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Process
'Process' tells the story of Kerith Day, in search of her own identity and place in the world. A keenly critical observer of the dreary industrial landscape and the beaten-down inhabitants of her native Cincinnati, Ohio, Kerith determines to discover something better.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Kay Boyle
98 books42 followersKay Boyle was a writer of the Lost Generation.
Early years
The granddaughter of a publisher, Kay Boyle was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in several cities but principally in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, Howard Peterson Boyle, was a lawyer, but her greatest influence came from her mother, Katherine Evans, a literary and social activist who believed that the wealthy had an obligation to help the less well off. In later years Kay Boyle championed integration and civil rights. She also advocated banning nuclear weapons, and American withdrawal from the Vietnam War.
Boyle was educated at the exclusive Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, then studied architecture at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati. Interested in the arts, she studied violin at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before settling in New York City in 1922 where she found work as a writer/editor with a small magazine.
Marriages and family life
That same year, she met and married a French exchange student, Richard Brault, and they moved to France in 1923. This resulted in her staying in Europe for the better part of the next twenty years. Separated from her husband, she formed a relationship with magazine editor Ernest Walsh, with whom she had a daughter (born after Walsh had died of tuberculosis).
In 1928 she met Laurence Vail, who was then married to Peggy Guggenheim. Boyle and Vail lived together between 1929 until 1932 when, following their divorces, they married. With Vail, she had three more children.
During her years in France, Boyle was associated with several innovative literary magazines and made friends with many of the writers and artists living in Paris around Montparnasse. Among her friends were Harry and Caresse Crosby who owned the Black Sun Press and published her first work of fiction, a collection titled Short Stories. They became such good friends that in 1928 Harry Crosby cashed in some stock dividends to help Boyle pay for an abortion. Other friends included Eugene and Maria Jolas. Kay Boyle also wrote for transition, one of the preeminent literary publications of the day. A poet as well as a novelist, her early writings often reflected her lifelong search for true love as well as her interest in the power relationships between men and women. Kay Boyle's short stories won two O. Henry Awards.
In 1936, she wrote a novel titled Death of a Man, an attack on the growing threat of Nazism, but at that time, no one in America was listening. In 1943, following her divorce from Laurence Vail, she married Baron Joseph von Franckenstein with whom she had two children. After having lived in France, Austria, England, and in Germany after World War II, Boyle returned to the United States.
McCarthyism, later life
In the States, Boyle and her husband were victims of early 1950s McCarthyism. Her husband was dismissed by Roy Cohn from his post in the Public Affairs Division of the U.S. State Department, and Boyle lost her position as foreign correspondent for The New Yorker, a post she had held for six years. She was blacklisted by most of the major magazines. During this period, her life and writing became increasingly political.
In the early 1960s, Boyle and her husband lived in Rowayton, Connecticut, where he taught at a private girls' school. He was then rehired by the State Department and posted to Iran, but died shortly thereafter in 1963.
Boyle was a writer in residence at the New York City Writer's Conference at Wagner College in 1962. In 1963, she accepted a creative writing position on the faculty of San Francisco State College, where she remained until 1979. During this period she became heavily involved in political activism. She traveled to Cambodia in 1966 as part of the "Americans Want to Know" fact-seeking mission. She participated in numerous protests, and in 1967 was arrested twice and imprisoned. In 1968, she signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge,
Early years
The granddaughter of a publisher, Kay Boyle was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in several cities but principally in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, Howard Peterson Boyle, was a lawyer, but her greatest influence came from her mother, Katherine Evans, a literary and social activist who believed that the wealthy had an obligation to help the less well off. In later years Kay Boyle championed integration and civil rights. She also advocated banning nuclear weapons, and American withdrawal from the Vietnam War.
Boyle was educated at the exclusive Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, then studied architecture at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati. Interested in the arts, she studied violin at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before settling in New York City in 1922 where she found work as a writer/editor with a small magazine.
Marriages and family life
That same year, she met and married a French exchange student, Richard Brault, and they moved to France in 1923. This resulted in her staying in Europe for the better part of the next twenty years. Separated from her husband, she formed a relationship with magazine editor Ernest Walsh, with whom she had a daughter (born after Walsh had died of tuberculosis).
In 1928 she met Laurence Vail, who was then married to Peggy Guggenheim. Boyle and Vail lived together between 1929 until 1932 when, following their divorces, they married. With Vail, she had three more children.
During her years in France, Boyle was associated with several innovative literary magazines and made friends with many of the writers and artists living in Paris around Montparnasse. Among her friends were Harry and Caresse Crosby who owned the Black Sun Press and published her first work of fiction, a collection titled Short Stories. They became such good friends that in 1928 Harry Crosby cashed in some stock dividends to help Boyle pay for an abortion. Other friends included Eugene and Maria Jolas. Kay Boyle also wrote for transition, one of the preeminent literary publications of the day. A poet as well as a novelist, her early writings often reflected her lifelong search for true love as well as her interest in the power relationships between men and women. Kay Boyle's short stories won two O. Henry Awards.
In 1936, she wrote a novel titled Death of a Man, an attack on the growing threat of Nazism, but at that time, no one in America was listening. In 1943, following her divorce from Laurence Vail, she married Baron Joseph von Franckenstein with whom she had two children. After having lived in France, Austria, England, and in Germany after World War II, Boyle returned to the United States.
