having simply deserted her and having assumed that she would have had the marriage annulled.[14] Walker and Kathryn remained on good terms and kept up a frequent, at times daily, correspondence.[15] After their separation, Kathryn moved to San Francisco, and Walker soon followed her there, before heading down to South California to the area where his parents lived and to the county where his first wedding had taken place, to sort things out.[16] Kathryn later heard that while he had been visiting his parents, Walker had met again a "sort of cousin,"[17] who had, through "some dim relationship" with his family, entered his life several times during his childhood; she had been also visiting from New York. After a period of intense correspondence the two reunited, when she travelled to Nevada for a divorce,[18] and the two quickly got married.[16]

Portland, Denver, New York

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In 1938 Winslow was living in Portland, Oregon,[19] and working on 'Mining Life in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest' for the Federal Writers' Project.[20] By 1939 he had been transferred to Denver, Colorado[21] with the help of his new[22] wife Helen's former father-in-law, the artist Boardman Robinson.[10] Helen Elizabeth Simons (b. 5 Sept 1908) had been married to John Whitney Robinson, and had been an actress and a dancer in New York; she knew figures from that city's literary scene, such as Sinclair Lewis and Thomas Wolfe, and herself had manuscript drafts in progress,[23] having already published, in 1937,[24] under the pseudonym Helen Anderson (Anderson being her mother's maiden name) the early lesbian novel Pity for women. In Denver, Walker and Helen became friends of Weldon Kees and his wife Ann, after they rented an apartment near the Kees.[25] Weldon Kees had known not only of Helen's novel, but also had been in particular impressed by the fact that Walker had had eight poems appear in an illustrated full page of Esquire.[26] Winslow was a heavy drinker, and his antics were often described in Ann Kees' letters to the Kees' friend Norris Getty.[27] One drinking binge, which started on a Saturday, was fuelled by copious drinks at a dinner with the Kees on Sunday, and culminated a few days later at the house of the poet Thomas Hornsby Ferril, who at that time was a publicity man for Great Western Sugar; Winslow ended up punching the sugar company's president. Following this he was committed to the Colorado Psychopathic Hospital.[28] He separated from Helen and lived a down-and-out alcoholic's existence in New York, ending up in Bellevue Hospital.[29] Helen had moved back in with her former in-laws in Colorado Springs,[30] and arranged a divorce.[31]

Winslow moved from Bellevue to a Christian-run institution for alcoholics in a rural setting about fifty miles from New York, and while there he started working on an old manuscript for a novel.[32] In 1941, after returning to the city, he was involved with Alcoholics Anonymous in its early days; the wider publicity that a Saturday Evening Post article[33] gave the organisation led to growth and changes, which at first Winslow had been swept up in, but in the end led to him tapering off his involvement.[34] That year Man in Paradise, subtitled 'A Novel of Hawaii as it is today,' was published by Smith & Durrell, New York[35] One of the novel's themes was the growing influence of the island's resident Japanese population; the book came out in late November,[36] not much more than a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor.[37]

On a visit to his mother and step-father, Winslow suffered some form of psychotic breakdown which involved hallucinations.[38] Upon release he found life in the outside world too daunting, and struck upon the idea of working as an attendant in a psychiatric facility, where not only could he find some connection with patients, but also be in a safer and controlled environment.[39] He then moved on to work as a ward attendant in the psychiatric wards of a Veteran's Administration facility,[40] where he worked until 30 December 1944.[41] During this entire period he did not drink any alcohol.[42]

