William March - Later Years

Later Years

In 1947, after years of depression from his experiences in the war and a continuing bout of writer's block, March suffered a nervous breakdown. He briefly returned to Mobile to recuperate and made many return visits to New York to settle his affairs. On one such visit in 1949, March happened upon the gallery of noted New York art dealer Klaus Perls, which would prove to be a turning point in his life. Perls, accustomed to dealing with creative personalities, showed an acceptance to March that he had not felt since his days of therapy in London. Through Perls, March was able to talk openly about his creative process, using Perls as a sounding board to his ideas. Perls also introduced March to a world of other artists, and in the works of Pablo Picasso and notably Chaim Soutine, March found a kinship and connection, as March and Soutine both displayed paranoid and schizophrenic tendencies. March returned Perls' friendship with a steady acquisition of works by Soutine, Picasso, Georges Rouault, and Joseph Glasco. March continued this friendship with routine visits to New York between 1949 and 1953, until ailing health prevented him from further travels.

In late 1950, March permanently left Mobile and purchased a Creole cottage on Dumaine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was here that he composed his last two novels, October Island and The Bad Seed. March viewed the latter novel as a meager accomplishment, but it ironically gained the most praise and success of any of his novels, selling over a million copies in one year, launching a long-running Broadway hit penned by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Maxwell Anderson and a 1956 movie directed by Mervyn LeRoy.