Interpreting the Indian: Twentieth-Century Poets and the Native American

Michael Castro traces the line of twentieth-century American poets whose work has in one way or another "interpreted" the meaning of the Indian for American poetry and life. In the process, he tells much about the American psyche -- because, since first contact, white writers have been more revealing of white culture than red. Castro discusses the impact of Native American cultures on modern poetry, especially on twentieth-century attitudes toward form, nature, place, and person. He begins with early interpreters of Indian literature such as Mary Austin, Lew Sarett, and John G. Neihardt, and includes modern writers such as Vachel Lindsay, Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, and Charles Olson. The final chapters of this literary and cultural history discuss contemporary writers Jerome Rothenberg and Gary Snyder and the "uprising of Indian writers" during the 1970s. This is the first book to describe the Indian influence on many of the significant writers of this century. At the same time, it opens up broader cultural issues, such as twentieth-century Americans' yearning for models of a more holistic awareness and a rooted relationship to American nature and place. "Interpreting the Indian is one of the most enlightened statements about modern poetry to be found anywhere. Not only does Michael Castro demonstrate beyond a doubt the influence of Native American poetry on some of the key modern poets, but his analysis is throughout characterized by a lucid, graceful style that is a paradigm of clarity and totally avoids the kind of jargon that much doubtful modern criticism has succumbed to. This is the most important book in its field, and a landmark of modern literary criticism." -- Howard Schwartz, University of Missouri -- St. Louis.