Severe Lack Of Information Research Articles

A MELUS Interview: Victor R. Daly

Readers of Crisis in the early 1930's saw a recurring advertisement for Victor Daly's Not Only War,1 At Last! Negro Novel of the World War.2 In addition to Not Only War, which remains a principal Afro-American fictionalization of Great War experience, Daly published three fine short stories, all in Crisis, during the first half of the 1930's.3 From his very first published story, Private Walker Goes Patrolling, and on through his last fictional piece, Still Five More, Daly's work is noteworthy for its consistently imaginative and innovative development of his primary theme, the Afro-American war experience.4 In addition to his fiction, Daly has published a number of important articles on civil rights issues beginning with his 1920 essay on The Housing Crisis in New York City.5 Upon entering government service with the United States Department of Labor during the first Roosevelt administration, Daly put aside fiction, and, after such an auspicious beginning, virtually disappeared from the literary scene. Yet of course Daly's important contributions remain for us. Although Not Only War has continued to attract critical attention from time to time,6 full appreciation of the significance of Daly has been hampered by a severe lack of information about the author himself. In the course of work on a larger project I became determined to make a breakthrough on the seeming information barrier surrounding Victor Daly. Working from a lead supplied by Dr. Doris M. Hull of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, I discovered Daly to be still living in Washington, D.C., and generously willing to respond to an interview. After several initial telephone conversations, Mr. Daly and I decided that it would be best if I prepared some written questions for his responses in writing. My edited version of the interview7 which follows provides the first significant published source of information on Daly's life,8 his beginnings as an author, and his views on writing.