American Geographical Society
"Mr. Sauer" and the Writers
Author(s): James J. Parsons
Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 86, No. 1 (Jan., 1996), pp. 22-41
Published by: American Geographical Society
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"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
JAMES J. PARSONS
The geographerCarl Sauer was an articulatefigure within the larger field of
ABSTRACT.
Americanscholarship.His distinctiveworldviewand his emphasison the historicalpast in
the shapingof the culturallandscapedrew enthusiasticresponsefrom a significantgroup of
avant-gardepoets associatedwith BlackMountainCollege,North Carolina,and their iconoclastic mentor, Charles Olson (191o-1970).Olson was a central figure in the postmodern
revolution that energizedand transformedthe appearanceand substanceof poetry in the
United States in the years following World War II. Olson was strongly attracted to the
originalityand insightfulnessof Sauer'swritings,his sensitivityto the aestheticvalues in the
culturallandscape,his insistenceon the immutablelink between history and geography,his
identificationwith people livingclose to the land,and the vigor and authenticityof his writing
style. Today,more than twenty yearsafterOlson'sdeath, his literaryheirs are reachingback
to the maestro's roots, seeking to learn more about the man Sauer and his geography.
Keywords:BlackMountain College,culturalgeography,historicalgeography,literarycriticism,
CharlesOlson,poetry,CarlSauer.
The close ties and personalfriendshipof CarlOrtwinSauer(1889-1975)with many
of the majorintellectualfiguresof his generation,so well reflectedin a vast, unpublished correspondencein the Universityof California'sBancroftLibrary,remindus
that Sauerwas much largerthan his chosen field. We geographers,especiallythose
of the historical-culturalpersuasion,tend to thinkof him-"Mr. Sauer"or "theDoc"
to most who knew him-as our own. "Culturehistory"was Sauer'sshorthandterm
forhis distinctiveapproachto a venerablesubject,definedas concernwith the agency
of humankind in using, modifying, and shaping the earth'ssurfacethrough time.
Representinga main currentwithin twentieth-centuryacademic geographylong
before environmentalhistory was named or in vogue, Sauerwas at the same time
an articulateandinfluentialcontributorand criticwithinthe largerfieldof American
scholarship.It is the awesomebreadthof his inquiringmind, his gentlewisdom, the
originalityof his insight,the magic in his turn of phrase,the enduringqualityof his
humanitythat admirerscontinue to celebrate.'
One group far removed from conventionalacademicgeographytook Sauerto
its bosom with particularenthusiasmin the Berkeleygeographer'slateryears.They
werethose avant-gardewritersand poets who gravitatedto BlackMountainCollege,
an intense, experimental community in the AppalachianMountains of western
North Carolinafounded by disaffecteduniversityteachersand staffedby an unmatched collection of painters,composers,architects,sculptors,writers,and other
visionaryartistswho despairedof effectingwhat they understoodas "education"in
institutionalizedplaces of higher learning (Duberman1972). The BlackMountain
projectwas powerfullyinfluencedby the complex and ambiguousfigureof Charles
m0
DR. PARSONSis a professor emeritus of geography at the University of California,Berkeley,
California94720.
The Geographical Review 86 (1): 22-41, January 1996
Copyright ? 1996by the American GeographicalSociety of New York
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
23
Olson (1910-1970), rector of the college from 1952 until its demise in 1956, who has
been widely heraldedas one of the majorpoets of our era.
The BlackMountain School-students and disciplesof Olson-became pivotal
figures in the late 1950s,when in the streets and cafes of San Franciscowhat was
increasinglyrecognizedas a spiritlessmodernist literaturewas entirelyrecastinto
something novel and emphaticallydistinct-loosely known then as the Beat Generationbut since describedas a key and especiallyintellectualpart of the San Francisco Renaissanceand as a cornerstoneof the New American Poetry (Allen 1960;
Davidson 1989; Snyder 1995a, 1995b). Even among those in this group who never
attended Black Mountain, Olson's influence is apparent.The relationshipof this
circleof postmodernpoets with Sauerhasbeen echoed most directlyto geographers
throughBob Callahan(1942-),the personableIrishAmericanauthorand publisher
who headed up the TurtleIslandPressin Berkeleyin the early1970s (Callahan1975,
1977,1978) (Figure 1).2
These writerswere stronglyattractedto Americanculturaland environmental
history over a time span reachingbackto the earliestoccupationof the New World.
They found an exhilaratingmodel and sourceof inspirationin Sauer'sinsistenceon
the immutable link between history and geographyand in the concretenessand
authenticityof his pungent,vigorous expression,his identificationwith people living close to the land, and his sensitivityto the aestheticvalues in the humanized
landscape.There have been geographerssince Sauerwhose work is embracedby
fashion-settersin social science, but there is no geographerwho has ever attained
such a following in arts,prose,or poetry.It was a relationshipthathas not yet palled.
At the time, Sauerhimself seems to have been baffledand even a bit unnerved
this
attention,borderingon adulation,from so unexpecteda quarter.But if these
by
strangersoften seemed to be speakingin tongues, it was of people and places and
theirhistory,themes dearto his heart.CharlesOlson insisted,in his BlackMountain
"ABibliographyon Americafor Ed Dorn,"that students should read "Sauer... all
the way back to his first job" (Olson 1974, 11). Bob Callahan, who became aware of
Sauerthrough readingOlson, heraldedthe geographerto friendsas "thefinest historicalintelligenceof the twentiethcentury"and as "theone personyou would read
before any other on pre-historicAmerica"(Callahan1978,25). StewartBrand,the
freewheelingMarin County editor and publisher,called him a major influence on
Americanpoets, "a man so routinelycorrectabout mattersso fundamentalthat a
popular following never caught up with him!"(Brand1976,48).
SEARCHINGFORTHE ROOTS
CharlesOlson,an idiosyncraticlatter-dayEzra
Poundwith apassionforengagement,
was a centralfigurein the postmodernrevolutionthatenergizedpoetryin the United
StatesafterWorldWarII (Olson 1983,1987).Although Olson'spoetry is sufficient
legacy,his influencehasbeen farlarger.In a pivotalessayon "ProjectiveVerse,"Olson
arguedfor severingpoetryfrom strictmetricform,allowingpoets and theirmaterial
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
24
YES
that
is
really
now that
it,
a moment
I think
SAUER TAUGHT US THAT THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE 'IAS AN ARTISTIC
A
and not just
FORTP
one at that
another
form of them all
artistic
but the very biggest
It might be said
that
but rather
Sauer's
to something
in that
very
spare,
ultimate
i.
