DOCSLIB.ORG

A Hoosicr at Harvard

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Hoosicr at Harvard A Hoosicr at Harvard William E. Wilson” It was 1923, late August,- in Evansville, Indiana, where I was born. I was seventeen. On the telephone Mr. John 0. Chewning, principal of Central High School, from which I had graduated in June, was asking me if I would like to go to Har- vard. At that time, for reasons that I can no longer remember, I thought I wanted to go to Yale. But Yale was still a year or two away. My father had just been elected to Congress from the old First District of Indiana, and the family would be moving to Washington, D.C.’ I planned to enroll in one of the colleges in Washington and later transfer to Yale if my grades were good enough. Thus I would avoid the entrance examinations that only a few colleges required in those days. It was true that I had so far neglected to advise Yale Uni- versity of my intentions or any of the institutions of higher learning in Washington on my list, for that matter. But in 1923 going to college was a more casual business than it is today; in most instances one simply packed one’s bag at the last minute and went, * William E. Wilson is James A. Work professor of English emeritus, Indi- ana University, Rloomington. At times a reporter for the Evansville, Indiana, Press and New Bedford, Massachusetts, Standard and associate editor of the Baltimore Evening Sun, Wilson has also authored numerous historical works and novels. Included are The Wabash (Riurrs of America series; New York, 1940); The Angel and the Serpent: The Story of New Harmony (Bloomington, 1964); Crescent City (New York, 1947); and Every Man Is My Father (New York, 1973). According to Wilson, “A Hoosier at Harvard’ is to be the opening chapter of “an autobiography-in-progress”One brief portion of the reminiscence is adapted from an earlier essay that appeared in the “John Harvard’s Journal” section of Har- uard Magazine, LXXXIV (January-February, 19821, 72-73. I In 1923 Indiana’s First Congressional District included Gibson, Pike, Po- sey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick counties. William Edward Wilson ( 1870- 1948), the author’s father, represented the district in the United States House of Representatives for one term, 1923-1925. He ran unsuccessfully for the same office in 1920 and 1924. INDIANA MAtiAZINE OF HISlOHY. LXXXII Ifk~ptember.19861 ’ 1986. Trusters of lndrann University 224 Indiana Magazine of History “Harvard-?” I said to Mr. Chewning. I told him then that I had never given Harvard much thought. In fact, I said, I was considering Yale. Next year, maybe. Or the year after. I tried to sound blase, but actually I was in a state of mild shock. Harvard-? Me-? Harvard and Yale were places only to dream about. No one I knew ever really went to Harvard or Yale. Hadn’t I said to Mr. Chewning, “Next year, maybe, or the year after”? But Mr. Chewning was not a man to waste time chasing rainbows. He said he was not talking about next year, he was talking about next month. Harvard classes would begin in Sep- tember. He made it sound as if my shilly-shallying might dis- rupt the schedule of a great university. He went on to explain that he had just returned from a va- cation and found a letter from Harvard on his desk offering, for the first time, admission without examinations to the two top male graduates from certain selected public high schools. He told me it was a great honor for Central of Evansville to be one of those selected. My friend Alexander Leich, who had the highest boys’ grade average in my class, was seriously considering the opportunity, Mr. Chewning said.2 He reminded me then that I stood second to Alex in rank. Now he was making me feel as if I owed an immediate decision not only to Harvard College but also to Central High School and Alexander Leich. Mr. Chewning had a very persuasive way. His favorite maxim was “A hint to the wise is sufficient.” I told him I would talk with my parents. I talked with my parents. My father was enthusiastic. The Harvard brochure projected an average cost of a freshman year at $1,500; Father’s salary as a congressman was $7,500; he said he thought one-fifth of a man’s salary to educate a son at Harvard was a bargain. (Recently, Alex Leich, who today interviews prospective Harvard students from southern Indiana, told me that the projected cost of a fresh- man year in 1985-1986 was $16,300. The 1986 World Almanac gives the salary of a member of Congress as $75,100.) My mother remarked several times during the family conference, with quiet dubiety, that winters in New England were very cold. (In her