ADDAMS

JANE 'uer 6, 1860-May21, 1e3s) for Peace,1931 \TION rith Nicholas Murrav Butler) Jane Addams, pioneer American so- r, peace activist, and founder of , was born in Cedarville, Illinois, of nine children. Her parents-John a prosperousbanker, Repub- senator, and ardent abolitionist, and Sarah Weber-were of Enelish and descent. When Addams was two years Pronounced mother died. A somewhat withdrawn approximatelyas e, with child, she became deeply attached to roundedlips: French u, inded Quaker father, who re- as in yz (vii); Germanii, her principal role model throughout as in Gefilhl (ge ftil') Addams entered the Rockford Fe- the schwa,an unstressed Seminary, an institution that trained JANE ADDAMS vowel representingthe for missionarywork. She sraduated sound'thatis spelled ian of her class of seventeen in 1881 a as in sofa ived her B.A. when Rockford became threshold. With financial assistancefrom -granting e as in fitted institution a year later. wealthy Chicagophilanthropists, Hull House i as in edible mg not to pursuemissionary work, Ad- grew to include thirteen buildings devoted to o as in melon cntered the Women's Medical College the educational,social, and recreationalneeds a u as in circus lphia in the fall of 188L,but poor of the working class. s forced her to withdraw after only a few Nevertheless,Addams's political efforts to ? azure The death of her father that same year improve socialconditions in the neighborhood a depressionthat lastedeight years, sometimesalienated contributors and cost Hull main accent marked by illness,unhappiness, and House financial support. The institution lob- intv about her future. bied successfullyfor passageof Illinois's first 1883Addams and a friend. Ellen Gates factory inspectionact in 1893,and two years toured Europe. They visited Toynbee later it published Hull-House, Maps and Pa- a s€ttlement house in London's destitute pers, a path-breakingsociological survey of l, run by a group of Oxford University sweatshops,tenement housing, and other harsh . Moved by this work, Addams and conditionsin the NineteenthWard. That sum- returnedto the United Statesdetermined mer, after residentscomplained about inade- a housein the slumswhere they "might quate trash collection, Addams got herself of life from life itself." Their searchled appointedgarbage inspector for the ward and icago'sNineteenth Ward, a poor district rose each morning at dawn to make sure the ted by a variety of immigrant groups. job wasdone. Pressurefrom Hull Househelped 1889 the two women moved into establishthe nation'sfirst juvenile court in 1889. decaying Charles Hull mansion and began Moreover, Addamsused her influenceto sup- riment in settlementwork that was to port child labor laws, legislationprotecting fe- some of the ablest reformers of thp male factory workers, compulsory school sive Era. attendance,and industrial safetyregulations. in a few years,Hull House was serving Assistedby educatedwomen like herself, she rangeof communityneeds. It included becamepracticed in lobbying, collecting evi- nursery, bookbindery, library, gymna- dence, marshaling statistics, and mobilizing , community kitchen, art studio, labor public support. m, and cooperative boarding house for Believingthat the "moral energyof women" working women. There were dozens of should be expressedthrough the vote, Ad- -an art group, a music school, even a dams participated in the Chicago suffrage of actors.Newcomers could studyEng- campaignof 1907,served as vice presidentof or take classesin cooking, sewing, or lit- the National American Woman Suffrage As- . Thousands of slum-dwellers. from sociationfrom 1911to I9I4, and attendedthe Petrillo to Benny Goodman,crossed its International Woman SuffrageAlliance in Bu- ADDAMS dapest. Her rationale for suffrage stemmed secretary-treasurer,Addams attemptedto from her belief that women by nature pos- fluence the development of the League of Na sessedspecial civilizing qualities that were tions, urging that it be made more democrati neededin the civicrealm. If womenwere given through recognitionof minority rights. Ill heald the vote, Addams felt, they would be able to forced her to resignfrom the'leaguein 1929, attacksocial problems more effectively.At the In 1931,after repeatednominations, dams became the first American woman to 19t2 