8g^;
what is
--
riitv><
had
4cI'^t^^4
with;
that
Gerian
particul:ir
becomes
Kuhr
School
down
pragmatic
secular
way
the actual,
on sheer
the real
quantities
coins
sound of how many
-m
-
the
X
it
pared
direct,
American
big rush on process,
Like in,
of
draw from Sauer
down
Patterson
in which the ideal
that
-?
it
pared
in
as5Williams
to begin
descendfnts
.t.-
he had
But
in an aesjhic'
based
how deeply
own thinking
all
As Bs
would then
so much what poets
wasn't
it
hitting
the table?
tt.
FIG.1- BobCallahan's
Americanpoetry.
poemon CarlSauerandhisinfluenceon postmodern
much greater leeway in appearance and structure (Olson 1966a; Davidson 1980;
McPheron 1986, 386-387).
For his followers,Olson assumed the status of guru, a combination of teacher,
culturetheorist,and critic,exemplifyingwhat GarySnydertermed,"acombination
of the highest activity of trained intellect and the deepest insight of the intuitive,
instinctive, or emotional mind" (Snyder 1995a, 14). No longer was a romantic sen-
sibilityand elegantphrasingsufficientfor poets-a scholar'sknowledge of history,
geography,and engagement with them in prose were needed. Today,more than
twentyyearsafterhis death,Olson'sliteraryheirsarereachingbackto the maestro's
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
25
roots, seeking among other things to learn more about the man Sauer and his
geographythat so intrigued and influenced their mentor.
The Olson-inspiredliteratureis enormous and stillgrowing.WilliamMcPheron
of the StanfordUniversityLibrary'sEnglish language and literaturedivision has
recordedand annotated chronologically(if only through 1983)more than 1,600(!)
criticalresponsesand criticallysignificantbiographicalaccountsof the brilliantbut
eccentricpoet Olson and his work (McPheron1986).Thislode of commentaryscans
some thirty years of literary critiques of the iconoclastic New Englander who
"pushedAmericanpoetry beyond the self-conscious aestheticismof New Critical
Orthodoxyinto the open rangesof unmediatedexperience"(McPheron1986,xiii).
The index to these capsuleaccountsincludes nineteen referencesto CarlSauer.
For the respectedEnglishcritic,the late Donald Davie (1928-1995),who taught
at Stanfordand VanderbiltUniversitiesin the course of his distinguishedcareer,
Olson'sbest knownwork, TheMaximusPoems,a metaphoricalhistoryof Gloucester,
Massachusetts,and its fishing community written over a period of twenty years,
"enactsthe general principle of Sauer'sgeography"as representedin Sauer's1925
"TheMorphologyof Landscape"(Olson 1983;McPheron1986,81).Olson'seffortto
map his hometown in this multivolumeepic, like his earlieremphasison the Pacific
Ocean in Call Me Ishmael (1947),a strikinglyoriginal interpretationof Herman
Melvilleand MobyDick,is seen by Davie as evidence of the "desperateseriousness"
with which Olson regardsgeographyand the matterof geographicallocation (Davie
1977a,182).
Another critic, OliverFord,then of MassachusettsStateCollege,Lowell,found
that althoughSauer's1948essay"Environmentand CultureDuring the LastGlaciation" (Sauer 1963e)provides Olson with his entrance into the remote past, "The
Morphologyof Landscape"is more germaneto his poetry,becauseit offersa method
of studybased on the content of particularplaces (Ford1973-1974;McPheron1986,
178).ShermanPaul, in the Iowa Review,refersto Olson'sadoption of Sauer's"investigativemethod"to recoverthe "fresh,nakedperceptionof America'sbeginning"
(Paul 1975,86; McPheron1986, 204). Another Englishcritic, GrahamClarke,3saw
Sauer'sgeographyas a "poeticmethodology for restoringman's original intimacy
with nature"(Clarke1977;McPheron1986,236). It is almost as though a grounding
in the history of locality and attachmentto place is somethingnew, something that
Sauerand his geographyhad for the first time laid bare and authenticated,an unsuspectedvein to be mined and exploited.
McPheron'sbibliographicalguide to CharlesOlson'swork includes extensive
referencesto the poet-essayistDonald Davie'scollectedessays,ThePoetin theImaginaryMuseum(1977c). In the introductionthat volume'seditor,BarryAlpert,recalls
how the geographerSauerimplicitlyinvitedartists,Davie among them, to enter his
physicalrealm when, in "The Morphologyof Landscape,"he wrote: "Agood deal
of the meaning of arealies beyond scientificregimentation.The best geographyhas
never disregardedthe aestheticqualitiesof landscape,to which we know no other
approachthan the subjective"(Sauer1963a,344;Alpert1977,xviii). In a 1968essay
26
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
entitled "Landscapeas Poetic Focus"Davie is seen to have acceptedSauer'sinvitation, with the geographerbeing described as the guiding spirit behind some of
Davie's first verse. Where Davie turns his literary-historicalattention to the New
World,Alpertwrites, "it is mediatedby the presenceof Sauerand those American
poets who saw Sauer'sworth, CharlesOlson and EdwardDorn" (Alpert 1977,xix;
Davie 1977b).
In "Landscapeas Poetic Focus"Davie arguesthat good poetry may legitimately
originatein responseto landscape.He observeshow Olson'sMaximuspoems "aspire
to give in languagea map,a map of one place,the town of Gloucester"(Davie 1977a,
166). In some cases,Olson'slinkagesbetween form and content were literal,and a
poem would literallytakethe form of its subject.Tobe sure,among Olson'sstudents,
poems might often incorporatemuch of the historyof the placemapped,but so did
the ancient geographiesof Herodotus.And so did some of the best writings of Carl
Sauer.
