Blue Route to the Pentacrest and a House on Bloomington Street

Abstract

the program; in the minds of many, they are synonymous with the IWP, which may not long survive their withdrawal from active participation. Paul's biggest regret, for example, is the fact that, despite his legendary fund-raising talents which have brought in well over three million dollars in private support during the first twenty years, he has never been able to secure a sufficiently large permanent endowment that will guarantee the program's continuance once he is no longer able to shovel the stuff (as he has colorfully put it on several occasions) necessary to raise funds on an annual basis. Together with the critical choice of a potential successor to run the program in their mold at least for the first few years following the changeover this matter of continued funding is the Engles' single biggest concern as they near real retirement from the IWP. Their concern is well placed. As entrenched as the program now seems in the minds of the nearly six hundred writers who have participated in it during the first two decades, and as natural as the association between university and program may seem to those of us who have long known of the IWP's existence and good work, the road has not always been easy for the Engles' brainchild. The idea was not immediately and openly embraced by administrators and colleagues; funding or even comprehension of the idea was not immediately forthcoming even from such progressive private corporations and businesses as have since joined the list of program underwriters; and U.S. cultural agencies were not instantly wild about the prospect of sending major foreign writers to Iowa for an academic year or semester. All those obstacles were overcome, however, to the degree that the International Writing Program has won ringing endorsements from leading newspapers, magazines, statesmen (including Averell Harriman, a longtime friend of the Engles), businessmen, and of course writers of every stripe imaginable not to mention a 1976 nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their efforts at fostering international understanding via cultural interchange as embodied in the IWP. The most fitting capstone to the Engles' work and to the success the International Writing Program has enjoyed in its twenty-year existence would be the establishment of an endowment that would assure continuance in perpetuity. Publications such as ours can celebrate the anniversary in print and direct attention to the program's efficacy for all concerned. The best conceivable anniversary present from the university and the community which have so far welcomed and nourished the program, however, would be precisely such a permanent endowment celebrating the past by investing in the future.