From Paul Johnson’s book, “Intellectuals” (1988):
When Lillian Hellman’s play, “The Children’s Hour,” failed
to win the Pulitzer Prize for best play
of the season, “because one of the judges, the Rev. William Lyon Phelps,
objected to its topic [Lesbianism], the New York Drama Critics Circle was
formed to create a new award precisely so that it could be given to her.”
(Reminds me that someone I knew told me that, attending a NYC literary party,
he asked what the party was for, and was told: “So we could not invite Mary
McCarthy.”)
George Orwell (author of “Animal Farm” and “1984”) wrote of
Ezra Pound, the pro-Nazi poet, “…one has the right to expect ordinary decency
even of a poet.”
“…W.H. Auden was arrested in Barcelona for urinating in the Monjuich public gardens, a serious
offence in Spain.”
Cyril Connolly, the critic, in 1946 listed the “major
indications of a civilized society”:
1.
abolition of the death penalty
2.
penal reform, model prisoners, rehabilitation of
prisoners
3.
slum clearance and ‘new towns’
4.
light and heating subsidized
5.
free medicine, food, and clothes subsidies
6.
abolition of censorship
7.
reform of the laws against abortion,
homosexuality, and divorce
8.
limitations on property ownership; rights for
children
9.
preservation of architectural beauty, and
subsidies for the arts
10. laws
against racial and religious discrimination
The author, Johnson, has strong, mainly conservative,
opinions and considers this list the precursor of what he deplores as ‘the
permissive society.’ He also positively loathes Lillian Hellman, accusing her
of being an inveterate liar and plagiarist, and makes Norman Mailer seem to be
an utter fool. And he has unnice things to say about Kenneth Tynan, Hemingway,
Rousseau, and a bunch of others. But the book does provide lots of juicy,
irresistible gossip.