Progressiveparty convention, she sec- ' onded the nomination of THEonoRERoosE- awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, as vELT and campaignedactively for his election. right spokesman for all the peace-loving wo The outbreakof World War I drew Addams of the world." She shared the prize with N activelyinto the peacemovement. In January oLAS Munnav BurrBn. Because of conti 1,915she was elected chairwoman of the newly ill health, Addams could not attend the a formed Woman'sPeace party. Severalmonths ceremonies. later, sheattended the InternationalCongress Privately, Addams lived in a world of of Women at The Haguewith Erratlv GnenNE Unable to have children because of spinal Bercs and others. Addams was electedpres- gery, she resisteda match with a stepbrot ident of the congress.Among the group's ef- and never married. Her acquaintancesfot forts was the unsuccessfulattempt to persuade Addams warm and sympathetic but also i neutral nationsto mediatea truce betweenthe personal and aloof, yet she enjoyed deep belligerentsin the war. abiding friendships with Ellen Gates Starr When the United Statesentered the war in Mary Rozet Smith. Near the end of her li 1917, Addams did not modify her pacifist Addams made her home with Smith ra stance.She opposedthe draft and defended than at Hull House.She died of canceron German immigrantswho were persecutedfor 21,,1935,and is buried in a small cemeteryin their nationality during the war hysteria.Few Cedarville. colleaguesshared her position. The pressvil- Addams's humanitarianefforts were wide- ified her; Rooseveltcalled her a Bull Mouse; rangingand enduring.Her work at Hull House and the Departmentof Justicekept her under not-only alleviatedimmigrant alienation and surveillance. Undaunted, she worked with poverty but alsofurnished an examplefor set- Herbert Hoover's Food Administration to feed ilement workers elsewhere.Through her ef- "enemy women and children." In 1,920she forts to improve urban social conditions,she becamea founding member of the American createdthe professionof socialworker. In her Civil Liberties Union. Called subversiveand efforts to eradicatewar, she remaineda pac- a traitor, shewas expelled from the Daughters ifist despite strong pressureto join the sup- of the American Revolution for allegedCom- porters of World War I. In a climate of -war munist views. hysteria and red-baiting,she stood resolutely Addams's dedication to peacedid not end for the protection of individual civil liberties- with the European armistice.In 1919she was At the internationallevel, shesought to influ- elected presiden?of the Women's Interna- ence governmentleaders on behalf of media- tional Leaguefor Peaceand Freedom,an out- tion and disarmament. growth of the congressheld in The Hague five For JaneAddams, peacewas not simply the "the "nurturing years earlier. The league stood for so- absenceof war but the of human lution of conflicts by the recognition of human life." Women, with their specialsensibilities, solidarity, by conciliation and arbitration, by she believed, were ideally suited to this nur- cooperation,and by the establishment turing. Addams cared deeply about women's world "long of social, political, and economic justice for historical role of ministration to basic all, without distinction of sex, race, class,or human needs," and by actingin this role, she creed." made enduringcontributions to America's re- Addams believed that MohandasGandhi's form tradition. practiceof passiveresistance could not by it- peace could be preserved self ensure peace: 1902; govern- SELECTED WORKS: Democracyand SocialEthics, only if organizationsput pressureon Newer ldeals of Peace,1907; The Spirit of Youth and the ments.Under her direction, the Women's In- City Streets,1909; Twenty Years at Hull-House, 1910;A ternational League sought to eliminate the New Conscienceand an Ancient Evil, l9L2; Women at The causesof war by supportingrevision of peace Hague, 1915,with Emily GreeneBalch and Alice Harnil- ton; The Long Road of Woman'sMemory, 191.6;Peace and treaties, elimination of conscription, world- Bread in Time of War,1922; The SecondTwenty Years at. wide disarmament,and an end to war repara- Hull-House.1930: The ExcellentBecomes the Permanent, tions. With Emily GreeneBalch, the league's 1932;A Centennial Reader, 1960.

