Norman Holmes Pearson’s life embodied the Cold War alliance among US artists, scholars, and the national-security state that coalesced after World War II. As a Yale professor and editor, he helped create the field of American Studies and shaped the public’s understanding of literary modernism—significantly, the work of women poets such as Hilda Doolittle and Gertrude Stein. At the same time, as a high-ranking spy, recruiter, and cultural diplomat, he connected the academy, the State Department, and even the CIA. For Pearson, this seemingly unlikely combination of the avant-garde and the patriotic was entirely in keeping with his “Vital Center” understanding of American civilization. In this talk, Greg Barnhisel will give an overview of Pearson’s unique career as scholar, literary fixer, secret agent, and cultural diplomat, focusing on Pearson’s hidden role in shaping a new understanding of America in the 1950s.
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