Uphill with Archie: A Son's Journey

The "Uphill" in Uphill with Archie refers to Uphill Farm, the MacLeish family home in Conway, Mass., and with the book's opening paragraph, it's like we're there with the author, William MacLeish, and his father, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish, surrounded by leather- and cloth-bound books in the book room of the house, a crackling fire in the fireplace while a cold northeasterly wind blows outside. His father shows William the final draft of a poem he's dedicated to his son.But all was not idyllic cultured bliss at Uphill Farm. There was a certain stoicism that suppressed expressions of anger, frustration and despair, and dictated that "Even positive emotions were not allowed out, unless fully under control...." As a result, it was not until his parents died (Archie died in 1982, at the age of 90) that William was able to look at his "darker impulses."Indeed, the traits William MacLeish believes his father passed on to him include, "a fascination with language and its rhythms, the need for control, and an unlimited capacity for worry...."For years, William confesses, he basked in the glow of his father's fame, growing up in a life of privilege. But the glow also cast a shadow, as William struggled to overcome being known as his father's son.Eventually, he would come into his own as a writer and his capable hand is evident here, with eloquent phrases, such as, "I can say that since no one lives without bleeding, those who write about lives are apt to come upon some scabs."Growing up, William's choice of friends was restricted to sons of the socially prominent, many of whom lived at a distance, which often left him with nothing better to do on a rainy day than read books.Archie was first a successful lawyer who turned down a partnership in a prestigious law firm because he had a "central belief that he was born to be a poet." Setting off to Paris to dedicate his life to writing poetry, he was displeased with what came out when he arrived and started to write. So he stopped writing for several months and read the works of the world's most renowned poets.In good company as a poet in the 1920s and '30s, Archie often consulted his peers, among them Ezra Pound, who encouraged him to learn Arabic and Gaelic to discover a fresh perspective. But some of the best advice for poets is perhaps found in MacLeish's work itself, as in "Ars Poetica," which appeared in 1926: "A poem should be wordless./ As the flight of birds."During his time in Paris, Archie's aunt wrote to report she had checked with her literary contacts in regards to his poetic talent and had found none who would support him; encouraging him to return to the law. Meanwhile, Archie's father provided financial support in the form of the same allowance he had provided Archie while Archie was in law school.Paris in the 1920s boasted a wealth of creative talent, with the likes of Picasso, Stravinsky, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and an Irish teacher named James Joyce who was plying publish

Uphill With Archie is a beautiful read, and an important one. Archibald MacLeish was a singular man, one who played a large role in his age of American History, as poet, statesman, and influential thinker. Reading Uphill, one is brought back into an age which is directly relevant to our own, and so the book succeeds as a fascinating document in American History. It also succeeds wonderfully as the story of a son (the author) growing up in the presence of a man larger than life, who had friends like Louis Frankfurter and Clark Clifford, whose personality burned so bright that others nearby seemed either illumined by it, or merely silhouetted. It is a powerful tale of one man's growing older, and one man's growing up. William MacLeish is a fluent and graceful writer, and this book was a fine companion for several day's reading.