Confederate Ghosts to Yankee Brahmins
Many scholars consider John Gould Fletcher, poet and essayist, to be among the more influential twentieth-century literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1938 and participated in the literary movements of Agrarianism, Imagism, Modernism, and Romanticism that shaped twentieth-century literature.
Fletcher was born on January 3, 1886, in Little Rock, Arkansas, to John G. Fletcher and Adolphine Krause Fletcher. He was the youngest of three children. Fletcher, Sr., was a Civil War veteran, attorney, and wealthy cotton speculator. He married Adolphine Krause on September 4, 1877, when he was forty-six years old. Adolphine Krause, of German decent, was twenty-three years old at the time of her marriage. In addition to John, the couple had two daughters, Adolphine and Mary.
Fletcher's mother promoted the arts to her young son but was disappointed that he did not have the musical ability to master the piano. She also kept a close watch on him as a child and refused to let him leave the grounds of their Victorian home, a residence built by attorney Albert Pike in 1840. As a child, Fletcher found the house isolating, a theme later reflected in his literature.
At age ten, Fletcher attended a private academy, where he delighted in literature but did poorly in mathematics, grammar, and public speaking. Fletcher entered public school at the age of thirteen but, again, remained disinterested in everything but literature. In 1902, his father sent him to Phillips Academy in Andover in preparation for matriculation into Harvard College in Boston, Massachusetts.
Though Fletcher successfully entered Harvard College in the fall of 1903, he once again followed his own interests such as attending Boston Symphony concerts, ignoring the drudgery of class work and his parents’ wishes that he study law or business.
The Expatriate
In 1906, Fletcher’s father died at the age of seventy-five, leaving Fletcher a sizable inheritance. In Fletcher’s autobiographical writings, he acknowledged that the death of his father was a major turning point in his life as it gave him financial freedom to pursue his literary interests and to break free from family influence. After his father’s funeral in Little Rock, he returned to Harvard College in the fall of 1906, but his class attendance became even more erratic.
In 1907, at the age of twenty-one, he embraced his calling as a literary figure but began to suffer from the first of his many ongoing bouts with depression. Fletcher decided not to return Harvard College but instead moved to Europe, where he could find a sympathetic community and realize his literary destiny. His sisters agreed to distribute their father’s estate, thus providing Fletcher the necessary funds for independence. On August 21, 1908, he sailed for Europe.
From 1908 to 1912, Fletcher traveled back and forth between the Continent and England. During this time, Fletcher began to assemble his poetry manuscripts for publishing. Between 1912 and 1913, Fletcher suffered despair as he experienced frequent rejections from publishers. During this dark period, he met influential American poets Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell, both of whom promoted Imagism, a literary movement dedicated to concise use of language and concrete imagery. These poets encouraged his involvement in their literary circle. Lowell in particular persuaded him to include his works in Imagist anthologies. Lowell’s encouragement paid off for Fletcher when in 1915 he enjoyed critical acclaim for his work Irradiations: Sand and Spray.
Daisy Arbuthnot and the Agrarians
In 1913, Fletcher met Florence “Daisy” Emily Goold Arbuthnot, the wife of photographer Malcolm Arbuthnot and mother of two children, Terence and Gwennie. Though Daisy was approximately ten-years older than Fletcher, she pursued him and he capitulated. This relationship was not out of character for Fletcher as strong-willed, older women appealed to him.
In a strange move, Fletcher went to Malcom Arbuthnot to announce his relationship with Arbuthnot’s wife. Even stranger, Arbuthnot did not protest the relationship as he had a mistress, which Daisy knew about. Fletcher had hoped that Arbuthnot would contest a divorce, as he was ambivalent about his relationship with Daisy. Arbuthnot made it clear, however, that he would not challenge Fletcher. The couple married July 15, 1916.
During the years of his marriage to Daisy, Fletcher explored the literary schools of Modernism and Agrarianism, with Fletcher favoring the Agrarian school. John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, and Allen Tate of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, led the Agrarian literary movement. They called themselves “the Fugitives.” These Southerners promoted the return to an agrarian culture and the abandonment of the industrial culture as represented by the Modernist school.
In 1932, Fletcher’s involvement with this group abated as he experienced a severe bout of depression, requiring hospitalization. Fletcher’s marriage to Daisy also suffered during this time, and the couple divorced in January 1936.
Charlie May Simon and "The Story of Arkansas"
On January 18, 1936, John Gould Fletcher married Charlie May Simon, a woman of literary talents in her own right. During the 1930s, she excelled in children’s literature. Many considered her children’s book Robin on the Mountain, published in 1934, a classic in this genre. Fletcher’s reputation and works did not overshadow Simon’s literary career. In fact, Simon’s book royalties added to their income, and the couple soon became dependent on her literary output in order to pay their bills.
In 1936, John Netherland Heiskell, owner of the Arkansas Gazette, commissioned Fletcher to write a poem entitled “The Story of Arkansas,” commemorating Arkansas’s 1936 centennial. A revised version of this poem appeared in Fletcher’s collection of poetry entitled South Star, published in 1941. Also during this time, Fletcher promoted Arkansas’s folk culture and the establishment of fine arts institutions in the state.
The couple frequently traveled during the early years of their marriage, with trips to New York, Santa Fe, and New Hampshire. The couple slowed their travels in 1941 upon the completion of their new home in west Little Rock, which they called “Johnswood.”
The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and, finally, peace
In 1939, Fletcher faced the fact that publishers lacked interest in his works. However, in May of 1939, Fletcher learned from an Arkansas Gazette staff member that his work Selected Poems had won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. This bolstered his spirits for the short term as he feared losing his readership
During, the 1940s, the couple enjoyed entertaining and relaxing in Johnswood. Bouts of clinical depression, however, dogged Fletcher despite Simon’s efforts to take care of him. During a particularly bad episode, Simon realized she could not continually watch over Fletcher and had him committed to a Memphis sanitarium in November 1944.
In 1945, Fletcher was released from the sanitarium and returned to Little Rock with Simon. The following year, Fletcher published the The Burning Mountain, a collection of poems that brought varied reviews. He acknowledged that he was falling into literary obscurity. He also experienced worsening arthritis and increased bouts of depression. On the morning of May 10, 1950, Fletcher dressed himself while Simon slept and walked to a pond near Johnswood, where he committed suicide by drowning. Fletcher is buried in Mount Holly Cemetery, Little Rock, near his father and mother.
On September 29, 1974, Little Rock citizens honored John Gould Fletcher with the opening of the John Gould Fletcher branch of the Little Rock Public Library, now the Central Arkansas Library System. Fletcher was the first Southerner honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.