girlhood she had spent a winter once with an uncle and aunt in Norton, Massachusetts, where Wheaton College is located.) My Alexander L. Leich, now retired, later became vice-president and treasurer of the family wholesale drug firm, Charles Leich and Company, in Evansville. A Hoosier at Harvard 225 sister Isabelle contributed to the debate by stating flatly that she had not cared for Yale University ever since I read to her “that book about Sto~er.”:~(My dear sister was blind, and occa- sionally I read to her books that interested me-with something less than pure altruism, obviously.) After our conference at home, we conferred with the Leichs. Alex’s parents said that Alex, who was only sixteen, could go to Harvard if I went. They thought he was too young to go alone. Before I had time to make myself obnoxious by assuming an avuncular air with Alex, my parents promptly said that I, too, was too young to go to Harvard alone but I could go if Alex went. Alex and I decided to go. Within a month, incredible as it now seems in this era of lengthy applications, interviews, and examinations, Alex and I boarded at Terre Haute the Southwestern Limited of the “Big Four” or C.C.C. and St. Louis, on its one-thousand-mile race from St. Louis to Boston after we had already made a four-hour jour- ney on the C. and E. I. local on its daily one-hundred-mile smoky stagger up from Evansville.‘ Unexamined and unheralded, we were probably as unlikely a brace of innocents as ever set off to enroll as freshmen in Harvard College. Even the clothes in my “wardrobe trunk” were not alto- gether proper for the adventure. A week before our departure, I had persuaded my mother to buy for me at Strouse and Brothers store on Main Street an expensive suit cut in the height of fash- ion favored at that time by teenage males in Indiana. As I was fitted by Mr. Ed Lantz, who had masterminded my wardrobe ever since I was six years old, I had no idea how ridiculous I would look in the tight jacket and bell-bottom trousers among the equally ridiculous square, short jackets and wide trousers-known as “Oxford bags”-that had already become the vogue of colle- gians in the East. I am still embarrassed by the memory of that new suit, but not so much because of the freak it must have made of me as because of my willfulness in wanting it and my I Owen M. Johnson, Stover at Yale (Boston, 19121. The Chicago and Eastern Illinois (Missouri Pacific Kailroadl ran from Ev- ansville through Terre Haute to Chicago. It is now a part of the Louisville and Nashville system. Elmer G. Sulzer, Ghost Railroads of Indiana (Indianapolis, 1970,. 235. For a history of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis written at about the time of Wilson’s journey to Harvard see Ared Maurice Mur- phy, “The Big Four Railroad in Indiana,” XXI (June and September, 1925). 109- 273. At that time the New York Central Kailroad owned 92 percent of the Big Four’s common stock, and the system served twelve states and two Canadian provinces. Zbid., 270. See also Alvin F. Harlow. Thr Road of the Century; The Story ofthe New York Central (New York, 1947), 373-97. 226 Indiana Magazine of History weakness in never unpacking it in Cambridge when I saw what others were wearing. Later, my parents would have to make great sacrifices to keep me at Harvard all four years, and it might have been better for my character if I had worn the outlandish suit until the bell-bottoms became frayed and shiny. Perhaps it was somewhat to my credit that I lived frugally at Harvard my first year until I had saved enough out of my spending money to buy another “best suit” to take the place of the first one. Alex and I spent our first night in Boston in the Touraine Hotel, sleepless. Neither of us had ever been alone in a city so big as Boston. The nearest approximation to a college campus that I, at least, had ever seen was the remodeled synagogue across the street from Central High that the new Methodist col- lege (now the University of Evansville) leased to house its first classes. I did not know that Harvard’s campus was called “the Yard,” and the next morning when our taxi driver called it “the Yadd,” I still did not know. His pronunciations gave Alex and me our first hint that we were going to have a problem understanding people in New England.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Celtic Revival in English Literature, 1760-1800
