Abstract

On Pens and $words

In this article the author presents his experiences as the director of the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, in the U.S. The author says that at his position he was presumably in a position to do something about what he saw: with government funds allocated for that purpose and through the force of influence and persuasion; with the U.S. Congress and private citizens, who badly needed persuading of the worth of what the endowment was trying to accomplish; with members of the literary community; and with artistic and bureaucratic personnel within the endowment itself. He says that as he began to learn the territory, and especially the relative stature of literature as an art form in comparison to the other art forms within the endowment, and the place that literature has managed to carve out for itself across the land in over two hundred years of American civilization--a mighty small place--he began to feel an overpowering sense of disappointment.