2 ADRIAN

: Davis, A. F. American Heroine: The Life and lams attemPted to in- of Jane Addams,1973;Deegan, M. J. Jane Addams t of the League of Na- Men of the Chicago School, 1986; Farrell, J. C. rade more democratic L-ady: A History of Jane Addams2s Ideas on Re- rd Peace.19671 Fishwick, M. W. Jane Addams, inority rights. Ill health , A. D., and Pileggi,S. The Value of Friend- m the league'in 1929. Storyof JaneAddams, 1979; Lasch, C. The Social ed nominations, Ad- of Jane Addams, 1982; Levine, D. Jane Addams ,merican woman to be Liberal Tradition. 1971:Linn. J. W. JaneAddams: "the 1935; R. The ProfessionalAltruist, Peace, as , Lubove, ze for Xooney, E. C. JaneAddams, 1968;Peterson, H. S. rc peace-loving women lems; pisnssr of Hull House, 1965; Tims, M. Jane d the prize with Ntcn- of Hull House. 1961: Wise. W. E. Jane Addams Because of continued House, 1935;Woods, R. A., and Kennedy,A. J. nt Horizon. 1922. t not attend the award

women. din aworldof EDGAR D. of sPinal sur- , rbecause 30, 1889-August4, 1977) with a stePbrother rch Yrre for Physiologyor Medicine, r acquaintances found npathetic but also im- with Charles S. Sherrington) deeP and she enjoyed EDGAR D. ADRIAN rEllen Gates Starr and DouglasAdrian, an English physiol- ar the end of her life, was born in London. the second of three ne with Smith rather Alfred DouglasAdrian, a legal adviser Two yearsafter graduatingfrom Cambridge rdied of cancer on MaY localgovernment board, and the former in 1911,,Adrian waselected a fellow of Trinity in a small cemeterY in l-avinia Barton. After receivinghis sec- College.Then, having decidedthat a medical schoolingat a prestigiouspublic school degreewould enhancehis researchcareer, he ian efforts were wide- estminster,Adrian entered Trinity Col- beganworking at St. Bartholomew'sHospital Ier work at Hull House Cambridge,in L908to study the natural in London just before the outbreak of World nigrant alienation and There his studieswere directed by War I. Upon completing clinical training in red an examPle for set- ist Keith Lucas. who was inves- the record-breakingtime of little more than a here. Through her ef- the reactions of nerves and muscles to year, he spentthe rest of the war in England, Lsocial conditions, she ical stimulation; soono Adrian became studying and treating shell shock and neuro- rf social worker. In her in the research. logical injuries while trying strenuouslyto get r. she remained a Pac' had been establishedin 1871that heart postedto France. ssure to join the suP- respondsto an electricalimpulse by an Before Lucas'sdeath in an airplanecrash in I. In a climate of'war re" reaction;that is, either the mus- 1916,he and Adrian had discussedpossible Lg.she stood resolutelY ds with full force or it does not re- ways of recording the electrical impulses in rdividual civil liberties. . In 1905Lucas had shownthat not onlv singlenerve fibers. The impulseswere known vel, she sought to influ- but all musclesexhibit smooth mus- to be only a few thousandthsof a secondin :rs on behalf of media- activity, as such responsesare known. duration and to have the strength of only a muscleactivity is producedby altering few microvolts-too brief and too weak to be eace was not simPlY the ''nurturing ber of activefibers and the frequency measuredby availableinstruments. Lucas had e of human which they contract. Although Lucas's suggestedthe use of thermionic valves, such eir special sensibilities, t experimentsstrongly suggested that as those invented by GucuELMo MnRcoNr :ally suited to this nur- alsoexhibit suchall-or-none responses, and FBnoTNANDBRauN, to amplify the elec- deeply about women's was no direct proof, since there was as trical slgnal from the nerve before they tried f ministration to basic no way to detect the activity in a single to detect the impulses. r acting in this role, she cell. This idea lay dormant for several years, rutions to America's re- their research Adrian and Lucas exam- however,since the influx of studentsafter the whether the energy for the nerve impulse war greatly increasedAdrian's teaching re- action potential) is derived from the en- sponsibilities.Although his researchwas hin- ocracy and Social Ethics, 1902; of the stimulus, as in