WE STAND UNITED and other Radio Scripts by Stephen Vincent Benet Prose THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM YOUNG PEOPLES PRIDE JEAN HUGUENOT SPANISH BAYONET JAMES SHORES DAUGHTER THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER THIRTEEN OCLOCK JOHNNY PYE AND THE FOOL-KILLER TALES BEFORE MIDNIGHT Poetry FIVE MEN AND POMPEY TIGER JOY HEAVENS AND EARTH JOHN BROWNS BODY BALLADS AND POEMS BURNING CITY YOUNG ADVENTURE A BOOK OF AMERICANS with Rosemary Ben6t NIGHTMARE AT NOON THEY BURNED THE BOOKS WESTERN STAR Selected Works VOLUME ONE POETRY VOLUME TWO PROSE Libretto THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER Radio Scripts WE STAND UNITED AND OTHER RADIO SCRIPTS WE STAND UNITED and other Radio Scripts by STEPHEN VINCENT JENET with a foreword by Norman JRosten Decorated by Ernest Stock FARRAR RINEHART INCORPORATED Toronto FOREWORD BNDERY JAN 5 1959 The test of crisis may come to a nation or to a man, and each must meet it and be revealed. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. To Stephen Vincent Ben6t the test came in the shape of war. He was not found want ing, either to himself as a writer or to his country. Nor did he, as did some of his contemporaries, engage in a Hamlet like struggle with his soul. He saw the fascist idea in all its evil and murderous stature. He knew it had to be fought. His weapon was the word, and Stephen Vincent Ben6t rolled up his sleeves and began turning out weapons. Here, in this book of radio plays, are some of them. They are moderti, built to specification, made for the need and cause of our time. Propaganda That word used to be the big bogeyman of the thirties. It was trotted out as ex hibit A. We were told to shun it or be damned everlastingly vi. Foreword in the t b. t e circles. Criticsand their cousins wrote long essays provingrflj5 corruption of Art. We were doomed. It was the decline of the West for certain. Well, all that is changed now. Propaganda is no longer a literary problem. It is the Idea which fights. It is artillery laying down a barrage. It helps take fortified positions. It kills and we must use it to kill if we are to survive. All this is known. Benet wrote I am neither afraid nor ashamed of the word propaganda. I am neither afraid nor ashamed of the fact that American writers are speaking out today for a cause in which they believe. I cannot conceive it to be the business of the writer to turn his eyes away from life because the fabric of life is shaken. 1 Propaganda was nothing new to him. He was always selling Americans the idea of America, and he was so en gaged at the time of his death less than two years ago. This book of radio plays is an important addition to the published works of Stephen Vincent Benet. They are plays written with anger and passion. They are eloquent without being pompous. In these pages there is something of the spirit of John Browns Body, which ringed our era with a great flame of poetry. As always, the author is a teller of tales. He had given us many wonderful stories in fiction and poetry, libretto and film. Theres his Devil and Daniel Webster, Johnny Pye and the Fool-Killer, The Burning City, Thirteen Oclock, A Book of Americans with Rose mary Benet, the massive and singing chorale of Western Star, and many others. I think this book is important be cause it presents the author in an entirely new medium, radio. It gives us his living words as spoken to millions of people who may never have met their great poet except foran occasional story or poem. To these new millions of listen ers, his plays have brought a meaning and beauty rarely Foreword vii heard over the radio. To his old readers, he has proved himself equally at home on the airwaves as on the printed page. Steve Ben6t had that gather-ye-round quality, and the folks sure did gather when he spokel With a wry smile, he had this to say I got into radio largely by accident, be cause I was asked to do certain things. And God knows Im no genius at it, but Ive had a lot of fun. Im sure he did...