Davie, searchingfor the roots of the Olson-Sauerlinkage,noted approvingly
Alexandervon Humboldt'sremark,footnoted by Sauer,that "in classicalantiquity
the earliesthistoriansmade little attemptto separatethe descriptionof lands from
the narrationof eventsthe scene of whichwas in the areasdescribed.Fora long time
physicalgeographyand history appearattractivelyintermingled"(Sauer1963a,318
n. 5;Davie1977a,166).But the Englishcriticbelievedthat some of Olson'sveneration
of Herodotus and what he professedwas more probablyderivedfrom Sauerwho,
in "TheMorphologyof Landscape,"observedthat "thehistoriaof the Greekswith
its blurredfeeling for time relationshad a somewhatsuperiorappreciationof areal
relationsand representeda farfrom contemptiblestartin Geography"(Sauer1963a,
318;Davie 1977a, 166-167).
"ITSTONEIs MILITANT"
Sauer'swritings, as seen especiallyin the collection of his papers edited by John
Leighly(1963)under the title Landand Life,were commended by Davie as "exceptionallyinstructiveforpoets and studentsof twentieth-centurypoetry"(Davie1977a,
167).AlthoughDavie noted Leighly'sobservationthat Sauerlaterwithdrewin good
part from the exposed and extreme position taken up in his early essay on "The
Morphologyof Landscape,"Davieinsiststhat"Howeverthis maybe for professional
geographers,it is the statement of 1925that will have readiestappeal for poets. Its
tone is militant"(Leighly 1963, 6; Davie 1977a,167). He again quotes Sauer:
becauseit is a naivelygiven,important
Areaor landscapeis the fieldof geography
assumesthe responsibility
thesis.Geography
sectionof reality,not a sophisticated
for the studyof areasbecausethereexistsa common curiosityabout that subject ...
in
of geography
Thesubjectexistedlongbeforethenamewascoined.Theliterature
thesenseof chorologybeginswithpartsof theearliestsagasandmyths,vividasthey
arewith the senseof placeand of man'scontestwith nature.(Sauer1963a,316,quoted
in Davie 1977a,167)
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
27
In the same paperDavie cites the ShorterOxfordEnglishDictionarydefinition of
chorology as "thescientificstudy of the geographicalextents or limits of anything"
(Davie1977a,167).So Sauerin 1925was recallinggeographyto its ancientroots,away
from the "overweaningdivagations"(Davie 1977a, 167)to which it had earlierlent
itself, especiallyas the disciplineembracedenvironmentalcausation.Referenceto
Humboldt'suse of "physiognomy"as a categoryemployedto accommodatesubjective responses to landscaperecalledin Davie'smind Sauer'sessay in 1941on "The
Personalityof Mexico,"reprintedin the Landand Lifecollection.Perhapsit was the
essay'sbeginning that most caught the poet Davie'sattention:
For,whatevertheproblemsof thedaymaybethatclaimtheattentionof thespecialist
andwhichresultin moreprecisemethodsof inspectionsandmoreformalsystems
of comparison,
thereremainsa formof geographic
curiositythatis nevercontained
the
how
land
and
have
cometo differfromonepart
It
is
art
of
life
bysystems.
seeing
of the earthto another.Thisqualityof understanding
has interestedmen almost
and
andreexamination
for
fromthebeginningof humantime requiresrestatement
each new generation.(Sauer1963c,104)
Davie concludes his 1968 essay with an elegant dovetailingof Sauer and the new
writershe so admires:"It begins to seem as if a focus on scenery,upon landscape
and areas,relationsin space,are a necessarycheckand control upon the poets' manipulation of the historicalrecord.If this is what Olson and Dorn have discovered,
all honour to them. And any poet who seeks to follow them cannot do better than
to read with instructiveexcitementthis volume [Landand Life] of the writings of
CarlOrtwin Sauer"(Davie 1977a,169;Sauer,1963h).
Ed Dorn (1929-), Robert Creeley(1926-), and Robert Duncan (1919-) are the
best known of the numerousprotegesof CharlesOlson (Fox1989),but his influence
radiatedout through a much largercommunity of poets, including Ed Dahlberg,
WilliamCarlosWilliams,KennethRexroth,KenIrby,PaulMetcalf,and LeRoiJones.
The link with the San FranciscoBeats, such as Allen Ginsberg,JackKerouac,and
Gary Snyder,was rathermore tenuous, but the San FranciscoRenaissanceclearly
kept many of Olson'sideasin circulation(Davidson1989).Dorn, Creeley,and Duncan were closely associatedwith BlackMountain College and the BlackMountain
Review(1953-1957).
It was especiallyEd Dorn, with his deep westernNorth Americanroots and his
concern for the artistic forms of culturallandscapes,who found inspiration from
Sauerthrough Olson (Dorn 1980;McPheron1988).From the fall of 1965on Dorn
was for some years a visiting lecturer at the newly charteredUniversityof Essex,
where Donald Davie was vice chancellor.The interactioncan be imagined. In 01son's "A Bibliographyon America,"a revealing syllabus constructed for Dorn's
education at BlackMountain, Saueris repeatedlymentioned as the pivotal figure
(Olson 1974,81). For all the evident affection and the stylistic singularitiesin the
Olson was verymuch engagedin describinga seriousmethodology
"Bibliography,"
of study and knowledge. "The results of historical study are not 'how much one
28
THE GEOGRAPHICALREVIEW
knows but in what field of context it is retainedand used, "MichaelDavidson has
written, quoting Charles Olson's instructions to Dorn. "For [Dorn] this meant
studying the West in terms of its exploitation. Landscape,he learned from Carl
Sauer,is contingent upon man's uses of it; the ultimate meaning of barbed wire
lies in attitudes of containment and proprietorshipwhich extend into the culture
at large"(Davidson 1980,170-171).
Dorn took Olson'sexhortationsto heartin his sizablebody of poetryand prose.4
The titles of his numerous publishedcollections suggesta common ground:Geography(1965),with its long narrative"IdahoOut";TheShoshoneans(1966,in collaboration with African American photographer LeRoy Lucas); The North Atlantic
Turbine(1967);Recollectionsof GranApacheria(1974b);MesozoicLandscape(1974d);
Slinger(1975);and Hello,La Jolla(1978).Underlyingmuch of Dorn'swriting is the
belief that because the North Americancontinent offersthe poet a new set of materials,a fresh set of possibilitiesbecomes available.Dorn'swork is eminently geographicalin taste, scholarship,and sensibility.It is waggishlyso in a part of "Idaho
Out":
no
thesky
is not
biggerin Montana.When
forinstanceyou come
fromWilliston
thereseemsatthebordera change
butit is onlybecausemanhas
builta tavernthere.