the flight of a bullet, dered,he madeimportant observationson the r: The Spirit of Youth and the fo a self-propagatingreaction, like the refractory period (the span of time directly Years at Hull-House, 1910; A of a spark along a fuse. Their evi- after an electrical impulse, when the tissue ient Evil, 1912; Women at The reene Balch and Alice Hamil- suggestedthe latter, although it was not cannotbe excited)of nervesand muscles,and nn's Memory, 1916;.Peaceand the 1940s that Arau HopcxIN and AN- in !922, working with the American neuro- : The Second TwentY Years at Huxrnv explainedthe mechanismby biologist Alexander Forbes,he obtainedcon- llent Becomes the Permanent' the action potential operates. vincing evidencethat sensorynerVes, as well , 1960. ADRIAN as those controlling actions, obey the all-or- nerve as light and any stimulation of the au- none law. This observationwas unexpected; ditory nerve as sound. believedthat the The studies conducted by Adrian on motor at the time, many scientists "the information conveyedby the sensorynerves nerves revealed that messageswhich pass wastoo complexto be the resultof suchsimple down the motor fibers to the muscles impulses. have . . . the same limitations as the sensory In L925Adrian began employing electrical messages, and again we find that the effect is methods,particularly valve amplifiers, in his graded by changes in the frequency of the im- experiments.HBnsEnr S. Gesspnand his col- pulse discharge and in the number of units in leaguesat the JohnsHopkins Schoolof Med- action." His discoveries concerning adapta- icine had constructedan amplifier for recording tion and the coding of nerve impulses enabled action potentials in bundles of motor nerve researchers to study sensations objectively and fibers. Adrian built his own amplifier to Gas- directly. Adrian shared the 1932 Nobel Prize for ser'sspecifications and testedit on nervestaken "for from frog muscle.Earlier, CsenrBs S. SsEn- Physiology or Medicine with Sherrington postulatedthat the musclecon- their discoveries concerning the functions of RINGToNhad "Adrian's tains sensorynerves that signal how much it neurons." investigat'ions have given is stretching;Adrian found that he could re- us a highly important insight into the question duce the muscle until it contained only one of the nerve principle and the adaptability of . senseorgan, which becamestimulated when the sense organs," said Gdran Liljestrand of the musclewas stretched. Each impulsein the the Karolinska Institute in his presentation sensorynerve has exactly the same strength speech. and duration; however, as Adrian later said, At this time Adrian's interest shifted from "the brain. frequency [of the impulses]depends on the peripheral sense organs to the the extent and the rapidity of the stretch; it Through his research on brain waves in the depends,that is to say, on the intensity of early 1930s, he contributed to the develop- excitationin the senseorgan, and in this way ment of the electroencephalograph for meas- the impulsemessage can signalfar more than uring brain activity. the mere fact that excitationhas occurred." The next twenty years of Adrian's work as For the next severalyears Adrian and his an experimental scientist involved a variety of colleaguesinvestigated impulses in various subjects, including hearing, the sensory cortex sensoryand motor nerves, and their experi- (those areas of the brain involved in processing mentsproduced the information necessaryto complex sensory data), the cerebellum, the formulate a generaltheory of sensation.Ac- vestibular apparatus, and the sense of smell- cording to Adrian, human sensoryreceptors all perhaps part of an effort to survey the en- reactonly to changesin the environment;after tire central nervous system. Renowned for his the changehas occurred,the receptorsadapt skills as an experimenter, he often used him- to the new state of affairs. The intensity with self as a subject and once injected a long needle which the receptorsreact determinesthe rate into his arm, keeping it there for two hours at which impulsesin the sensorynerves are while he recorded the workings of the muscle. produced. In 1951 Adrian relinquished his duties as Later, Adrian