    ZOh. jU\j THE CELTIC REVIVAL IN ENGLISH LITERATURE LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The "Bard The Celtic Revival in English Literature 1760 — 1800 BY EDWARD D. SNYDER B.A. (Yale), Ph.D. (Harvard) CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1923 COPYRIGHT, 1923 BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A. PREFACE The wholesome tendency of modern scholarship to stop attempting a definition of romanticism and to turn instead to an intimate study of the pre-roman- tic poets, has led me to publish this volume, on which I have been intermittently engaged for several years. In selecting the approximate dates 1760 and 1800 for the limits, I have been more arbitrary in the later than in the earlier. The year 1760 has been selected because it marks, roughly speaking, the beginning of the Celtic Revival; whereas 1800, the end of the century, is little more than a con- venient place for breaking off a history that might have been continued, and may yet be continued, down to the present day. Even as the volume has been going through the press, I have found many new items from various obscure sources, and I am more than ever impressed with the fact that a collection of this sort can never be complete. I have made an effort, nevertheless, to show in detail what has been hastily sketched in countless histories of literature — the nature and extent of the Celtic Revival in the late eighteenth century. Most of the material here presented is now pub- lished for the first time.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reflexivity of Change: the Case of Language Norms
    The Reflexivity of Change: The Case of Language Norms The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Suber, Peter. 1989. Reflexivity of Change: The Case of Language Norms. Journal of Speculative Philosophy 3, no. 2: 100-129. Published Version https://www.jstor.org/stable/25669912? seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:32978573 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA This essay originally appeared in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 3, 2 (1989) 100-129. For this HTML edition I have corrected a few typographical errors. Copyright © 1989, Peter Suber. Portions of this essay were presented as a lecture at a symposium entitled Selbstbewußtsein, Selbstbestimmung und die Reflexivität von Kommunikation. The symposium was sponsored by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Semiotik, and held at the Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg-im-Bresgau, West Germany, September 26-29, 1988. The Reflexivity of Change: The Case of Language Norms Peter Suber, Philosophy Department, Earlham College • Abstract • Introduction • Language Norms • "Norms" From "Facts" • The Constitutive A Posteriori • "Facts" From "Norms" • Mutability of Norms • Self-Stabilization • Amendment Through Violation • Preposterous Norms • Reflexive and Irreflexive Hierarchies • Noticed and Unnoticed Changes • Grounds of Phonetic Change • The Logic of Normative Change • Bibliography • Notes • Second Thoughts Abstract In the evolution of speech, the censure of mispronunciations can cause them to abate, and thereby reinforce the prevailing norm.
    [Show full text]
  • The J^Ey ^Reporter
    THE J^EY ^REPORTER THE PHI BETA KAPPA NEWS MAGAZINE VOLUME II NUMBER 1 This Issue Goes to 75,100 Members WINTER 1937 members of the group. Moreover, the whole sample of 100 Was OBK Worth While? names comprises less than one-sixth of the living membership HAROLD A. LARRABEE, Harvard '16 of the class, which numbers 629 in all. The comparisons of income among the four sample groups Author of What Philosophy Is were made on the basis of replies to an unsigned questionnaire * lready educators who do not hesitate to use what might sent out by a member of the class, to which 70 per cent of the pays" l\ be called the "scholarship argument have class replied, giving figures concerning their receipts in the Tunis' begun to quote passages consideration all averages of ,_ A. from John R. pro year 1934. Add to this the that While?* vocative volume entitled Was College Worth Since as few as 25 items may be seriously distorted by the extreme <pBK audiences are likely to hear a good cases at the ends of the income-scale, deal more about this stimulating study and the reasons for distrusting Mr. Tunis' of the Harvard class of 1911 twenty-five conclusions, simply from ele years after graduation, it may be worth mentary statistical caution, begin to be our while to see exactly what Mr. Tunis apparent. has to report and what his results may But one might waive all such doubts be said to prove. For it may be that they and accept the quoted statements at are open to interpretations very different their face value, yet still question the "moral" from those which have so far been alleged significance of the placed upon them.