115)
(Dorn1975a,
A more emphaticgeographyappearsin Dor's TheNorthAtlanticTurbine,a poetic
studyof mercantilismand its role in the formationof a globaleconomy (Dorn 1967).
MichaelDavidsonarguesthat "Thetheme of the poem, likethat of Olson'sMaximus
series,is the displacementof man by the 'turbine'of the global dollar.... From the
rum and slavetradeto munitions sales to the war in Vietnam,the swirlingforce of
North Atlantic mercantilismwidens; its ultimate result is the transformationof
man" (Davidson 1980,170):
havebeen
t note:Naturalresources
thefirstwaymen
havebeenputdown:
to exploittheimmediatesurroundings
atlarge,andif
andthenhavethemselves
havebeenabsent
resources
theunluckyhavehadto settle
fora morallesson:buyor die.
Sincetheoriginaldesignof theearth
leftno arealackingin some
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
29
resourcedeprivationhas always
meant "lackof machinery."
Naturalresourcesgeneratethe unnatural(not the "super"natural,
which is creative)
is a basicparadox.
(Dorn 1975b,192-193)
At the beginning of "IdahoOut"Dorn makes CarlSauer'swords a declaration
of his own conviction:"Thething to be known is the naturallandscape.It becomes
known through the totality of its forms" (Sauer 1963a,337; Dorn 1975a,115).In dis-
cussing this meditation upon a round trip between Pocatello,Idaho,and Missoula,
Montana, critic ShermanPaul noted that Dorn's three conspicuous referencesare
Olson, Sauer,and LeRoiJones,with Olson and Sauer"conjoinedin what Dorn calls
'earth-writing'"(Paul1981,104)."IdahoOut"and much of Dorn'sotherworkrelates
the traumainvolvedin wrestingthe landfroma "gathering"
people,a habitor lifeway
"not to be broken in a few generationsby officialdeclarationor harassment"(Paul
1981,104), as in "The Slipping of the Wheel," from Recollections of Gran Apacheria:
Theywere sentencedto observe
the destructionof theirWorld
The revolutionaryimplications
are interesting
They embody a state
which our still encircledworld
looks towardfrom the past
(Dor 1974c;unpaginated)
This, ShermanPaul notes, "is what Sauer'sMan in Nature:AmericaBeforethe
Daysofthe WhiteMen [the1939grade-schoolprimer]is about,the incrediblehuman
achievementof habituationof the land, that long habituationof place that makes
an Indianunwillingto forsakeit, set againstthe implicitconsequencesof what every
child alreadyknows: afterthe days of the white man. After history,as Levi-Strauss
tells in Tristes Tropiques"(Paul 1981,131).Behind The North Atlantic Turbine, Paul
suggests, was "perhapsSauer'sNorthernMists, the Sauer of the West, like Dorn,
having turned East?The meanness of not just Americans;it belongs to Western
Civilization,originatingin the imperialismfosteredby the opening up of the seas"
(Paul 1981, 141). As early as 1957, with the publication of Dorn's "C.B.& Q." in the
BlackMountainReview,the influence of Sauerwas evident. "LikeCarl Sauerand
CharlesOlson before him,"wrote the criticWilliam Lockwood,"Dorn has earned
a distinctive and distinguishedplace among the great geographersof the North
American soul" (Lockwood 1978,79).
At its most austere,Dorn's poetry shares Sauer'sintuition for fact, direct and
astringent,as in his assayof the fateand historyof the Apacheof the North American
Southwest:
30
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
The most absoluteof the predatorytribes
Apachepolicywas to extirpate
Everytraceof civilization
Fromtheirprovince.
(Dorn 1974a,unpaginated)
But in Dorn'swriting there can be moments of equallightnessand grace.These fill
his epic Slinger,with its allusionsto an elusiveHowardHughes,ClaudeLevi-Strauss,
Truthor Consequences,New Mexico, an ongoing (and never consummated) pilgrimageto LasVegas,Nevada,and a whole rangeof in-jokes:
But now, over the endlesssageybrush
the moon makesher silverybid
and in the cool dry air of the night
the winde wankelsacrossthe cattlegrid.
(Dorn1975c, [144])
It was not, however,solely Dorn and Olson who took Sauer'sideasto heart.The
largersensibilitythat Olson praised,so much embodied in Sauer'sfeeling for the
pastand for the humanexploitationof the largerworld,cameto be partof the poetry
of manywriters,especiallythosewho calledthe AmericanWesttheirhome. Of these,
perhapsGarySnydermay be the clearestexample.5SnydersharesSauer'sdeep appreciationfor the longer reachesof human time and its value for teachingus now.
WhereasOlson turned to Gloucesterand Dorn looked to the arid Southwestof the
United Statesfor much of his groundingin place, Snyderis the poet of California
and the PacificSlope.He is arguablythe leading-certainly the best known-proponent of a bioregionalistethic, with its insistence that localitiesmatter and that we
turn away from them only at greatpersonal and spiritualcost (Parsons1985).An
essayistand Zen disciple,Snyderis also among the most explicitlygeographicalof
American writers. From Regarding Wave (1970), one of Snyder's poems is titled
"WhatYouNeed to Know to Be a Poet,"and the advice is succinct:
all you can about animalsas persons
the names of treesand flowersand weeds
names of stars,and the movementsof the planets
and the moon.
your own six senses,with a watchfuland elegantmind.
(Snyder1970,40)
AlthoughSauermight not haveembracedthe whole of the sentimentsof thesepoets
and writers,there could be little doubt that the geographerwould appreciatetheir
drift.
THECONTACT
It was clearlyCharlesOlson who "discovered"Sauerand from whom enthusiasm
for him andhis geographyradiatedoutwardthroughthis segmentof thepostmodern
literarycommunity.6By all accounts Olson was a charismaticif elusivefigurewho
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
31
was impossibleto ignore,not simplybecauseof his mountainoussize and his mental
brilliancebut also becauseof the way he disposedhimself.The two men firstmet in
1947,when Olson came to Berkeley'sBancroftLibraryin searchof materialson the
Gold Rush.Sauerwould haveknown somethingof the New Englanderthroughhis
fellowshipapplicationsto the GuggenheimFoundation,for which the geographer
long served on the selection committee. (Olson was a GuggenheimFellow in 1939
and again in 1948.)At this first meeting Olson was immediatelyoverwhelmed,accordingto Callahan(1975),with the geographer'sknowledgeof Americanspace.But
if Sauer saw in Olson a most unusual and interestingmind, "a powerhouse and
genius of some order,"he also found his conversationand unconventionalwriting
"difficultand frequentlyincomprehensible"(Callahan1975,[13]).