Big Sur and Henry Miller

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In the mid 1940s Winslow was in California, and spent time at Big Sur where he was close to Henry Miller, the two of them taking long walks together nearly every evening.[43] In 1945 he helped Miller publish Aller Retour New York in pamphlet form.[44] Miller describes how one morning Winslow woke him early to come and witness a strange phenomenon of what looked like twin stars gyrating near the horizon, and Miller goes on to talk about how there were subsequently many reports of 'flying saucers' in the area.[45] Winslow's former wife[37][46] Kathryn Winslow, with whom Walker had kept in touch, corresponding regularly,[15] had met Miller at Big Sur in 1944, and four years later with her new husband William Mecham was to open a sort of bookstore devoted to selling his work, called “M, the studio for Henry Miller” in the area of Chicago’s old Jackson Park art colony.[47] Her biography of Miller, Henry Miller: Full of Life was published in 1986.[48] In his time at Big Sur, Winslow was working on a new book. Henry Miller described Winslow's approach to work: "And then there was Walker Winslow, who was then writing If a Man Be Mad, which turned out to be a best seller. Walker wrote at top speed, and seemingly without interruption, in a tiny shack by the roadside which Emil White had built to house the steady stream of stragglers who were forever busting in on him for a day, a week, a month or a year."[49] Walker had rented Emil's studio for $25 a month[15] and Miller was reading each chapter as it came out of the typewriter.[50]

If a Man be Mad

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By 1947, Winslow was living in New Mexico,[51] and in that year, under the pseudonym Harold Maine, his book If a Man Be Mad was published by Doubleday,[52] and was subsequently brought out by Victor Gollancz Ltd,[53] London, in 1952 and translated into French by Élisabeth Guertic[54] (as Quand un homme est fou), being published in 1954 by Corrêa.[55] In a newspaper review of the book, a clipping of which Winslow kept, and which is annotated with the name Albert Deutsch, presumably the reviewer, the book was described as "absorbing". The review says: "Written by an unusually sensitive artist, the book in many ways is more gripping and certainly more informative than the best-selling The Lost Week-End. Maine saw the insides of several mental hospitals as both patient and ward attendant; his revelations are well worth reading."[56]

Winslow was going by the name Harold Maine in the late 1940s and Edna Manley (b.1908[57]), whom he married following her divorce from the writer Ludwig Lewisohn,[58] addressed letters to him under that name while he was still working at the Winter Veteran's Hospital in Topeka, Kansas in the middle of 1948.[59] Winslow/Maine had initially been invited[60] by Karl Menninger to present a lecture to the hospital staff on the subject of Ward Management. Menninger noted[61] advance notification of the appearance of Harold Maine's article 'We Can Save the Mentally Sick?' in The Saturday Evening Post.[62] Winslow was being represented by the New York literary agent Maxim Lieber during this period.[63]

At the time of his initial involvement with the Topeka Hospital Winslow was living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Edna was writing to him from Rochester, New York.[64] When Walker had first moved to Santa Fe, moving from Anderson Creek, he sent a telegram to Kathryn, who was at that time living and working in Los Alamos: "Arriving Santa Fe 2:30 Friday afternoon. Sober, solvent, and full of explanations. Reserve rooms." She met the bus and spent the weekend with him, but due to the restricted nature of Los Alamos she was unable to offer him a place to stay.[65]

By late 1949 Walker was living in Pleasanton, California[66] and Edna, continuing a pattern of the couple living separately, in Pacific Grove, California.[67]

Menninger book

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In 1951 Winslow was back in Big Sur, writing a book about the Menninger psychiatric clinic.[68] When Miller's third wife, Janina Martha Lepska, returned to Big Sur in October 1951, not long before the couple finally divorces, Winslow helped Miller in his efforts to be a sole parent to the couple's two children, after it had been agreed that the children would spend six months with their father followed by six months with their mother.[69]

The Menninger book appeared in 1956[70][71] where he had worked as a lay therapist.[72] The book is chiefly a biography of Charles Frederick Menninger, but also brings the rest of his family into a skilfully constructed narrative.[73]

Final years

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Around 1961 he was acting as the director of Beacon House, Monterey, California, which was a community rehabilitation center for alcoholics.[74] By this time he was a respected counsellor in the treatment of alcoholics, but around 1963 he dropped out of sight and was eventually found holed up in an apartment and drinking heavily.[75] For the remaining years of Winslow's life, his long time friend Henry Miller did what he could to help with money,[76] and also to ensure that Walker received the appropriate hospital and institutional care.[75]