    [Show full text]
  • FIELD II: Medieval Literature Revised: December 2018 Effective: January 2020
    FIELD II: Medieval literature Revised: December 2018 Effective: January 2020 STATEMENT OF EXPECTATIONS Lists, especially those of secondary literature, should be supplemented by other works chosen by students, in consultation with medievalist faculty members, and considering their other interests or aims for the dissertation. Within the following list, read with attention to connections between texts; make comparisons between texts in a single genre and across genres. On the exam, respond to questions directly, precisely, and thoughtfully. Make sure you have a thesis and a structured argument with supporting examples. Make connections between multiple primary texts and incorporate relevant criticism in a way that indicates your familiarity with a variety of critical perspectives. The Medieval literature exam requires that you show mastery of a thousand years’ worth of primary texts plus more than a century of scholarly discourse; display your awareness of historical and cultural background to these texts, adding appropriate background reading to the texts listed here. The introductions to primary texts, and their suggested bibliography, are an excellent starting point for such background. 1 READING LIST I. Old English This list contains the bare minimum you should read. The more you read the better prepared you will be for your exams. As you work your way through the primary texts, be sure to read the introduction and notes of the editions you are using. In addition, read one or two recent articles specific to each primary text. A. Primary Poetry: The Dream of the Rood, Genesis B, Christ II, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Maxims I, Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, any 8–10 riddles from the Exeter Book, The Wife’s Lament, Beowulf, Judith, The Battle of Maldon, Cædmon’s Hymn, The Battle of Brunanburh Prose: OE translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History: The story of Cædmon Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Cynewulf and Cyneheard Wulfstan: Sermo Lupi ad Anglos Ælfric: any two homilies or saints’ lives King Alfred: Preface to Gregory’s Pastoral Care B.
    [Show full text]
  • "Funds" in "Forming Harvard's Collection of Incunabula"
    "Funds" in "Forming Harvard's collection of incunabula" The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Walsh, James E. 1999. "Funds" in "Forming Harvard's collection of incunabula". Harvard Library Bulletin 8 (3), Fall 1997: 49-65. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363252 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Incunabulaat Harvard 49 Funds FUND ESTABLISHED BY STEPHEN SALISBURY tephen Salisbury, H 1817, Hon 1875, was born in 1798. A lawyer, he was a Smember of the bar but did not practice. While still a young man he inherited a considerable fortune, which allowed him to devote himself to public service and charitable causes. He lived in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was active in the city government of that city, but he also spent two years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and another two in the Senate. He was director and president of the Worcester Bank for many years, a director of the Worcester Free Public Library, and an officer of the Worcester County Horticultural Society. He was also a member of the American Antiquarian Society and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and in addition sat for twelve years on the Harvard Board of Overseers. He died in 1884. A book fund in his name was established in 18 5 8 in accordance with the instructions contained in his letter of 23 November of that year to President James Walker: My dear Sir, The deficiency of the Library of Harvard College in the number and quality of Greek and Latin books has been well known by the friends of the institution and while it has been deeply regretted by those, who seek strength from the pure fountains ofleaming, the liberality, which has so amply provided for the sciences, has afforded nothing for this department.
    [Show full text]
  • View Fast Facts
    FAST FACTS Author's Works and Themes: Hamlet “Author's Works and Themes: Hamlet.” Gale, 2019, www.gale.com. Writings by William Shakespeare Play Productions • Henry VI, part 1, London, unknown theater (perhaps by a branch of the Queen's Men), circa 1589-1592. • Henry VI, part 2, London, unknown theater (perhaps by a branch of the Queen's Men), circa 1590-1592. • Henry VI, part 3, London, unknown theater (perhaps by a branch of the Queen's Men), circa 1590-1592. • Richard III, London, unknown theater (perhaps by a branch of the Queen's Men), circa 1591-1592. • The Comedy of Errors, London, unknown theater (probably by Lord Strange's Men), circa 1592-1594; London, Gray's Inn, 28 December 1594. • Titus Andronicus, London, Rose or Newington Butts theater, 24 January 1594. • The Taming of the Shrew, London, Newington Butts theater, 11 June 1594. • The Two Gentlemen of Verona, London, Newington Butts theater or the Theatre, 1594. • Love's Labor's Lost, perhaps at the country house of a great lord, such as the Earl of Southampton, circa 1594-1595; London, at Court, Christmas 1597. • Sir Thomas More, probably by Anthony Munday, revised by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, Shakespeare, and possibly Thomas Heywood, evidently never produced, circa 1594-1595. • King John, London, the Theatre, circa 1594-1596. • Richard II, London, the Theatre, circa 1595. • Romeo and Juliet, London, the Theatre, circa 1595-1596. • A Midsummer Night's Dream, London, the Theatre, circa 1595-1596. • The Merchant of Venice, London, the Theatre, circa 1596-1597. • Henry IV, part 1, London, the Theatre, circa 1596-1597.