McCarthyism, later life
In the States, Boyle and her husband were victims of early 1950s McCarthyism. Her husband was dismissed by Roy Cohn from his post in the Public Affairs Division of the U.S. State Department, and Boyle lost her position as foreign correspondent for The New Yorker, a post she had held for six years. She was blacklisted by most of the major magazines. During this period, her life and writing became increasingly political.
In the early 1960s, Boyle and her husband lived in Rowayton, Connecticut, where he taught at a private girls' school. He was then rehired by the State Department and posted to Iran, but died shortly thereafter in 1963.
Boyle was a writer in residence at the New York City Writer's Conference at Wagner College in 1962. In 1963, she accepted a creative writing position on the faculty of San Francisco State College, where she remained until 1979. During this period she became heavily involved in political activism. She traveled to Cambodia in 1966 as part of the "Americans Want to Know" fact-seeking mission. She participated in numerous protests, and in 1967 was arrested twice and imprisoned. In 1968, she signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge,
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 19, 2015
Boyle newbies: do not, do not, do not start here. Breaking my self-imposed Goodreads exile to insist on this!
I'm working on a lengthy piece on Boyle now, which I'll place on my blog when it's finished.
This book is for Boyle completists only, although it does have an excellent and lengthy introduction on Boyle, her life, her work, and her politics by Sandra Spanier with which I think everyone new to Boyle should familiarize themselves.
Spanier herself happened upon this manuscript when collecting Boyle's letters for publication; so only posthumously was Boyle's "first novel" published. However, it seems wiser on Boyle's part to have asserted herself as an emerging and important stylist with Plagued By the Nightingale instead of Process, so the fact that this book was buried by her for so long is not so surprising—still, the politics in Process are more aligned with Boyle's later stance in her post-WWII fiction and prose, almost acting like a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
Rounded up from 3.5 stars because of the introduction by Spanier, and well... because this is Kay Boyle, after all.
I'm working on a lengthy piece on Boyle now, which I'll place on my blog when it's finished.
This book is for Boyle completists only, although it does have an excellent and lengthy introduction on Boyle, her life, her work, and her politics by Sandra Spanier with which I think everyone new to Boyle should familiarize themselves.
Spanier herself happened upon this manuscript when collecting Boyle's letters for publication; so only posthumously was Boyle's "first novel" published. However, it seems wiser on Boyle's part to have asserted herself as an emerging and important stylist with Plagued By the Nightingale instead of Process, so the fact that this book was buried by her for so long is not so surprising—still, the politics in Process are more aligned with Boyle's later stance in her post-WWII fiction and prose, almost acting like a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
Rounded up from 3.5 stars because of the introduction by Spanier, and well... because this is Kay Boyle, after all.
December 9, 2015
An excellent, and much needed, rebuttal to the claim that High Modernism and social engagement are incompatible.
June 20, 2022
Process, though short in length, requires close attention to detail; for, the prose is unique and imaginative. The narrator offers acute observations on relationships, particularly, those centered around a young, idealistic woman trying to sort herself out. The story is a little choppy in the way events change with little comment. Is this to force the readers' attention? It may be; but, to me, it works against the beautiful language upon which Process "leans."
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March 20, 2025No rating at the moment. I don't really care about ratings, and they mean little beyond a vague indication of overall enjoyment. I don't know if I have ever rated a book on here based on its objective quality or something. In any case, I just do not know what I really feel about the book at the moment.
In terms of substance, it is a novel of the Lost Generation, and appropriately features a lot of conversation and disillusionment. The novel's assertions regarding the importance of art and its place alongside the struggles and ideals of the working class are really energizing--I love it.
Much of the prose is quite unique, very abstract. I love this kind of writing on principle, and I appreciate writing that makes me work. There were many moments in this novel that legitimately confused me, or turns of phrase that inhibited my understanding. All that to say that I do not know how I feel about all of the novel as I do not know that I even comprehended all of the novel. I enjoyed it in many places, but was also left adrift in a less than satisfactory way.
In terms of substance, it is a novel of the Lost Generation, and appropriately features a lot of conversation and disillusionment. The novel's assertions regarding the importance of art and its place alongside the struggles and ideals of the working class are really energizing--I love it.
Much of the prose is quite unique, very abstract. I love this kind of writing on principle, and I appreciate writing that makes me work. There were many moments in this novel that legitimately confused me, or turns of phrase that inhibited my understanding. All that to say that I do not know how I feel about all of the novel as I do not know that I even comprehended all of the novel. I enjoyed it in many places, but was also left adrift in a less than satisfactory way.
October 28, 2024
I enjoyed this book. I haven’t read any of Boyle’s other work. This was assigned reading for class and might make this my paper for the semester. While the plot was a little blunt in how it progressed, I think the prose was interesting and lyrical.
January 15, 2013
Written in 1924-5 but only published posthumously in 2001, Kay Boyle's Process is a High-Modernist, autobiographical bildungsroman that challenges the assumption that where High Modernism is political at all, it must lean heavily to the right. It comes with all the linguistic challenge you would expect of this type of work, but with a sensibility that is thoroughly grounded in the corporeal. If you are looking for a representative collection of literary texts that cover this period and aesthetic school, seriously consider including this.
One more thing: While fans of Modernist texts will relish the challenge of the linguistic gymnastics, if you find the language a little too difficult to follow along effectively, the introduction provided by Boyle scholar Sandra Spanier will help you out. ;-)
One more thing: While fans of Modernist texts will relish the challenge of the linguistic gymnastics, if you find the language a little too difficult to follow along effectively, the introduction provided by Boyle scholar Sandra Spanier will help you out. ;-)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews