Harry Sylvester

File:Harry Sylvester, headshot from Moon Gaffney (1947).jpg

The author's photo used by Henry Holt and Company for the dust jacket of the 1947 novel, Moon Gaffney

Harry Ambrose Sylvester (January 19, 1908 – September 26, 1993) was an American short-story writer and novelist in the first half of the 20th century. His stories were published in popular magazines such as Collier's, Esquire, Columbia, and Commonweal. The most popular of his novels were Dearly Beloved (1942), Dayspring (1945), and Moon Gaffney (1947). He was credited with 'original screen story', along with John Steinbeck and Alfred Hitchcock, for Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). A version of this story was published in Collier's in 1942.

He is remembered primarily as the author of Dayspring and a friend of Ernest Hemingway.

Early Life

Sylvester was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1908. His grandfather was Jeremiah Curtin, a folklorist who influenced W. B. Yeats's interest in Irish mythology.

Sylvester went to Notre Dame in the late 1920s, playing football for Knute Rockne. He graduated in 1930 with a degree in journalism. During college, he worked as a lifeguard in New York and wrote occasional pieces for various newspapers. It was also during his time as an undergraduate that Sylvester began experimenting with short fiction writing.

His father, Harry Sylvester, Sr., was also heavily involved in politics during the 1920s and 30s, serving as a Republican in a number of capacities.

In 1936, he wed Rita Ryall Davis of Manhattan. They had four children together, John, Anne, Joan, and Clare.

While traveling and researching for his novels, Sylvester wrote short stories to support his wife and children. This sometimes meant laying aside his larger works, something that continually bothered Sylvester. He would later detail this problem in a controversial essay for the Atlantic Monthly, "Problems of the Catholic Writer," (January 1948).

The author's photo used by newspapers such as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, circa 1947

Career

Soon after graduating from college, Sylvester found work as a correspondent for the New York Evening Post and a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. Sylvester wrote mostly about sports, especially football and baseball. During this time he traveled to Florida to follow the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In 1933, Sylvester gave up a full-time job as a journalist in order to concentrate on his fiction writing. His first novel, Big Football Man, was released that same year. The novel, a bildungsroman, revolves around the young football star Sebastian as he navigates the complexities of college life. Sylvester drew upon his own experiences playing for Notre Dame for the story.

Dearly Beloved, his second novel and the first of his religious trilogy, was published in 1942. This novel deals with issues of racism and economic inequality, looking particularly at the Catholic Church's role in navigating such societal issues. Set in Southern Maryland, Dearly Beloved is "about a small group of Jesuit priests doing what we might call missionary work among the hard-drinking, amoral, fiercely color-conscious poor whites, and the Negroes." Sylvester conducted extensive research into the area, the Jesuits, and the concept of co-ops for this novel.

He followed this up with a third novel in 1945, Dayspring, which follows the investigations of an atheist anthropologist named Spencer Bain. The story chronicles Bain's research into the Hermanos de Luz (or the Penitente Brotherhood) and his subsequent conversion to Catholicism through the process. Sylvester deals realistically with themes such as adultery and abortion in Dayspring, which earned the novel mixed reviews upon its publication. The story was inspired by his trips to New Mexico.

His fourth novel, Moon Gaffney, was published in 1947. Moon Gaffney's story centers on a young man torn between his political ambitions and his religious ideals. Sylvester dedicated Moon Gaffney to a group of "good Catholic radicals," including John C. Cort and Dorothy Day. Like his novel, Dearly Beloved, Sylvester was accused of pushing anti-clerical views after publication. During his lifetime, Moon Gaffney was the most popular of his novels was translated in Polish by Maria Kłos-Gwizdalska and printed in 1955 under the title Wcześniej czy później.