    [Show full text]
  • News, Notes, & Correspondence
    News, Notes, & Correspondence Restoring the Hildegarde Lasell Watson Collection of Artworks by E.E. Cummings The State University of New York College at Brockport has an extensive collection of Cummings‘ artworks. (See Jonathan Senchyne‘s article on pages 233-246 in this issue.) On 2-16-2007 we received the following e- mail from Frank Short about a current project to restore the collection: I am writing to you from SUNY, College at Brockport where I currently serve as the dean of the School of Arts & Performance. Since 1978 Brockport has been in possession of a 72-piece collec- tion of original artwork by E. E. Cummings. The collection was do- nated to us by James Sibley Watson, Jr. and his second wife, Nancy. Milton Cohen reviewed the collection in 1983 and subsequently wrote that the Brockport collection ―...is the most valuable single collection of Cummings' paintings.‖ Unfortunately the condition of the works is poor and the collection has not been exhibited in many years. Several of us at Brockport have initiated a project aimed at restoring as many of the pieces as possible through private contributions. Essentially we are asking patrons to ―adopt‖ Cummings by financing the restoration of a piece of their choosing (and receiving some kind of credit for so doing). We are planning a reception in Rochester, NY early next fall in sup- port of the project and several speakers have tentatively agreed to be on the program . At this point we are trying to get the word out on the collection and our hopes to restore it and exhibit it.
    [Show full text]
  • George Lyman Kittredge
    George Lyman Kittredge The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Whiting, Bartlett Jere. 1970. George Lyman Kittredge. Harvard Library Bulletin XVIII (4), October 1970: 382-394. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363926 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA George Lyman Kittredge Bartlett] ere lf 7biti11g The fifty-fifth Anniversary Edkton of Cb~1ucernnd 1-JisPoetry by George Lyman Kittredge is to be pub lishcd 1atcr this year by the Harvard Uni vcr.sity P .rcss. In hi~ Intro duc ti on to this ed i tion 1 Professor W hi ting~ a f tcr sugges ting reasons for the con tin ucd and .stcad y dern and for the hook~ has attempted 'ii:to depict Kittredge as he lives nearly thirty years after his death in the n1crnnrics of his devoted students.u For permission ro print this portion of the Intro- duction here,, th c BULLE.TIN is deeply in de btc<l to Prof cssor \V hiti n g an cl to the Press. Eos~ _,___ CHOLARS frequently reflect, ,vistfulJJr or smugly, that the lives of persistent scholars1 at least in the humanities, rarely contain episodes attractive to the Jively biographer.. George Lym-an Kittredge ,vas no exception.- His private Hfc ,vas happy and uneventful; his public life, if it may· he called that, ,v-asconfined to the classroon1 and the 1e c tnre pla tf or1n.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender and Salem Witch Trials of 1692
    Josephine Colburn 1 Gender and the Salem Witchcraft Trials The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were iconic events in American History. They have been the subject of historical articles, religious debates, novels, plays and films. In both the world of academia and pop-culture of American society, the Salem Witch Trials have fascinated audiences from right after they occurred through the twentieth century. In some ways, the very fact that interest in this event has spanned across both time and disciplines makes the trials worthy of study. Although the United States is a young country, there is a lot of rich history. Yet, the American population still returns to the Salem Witchcraft Trials throughout different periods. For years, historical analysis was focused on the elite. History reflected the events that concerned those who were in power. The Salem Witchcraft Trials are decidedly the opposite. The people who were involved in the trials were very much so part of the “common” people. In part, this is what makes the trials so interesting after the turn of the twentieth century, the study of history changed to include more “common” historical events. One of the things that makes the trials interesting is this aspect that they were an event that was fully and singularly about the ordinary citizens of Salem, Massachusetts. The Salem Witchcraft Trials became during the twentieth century a way for people to learn, not only about Puritan culture but also how to cope with contemporary issues—especially issues involving gender and sexuality. In the early twentieth century, literary scholars did the majority of scholarship on the trials, and only later did historians really focus on the trials.