describedthe path between professor of physiology at Cambridge to be- "The this excitationand the mind: excitatory iome master of Trinity College, after which processin the receptordeclines gradually, and much of his time was taken up with adminis- as it declines,the intervals between the im- tration, lecturing, and politics. From 1950 to pulsesin the sensoryfiber becomelonger and 1955 he served as president of the Royal So- longer. The impulsesare integratedby some ciety of London, to which he had been elected centralprocess, and the rise and declineof the in 1923. During his tenure as president of the sensationis a fairly closecopy of the rise and society, he was also president of the British declineof the excitatoryprocess in the recep- Association for the Advancement of Science tor. The quality of the sensationseems to de- for one year and was only the third person in pend on the path which the impulses must history to head both organizations concur- travel." In other words, all sensoryimpulses rently. are alike. Therefore, light is sensedas light, He was vice-chancellor of Cambridge from and sound as sound, not becauseof a funda- t957 to 1959 and chancellor from 1968 through mental difference between sensationsper- December of 1975. Alan Hodgkin recalls that "when ceivedby the ear and the eye, but becausethe he became chancellor, some Trinity brain interprets any stimulation of the optic rowing men called on Adrian and asked if they

4 AGNON and any stimulation of the au- might have the honor of rowing him upriver ; sound. from Trinity to the University Centre. In spite conducted by Adrian on motor of his seventy-eightyears Adrian acceptedand, ''the d that messageswhich pass dressedin formal clothes, he coxed the boat olor fibers to the muscles successfullythrough a successionof upriver ;lme limitations as the sensory bridges." again we find that the effect is The culminating honor in a life rich with rges in the frequency of the im- honors occurred in 1955when Queen Eliza- l and in the number of units in beth II made him a baron. As Baron Adrian liscoveries concerning adapta- of Cambridge,one of the last hereditarypeers dine of nerve impulses enabled createdin England, he attendedthe House of itudv sensationsobjectively and Lords as regularly as possibleand spokeon a varietyof subjectsranging from foot-and-mouth 'ed the 1932 Nobel Prize for diseaseto nuclear disarmament. \fedicine with Sherrington "for In 1923Adrian married Hester Pinsent, a es concerning the functions of descendantof the Scottishphilosopher David lnan's investigationshave given Hume; they had a sonand two daughters.Hes- lortant insight into the question ter Adrian wasnoted for her work in the fields rinciple and the adaptability of of mental health and juvenile delinquency.A S.Y. AGNON ns." said Goran Liljestrand of high-spiritedperson who enjoyed driving fast I Institute in his presentation cars and climbing mountains when he was young,Lord Adrian lived in his roomsin Nev- -{drian's interest shifted from ile's Court in Trinity Collegeuntil shortly be- a well-read woman, and his maternal grand- I sense organs to the brain. fore his death in 1977. father, Yehuda Farb, was a merchant whose esearch on brain waves in the Adrian was a member of more than forty prodigious knowledge strongly influenced the e contributed to the develop- scientificand professionalorganizations. His young Agnon. ectroencephalographfor meas- manyawards included the Royal Medal (1934) Agnon's boyhood education and upbringing jr itv. andCopley Medal (L946)of the Royal Society, provided the basic themes and subject matter ent\ \'ears of Adrian's work as the Albert Gold Medal of the Royal Society for much of his subsequent writing. In addition al scientistinvolved a variety of of Arts (1953), the Medal for Distinguished to attending the traditional heder (elementary lin_ehearing, the sensorycortex Merit of the British MedicalAssociation (1958), school), Agnon studied the Talmud under the the brain involved in processing and the Jephcott Medal and Lecture of the tutelage of his father and the local rabbi. In rrr data), the cerebellum, the Royal Societyof Medicine (1963). the local beth hamidrash (house of