Unmasking the Writers of the W.P.A.

Writers are usually unabashed about claiming authorship for their work. So it's curious that many of the alumni of one of the most significant American literary projects of the 20th century were ashamed of it: the Federal Writers' Project, a program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration.

Created in 1935, in the heart of the Great Depression, the Writers' Project supported more than 6,600 writers, editors and researchers during its four years of federal financing. When the government funds expired, Congress let the program continue under state sponsorship until 1943. Although grateful for even subsistence wages in a time of economic despair, few participants deemed it a badge of honor to earn $20 to $25 a week from the government.

But the Library of Congress takes a different view. With little fanfare, it has been unpacking boxes of extraordinary Writers' Project material over the last few years from warehouses and storage facilities. After an arduous vetting process, much of it is now available to the public.

What is becoming clear, says Prof. Jerrold Hirsch of Truman State University, in Kirksville, Mo., is that the editors of the project believed that they could build a national culture on diversity. "They faced a great challenge coming out of the 1920's, where white supremacists, via WASP primacy and the K.K.K. and anti-immigration laws, held sway," Mr. Hirsch said. "In the Federal Writers' Project, ethnic minorities were celebrated for being turpentine workers or grape pickers or folk artists."
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Here is the website...

American Life Histories
Manuscripts from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1940

These life histories were written by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936-1940. The Library of Congress collection includes 2,900 documents representing the work of over 300 writers from 24 states. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents consist of drafts and revisions, varying in form from narrative to dialogue to report to case history. The histories describe the informant's family education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores, medical needs, diet and miscellaneous observations. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals and places named in the narrative texts.
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Here is one of the many amazing stories from the Federal Writer's Project. (From my hometown of Seattle.)

The Chief Mate

"There used to be a queer character on the Seattle 'front that we used to call: "The Chief Mate". About all he owned was an extensive collection of discarded ship's officer's caps, and he used to parade slowly up and down the board-walk in a different one every day. Likely as not, he'd wear them inside out, for variety. Nobody seemed to know where or how he lived. He never talked to anybody. But every once in a while he would scare the daylights out of a person by coming up behind them and suddenly yelling Whrooo!. Then he'd pass on without a word and without looking back to see the effect.

"They say that he was really a first mate on a sound steamer years ago. He was married, and had a kid about three years old. The tale runs that he was sending his wife and kid out on a coast passenger boat to visit her mother. This was about the time of the gold rush, and every boat man loaded down scandalous. This one man loaded so she had a starboard list, and just an she had pulled out of the slip and was turning around, she capsized, with the dock swarming with women and children waving good-by. That was the last he saw of his family.

"He never went to sea again. They say he tried a few shore jobs, but the shock had unbalanced his mind so that he just didn't seem to give a hoot about anything. Finally he just took to walking up and down the waterfront, wearing his funny hats.

"Once in a while a longshoreman will try to badger him, but they seldom ever try it again. The poor devil would draw himself up for a second or two like he was a First Mate again, then look hurt and pitiful, mumble a few words nobody could understand, and hustle on his way, back and forth, from Pier 14 to the Luckenbach dock. The skinners and longshoremen found out there was no sport in devilling the poor bugger, especially after someone had told them how he is supposed to have gotten that way. So all the regular people an the 'front just pay no attention to him at all -- that seems to be what bothers him least. The only people who turn their heads and stare at him, or snicker, or make wisecracks, are the ones that don't know the front, and don't belong down here."

Told by anonymous, a wharfinger.

From Merriam-Webster Online:

Main Entry: wharf·in·ger
Pronunciation: -f&n-j&r
Function: noun
Etymology: irregular from wharfage
Date: 1552
: the operator or manager of a commercial wharf