A fitfulexchangeof letterstook placeduringthe next dozen or so years(Callahan
1979),with Olson repeatedlyexpressingadmirationand affectionfor the professor,
beforewhom he seems to havestood in uncharacteristichumility."Itdoesn'tmatter
that you are an impossible correspondent,"he wrote with warmth and familiarity,
"Istill love you. But why don't you put me on some minor mailinglist so that I can
get your notices to members of your departmentor such?"He sought persistently
to pick Sauer'sbrain on questions such as "Howlong had man been herbivorous?"
"Whatwas the firstfleshhe ate?""Howdid earlierman understandthe juxtaposition
of the position between the Sun and the She-Boss?"or "Whatto read for the latest
on the traditionof pre-ColumbianChinesevoyagesto the New World?"(Callahan
1979,136-139).
"Butthereyou are,"Olson wrote on 20 October1949,"toomany miles awayand
you won't talk. I can'teven get a correspondencecourseout of you."On 25October
1950he wrote to Sauer,"Youareone of the rareand nativeforces.... I am hungryfor
all CarlSauersaysin print.Please,please!I don'tknow of a man whose work I want
more to keep abreastof." Somewhatlater came a letter from Campeche,Mexico,
expressinga profoundsadnessoverthe deathby his own hand of young RobertBarthe reservedbut accomplishedNahuatlscholarand poet who Sauer
low (1918-1951),
had enthusiasticallysupportedand recommendedto Olson, describedby the latter
as "so much fine wood your own hand had worked"(Callahan1979,140-148ff).
BLACK
COLLEGE
MOUNTAIN
Soon afterthe Mexicansojourn,whichhadproducedhis MayanLetters(1953),Olson
went to Black Mountain College near Asheville,where, for the next five years,he
was the presiding spirit, at the height of his powers of persuasion and intellect
(Duberman 1972).Earlyin his tenure Olson sought unsuccessfullyto lure Sauerto
head up an instituteat the school to be devotedto "thegeographicaland biosciences
as proper gates for an attackupon man" (Duberman1972,478). Sauerin replyhad
suggestedthe Britishecologist FrankFraserDarling(1903-1979)or the architectand
authorRoderickSeidenberg(1910-1973)as possibilities.Concludingwith an expression of hope for a favorableoutcome of Olson'sapplicationto the Viking Fund for
32
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
financialsupport,he subtly added, "Butyou can write quite difficultlanguageyou
know"(Callahan1979,152).
For BlackMountain studentsand friendsalike,Olson'srecommendedbibliographyon Americaincludedmany names familiarto geographers:FrancisParkman,
BernardDeVoto,WalterPrescottWebb,ArminLobeck,HarvardhistorianFrederick
Merk,and the botanistEdgarAnderson,but especially,in Olson'sown words (clearly
deliveredfrom imperfectmemory), "CarlSauer,from 'Environment& Culturein
the LastDeglaciation'all the way through 'Roadto Cibola,'back to his firstjob, for
the State of Illinois handbook (1915?)on the new Statepark at StarvedRock, [and
including] Sauerdoing job on Indian agriculture"(Olson 1974,n).
Sauer'sreluctanceto become too involvedwith the enigmaticpoet-historianis
evidentfrom the correspondence,which is dominatedby Olson'spleasfor attention.
Of the twelve letters that have been retrievedand published (Callahan1979),nine
are from Olson. Olson'slast (14July1960),noting despondentlythat his funds were
exhausted,askedfor a completebibliographyof Sauer'spublications(Callahan1979,
166).It was ProfessorSauer'ssecretarywho replied,statingthat he had forgottenthe
requestand had instructedher to send it as he was departingon an extended trip.
When Olson visited the Berkeleycampus in 1965for what must have been a most
raucousreadingat the BerkeleyPoetryConference,there is no recordof his having
attemptedto contact Sauer(Olson 1966b).
The relationshipthat Olson seems to havehoped for did not develop.Justbefore
he died he somewhattimorouslymade a cross-countrytelephonecallto Sauer,then
more than eighty years old and to whom he had not written or spoken for many
years.He expressedsurpriseand delight at the warmthof the responseat the other
end of the line ("Howareyou, Charles?")afterall thattime (Boer1975,68;Callahan,
1979,168).The subjectof the conversationcan only be surmised.He was quite possiblyseekingSauer'sassistanceon anotherapplicationfor funding or perhapssome
esotericbit of informationon the distantAmericanpast that so preoccupiedhim.
As is so often chronicwith poets, financialproblemswere recurrent.Olson recognized Sauer'sinfluencewith the majorfoundationsbut found himself reluctant
to use him. "Myace is Sauer,"he wrote to his friend RobertCreeley,"butone plays
one's ace carefully... One has to weigh all moves now againstwhat may happen
3-5 yearsaheadand I hold backon Saueruntil I havesomethingsolid. I respecthim
so much.... He is the best backerI could turn to in suchworkas this, the most open,
and one wants to offer the most" (Butterick1980b,88).
In an unpublishedpaperpreparedfor a seminarat Berkeleysome months after
Sauer'sdeath,Bob Callahanwrote:
Most of the majorwritersthat have emergedfrom BlackMountain[or been
withit] havefoundtheworkof CarlSaueron theirrequiredreadinglists,
associated
andthisincludessomeof the greatestAmericanwriterspracticingthe craftto this
day... It is not ... becauseof someabstractlinguisticabilitythatthesewriters
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
33
continue to read Sauer-but ratherthat they feel that they can tell an originalmind
at work when they come acrossone. (Callahan1975,[13-14])
They have been equallyimpressed,Callahancontinues,with Sauer'sstudies of
the origins and diffusion of agricultureand of frontierlife in earlyAmerica:
Thesewritershavebeen drawnto Sauer'sstudiesof colonialconditionsas the
traditions... cameto
ancientworldof the AmericanIndianandits long-standing
andthenEuro-Americans.
