My writing resume usually starts with
the fact that I studied writing at LSU with Walker Percy and Vance Bourjaily,
both known to interested folks as two great writers. I list them for just that reason,
to have someone think, Wow, two fine writers
and this unknown studied with them so let’s pay attention to his work because
he must have some talent. If that has ever been the case it is surely talent
by association. But as well-known as those two writers are, there was another
writer and teacher at LSU who influenced me more than Percy and Bourjaily.
Merely scratching the surface, here
are a few facts about Warren Eyster, my old undergraduate creative writing
teacher.
He was born in Steelton,
Pennsylvania, in 1925, and after high school, Eyster became a hydraulic repairman
in the Army Air Corps and, in 1942, joined the Navy. His experience in the navy
was to be the basis for his novel Far from the Customary Skies, set on a
navy destroyer operating in the Far East during World War II. While in graduate
school at the University of Virginia, he wrote half of that first novel as
short stories, and after leaving Charlottesville he devoted himself entirely to
writing. Audrey Wood, primarily a theatrical agent, with clients like Tennessee
Williams and William Inge, nearly succeeded in persuading Little Brown to publish
his first novel. Instead, David McDowell at Random House became his editor and
with support from Bob Haas and Bennett Cerf, Eyster became acquainted with a
number of writers, including James Agee, Robert Penn Warren, Mario Puzo,
William Carlos Williams, Budd Schulberg, and William F. Buckley. In 1954 he was awarded
a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to work with aspiring Mexican writers at El
Centro Mexicano de Escritores in Mexico City.
Finishing a second novel, No
Country For Old Men, Eyster started to write a novel about a Mexican
revolution. He also translated the first three chapters of a Carlos
Fuentes novel, Where the Air Is Clear,
and was instrumental in getting it published. The movie, The Old Gringo, was based on
conversations Eyster had with Carlos about Ambrose Bierce and his determination
to bring about his own death by becoming a spy for Pancho Villa.
In 1970 Warren Eyster came to
Louisiana State University and became coordinator of the undergraduate writing
program, teaching courses in writing short stories, novels and plays. Since it
bolstered decreasing enrollment in English—even future journalists and law students
particularly interested in creative writing courses—the writing program became
more acceptable to the English department, allowing students like John Ed Bradley,
James Colburn, and Valerie Martin to take more than 20 hours of undergraduate
writing classes.
In the early ‘70’s, he reminded me of
Columbo, the television detective played brilliantly by Peter Falk. Short, a
little stocky, clothes always giving the wrinkled-at-the-end-of-the-day
appearance, even first thing in the morning, like Columbo he seemed forgetful,
his desk always piled high with stacks of short stories and plays and novel
excerpts, all in danger of sliding off of his desk at any moment and some doing
so occasionally. Always open to talking to any student who came to his office—official
office hours or not—he often discussed books and films and then suddenly
realized he was late for class, grabbing one stack from his desk and hurrying
off and muttering a line from literature, I’m
late, I’m late. The thing was, often hurrying behind him to the same class,
I was always amazed he had read every story and had jotted down succinct notes
that always pointed to improvement in the narrative. Like Columbo, his
appearance was deceiving, like the character’s seemingly faltering style, the
sudden remembered question to ask, Eyster’s comments on each student’s work
were never less than concrete clues that led to the solution of a story. Like
Columbo as played by Peter Falk, at the end of each episode, there is a
realization of being fooled by appearance. Warren Eyster was never less than a
brilliant teacher in disguise, kind and caring of his student’s success, and always
willing to impart everything he knew about the craft of writing.
Thank you, Mr. Eyster.
Any writing achievement is from the
association with you.
In recognition of your accomplishments, your name will
always be mentioned.