In 1948, Sylvester arranged a collection of his short stories and published them under the title All Your Idols. According to the author's note, the book contains stories originally printed in various magazines:

• Collier’s (“Beautifully and Bravely,” “The Return of Grande Williams,” “The Halls of Montezuma,” “The Dark Hunters” [published under the title “The Face of Danger”], “Going to Run All Night”),
• Esquire (“The Crazy Guy,” “Tribute to Taxco,” “Come of Age” [published under the title “Doctor Comes of Age”]),
• Story magazine (“This Thing the Spirit”),
• Scribner’s magazine (“The Swede”),
• Columbia magazine (“An Evening Hawk” [published under the title “The Beautiful, The Brave”]),
• Good Housekeeping (“A Sense of Participation”),
• The Western Review (“Journey South"), and
• Commonweal (“All Your Idols”).

The collection received generally favorable reviews.

The author's photo used by Harcourt Brace and Company for the dust jacket of the 1950 novel, A Golden Girl

Sylvester's final published novel, A Golden Girl, is set in Peru and is his least overtly religious work. Based upon his own travels to Latin America, the story follows a young American expatriate in Lima during the bullfight season, and the fallout he experiences after becoming romantically involved with a troubled young woman from New York. It was his most critically derided work.

He was also a prolific writer of book reviews, publishing over 100 reviews for outlets such as Commonweal and the New York Times between 1931 and 1974.

Later Life

The publication of this final novel coincided with his divorce from Rita in 1951, as well as his repudiation of the Catholic Church. Rita died in 1978.

He officially renounced his membership in the Catholic church in 1954 and joined the Society of Friends. He remarried that same year and his second wife, Janet Hart Sylvester, joined the Quakers with Sylvester.

He didn't publish a novel after 1950. But Sylvester did not completely give up writing; he took up work for the US Information Service for twenty years, retiring in 1971. During that time, he wrote scripts for the Voice of America radio broadcasts and regularly contributed to local newspapers. He spent the last 40 years of his life in the Washington, DC area. His wife, Janet, passed away on September 20, 1987. In letters to Cort, Sylvester expressed deep grief over the loss of Rita and the difficulty he had after her passing. Sylvester spent the last five years of his life at the Friends Nursing Home in Sandy Spring, Maryland. He passed away after a long battle with Parkinson's disease on September 26, 1993.

Legacy

Sylvester, though no longer a household name, knew many of the prominent writers of the 20th century. He was a friend and correspondent of Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s; several letters to him from Hemingway appear in the latter's Selected Letters. He also regularly exchanged letters with J. F. Powers and Richard T. Sullivan. By mid-century, he was considered to be a very promising writer in Catholic circles, but he was mostly known for his critical views of the Catholic hierarchy, earning him the ire of many. By the time of his death in 1993, he was largely forgotten.

The University of New Mexico, University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research has a collection of bibliographic material and book reviews by and about Sylvester (and Willa Cather). However, his complete papers are housed in Georgetown University Library's Special Collections, and include correspondence, manuscripts and three unpublished novels, Watch in the Night, The Young Men, and The Youth (and Education) of Don Lorenzo.

The first edition of Big Football Man published in 1933 by Farrar & Rhineheart Inc.

Novels

• Big Football Man (1933)
• Dearly Beloved (1942)
• Dayspring: A Novel (1945)
  • Reprinted by Ignatius Press (2009) ISBN: 978-1586173227
• Moon Gaffney (1947)
  • Reprinted by Arno Press (1976) ISBN: 0405093594
  • Wcześniej czy później, Polish translation (1955)
• A Golden Girl (1950)

The first edition of Dearly Beloved published in 1942 by Duell, Sloan, and Pearce.

File:(1945) Dayspring Cover.jpg

The first edition of Dayspring published in 1945 by D. Appleton-Century Co., with dust jacket illustrated by Mary Valentine.

File:(1947) Moon Gaffney Cover.jpg

The first edition of Moon Gaffney published in 1947 by Henry Holt and Co., with dust jacket illustration.

The first edition of All Your Idols published in 1948 by Henry Holt and Co., with dust jacket illustration.