learning), lratus. and the senseof smell- he read the works of ancient and medieval rt of an effort to survey the en- Jewish sages and the lore of the Hasidim (fol- SELECTED WORKS: The Action of Light on the Eye, lowers of a mystical Jewish sect that arose in lous svstem. Renowned for his 1927,with RachelMathews; The Basisof Sensation,1928; xrimenter, he often used him- The Mechanismof Nerve Action, 1932;The PhysicalBack- eighteenth-century Poland), as well as con- : and once injected a long needle groundof Perception,1947 ; SensoryIntegration, 1949; The temporary Hebrew literature. When Agnon Responsibilities Brain, 1951. [eeping it there for two hours of the was'a teenager, he became an active Zionist. led the workings of the muscle. His first poetry, published in a local newspaper when he was fifteen, was written in Hebrew rian relinquished his duties as ABOUT: BiographicalMemoirs of Fellows of the Royal and Yiddish. When he was eighteen, he went hrsiology at Cambridge to be- Society,volume 25, 1979;New York TimesAugust 6,1977 ; rf Trinity College, after which Oxbury, H. (ed.) Great Britons, L985. to Lvov to work on a Hebrew newspaper. In ne $'as taken up with adminis- 1907, he journeyed to Jaffa, in Palestine (then ns. and politics. From 1950 to part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire), and a I as president of the Royal So- AGNON, S. Y. year later he nioved to Jerusalem. At the time, n" to rvhich he had been elected (July 17, 1888-February17, 1970) he was a secretary of the Jewish court and s his tenure as president of the Nobel Prize for Literature. 1966 served on several iewish councils. In 1909 he s also president of the British (sharedwith Nelly Sachs) published the short novel Agunot (Forsaken Wives). From this title he derived his pen name, r the Advancement of Science "cut rd u'as only the third person in The Israeli novelist and short story writer Agnon (which means off" in Hebrew). rd both organizations concur- S.Y. Agnon (ug non') wasborn Shmuel Yosef He adopted Agnon as his legal last name in Halevi Czaczkesin the small town of Buczacz, t924. Like all Agnon's subsequent work, chancellor of Cambridge from in Galicia, a region of the Austro-Hungarian Agunot was written in Hebrew. The charac- rdchancellor from 1968through Empire, now part of Poland.His father, Shalom teristics of his writing-:-its use of folklore and 915. Alan Hodgkin recalls that Mordecai Halevi Czaczkes.had received rab- fantasy and its religious overtones-were al- arne chancellor, some Trinity binical training but was a fur trader by profes- ready present in this early work. Agnon's writ- led on Adrian and asked if thev sion. His mother, the former EstherFarb, was ing, thoroughly rooted in traditional Jewish ALEIXANDRE worker, Alder, who re- lubricatingoils, insecticides,synthetic rubber, intensely dedicated succumbedto exhaustion and plastics. mained unmarried, by his doctor to take During the next eightyears' Alder and Diels in 1957and was advised the following year at further clarified the nature of diene synthesis' a completerest. He died 1930Alder was appointed a reader in or' the age of fiftY-five. In Alder also ganicchemistry at Kiel, andin L93,4hebecame In iddition to the Nobel Prize, from the Ger- Extraordinaryprofessor of organic chemistry' receivedthe Emil FischerMedal (1938) and honorary His growingexpertise in dienesynth-esis led to man Chemical Society Faculty o-fthe Uni- an iivitation to become director of scientific degreesfrom the Medical (1950)and the University researchat the Interessen-GemeinschaftFar- veisity of Cologne held membershipin benindustrie Aktiengesellschaft(I. G' Far- of Salamanca(ieS+). He Academy of Re- ben) plant in Leverkusen,which Alder accepted the Leopoldina German in iglO. At Leverkusen, Alder investigated searchersin Natural Sciences. the effectsof joining butadiene(a form of diene) to variousphilodienes, notably styrene,to form Biography, volume l', fubber. He also studied the molec- ABOUT: Dictionary of Scientific synthetic 1970;New York Times November25,1950. ular structureof the syntheseshe produced' Returning to academiclife in t940, Alder, who was not involved in Germany'swartime ALEIXANDRE, VICENTE was appointed