AsAmericans
clashwiththeNewWorldof theEuropeans
thisclashbetweenthesetwoworldsis stillthebiggeststorywe haveandourwriters,
Therelationship
don'tforget,arestillourappointedstorymakersandstory-tellers.
of
betweenCarlSauerandCharlesOlson,andthecontinuing&growingawareness
Sauerby studentsof AmericanLiteratureis, I think,alwaysrenewedon these
grounds.Bornon thiscontinenttheAmericanwriterhasfinallylearnedthathe has
as muchif not moreto learnfromthe ZuniFarmersof the Southwestas he does
Makersof France,andto a greatextenthe realizes&continues
fromthe Cathedral
to learnfrombothCharlesOlsonandCarlSauer[andto thankthem]forproviding
this opening. (Callahan1975,[14])
Exceptfor Callahan,who developeda close personalrelationshipwith Sauerin
the geographer'slast years(Callahanhad been urgedby friendsto look up Saueron
his move to the Bay Area), the familiarityof the BlackMountain folk with Sauer
derivedalmost entirelyfrom their readingsof Sauer'swork. Olson, especially,was
concernedwith the importanceof landscapeand spaceearlyin his historicalruminations and found in Sauer,for whom historywas so fundamentalfor his own discipline, a congenial spirit.At the time of their first encounterthe fiercelyenergetic
and unorthodox Olson hadjust completedhis much heraldedif convolutedCallMe
Ishmael,whichhe sawasa literalaccountof thewhalingindustryrewrittenas tragedy
under the influence of Shakespeare.In it Pacificwhaling is viewed as the fateful
extension of America'spioneer effort.Its opening paragraphmarkedthe author as
a "borngeographer"in the mold of CarlSauer:"Itake SPACEto be the centralfact
to man born in America,from Folsom Caveto now. I spell it largebecauseit comes
large here, large and without mercy. It is geography at bottom" (Olson 1947, n).
Many of the central figures in Olson's works, especially in the convoluted
Maximuspoems, are also presentin Sauer'swritings-the Vikings,Columbus,Juan
de la Cosa, Cabezade Vaca,CaptainJohn Smith. The year after the two men first
met, Olson traveledbeyond the border to Lerma,a few miles south of Campeche
on the Yucatancoast. His extended researches,documented in his Mayan Letters,
make the debt to Sauerapparent.He was fascinatedby this "glyphworld"and its
mysteriesand was especiallyinterestedin Sauer'sspeculationthat the Mayanpush
into the lowlands of Yucatanmay in some way have been associatedwith a dietary
need for the protein and fat that coastalfishingwould haveprovided.
Time and again Olson, widely creditedin literarycircleswith transformingthe
shape and practiceof poetry since 1945,lavishedpraise on Sauerbefore his friends
and associates.In 1954he named the Berkeleygeographerto the BlackMountain
34
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
College AdvisoryBoard,along with such luminariesas AlbertEinstein,CarlJung,
NorbertWeiner,the painterFranzKline,andWilliamCarlosWilliams.The appointment was no more than a sinecure,a kind of window dressing,perhapseven made
without Sauer'sknowledgeor permission.At a proposed Instituteof the New Sciences Olson had envisioned "Sauertalking about place, England'sChristopher
Hawkes on culture and Carl Jung on mythology" (Clark 1991, 233). Another time
Olson had bracketedSauerwith Victor B6rard(the French Ulyssesscholar), Josef
Strzykowski(the Austrianart historian),Leo Frobenius(the Germananthropologist), and Owen Lattimore(the geographer-sinologist)as "theboys who taught me
something" (Duberman 1972,374;Butterick 198ob, 129). In his last years Olson came
up with anotherlist of the majorinfluenceson his life, judginghimself to have had
four fathers in addition to his natural one: his WesleyanCollege teacherWilbert
Snow, the GloucesterfishermanLou Douglas, EzraPound, and Carl Sauer (Boer
1975).
In a checklistof the books and papers owned, read,and consulted by Charles
Olson in the course of his literary career (Butterick 1976; Maud 1996), only Pound,
D. H. Lawrence,and Olson'sbelovedMelvilleare cited more frequentlythan is Carl
Sauer,for whom therearetwelveentries.Olson, no less than Melville,seems to have
"readto write,"doing so prodigiously.His writings clearlyreflect an insuperable
appetitefor the riches of the written word. One is struckin perusing the extensive
checklistby both the scope of Olson'sinterests(the parallelwith Saueris evident)
and what a majorpoet of our time felt he needed to know.
THE ENDURING ATTRACTION OF SAUER
The surprisingattractionof the innovativeand influentialOlson, with many other
writersof his genre,to Sauerseems explainableon at least five grounds.First,Sauer
and Olson each had stronglydeveloped interestsin beginnings,in the entire span
of human historyon Americansoil and the problemsassociatedwith the originand
diffusion of culture and culture traits,including possible pre-Columbianlinkages
between the Old Worldand the New World.Sauer'swritings on earlyman and his
insistenceon pushing human historybackto dateswell beyond those of more conventional scholarsstronglyappealedto Olson and to at least some of his followers.
It made, of course,for a greatstory.Anxious to get awayfrom what one described
as "theWesternismof Greekculture,"this new generationof poet-historianslooked
directlyand reverentiallyto the American experience.Sauer's"Environmentand
CultureDuring the LastDeglaciation"(1948),"TheEnd of the Ice Age and Its Witnesses"(1957),and similar,often speculative,Sauerpapersrelatingto the first sedentary fishing communities, the origin of agriculture, and human ecological
dominance through the use of fire were acceptedas gospel. Sauer'sNorthernMists
(1968),which exploredearlyViking and Irishvoyagesto the New World,was seen
by Olson as a gold mine. And so on. To Olson'sregardingeyes the circleof Sauer's
interests,so rich with imagery,appearedwithout boundaries.So did his authority.