File:(1950) A Golden Girl Cover.jpg

The first edition of A Golden Girl published in 1950 by Harcourt, Brace & Co., with dust jacket illustration.

Short Stories

Sylvester estimated that he wrote "about 150 short stories" between 1930 and 1955. Over the years, some of his shorts stories have continued to have life through edited collections such as Prose for Senior Students (1960), 20 Grand: Great American Short Stories (1967), Runner's Literary Companion (1994), and Classic Boxing Stories (2013).

Collected Short Stories

• All Your Idols (1948), a collection arranged by Sylvester containing 14 previously published stories with their original titles restored

Individual Short Stories

• “Four Great Years,” Columbia (November 1930)
• “Two Men,” Columbia (June 1931)
• “This Life-guard Business,” Columbia (August 1931)
• “Farewell to Glory,” Columbia (October 1931)
• “Priest and Scientist,” Columbia (January 1932)
• “Athlete’s Heart,” Columbia (June 1932)
• “Blaze of Glory,” Cosmopolitan (August 1932)
• “Sweet and Lovely,” Columbia (October 1932)
• “Indifferent Man,” Cosmopolitan (December 1932)
• “Finale,” Columbia (May 1933)
• “Post-Mortem,” Columbia (August 1933)
• “Underwater,” Cosmopolitan (September 1933)
• “Hard Man,” Columbia (November 1933)
• “A Boxer: Old,” Whit Burnett’s Story Magazine (January 1934)
• “The Golden Shirt,” Columbia (February 1934)
• “Trial by Water,” Columbia (July 1934)
• “Famous Victory,” Columbia (October 1934)
• “This Thing the Spirit,” Story Magazine (December 1934)
• “The Old College Try,” Columbia (May 1935)
• “We Go to Church,” America (June 1935)
• “Discobolus,” Baltimore Sun (June 1935)
• “I’ll Break Your Hearts,” Baltimore Sun (June 1935)
• “Man Going Home,” Pictorial Review (July 1935)
• “A Good Game Boy,” Columbia (August 1935)
• “For Nothing––Thanks,” Columbia (November 1935)
• “Pro,” Baltimore Sun (December 1935)
• “Dark Christmas,” America (December 1935)
• “Pattern,” Baltimore Sun (March 1936)
• “Some Like Them Soft,” Pictorial Review (April 1936)
• “Gallantry,” Columbia (August 1936)
• “The Swede,” Scribner’s (October 1936)
• “Trial by Ice,” American Magazine (January 1937)
• “The Good Loser,” Columbia (March 1937)
• “I Won’t Do No Dive,” Esquire (July 1937)
• “No Bitter Memory,” Pictorial Review combined with Delineator (July 1937)
• “The Beautiful, the Brave,” Columbia (October 1937)
• “The Shark and the Yankee,” Esquire (November 1937)
• “Sub Quarter,” Columbia (November 1937)
• “Passing Brave,” Collier’s (December 1937)
• “Storm Over Water,” American Magazine (February 1938)
• “This Running Is No Fun,” Columbia (February 1938)
• “Flight,” American Magazine (March 1938)
• “The Place of Bulls,” Collier’s (March 1938)
• “The Crazy Guy,” Esquire (April 1938)
• “Teacher is Wonderful,” Commonweal (April 1938)
• “Tribute to Taxco,” Esquire (July 1938)
• “No Support,” Baltimore Sun (July 1938)
• “Orders Disobeyed,” Collier’s (November 1938)
• “The Pacifist,” Collier’s (January 28, 1939)
• “Beautifully and Bravely,” Collier’s (February 1939)
• “Doctor Comes of Age,” Esquire (April 1939)
• “Eight-Oared Crew,” Collier’s (June 17, 1939)
• “Run, Captain, Run,” Argosy (August 1939)
• “Song of the Rackets,” Collier’s (September 1939)
• “The Heart and the Hands,” Collier’s (January 1940)