to the chair for ex- research, (April 26, I8g8-December t4, 1984) perimentalchemistry and chemicaltechnology Nobel Prize for Literatwe, L977 it th" University of Cologne.Concurrently he servedas director of the university'sChemistry poet Vicente Aleixandre Institute. In this capacityhe applieddiene syn- The Spanish was born in Sevilleto thesisto unravel tlie chemicalconstitutions of (a lax iin' dra) y Merlo a civil engineer complexnatural productssuch as the terpenes Grilo Aleixandre Ballester, andElvira Merlo (isomerichydrocarbons found in the oil of co- with the AndalusianRailways, daughter of the district nifers), thi vitamin D precursor.erg-ostero1, Garcia de Pruneda, Aleixandre was the and t'he D vitamins. An exceptionally able military superintendent. in his family; an older stereochemist,Alder was also interested in elder iurviving child and a youngersister, learningwhy, when severalpossible structures sisterhad diedln infancy, in 1899.When the boy was for the resuliingmolecule seemed equally likely' Conchita,was born was transferred to a particular reaction took still an infant, his father Place. grew up sur- \n 1949,the sameyear that he was named M6laga, where Aleixandre beauty of the Mediter- deanof the Facultyof Philosophyat Cologne, rounded by the sunny of which appear Alder shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry ranean coast, images "for attendingthe lo- with Diels their discoveryand develop- throughouthis poetry. While he becamefamiliar with ment of the synthesisof dienes." In his Nobel cal elJmentaryichool, Andersenand the Alderreviewed the researchleading to the tales of Hans Christian lecture 'brothers this discoveryand describedthe structuralde- Grimm. to Madrid in 1909' terminants governing the selectionof a par- After the family moved ColegioTeresiano, a ticular configurationover others.He noted that Aleixandre attendedthe which he received his this pronouiced stericselective property^of the secular school, from "one (the equivalent of a higtt dien^esynthesis is of the decisivefactors bachilleratodegree students)i1-te-tl' determining the value of the diene synthesis schooldiploma for academic maternal grandfather as a methoO.ttte fact that it can be used as a During these years his library, and there meansof isolating and separatingsubstances encouiagedhim to use the the works of Arthur from mixtures, and that it is uniquely suitable Aleixandre encountered DostoevskY,as well as a means of determining the character of Conan Doyle and Fedor the plays of Friedrich specific types of substances,"he continued, as Homer;s Itiad and 'tould oiherwisenever have been known"' Schiller. Madrid in 1914, After receivingthe Nobel Prize, Alder con- Entering the University of took occasional tinued to teach ind to conduct researchinto Aleixandre studied law and While vacation- further potential commercial applicationsof classesin Spanishliterature. during the summer the dien-esynthesis. In L955he joined seven- ing in the piovince of Avila Alonso, a studenthis teen other Nobel laureatesin signing a dec- oilgl7,he met D6maso president of the Royal laration calling upon all nations to renounce own age (later the him to the war as an insirument of foreign policy' An SpanisfiAcademy), who introduced

8 ALEIXANDRE ficatedworker, Alder, who re- the Nicaraguanmodernist poet Rub6n rried. succumbedto exhaustion awakenedhis interest in poetry. rasadvised by his doctor to take rgraduationinl9}} with degreesin law hsiness management,Aleixandre st. He died the following Yearat be- fr-fir'e. assistantprofessor at the School of to the Nobel Prize, Alder also Managementin Madrid. Two years job imil FischerMedal from the Ger- took a with the AndalusianRail- rl Society (1938) and honorarY d began writing articles on railway eco- the Medical Faculty of the Uni- for a businessweekly. Although he was logne (1950) and the UniversitY iting poetry during this time, he kept (1954).He held membershipin work secret for several years. ina German Academy of Re- he suffered an attack of infectious {atural Sciences. the first in a seriesof illnessesthat in a semi-invalid for the remainder of When he contracted tuberculosis of oarl of Scientific Biography, volume 1, in 