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
35
Second, they found congenial Sauer'schampioning of direct observation, of
hands-on knowledge,of the "eye-view."His concept of the culturallandscapeand
its morphologicalstudy-the study of the form and content of a specificlocale-was
to them a refreshingspring.It was from eye-witnessaccounts of the sixteenth- and
seventeenth-centuryexplorersand chroniclers,as in TheEarlySpanishMain (1966),
SixteenthCenturyNorthAmerica:TheLandand Peopleas Seenby Europeans(1971),
and SeventeenthCenturyNorthAmerica(1980),that Sauerdrew many of his ideas
and inferencesregardingthe conditions of land and life at the time of contact.His
own observationsabout the MiddleWestof his boyhood,and laterin LatinAmerica,
which informed so much of his writing, honored the local. We recallhis advice to
field-workersthat "locomotion should be slow, the slower the better"and how he
decriedthe betrayalof geographyby the increasingnumbers of younger practitioners who, refusingto use their eyes,knew little and caredless for the realor natural
world (Sauer1963f,400).
Third, accompanyingthis was Sauer'semphasis on labeling,on identification,
on "unadornedfacts."He wrote to a student:
Thepleasureof geographical
description[atermtobe usedwithrespect]is inproper
identification.
I suspectandhope(!)thatthisis a pleasurethatthosewhoworkwith
numbersmiss.... Mygreatdictumforthedayis thatidentification
comesthrough
seeing (and recording).(Sauer1962)
As a geographer,Sauerrecognizedthe criticalimportanceof binomialnomenclature
in the biologicalworld, of the correctidentificationof rocks,of clouds, of placeson
the map, and of culture traits from pottery styles to house types, and he found
pleasurein such knowledge.This was not a form of pedantrybut a way to elevate
observationson the matterat hand to theirbroaderimplications.The BlackMountainpoets'appreciationof names,of words,wasperhapsbasedas much on aesthetics
as on a desire to deepen understanding,but they recognizeda friend when they
spotted one.
Fourth,the emphasison space and the running of time, on location, extension,
position, and distribution(mapping),was centralto the waysof both Sauerand the
Olson school and congenial to their temperaments.Processand change,especially
the impact of humankindon the land, as exemplifiedby the Sauer-inspiredPrinceton conferencein 1956on Man'sRole in Changingthe Face of the Earth,lay at the
heart of Sauer'shistoricalgeography(Sauer1963b;West 1981;Williams1983,1987).
This inevitablybrought into play the data of archeologistsand anthropologists,especiallythose who were receptiveto earlydatesfor humans in the New World.This
paleogeographyor archeologywas not static.Olson, at times as much historian as
poet, wrote from the limestone lands of Yucatanin 1951of "processas the most
importantfact... the overwhelmingone, how it works"(Butterick198ob).Sauer's
Middle Westand Olson'sGloucesterwere of a kind, placesrememberedfondly but
ever changing,not alwaysfor the better.
36
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
Finally,Sauer'sflairfor metaphorand evocativeexpression,the earthinessof his
resolutelyAmericanconversationallanguage,the ingenuity of his hypotheses,inevitablystrucka favorablechord among writerswho were familiarwith his work.
The largerthe synthesisthe more powerful.The VillageVoice,periodicalof record
for Manhattan'sBohemianquarter,had describedhis Man in Nature:AmericaBefore
the Days of the WhiteMen (1939),as "insinuatingthe white man'svillainy (in the
dispossessionof IndianAmerica)in a tone more elegiacthan angry"(VillageVoice
1976,29). Olson, no mean judge of such mattersdespite his own telegraphic,"free
form writing style,"7referredglowinglyto Sauer'sprose as "too much for novelists
to match" (Butterick198oa,60). The writing was, as Callahanput it, "spare,very
direct and pragmatic... clear-headed,wonderfullypersonal,eccentric,alwayshumane,"the best Sauer essayshaving "the rhythm and lucidity of long symphonic
poems"(Callahan1976,52). And again,"Thegood doctor,as people arewont to say,
could sure pack it in" (Callahan 1976, 52).8 9
CONCLUSION
Carl Sauerand the BlackMountain poets, along with their followers,studied and
wrote of the pastbecausethey likedit. Theynot only had a certainnostalgiafor early
Americanvalues,they found much to admirein the continuityrepresentedby generationsreachingbacknumerous millennia.Yetthey were at the same time alert to
the world aroundthem and concernedabout its uncertainfate. For CharlesOlson
and his literaryheirs,at least,historicalgeography-especiallyas representedby the
vision and the writtenword of CarlSauer-seems to haveopened new and challenging horizons. Many contemporarypoets know of Sauerand have read him appreciatively.The criticalliteratureis repletewith referencesto this relationship.Such
attentionfrom so unexpecteda quarterbringswelcome furthervalidationand vindicationfor the branchof our disciplinethat perhapspromisesthe closestand most
rewardinglinkageswith the humanitiesand the world of letters(Meinig1989).Cultural and historicalgeographersare not drifting alone in that vast sea of creative
endeavor,unnoticed and unappreciated.The linkagesdescribedhere with even so
seeminglyremote a group as these postmodern poets remindsus of the interdisciplinaryattractionand centralityof what interestsus and what we do, at least when
we do it well. For that, CarlSauerwill ever stand as a model and inspiration.
NOTES
and
Somehavedismissedhisworkas"shabby,
Sauerhashadhisdetractors.
1. Certainly
parochial
a
for
narrow-mindedness
him
have
Others
(Pred
purported
(Gould
1979,140).
targeted
unintelligent"
a fringepositionwithingeography.
1984).Eitherviewrepresents
California
2. TurtleIslandPress(2845BuenaVistaWay,Berkeley,
94708)publishedCarlSauer's
Selected
NorthAmerica(1980)andhis391-page
(edited
Essays1963-1975
Century
295-pageSeventeenth
America
theschooltextManinNature:
andwithanintroduction
1981)andreprinted
byBobCallahan;
Mists(1968).
BeforetheDaysof theWhiteMen(1939)andNorthern
to
and Geography:
Graham
of
dissertation
Ph.D.
The
Clarke,
Approaches
"Landscape
1977
3.
of Essex,hasnot
to CharlesOlson,"University
EnglishandAmericanPoetrywithSpecificReference
It wouldappearto relatecloselyto thethemeof thisessay.
beenavailable.
"MR. SAUER" AND THE WRITERS
37
4. Dorn's debt to Saueris underscoredboth by the poet himself and in numerous criticalessays
on his works, of which Gunslinger(a.k.a.Slinger)and "IdahoOut"have attractedthe most attention.
