WRITERS OF 52 NATIONS MEET AT P.E.N. CONGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400200004-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 12, 2004
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 19, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

THE WORKER EAl
Approved. For Release 2005IGtP2 : RDP88-01315R0004002 0004-5.
Writers':of 52.`. Nations
eel- at P. E. ~. :Congress',
0
of Congress,,.
1F'orker columnist Joseph Nnrtl lion of the validity and prestige former Librarian
i
le.crfQat here the P.E.N. con/er? f _of competing social systems and. !:I chatted the pastry reading that
1' < t: t:.., n.,f.. e, ,, ?t.e:,f)AT.,ri:tla helfl af. the. 52nr1 Strc-et4
t y ,
.
orrrani~atinn" heca.use_ he felt: and intense are: the pressures-.
In The IF'orker.
i that the Chief Executive counter- ?
N is a "unique i mande4l the rejection: So strong:
B JOSEPII NOIZ'TII y HE SAID P E
core In- remelt he is taking part.
, The initials rtpresent ports, play-
trright.s, 1400jc18; and pitcelisia,
who compose the organization.
North is the author of "No
:lferr Are Strangers," and his cot-
untn by that name appears weekly
P as this is written at h aV.re Fw....l.a1 W al 1Tl n..M .. ?
warned that the , agony A of this
?,meeting, , therefore "make more possible a .,'
th of ltt
wrttgrs from half the.l a agency o any po ca en
nrenAarl' .tth Q r m Miller said, that ?P:E,N. has a lot.
nanny > TT. ...
TER, N. Y. U. -Six hue- fused to allow itself to become antmvstues.
i 1 t Yet this writer feels, as"
"
s.: Spirit." They strive, as. the world
~' ' president. of P.EN., Arthur 'Mil-
SJ.articulate spirits from 52 nations agree in general with this but age on e y .,
inevitably reflects the dominant feel there are certain complica- case. The issue was posed in
ideologies . of their homelandh, tions based on class origins and ,f, razor-edge terms that could only.,
This is-certainly so among theinterests; they have yet to be ,i make me - an American and;
poets and playwrights, the essay- heard from. My com,m,nt. here is ! c .a member of P.E,N. feeI the
F'j .s.cy -"y .Jc vu :.ix: way..
*Any gathering that draws such There are others who,_ may "writers into P.E.N. was marls to'
hi th Sin avsk Daniel
. viewpoint of another planet is ' Y:1IHA where American, pool
it enough to know that it human pressed forward reverently to
being has managed to . walk In kiss the Chilean's hands. i.
ant question is whether he is -I State Department had refused
aJ all VAJJJI OJAIV.. US bt.c v... v-.. -
~o-.
human. condition and feelings, conviviality, but. laid open ,,
universal human needs." Man, investigation." ?P:E.N. ? should be-
he said, was ttmitarian, "there is come -a "free arena,",a "place o,f:
a stubborn,' underlying sameness confrontation."
of the human spirit whatever the
variety of forms in which it is THIS WRITER FEELS that the,
,
e
,
u
not Y
f-' they are ' not that
t
b
t
capitalist, socialist, and sys- 1' tho Congress, with a week more
tems in transition. But a Repub to go. The outlying districts are
who come from East and West, yet to be heard from.
He requires the voice, the vote, . ' I don't know how representa-
of all its sections and not all are. ?`five of their component P.E.N.
represented here - not yet, bodies this' assembly is, for it
took a lot of money 'to cone
here from' all ends of the earth,,
new breezes blow in an atmos-
- phere that could be as eirlessly
antiseptic as an t'ory tower. But
even by the second day, one
feels what is conceivably a fresh.
.,stirring.
You hear them debating the
pros and cons of commitment in
that the times scarcely allow a ! L. Ste M,,-Y'hatt?tffah of the'NO- , few historic facts should be con
man to i ore the overwhelm- .:.-tiorfaT`~Ctntncil ?. of A]t?, who-sklered, some that had a certain
their search for independence.'
Keynoter., novelist Saul Bellows
assailed the elitist concept of
uig sea ity, that he lives in a~ brought-, Presidt~nt' ?"Jtrhiison's :_irony here: that we, the writers
human hurricane today ll greel,in?gs?"here. ' ; . . I
: al" the world could not be sitting '
founded, "in almost 42 years
revolution and counter-revolu.
lion and . almos uninterrryy,pted
warfare have it l ? -rS~tY it' AV,
every-human activity 'the ques? .
world changes since P.E.N. was tenns"-ttl??'~lescribe the world-fa-' - Spirit if 20 'million Russians
-
-- Miller put it this way, in his ..Miller 'Wand Archibald Mac- `t: on Washington Square discus-'
opening remarks, commenting on Leish used virtually the Game, if. sing The Writer as Independent
My point is that agreement 4r'
disagreement with the Soviets
-over the Sinyavsky case should:
...not be gmunds for keeping
Russian writers out of REV, Not
if we are to be the Republic of,
;,Letters Miller spoke of. The.
feller. Be that as it may, I feel, ?and differences could be con-':
so for, the heady new, within -sidered within the walls of P.E.N.
the old that hangs on, of course. -which should become that "free
New, in fact sensationally so; . arena." This is not a bad thing
is the presence on our: s ores to ponder in this moment when
of Pablo Neruda, of Chile, "the an escalating war is on, 'and
giant of modern literature who when mankind possesses the ab-j
has a great influence on -young solute weapon.
Anierican.poets." These were the {
words, not of this writer (w)-.o I SURVEYED the handsome:
veteran member of the Commu quering Nazi. That has, perhaps,
0 a2OUQ:0441 J "
-3Vlcl;eish, a prominent poet anti-.