1925,he resignedfrom the rail- Times November 25, 1950. retired to a house his father had taken rysidenear Madrid. There, for the years, he concentrated his efforts on IE, VICENTE ;- The poems he produced during this VICENTE ALEIXANDRE 98-December 14,1984) of convalescence,eventually published lor Literature, L977 rro (Scope)in 1928,reflect his sexual and the overpoweringfear of death had ish poet Vicente Aleixandre instilled in him. Filled with his masterpiece,he receivedthe National Prize imagery, i) r'Merlo was born in Seville to these poems are written in for Literature in 1933. ballad rndre Ballester, a civil engineer form. With the outbreak of the SpanishCivil War ering illrsian Railways, and Elvira Merlo that Aleixandre had beenwrit- in 1936,hard times befell the Generation of ral runeda, daughter of the district friends persuadedhim to submit 1927. Most of its membersfled Spain; Garcia k to rrintendent. Aleixandre was the the review Revista de Occidente Lorca wasexecuted by the troops of Francisco of the ng child in his family; an older West),which, in1926,became Franco. Becauseof his illness,Aleixandre re- journal publish d in infancy, and a younger sister, to his poems.In May mainedin Spain,though his house,located at he and his s born in 1899. When the boY was family movedinto a smallvilla the Madrid front, was destroyednear the end northern rt- his father was transferred to outskirtsof Madrid. wherehe of the war. After their father's death in 1940. the rest ere Aleixandre grew uP sur- of his life. That vear marked the Aleixandre and his sister rebuilt the house. ntenary he sunny beauty of the Mediter- of the death of the great Spanish Aleixandrecontinued to write eventhough his Luis de G6ngora. "My it. images of which apPear A group of young writ- poemswere bannedfor a time. task was paid homage is poetry. While attending the lo- on the occasion became not too easyin the early postwaryears," he as the n school, he became familiar with Generation of 1927. Its mem- later recalled. which fans Christian Andersen and the included Aleixandre, Jorge Gui- Mundo a solas (World Alone), written on D6maso mm. Alonso, Rafael Alberti, Luis the eveof the Civil War but not publisheduntil and Federico tamily moved to Madrid in 1909, Garcfa Lorca, among 1950,served as a prelude to Sombradel par- embraced rttended the Colegio Teresiano, a surrealism.ina form that was aiso (Shadowof Paradise,1944\, an evocalion superrealismo. ol. from which he received his of a utopia of beautyand happinessperceived nd the desree (the equivalent of a high time that Ambito appeared, Al- from the distantperspective of a poet troubled began na for academic students) in 1913. reading the works of Sigmund by intimations of death. Historia del coraz6n which he : vears his maternal grandfather used to interpret the morbid (The Story of the Heart, 1954)marked a shift him to use the library, and there he experiencedduring his illness. from the sadnessof his earlier work to a kind strains :ncountered the works of Arthur of surrealism and Freudianism can of humanistic and spiritual affirmation. Ac- n in Pasi6n (Passion e and Fedor Dostoevsky, as well de la tierra of the cording to Aleixandre's translatorLewis Hyde, in "[Aleixandre] Iliad and the plays of Friedrich ), which the ballad form gives way to is one of the few pessimisticpoets prose poems that consist of seem- of the century who managedto emerge and disordered he University of Madrid in 1914, images. Composed between find something above the darkness." Aleix- and studied law and took occasional 1929, Pasi6n de la tiena was not andre'slater volumesof poetry include En un anish literature. While vacation- until 1935.Meanwhile, Aleixandre vasto dominio (In a Vast Dominion, 1962), e Espadas rvince of Avila during the summer comolabios (Swords Like Lips, Poemas de la consumaci6n (Poems of Con- and net D6maso Alonso, a student his ) the intenselyerotic volume La des- summation, L968), and Didlogos del conoci- i6n rter the president of the RoYal o el amor (Destructionor Love, 1933). miento (Dialogues of Knowledge, 1974). In the latter demy), who introduced him to the work, which is widely considered 1958he published Los Encuentros(Encoun-