16 Last issue was in 1960.
26. The day was like other days, with the author napping on the floor in the middle of the afternoon
1 Roethke.
2 It was actually published September 14.
3 Waugh gave Doubleday a quotation.
27. As a winner, let me say you can’t win, not on this course
1 “Keystone,” The New Yorker, May 18, 1963.
2 Where his daughter and her family lived.
3 The Disinherited was being republished with an introduction by Daniel Aaron, the author of Writers on the Left (1961), among other works, and one of the founders of American studies as an academic discipline.
4 Herman Kogan (1914–1989), Chicago journalist.
5 Joke.
6 Walter Winchell (1897–1972), newspaper-and-radio gossip reporter; habitually called New York “the Big-Town.”
7 Hedda Hopper (1885–1966), gossip columnist for the Los Angeles Times. On JFP: “A charming shy man, I imagine he’s quite lonely at times.”
8 He declined.
9 The Twins traded the pitcher Jack Kralick to Cleveland for Jim Perry.
1 °Calvin Griffith.
11 Metropolitan Stadium for a Twins game.
12 George Frazier praised Morte D’Urban in his column in The Boston Herald, April 22, 1963: “On the basis of a single novel, Mr. Powers seems to me the most gifted fiction writer in America today.”
13 “Keystone,” The New Yorker, May 18, 1963.
14 Hoke Norris (1913–1977), literary editor of the Chicago Sun-Times.
15 Van Allen Bradley (1913–1984), literary editor of the Chicago Daily News.
16 Will Wharton, a.k.a. Wallie Wharton, had been business manager of The Anvil, the literary journal founded by Jack Conroy.
17 Nelson Algren, Who Lost an American? (1963).
18 Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer.
28. Ireland grey and grey and grey, then seen closer, green, green, green
1 The Empire Builder.
2 20th Century Limited.
3 Catherine Petters, born October 2, 1963, their seventh (and last) child.
4 He was working at the St. Cloud Diocese’s chancery.
5 George Henry Speltz was not appointed; he became coadjutor bishop of the St. Cloud Diocese in 1966.
6 Cardinal Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, who was Dutch, promoted liberal ideas at Vatican II.
7 Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, an Italian, championed the conservative position at Vatican II.
8 Georges Maranda (1932–2000), who was born in Quebec, pitched in the majors only two seasons: 1960 for San Francisco and 1962 for the Twins.
9 Kacmarcik.
10 Garrelts had commissioned a carved wooden panel from Joe for the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota. After having Joe deliver it and leaving him waiting — first he was out, then he was on the phone — he tried to get out of paying for it.
11 Irish pronunciation.
12 Joke.
13 Dick O’Connell, Joe’s brother, sent a package that fell apart in the mail.
14 Milwaukee Journal questionnaire typescript, July 1963.
Afterword: Growing Up in This Story
1 Jim to Joe and Jody O’Connell, December 19, 1971.
Appendix: Cast of Characters
Family
Jim and Zella, Jim’s parents, on their wedding day, 1915
Jim’s sister, Charlotte, and her husband, Bill Kraft, 1944
Jim’s brother, Dick
1946: The Wahls plus Jim. Left to right: John, Betty, Jim, Art, Money, Pat, Tom
Friends
Quincy College Academy Little Hawks, 1934–1935. Jim, middle row, far right; Garrelts next to him; Keefe, same row, middle
Back row, left to right: Emerson Hynes, Harry Sylvester, George Barnett, Jim; front row, left to right: Don Humphrey, George Garrelts, John Haskins
George Garrelts and Dick Keefe (whom Seán Ó Faoláin called “a complete cynic with, deep in the blubber, a heart of ambergris”)
Jim and Seán Ó Faoláin, 1958
Joe and Jody O’Connell
Leonard and Betty Doyle, 1949
Fred and Romy Petters
Arleen and Emerson Hynes
Dick and Mary Palmquist
The Writer and His Wife
James Farl Powers (1917–1999): Called J. F. Powers for all published work; informally called James, Jim, JF. Born in Jacksonville, Illinois. Author of three books of short stories, Prince of Darkness (Doubleday, 1947), The Presence of Grace (Doubleday, 1956), and Look How the Fish Live (Knopf, 1975); and two novels, Morte D’Urban (Doubleday, 1962) and Wheat That Springeth Green (Knopf, 1988).
Elizabeth Alice Wahl Powers (1924–1988): Called Betty. JFP’s wife; born in St. Cloud, Minnesota; graduated with a BA in English from the College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota; author of a number of published short stories and one novel, Rafferty & Co. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969).
Their Children
Katherine Anne Powers (1947–): Called KA. Became a barmaid, cook, archivist, literary critic, and columnist.
Mary Farl Powers (1948–1992): Became a prominent artist in Ireland, a director of the Graphic Studio in Dublin, a founder of the Graphic Studio Gallery, a member of Aosdána (the Irish academy of arts and letters), for which she served as a toscaire (delegate).
James Ansbury Powers (1953–): Called Boz. Became an artist.
Hugh Wahl Powers (1955–): Became a photographer.
Jane Elizabeth Powers (1958–): Became a garden writer, photographer, and columnist.
The Powers and Wahl Families
James Ansberry Powers (1883–1985): Called Jim. JFP’s father; born in Jacksonville, Illinois. See Introduction.
Zella Routzong Powers (1892–1973): JFP’s mother; born in Seward, Nebraska. See Introduction.
Charlotte Powers Kraft (1920–1999): JFP’s sister; born in Jacksonville, Illinois; married 1944; three children.
William Kraft (1921–1994): Called Bill. Charlotte’s husband; engineer in the nuclear weapons industry in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Richard Powers (1931–1993): Called Dick. JFP’s brother; born in Quincy, Illinois; became a professor of political science at the University of Victoria, B.C., teaching international relations; married Laura Daniel in 1955; two children.
Arthur L. Wahl (1893–1973): Called Art, Papa. Betty’s father; born in St. Cloud, Minnesota; his father, a builder for whom he and his brother worked, went bankrupt in the second decade of the twentieth century, and the brothers immigrated to Alberta, Canada; raised horses and worked as casual farmhands; both returned to the United States, and Art became a successful building contractor.