• “Edge of Dark,” American Magazine (April 1940)
• “Her Picture in the Paper,” Columbia (April 1940)
• “The Wind Under Their Wings,” Liberty Magazine (May 1940)
• “Men That Race Horses,” Columbia (July 1940)
• “Fog on the Bay,” Collier’s (August 1940)
• “Friend of the Warden,” Collier’s (August 1940)
• “One Man’s Meat,” Collier’s (October 1940)
• “Return of the Hero,” Collier’s (November 1940)
• “Last Race,” Collier’s (January 1941)
• “Comes the Revolution,” Collier’s (February 1941)
• “The Hands of a Great Horse Player,” Collier’s (March 1941)
• “The Servants of the Lord,” Collier’s (August 1941)
• “Penny in His Shoe,” Collier’s (August 1941)
• “The Captain of the Team,” Collier’s (November 1941)
• “Winter Running,” Collier’s (January 1942)
• “Horses at Broken Bow,” Saturday Evening Post (May 1942)
• “Battle in the West,” Collier’s (July 1942)
• “Grudge Fight,” Collier’s (September 1942)
• “Lost September,” Collier’s (November 1942)
• “The Wind Blows in a Circle,” Collier’s (December 1942)
• “The Face of Danger,” Collier’s (January 1943)
• “Journey to the Sea,” Collier’s (March 1943)
• “The Return of Grande Williams,” Collier's (April 1943)
• “Talent for Destruction,” Collier’s (June 1943)
• “Feather Merchant,” Collier’s (October 1943)
• “The Halls of Montezuma,” Collier’s (October 1943)
• “Lifeboat,” Collier's (November 1943) [with Alfred Hitchcock]
• “Boy With Gun,” Collier’s (January 1944)
• “Going to Run All Night,” Collier’s (March 1944)
• “The Amateurs,” Collier's (August 1944)
• “A Small Clear Light,” Collier’s (August 1944)
• “A Sense of Participation,” Good Housekeeping (October 1944)
• “Arise, Arise from Sleep,” Collier’s (December 1944)
• “Home is the Sailor,” Collier’s (March 1945)
• “Nothing Ever Bothers Them,” The Sign (November 1945)
• “Dark Water,” Collier’s (November 1945)
• “The Dress of Lights,” Collier’s (December 1945)
• “The Head of An Indian,” American Magazine (March 1946)
• “Journey South,” Rocky Mountain Review (Spring 1946)
• “All Your Idols,” Commonweal (March 1947)
• “To the Victors,” Collier's (March 1947)
• “What For, Al?” Collier’s (May 1947)
• “All Honor to Old Appleby,” Collier's (October 1947)
• “The Birds,” Collier's (December 1947)
• “The Price,” Collier’s (May 1948)
• “The Forage Cap,” Collier’s (October 1948)
• “Double or Nothing,” Collier’s (November 1948)
• “O Morning Stars Together,” Commonweal (January 1949)
• “Owl, He Crow for Midnight” Collier's (November 1949)
• “This Summer Land,” Women’s Home Companion (February 1950)
• “A Thousand Summers,” Collier’s (September 1950)
• “Hunt Hard, Hunt Long,” Collier’s (October 1950)
• “Hero’s Holiday,” Collier’s (March 1951)
• “The Draw at Arroyo Blanco,” Collier’s (October 1952)
• “Blood in Their Eyes,” Argosy (January 1953)
• “Tin Star Posse,” Collier's (February 1955)

The author's photo used by D. Appleton-Century for the dust jacket of the 1945 novel, Dayspring

Awards

• O. Henry Prize, "A Boxer: Old" (1934)
• O. Henry Prize, "The Crazy Guy" (1939)
• O. Henry Prize, "Beautifully and Bravely" (1940)

External Links

• University of New Mexico Library Collection [1]
• Georgetown University Library Special Collection: [2]
• Jenkins, Philip, "Who is Harry Sylvester" First Things 171, March 2007 (17-20).[3]