William March - Literary Aftermath of World War I

Literary Aftermath of World War I

In 1919, March returned to civilian life, but was marred by bouts of anxiety and depression, a common occurrence with many returning veterans. One particular incident continued to haunt him, and he told it to a number of friends: suddenly finding himself face to face with a young, blond German soldier, he bayoneted the German through the throat and watched him die up close, an event recounted in Company K, there transferred to Private Manuel Burt. In the 2004 film by the same name as the book, March's character is Private Joseph Delaney. March, significantly, suffered hysterical attacks at different moments in his life related to the throat and the eyes. He rarely spoke of his war experiences or awards, though he was later noted to always take his medals with him and to tell war stories on occasion.

March stayed briefly with his family in Tuscaloosa, then found work at a Mobile law firm. Soon, however, he became the personal secretary of John B. Waterman, for whose newly-founded and quickly growing shipping company, the Waterman Steamship Corporation, he would eventually become vice-president. In 1926, the company opened up an office in Memphis, Tennessee, which March supervised; he spent two years in Memphis and become involved in the local theatre scene. All the while he traveled the country on business trips, often accompanied by his friend and business associate J.P. Case, who recalls that March's rooms were usually littered with papers and books, many of them on psychology: March was reading Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Alfred Adler intensively. In 1928, March moved again, to New York, where he took creative writing classes at Columbia University and began writing short stories.

In 1933, while living in New York, March finished his first novel, Company K. Encompassing much of his war time experience, it was critically praised and placed him on the literary map. A year later, while living in Hamburg, Germany, he finished his second novel, Come in at the Door, his first novel of the "Pearl County" series of novels and short stories, set in the mythical towns of Hodgetown, Baycity, and Reedyville. In Hamburg he witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime and wrote a prophetic short story, "Personal Letter", which expressed anxiety over the political future of Germany and the world. March was fearful to publish the story, as he was already well-established as an anti-militarist author and was afraid to place his German friends and associates in undue peril. Maxim Lieber served as his literary agent in 1934 and 1937–1939.

Two years later, following a move to London, March finished his third novel, The Tallons, the second in his "Pearl County" series. In 1937, he returned to the US and within two years resigned his position to concentrate more on his writing, which by then was a full-time occupation. In 1943, he completed his most ambitious and critically acclaimed novel, The Looking-Glass, the final book in his "Pearl County" series and called by some "his finest literary achievement."