In 1969 Walker Winslow was found dead in his apartment in Pacific Grove, California,[75] having succumbed to pneumonia.[58] He is buried in the El Carmelo Cemetery, Pacific Grove.[77]

Sources and bibliography

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  • Arthur Hoyle, The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur, (Skyhorse Publishing Inc, 2016)
  • Robert E. Knoll (ed.), Weldon Kees and the Midcentury Generation, (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1986)
  • Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, (New York: New Directions, 1957)
  • James Reidel, Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Weldon Kees, (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2003)
  • Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, (New York, St Martin's Press, 1986)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, New York: New Directions, 1957. ISBN 0-8112-0107-4, p.63
  2. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.5
  3. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) passim e.g. p.426
  4. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.11
  5. ^ See Biographical Note to the Walker Winslow correspondence at the Kansas Historical Society website https://www.kshs.org/archives/223249
  6. ^ News Notes, in Poetry, Vol. 46, No. 6 (Sep., 1935), Poetry Foundation, pp. 354-356
  7. ^ Ox Cart, Prairie Schooner, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Fall 1934), p.220, University of Nebraska Press
  8. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.19, based on Kathryn's own identification of herself as 'Virginia' in the autobiographical book, see Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, (St Martin's Press, New York, 1986) p.154
  9. ^ Ox Cart, Prairie Schooner, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Winter 1936), pp.322-324, University of Nebraska Press
  10. ^ a b James Reidel, Vanished Act: Life and Art of Weldon Kees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), p.66
  11. ^ United States. Congress. House. Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1938-1944), Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States, Part 9, Volume 1, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1944
  12. ^ Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, pp.203-204
  13. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) pp.21, 25
  14. ^ Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.156
  15. ^ a b c Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.153
  16. ^ a b Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.157
  17. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.96
  18. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.98
  19. ^ Ox Cart, Prairie Schooner, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Winter 1938), pp. 323-324, University of Nebraska Press
  20. ^ "Image 4 of [Mining Life in Oregon]". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
  21. ^ Ox Cart, Prairie Schooner, Fall 1939, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Fall 1939), pp. 208-210, University of Nebraska Press
  22. ^ At the end of a drinking binge, Winslow told Weldon Kees that Helen was his fourth wife, (James Reidel, Vanished Act: Life and Art of Weldon Kees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), p.68), although in If a Man Be Mad he does state that he frequently fabricated much including entire identities when he was on a binge. On p.389 of If a Man Be Mad (Gollancz, 1952) he says: "I who had been a constitutional liar in regard to my personal life ..."
  23. ^ James Reidel, Vanished Act: Life and Art of Weldon Kees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), p.67
  24. ^ WorldCat entry for Pity For Women
  25. ^ James Reidel, Vanished Act: Life and Art of Weldon Kees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), pp.66 - 69
  26. ^ 'All Night Coffee Shop', Esquire, November 1935, p.92 [1]
  27. ^ Robert E. Knoll (ed.), Weldon Kees and the Midcentury Generation, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986), p.238
  28. ^ James Reidel, Vanished Act: Life and Art of Weldon Kees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), p.68
  29. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952)pp.135-172
  30. ^ James Reidel, Vanished Act: Life and Art of Weldon Kees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), p.69
  31. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.171
  32. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952)pp.176-190
  33. ^ Jack Alexander (March 1, 1941). "Alcoholics Anonymous" (PDF). Saturday Evening Post (Reprinted in booklet form ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. ISBN 978-0-89638-199-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 2, 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2009.