    [Show full text]
  • John Livingston Lowes, Scholar-Teacher
    Studies in English, New Series Volume 4 Article 5 1983 John Livingston Lowes, Scholar-Teacher Clyde K. Hyder University of Kansas Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new Part of the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hyder, Clyde K. (1983) "John Livingston Lowes, Scholar-Teacher," Studies in English, New Series: Vol. 4 , Article 5. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new/vol4/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Studies in English at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in English, New Series by an authorized editor of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hyder: John Livingston Lowes, Scholar-Teacher JOHN LIVINGSTON LOWES, SCHOLAR-TEACHER Clyde K. Hyder Emeritus, University of Kansas For many years after 1918 graduate students in Harvard’s Wid­ ener Library noticed a man probably no taller than John Keats—one, too, who understood that poet’s being sensitive about his stature— charging through the stacks with as much speed as stacks permitted, not as much as a football field would have made possible; even if he was only verifying a reference, observers felt he was making the scholastic equivalent of a touchdown. John Livingston Lowes, born at Decatur, Indiana, on 20 December 1867, was not a youth even in 1918, but in succeeding years his hair and small mustache remained dark, untinged by gray, and his movements lively, for there can be no loitering in paths that lead to Xanadu. Youths said to have speculated that he wore a wig abandoned such notions when they saw a barber giving him a shampoo.
    [Show full text]
  • The Religious Element in the Popular Ballads
    University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 6-1913 The religious element in the popular ballads. Elizabeth Phillips McConathy University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation McConathy, Elizabeth Phillips, "The religious element in the popular ballads." (1913). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 938. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/938 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE R ELI G IOU S ELEMENT \' I nTH E r 0 P U L A R B·A L LAD S" By Elizabeth l'hillips IJcConathY "Submi tt ed in Partial .BUlfillment of the Re­ quirements for the DeBree of I~ster of Arts, in tho University of Louisville. June 1913 PREFACE. The present study of the religious element in the popular ballads is based largely on Mr. George ; L. Kittredge's edition of lir. Francis J. Child's co1- lection of English and scottish popular ballads, the completeness of which, up to this time, has not been disputed.* Mr.Kittredge has printed in his volume one or more versions of every ballad which Mr. Child - has given as an authentic folk ballad (0mitting Nos.
    [Show full text]
  • Shannon Jackson
    Professing Performance Disciplinary Genealogies Shannon Jackson In , Professor George Lyman Kittredge, Chairman of the English de- partment at Harvard University, dropped a note to his colleague Professor George Pierce Baker. The latter had been concerned that one of Kittredge’s new hires might have designs on the teaching of “the drama” and thus designs on Baker’s own curricular territory. Kittredge sought to mollify Baker’s anxi- ety. “You may feel quite secure,” he wrote, “as to any cutting into your spe- cial field” (in Baker, March ). The sentence reproduced the content and form of an all-too-familiar interaction between empowered chairman and paranoid colleague. And, as is often true of such interactions, it also revealed a hint of intellectual condescension within its gesture of institutional assurance, one that left flexible whether the word “special” had the connotation of the extraordinary, the narrow, or the peripheral. Lately, I have been looking at documents surrounding individuals like George Pierce Baker and other white academic American men—Hiram Corson at Cornell, Brander Matthews at Columbia, Thomas Dickinson at Wisconsin, Frederick Koch at North Carolina, Thomas Wood Stevens at Carnegie Tech—who figure prominently in the early institutionalization of “performance” in the United States. This is to trace something that most often called itself drama at that point, later dance, sometimes rhetoric, oratory, or speech. Spending so much time with such documents would have been incon- ceivable to me a few years ago and is still sometimes only barely sustainable. What does sustain me is an interest in understanding their implications for the institutionalization of performance studies now.
    [Show full text]