Archibald MacLeish and Professional Leadership

In the late 1930s, a group of writers associated with the journal Partisan Review viciously attacked the poetry, public profile, and political essays of Archibald MacLeish. In the eyes of these critics, MacLeish, a respected poet, accomplished journalist, and outspoken opponent of totalitarianism, was not only a hack and a sell-out, but a nascent fascist. In revisiting these critiques, however, this essay argues that the vehemence of the feud between MacLeish and Partisan Review was rooted in a profound clash over the proper role of the professional class. While the Partisan writers insisted that intellectuals needed to separate themselves completely from the masses, MacLeish proclaimed that poets, artists, and other professionals had a responsibility to provide an affirmative vision of a democratic American future. Revising this story helps not only to defend MacLeish against the Partisan writers’ influential attacks, but also highlights the importance—often underestimated—of debates over professional identity in American literary history.