  34. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952)pp.196-203
  35. ^ WorldCat entry for Man in paradise.
  36. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.211
  37. ^ a b Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.152
  38. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) pp.215-242
  39. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) pp.243-277
  40. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) pp.333-365
  41. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) Footnote on p.424
  42. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952) p.432
  43. ^ Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.155
  44. ^ Arnold, Wayne E. "Never to Return: Aller Retour New York and Henry Miller's Shelved Epistle." Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal, vol. 12, annual 2018, pp.23-73
  45. ^ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, New York: New Directions, 1957, p.75
  46. ^ Arthur Hoyle, The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur, Skyhorse Publishing Inc (2016) p.305
  47. ^ "Marianne Wolf, 'Kathryn Winslow: Extraordinary Friendships Led to Her Remarkable Life'".
  48. ^ Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, J.P. Tarcher ; Distributed by St. Martin's Press, Los Angeles, New York, 1986. (WorldCat entry)
  49. ^ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957), p.12
  50. ^ Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.154
  51. ^ 'Notes from the Guest Editor', Southwest Review, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Summer 1947), Southern Methodist University, p. 320
  52. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man be Mad, (Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1947)
  53. ^ Harold Maine, If a Man Be Mad, (Gollancz, London, 1952)
  54. ^ WorldCat entry for Quand un homme est fou
  55. ^ Harold Maine, Quand un homme est fou, (Corrêa, 1954, Broché)
  56. ^ Unidentified newspaper review, marked 'Albert Deutch [sic.] P.M'; clipping in Walker Winslow archive.
  57. ^ "Lewisohn, Edna, 1908- | ArchivesSpace Public Interface". findingaids.library.cofc.edu.
  58. ^ a b See Biographical Note to the Walker Winslow correspondence at the Kansas Historical Society website https://www.kshs.org/archives/223249
  59. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 5 - Kansas Memory, Envelope addressed to Harold Maine from Edna Manley, 22 June 1948". www.kansasmemory.org.
  60. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 6 - Kansas Memory, Letter dated 15 June 1948 from Karl Menninger to Harold Maine". www.kansasmemory.org.
  61. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 9 - Kansas Memory, Letter from Karl Menninger to Harold Maine, 7 October 1948". www.kansasmemory.org.
  62. ^ "The Saturday Evening Post 1947-11-15: Vol 220 Iss 20". Curtis Publishing Co. November 15, 1947 – via Internet Archive.
  63. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 1 [Box 2, Folder 4] - Kansas Memory, Letter from Maxim Lieber to Walker Winslow, dated 11 March 1948". www.kansasmemory.org.
  64. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 15 - Kansas Memory, Letter addressed to the Winslows, 9 Oct 1948". www.kansasmemory.org.
  65. ^ Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.158
  66. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 10 - Kansas Memory, Envelope addressed to the Winslows, 23 Dec 1949". www.kansasmemory.org.
  67. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 2 - Kansas Memory, Envelope from Edna to Walker dated 19 October 1949". www.kansasmemory.org.
  68. ^ Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.266
  69. ^ Jay Martin, Always Merry and Bright, Capra Press, Santa Barbara, 1978 p.436
  70. ^ Books Reviewed in The Scientific Monthly, Science, New Series, Vol. 125, No. 3240 (Feb. 1, 1957), p.199, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  71. ^ Books of the Week, The Science News-Letter, Vol. 69, No. 23 (Jun. 9, 1956), p. 364, Society for Science & the Public
  72. ^ See Abstract for the Walker Winslow correspondence at the Kansas Historical Society website https://www.kshs.org/archives/223249
  73. ^ B. Clifford Hendricks. 'The Menninger Story . Walker Winslow. Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1956'. 350 pp.+plates. Science, [s. l.], v. 125, 1 Feb 1957, p. 199 [2]. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.
  74. ^ "Walker Winslow correspondence - 49 - Kansas Memory, Letter to Karl Menninger, 16 Sept 1962". www.kansasmemory.org.
  75. ^ a b c Kathryn Winslow, Henry Miller: Full of Life, St Martin's Press, New York, 1986, p.333
  76. ^ Jay Martin, Always Merry and Bright, Capra Press, Santa Barbara, 1978 p.467
  77. ^ "Walker Winslow (1905-1969) buried in El Carmelo Cemetery located in Pacific Grove, CA | People Legacy". peoplelegacy.com.
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