Page "Edward Sapir" Paragraph 28

While in Ottawa he also collected and published French Canadian Folk Songs, and a volume of his own poetry.

His interest in poetry led him to form a close friendship with another Boasian anthropologist and poet, Ruth Benedict.

Sapir initially wrote to Benedict to commend her for her dissertation on The Guardian Spirit, but soon realized that Benedict had published poetry pseudonymously.

In their correspondence the two critiqued each other's work, both submitting to the same publishers, and both being rejected.

They also were both interested in psychology and the relation between individual personalities and cultural patterns, and in their correspondences they frequently psychoanalyzed each other.

However, Sapir often showed little understanding for Benedicts private thoughts and feelings, and particularly his conservative gender ideology jarred with Benedict's struggles as a female professional academic.

Though they were very close friends for a while, it was ultimately the differences in worldview and personality that led their friendship to strand.