(Marco Zhang | Student Life)

On July 30, 1924, widely esteemed novelist, short story writer, essayist, mentor, friend, and Washington University Professor Emeritus William H. Gass was born — 100 years later, WashU honored his life, legacy, and impact with a commemorative centenary celebration. 

On Thursday, Oct. 3, former colleagues, friends, and students of Gass gathered in WashU’s Holmes Lounge for a series of programs aimed at carrying on his influence. 

Thanks to the Department of Special Collections, Olin Library is host to a new exhibition titled “William H. Gass: Fifty New Acquisitions,” which consists of 50 items (e.g. drafts, manuscripts, correspondence, artwork, etc.) that WashU has acquired. Joel Minor, Curator of the Modern Literature Collection and manuscripts in Special Collections, presented the Centenary Celebration and curated this Gass exhibition. 

“The reason for doing the celebration, you know, was to…try to get people here who were very positively influenced by him, either as a student, as a colleague, or as a fellow writer, editor, that kind of thing,” Minor said.

To kick off the event, there was a discussion panel moderated by fiction writer, poet, publisher, lecturer at Lindenwood University, and longtime scholar of Gass, Ted Morrissey. With introductions chock-full of accolades courtesy of Morrissey, each panelist was given the opportunity to speak about the personal impact Gass had on them.

Poet, critic, reviewer, and founder of Unbound Edition Press Patrick Davis, took to the podium first, sharing his testimony of working alongside Gass from 1990-1997 during his graduate studies at WashU. In 1986, Davis was pursuing an undergraduate degree at Stetson University in Florida when, during an assigned reading of Gass’ “In the Heart of the Heart of the Country” (an early collection of short fiction), he came across a “single sentence that redirected [his] life.” 

He read it aloud: “It’s true, there are moments — foolish moments, ecstasy on a tree stump — when I’m all but gone, scattered I like to think like seed, for I’m the sort now in the fool’s position of having love left over which I’d like to lose; what good is it now to me, candy ungiven after Halloween?”

That afternoon, struck with the profundity and prowess of Gass’ literary craft, Davis changed his major from Economics to English. 

“If that’s what language could do, then I was all in,” Davis said. 

He set his graduate study sights on WashU, where Gass served as a David May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities from 1979-2000 (and formerly a professor in Philosophy from 1969-78). Under the guidance of Gass, Davis spent eight years on his doctoral research in American literature.

Michelle Komie, art, architecture, and urban history publisher at Princeton University Press and WashU alum, followed Davis with her own testimony. For three years, Komie worked at the now-defunct International Writers Center (IWC), a directory for writers and writing programs that was founded in 1990 and led by Gass. Despite being rooted in WashU, the IWC stretched far into the world of literature, bringing many recognizable names to St. Louis, including David Foster Wallace, William Gaddis, and Jennifer Bartlett.

Komie first encountered Gass when he introduced William Gaddis at a conference organized by the IWC in 1994. The memory of Gass reading his own work has remained with Komie over the last 30 years. 

“[I have] never heard anything like William Gass reading aloud from a text he’d written,” she said.

Moved by the gravity of Gass’ words, Komie began working for him at the IWC and did so until his retirement in July 2001. She referred to this period as a “three-year brush with brilliance.” 

The final panelist at this event was Gerhild Scholz Williams, WashU’s newly-retired Barbara Schaps Thomas & David M. Thomas Professor in the Humanities. Williams is a prolific translator and publisher who has focused, for much of her career, on translation theory and the development of German and French language and culture. Alongside Gass and others, Williams helped found the IWC.

During her speech, Williams spoke of Gass’ “linguistic brilliance, courage, and acerbic sense of humor” as well as the efforts he took in ensuring academic freedom.  She made note of how, in 2001, he urged the University to bring novelist Salman Rushdie to campus. Rushdie had recently become the subject of a fatwa calling for his assassination due to the depiction of Muhammed in his novel “The Satanic Verses.” On bringing Rushdie to campus, Gass made his views explicit: “Nothing, nothing, nothing outweighs academic freedom.”

Williams also spoke to Gass’ generosity. When called upon to speak to students in her translation seminars, Gass provided invaluable input from his experience in translating Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, an endeavor culminating in his book “Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation.”

After the panel concluded, WashU’s Martin Riker, a professor in English and director of the English department’s new Publishing concentration, held a conversation with Bradford Morrow, novelist, founder and editor of the literary magazine Conjunctions, and longtime colleague of Gass. Morrow spoke of his personal and professional relationship with Gass throughout his many years in publishing and academia. Of Conjunctions’ 83 biannual volumes, Gass’ work has been included in 20.

Describing himself and Gass as “biblio-maniacs,” Morrow recalled a time when they were each living in New York City; he told of their ventures through bookstores, giving “harmonious” thanks to their shared love of — rather, obsession with — writing. Bradford, equipped with a stack of papers, read from their correspondences. 

Following the panel and discussion, a reception and exhibition viewing was held at Olin Library. 

Mary Gass, William H. Gass’ wife and distinguished architect, generously supplied many of the pieces included in this exhibition over the years and was in attendance for the celebration.

“[Mary] did a lot of work in the last year gathering some things…which I could use for this exhibit, including a lot of great audio recordings as well as artwork and things that are in the exhibit,” Minor said.

This exhibition will be on display until Jan. 31, 2025 in Special Collections in Olin Library; anyone interested in Gass’ work, legacy, or art is strongly encouraged to visit. 

“I’m kind of hoping to show the variety of things that come into, not only Gass’ archive, but others,” Minor said.

Either before or after viewing this exhibition, it is encouraged that people get acquainted with Gass’ work. Some of Gass’ work is notoriously difficult — “The Tunnel” is often muttered in the same breath as Joyce’s “Ulysses” for being a complex masterpiece; however, for eager readers, there are many entry points.

Minor recommends that readers looking for a rich introduction to the breadth of Gass’ work read the posthumous publication “The William H. Gass Reader” (2018), a cross-section of Gass’ six decades of writing. Davis recommends two pieces for new readers: “On Being Blue,” calling it a “perfect intersection between philosophy and essay,” and “In the Heart of the Heart of the Country,” the same book that so memorably changed his life. 

Access to Special Collections is available on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. More information about this exhibition and many, many others can be found on the WashU Libraries website.

Per the request of Davis, the following is a bibliography of Gass’ work:

Novels: “Omensetter’s Luck” (1966), “The Tunnel” (1995), “Middle C” (2013). 

Fictions: “In the Heart of the Heart of the Country” (1968), “Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife” (1968), “Cartesian Sonata and Other Novellas” (1998), “Eyes” (2015)

Nonfictions: “Fiction and the Figures of Life” (1970), “On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry” (1975), “The World Within the Word” (1978), “Habitations of the Word” (1985), “Finding a Form: Essays” (1996), “Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation” (1999), “Tests of Time” (2002), “Conversations with William H. Gass” (2003), “A Temple of Texts” (2006), “Life Sentences” (2012).