CONTENTION
“Yaddo was left like a stricken battlefield.” —Malcolm Cowley, Yaddo board member, on the impact of the Lowell Affair, 1949
Even as Yaddo attempted to provide artists with a refuge from the economic and political turmoil of the 20th century, the challenges of the times intruded on the retreat. The racism of Jim Crow segregation, the paranoia of the McCarthy period, and the anguish of closeted homosexuality in a pre-Stonewall era erupted in unexpected ways across Yaddo’s history. Yaddo was ahead of its time in opening its doors to African American writers, committed itself to serving equal numbers of women and men, and hosted artists and writers regardless of their political beliefs. Yet despite the nearly utopian aspirations for the community, dominant social values impinged on its operations. The stories of Yaddo’s early work for racial integration; its brush with the anti-Communist hysteria of the postwar period; and its loss of a leading board member in the midst of a morals crusade show how Yaddo—and the artists it supported—were anything but sequestered from the shifting social and political crises that marked the 20th century.