The Festival Guest Here Beat His Breast

I was a fire-breathing Catholic C.O., and made my manic statement, telling off the state and president, and then sat waiting sentence in the bull pen beside a Negro boy with curlicues of marijuana in his hair.

--Memories of West Street and Lepke, by Robert Lowell

During World War II, Boston-born Robert Lowell was a C.O.--a conscientious objector. Refusing to be drafted into the Army, he served six months in a federal prison. Since that time, the great-grandnephew of Poet James Russell Lowell has gone on to write several volumes of widely praised, often autobiographical poetry, including Lord Weary's Castle and his latest, For the Union Dead.

Lowell, now 48, was among a score or so of writers invited by President Johnson to participate in a White House arts festival on June 14. He accepted the invitation, but then had second thoughts about it. Last week he caused a mild commotion by declining in public.

Nuclear Ruin. "I am afraid," he wrote to the President, "I accepted somewhat rapidly and greedily. I thought of such an occasion as a purely artistic flourish, even though every serious artist knows that he cannot enjoy public celebration without making subtle public commitments.

"But, after a week's wondering, I am conscience-bound to refuse your courteous invitation . . . Although I am very enthusiastic about most of your domestic legislation and intentions, I nevertheless can only follow our present foreign policy with the greatest dismay and distrust. We are in danger of imperceptibly becoming an explosive and suddenly chauvinistic nation, and we may even be drifting on our way to the last nuclear ruin.

"I know it is hard for the responsible man to act; it is also painful for the private and irresolute man to dare criticism. At this anguished, delicate and perhaps determining moment, I feel I am serving you and our country best by not taking part in the White House Festival of the Arts."

Twenty residents of the nation's intellectual community promptly rushed forth in public support of Lowell. Among them were Novelists Mary McCarthy, Philip Roth and Bernard Malamud; Critics Alfred Kazin and Dwight Macdonald; Poets John Berryman, W. D. Snodgrass and Alan Dugan. None of them had been invited to the White House, but that didn't make any difference.

Honor & Respect. Two authors who had been invited, John Hersey and Saul Bellow, publicly agreed with the criticism of Johnson's foreign policies but said they would attend the festival.

Said Bellow: "The President intends in his own way to encourage American artists. I consider this event to be an official function, not a political occasion . . . Therefore I do not think it necessary to acquaint him with my position on Viet Nam or to send him a statement declaring that I am wholly opposed to the presence of marines in Santo Domingo . . . Mr. Johnson is not simply this country's principal policymaker. He is an institution. When he invites me to Washington, I accept in order to show my respect for his intentions and to honor his high office. I am sure that he does not expect me to accept every policy and action of his Administration together with the invitation."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.