The poet, most recentlyon the facultyof the Universityof Colorado,expounded on both the nature
of geographyand the man who brought him to it in a series of interviews:
in that"Morphology
of Landscape,"
who
in Sauerbecausehe wasthefirstone,especially
I gotinterested
of thelandwhichwasbeyondwhatI couldseeasanaesthetic,
spoketo mewiththatloveof theformation
thebonesof America.
becauseitwasliketheconstituents,
to anaesthetic
asanalternative.
(Dor
Superior
1980,21-22)
And:
on itsown,withitsstamp.
thattheUniversity
wouldn'tactually
Therearesystemsof knowledge
reproduce
thatSauermade.Thatinvolveda
of Geography
acrossthefrontiers
Forinstance,thekindof transmission
orevenpoets.Thereseemto be smalluniversities
thathavegrown
lot of peoplewhoweren'tgeographers,
andtheyarereallyinterdisciplinary.
likebudson the [larger]
(Dor 1980,68)
University,
And, more specifically,of geographyas a humanizingdiscipline:
withthe geography
or a concernwiththe
itselfor a humanpreoccupation
I don'tfeelthatgeography
leadsanywhere
at allandin factmostof that
of landscape
andso forthnecessarily
aestheticproperties
butinert.Untilitisinfusedwiththewholedynamism
ofhuman
material
ismoreorlessinteresting
perhaps
of landscape
andgeography
is a human
movementI thinkitsmeaningis trivial.Afterall,theappreciation
involvement.
(Dor 1980,44-45)
5. The connection betweenSnyderand Olson involvesmore than circuitousBlackMountainties;
they had also some interestingmutual friends.When Snyderwas studying Zen in Kyoto,a frequent
contact there was the poet, translator,and publisherCid Corman (Eshleman1991,235-236).It was
Corman who, in the 1950S, had resurrectedthe then-moribund periodical, Origin,which became a
main publishingvenue for CharlesOlson and RobertCreeley(Evans1987;Clark1991,181).
6. It has been noted (Hoover 1994,xxv) that Olson used the word "postmodern"as earlyas 20
October 1951,in a letter from BlackMountain to RobertCreeley(Butterick1980oc,
72). Over the years
the term has receivedincreasingacceptancein all areasof cultureand the arts.Appliedto the period
followingWorldWarII it suggests,in PaulHoover'swords,"anexperimentalapproachto composition
as well as a worldview that sets it apart from mainstream culture. Postmodernist poetry is the
avant-gardepoetry of our time. It has reshaped and rechargedpoetry through new, but initially
shocking,strategies"(Hoover,1994,xxv). Thereis a certainironythat Sauerand Olson, two figuresso
fundamentallyconservativeand yet creative,should turn out to be the figureheadsof postmodern
innovation.
7. One criticdescribedOlson "athis most irritating[as]like a computeroverloadedwith modern
thought and ancientculture.He simplyspewsout citations,translations,beliefs"(Stimpson1973-1974,
151).A former BlackMountain student noted his "militantinsistenceon subjectivity,self expression,
and self exposure"and that "he emanatedan awesomeoracularmajesty(in part shrewdlycultivated)
which one only associateswith the most seasoned shamans"(Gray1990,301).
8. Callahanconcludesa laterlyricalessay,an overarchinghistoricalreviewthat reachesdeep into
the Americanpast,with his own bit of "symphonicpoetry,"based on Sauer's"AGeographicSketchof
EarlyMan in America"(Sauer1963d),in which, he observes,the geographer
thattheprose,withmildrearrangement,
so warmsto thedetailof hisreconstruction
canalmostbe heard
assong:
south
Therouteof dispersal
southeast
alongtheeasternbaseof theRockies,
intotheforestin pursuitof oldworldmammals,
muskox,giantelk,mammoth,
bisonburningahead
theplains
woodedareasturningintograsslands
transformed,
downpastSt.Louis
thewindingPleistocene
river,melted,reaches
therichmesothermal
woodlandof lowerMissouri:
grovesof nuttreesgrowing
in thenew,loess-covered,
uplandsoil
walnut,hickory,
pecanin thefloodplain
standsof oaksof manykinds,somewithsweetacorns,
THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
38
grapes,blackcherry,persimmon,pawpaw,
Virginiadeer,opossum,turkey,quail,woodcock.
Herethe flightof migrantwaterfowl
convergedin the fall,scattered
in the springto northernbreedinggrounds
riverbluffs& Ozarkhills,limitless
supplyof superbchert,suitablefor tools,
and salt licksmarkedthe outcroppingsof shalebeds,
creeks
and riverbluffs,cut into Paleozoicrocksof varying
resistance,
formedsnug covesand shelterat last
awayfrom the westernwinde.
(Callahan1977,107-18)
Callahancontinues on Sauer:
he spellsoutthecharacter
In stillanotheressay,TheEndoftheIceAgeandItsWitnesses,
of thesecultures
andtheircentralculturaltraits-theold bisonand elephanthuntersof the southernplains,the early
basketmakercultures centeredin and around what is now Nevada,and the ancient miller cultures of
Instilla third,andpossiblythemostfamousessay,Environment
southernCalifornia.
e Culture
Duringthe
Last Deglaciation,he extends his survey to note in passing the evidence of an old Fishing Culture,a
"ProgressiveFishingFolk"as he puts it, and goes on to suggesta connectivelink betweenthe firstpeople
Letus notbetimidaboutthiscontribution,
Neolithic.
fortoo
andthepeoplewhowillcreatetheAmerican
Letus see theseessaysas theyare-notestowardan
muchcautiontakesthe soul out of imagination:
therediscovery
of theveryfirstNewWorld.(Callahan
American
Bookof Genesis,
1977,108)
Thanks to William Denevan, emeritus Carl Ortwin Sauer Professor of Geography,University of
Wisconsin,Madison,for pointing out this felicitoustribute.
9. The spirit of place and a sensitivityto the local is, of course, widely reflectedin the field of
modem Americanliterature(Lutwack1984).It is a sensitivityincreasinglyinspiredby recognitionthat
the environmentis being radicallychanged and degradedby more and more powerfuland pervasive
technologies.Among other nonacademicswho haverecentlypaidtributeto the geographyof Saueras
a guiding force in their writing are BarryLopez (CrossingOpen Ground[1988])and Michael Parfit
(Chasingthe Glory[1988]).
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