Edward Merrill Root and ‘America’s Steadfast Dream’

A man sits at his typewriter, peering at his work, circa 1955. Archive Photos/Getty Images

From the perspective of the present, it is hard to say which of our living writers will be remembered in the future. With the benefit of hindsight, though, it is easy to see which writers of the past have been forgotten.

One such unjustly neglected figure is Edward Merrill Root, an important 20th-century writer. As a student of Robert Frost, his poetry described the everyday world in a beautiful and unfamiliar way. As a social critic, he was a prophet. Like his more famous teacher, he has many lessons for today—foremost among them, the need to defend freedom and individual integrity against the dangers of collectivism.

A photo of E. Merrill Root that appears in the back of his book "America's Steadfast Dream."

A Practical Poet

Born in 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland, Root lived most of his life in New England. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he took poetry classes with Robert Frost. One of Frost’s most talented disciples, Root thoroughly absorbed his master’s style, avoiding the learned obscurities of modernism.

Poet Robert Frost photographed in 1941. Public Domain

Root went on to publish a dozen books of poetry, earning the admiration of his former teacher. After Frost himself, he ranks among the best and most readable American poets of the 20th century. His poems, straightforward and easy to understand, have been compared with the “primitive” paintings of Henri Rousseau. There is a sophisticated naivety to them: Root’s rich descriptions are always directed towards practical insights and childlike wonder. The first stanza of his poem “Scrub Oak” is representative of his earthy style:

I am like a scrub oak tree Granite is good earth for me. I am small—but very tough: Rock, for me, is food enough. Elms may lift their pebbled towers Higher, and the October flowers Of the maples flush and blaze Brighter than my sober phase; But I hold my steadfast bronze Leaves when they are skeletons.

The poem’s message is elegant but simple: Harsh conditions foster a resilience that outlasts all pomp and grandiosity. This piece was included in the 1930 collection, “Modern American Poetry: A Critical Anthology.” Root’s inclusion in such anthologies testifies to the fact that he was well-regarded during his lifetime. His status as a forgotten poet today would seem to have less to do with the quality of his verse than with the radical ideologies of academics curating the literary canon.

Root's poems, straightforward and easy to understand, have been compared with the “primitive” paintings of Henri Rousseau. "View of Bievre-sur-Gentilly," 1895, by Henri Rousseau. Oil on canvas. Private collection. Public Domain

Critic of Communism

Root was best known for educating the public about the evils of communism. He published many studies on this subject during his 40-year tenure as a teacher at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

In the 1955 “Collectivism on the Campus: The Battle for the Mind in American Colleges,“ Root examines an issue that is familiar to everyone today. In the book’s opening chapter, he describes the battle being fought over “man’s timeless spiritual war to affirm the freedom of the individual, the dignity of the person, against the flattening pressures of the group.” Root describes profiles of communist professors who negatively influence students’ attitudes and critical thinking; the socialist bias in textbooks across the spectrum of disciplines; purges of conservative faculty members; and academic conferences that, ostensibly about world peace, occur “under the shadow of hammer and sickle.”

A "communist" caterpillar eats away from the "capital” grape leaf and grapes labeled: Law, Order, Rights, Talent, Worth, Industry, Education, Respect, Business, and Peace. “A Destructive Worm,” 1883, by Friedrich Graetz. Library of Congress. Public Domain

His consciousness-raising efforts appeared at the height of the Cold War and its anxieties, when America was at its most patriotic. The History Channel’s website describes this “Red Scare” as “hysteria over the perceived threat” of communism. This interpretation—of Americans being seized by a collective, irrational madness—is the standard one today. But reading Root’s books, I found myself looking into a distant mirror: All of his observations, so often criticized as imaginary, have become our all-too-real problems, bigger than they ever were when Root lived. If authorities and parents had heeded his advice to systematically question what was happening in education, we would be living in a better world than we are now.

‘America’s Steadfast Dream’

Root’s magnum opus is a book he published in 1971, two years before his death: “America’s Steadfast Dream.” It is unfortunately out of print. Due to its copyright still being in force, it is also unavailable to read online.

"America's Steadfast Dream" is a collection of E. Merrill Root's essays as published in the American Opinion magazine.

Fortunately, cheap copies are easily obtainable through online bookstores. I obtained one for $8 (plus shipping), and I’m glad I did.

The book is comprised of a collection of essays written over a 10-year period, originally appearing in American Opinion magazine (now The New American). Each chapter, while capable of standing alone, weaves together different threads of Root’s philosophy of life.

Like his poetry, his worldview has a refreshingly practical bent. While he still criticizes collectivist ideologies as “the enemies of God and enslavers of man,” he also affirms the values of optimism, freedom, faith, integrity, self-reliance, and the pursuit of excellence. None of these are new ideas, of course. But when he was writing these essays in the 1960s, Root felt that America’s values were eroding along a slippery slope crowded by revolutionary hippies and bureaucratic elites.

In the essay, “In Search of a Real Man,” Root expressed concern that men were suffering from a softening of traditional gender roles and an educational system which taught them that, having evolved from amoeba, they were mere beasts at heart. Though “God has set man only a little lower than the angels,” the men of today “fall far lower than the demons.” In the context of this discussion, Root defines the core of his philosophy that can be seen throughout the book:

“We praise anything best when we say, it has outwardly become what it’s inner essence means it to be. … For all things and creatures, and for man especially, life may be defined as an opportunity to become in time what we mean in eternity.”

Root defined this philosophy as “Essentialism.” In a later essay, “What Freedom Is, And What It Is Not,” Root expands on this concept by defining freedom as “the liberty to become ever more perfectly what essentially you are,” which involves learning self-responsibility and accepting boundaries. By finding our inner purposes placed in us by the Creator, we are able to regain the contact we lost with reality, nature, and God.

In “Cast Not Away the Hero,” Root laments that we are living in the age of the antihero where infirmity, cowardice, and betrayal are trumpeted as virtues. But as he says, “Youth must learn it is impossible to be great unless you stand for great things.” Courage is necessary for heroism, but insufficient. The real hero has integrity. But what does this word mean? It is a “vital affirmation” that refuses to bend to false and artificial pieties.

To date, no biography of Root exists, much less a comprehensive literary analysis of his works. One might say he is just another minor figure who does not warrant such thorough treatment. I would disagree, though. Root’s ideas and muscular expression are needed now more than ever, and it is high time this thinker is rehabilitated.

Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]