Estranging Dawn: The Life and Works of William Vaughn Moody by Maurice F. Brown (review)

Abstract

354 BOOK REVIEWS attempt to place the modern German drama in its complex historical context. With a clear sense of purpose, Walter Hinck distances himself from the late Peter Szondi's Theorie des modernen Dramas (1956) with its purely literary and purely theoretical bias and insists instead that a consideration of the dramatic mode must not be a purely literary exercise but must take into account the stage history of any given play. Following Brecht's oft-repeated dictum that dramatic works first achieve aesthetic completeness when they are staged, Hinck convincingly argues that the treatment of plays simply as a literary mode is aesthetically unsound. Of equal importance is Hinck's insistence on viewing the whole of German drama rather than viewing West German, Swiss, and Austrian drama with favor and treating East German drama with either ignorance or contempt, a practice too often followed by West German critics with remnants of a Cold War mentality. Much to Professor Hinck's credit, he is consistently able to treat the drama of the two Germanies with equal and exemplary fairness. Measured against Mr. Hinck's objective, stated in the first paragraph of his book, an objective that may be paraphrased as his wish to write a history of modern German drama for the non-specialist, one must judge the book to be eminently successful. It is now to be hoped that Professor Hinck may present us in a later work with that which he did not want to attempt within the covers of this book: an examination of the German drama in a broad comparative context. He would seem eminently well suited to write such a work. Meanwhile, it is important to have a volume which treats of every major and most minor figures in the modern German drama with clarity and brevity. JOHN FUEGI University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ESTRANGING DAWN: THE Ln;'E AND WORKS OF WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY, by Maurice F. Brown. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973. xiii & 321 pp. $12.50. Any biographer of William Vaughn Moody has the difficult task of placing his literary contributions within the framework of two distinct genres. Generally, Professor Brown does a slightly better job evaluating Moody's contribution to poetry than he does placing Moody in a basically transitional period in American drama and theatre. In all that he does, however, Brown assumes a strongly defensive posture toward Moody's works and follows his life with a thoroughness that shows his relentless research more than his critical selectivity . Season by season, almost week by week it seems, Professor Brown follows Moody's activities, his thoughts, and his growth as they are observed in the poet's letters and manuscripts as well as the letters and published comments of his friends. There is no question that the topic is carefully researched. In the best parts of this volume one sees Moody clearly as a man and artist, with sympathy and understanding. In other places, however, the abundance of minutae obscures the man. The narrative discussion is painfully BOOK REVIEWS 355 slowed down by the writer's tangled prose, and the book becomes difficult to read. And this is unfortunate. Brown clearly has a feeling for his subject and can provide shrewd insight into Moody's poems and plays. But he can also become overwhelmed by his own poem analyses and lose perspective in arguing his own belief in Moody's greatness. Although Brown seems not sufficiently knowledgeable about American drama to assess Moody's contribution to that period of significant change which separates James Herne's Margaret Fleming from O'Neill's early plays, he does place Moody effectively among the poet-dramatists of the period. More specifically, he shows Moody drawn "to the drama for a form adequate to the demands of his experience" in life. For all of Moody's plays Brown explores his sources of inspiration, his moods, and his problems in composition ; and he presents detailed plot commentary. Moody's difficulties with The Masque of Judgment, which was at first rejected by his publisher, are recounted in detail. Although The Fire-Bringer is certainly a better play, it is not, as Brown declares, "a better...