Harvard Fiction Some Gritical and Bibliographical Notes by HAMILTON VAUGHAN BAIL*
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Harvard Fiction Some Gritical and Bibliographical Notes BY HAMILTON VAUGHAN BAIL* N 1947 an article appeared in The Saturday Review of I Literature with the title, "Nostalgia for the Ivy"'^ in which the author made some brief remarks about the aspects of American college fiction of the past, mentioned a number of books dealing with several of our colleges, and ended on the theme that the revolutionary changes in life at these colleges would require and did require a new type of novel : The Great College Novel will not be easy to write. But the field is wide open for good college fiction that captures imaginatively the present spirit of the campus. Never before has college meant so much to so many, and it would be unfortunate if no gifted author were to give this era the immortality of print. Some two years later Edward Weeks was citing in a some- what different vein the lack of novels in this field: "For all the color, sentiment, and intensity—not to mention the 1 William Randel, "Nostalgia for the Ivy," The Saturday Review of Literature, XXX, No. 48, 10 et 6eq (November 29, 1947). Mr. Randel was a member of the English Depart- ment of the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy. *I am indebted to many for help in making this work possible. Authors, with one excep- tion, have been most cooperative and by aiding and abetting me have added much to any value the articles might have. Publishers, too, have been of help and I wish to thank Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., Albert & Charles Boni Inc., Constable and Com- pany ltd. Harper & Brothers, Houghton Mifflin Company, Little, Brown & Company, The Macmillan Company, L. C. Page & Company, G. P. Putnam's Sons, Rinehart & Company, Inc., Street & Smith Publications, Inc., and Vanguard Press, Inc. for furnish- ing information about their books. I am also grateful to the many librarians who have answered my various inquiries; in particular I must thank Mr. Vincent L. Eaton and Frederick R. Goff of The Library of Congress and the staff of the Periodical Room of the Free Library of Philadelphia who have done so much for me. Finally I would like to express my appreciation for aid of one sort or another given me by Mr. John Alden, Mr. William Bentinck-Smith, Mr. George T. Goodspeed, Mr. William A. Jackson, Miss Ruth S. Leonard, Mr. Rufus F. Osgood, Mr. Clifford K. Shipton, Mr. Rollo G. Silver, Mr. Willard Thorp, and Mr. William Van Lennep. 212 AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY [Oct., sparking in the coeducational schools—there have been singularly few novels which have caught the true college spirit." He then cites a half dozen such stories and con- tinues: "And that's just about the score. Elusive, appar- ently indifferent, never the same from one generation to the next, college spirit is not easily to be captured."^ A few weeks later Bennett Cerf noted Mr. Weeks' surprise at the scarcity of novels which caught the spirit of our biggest colleges, quoted his remarks, added that there surely must be additions to the list although he himself could think only of a few by George Ade, "Holworthy Hall," and Ralph D. Paine, and asked undergraduates— or their parents—to help out.' They did; and two months later Mr. Cerf opened his column: "If Ted Weeks, of The Atlantic Monthly, is seri- ously interested in corralling more novels dealing with college life, contributors offer him the following sugges- tions." These suggestions mentioned numerous books about numerous places, and the last contributor, Samuel Hopkins Adams, included these comments in addition: You will probably find that many of the small, old colleges have pro- duced literature about themselves. Hamilton is represented, though not too worthily. Union fares still worse. What about Amherst, Williams, Trinity, Bowdoin, Swarthmore? It would be strange, indeed, if some loving alumnus had not perpetuated his alma mater's glory in fiction. There should be many American Tom Browns awaiting im- mortality in the aes triplex of sound fiction. .* »Edward Weeks, "The Peripatetic Reviewer," in "The Atlantic Bookshelf," The Atlantic Monthly, CLXXXIV, No. i, p. 82 Quly, 1949). • Bennett Cerf, "Trade Winds," The Saturday Review of Literature, XXXII, No. 33, p. 4 (August 13, 1949). * Even earlier, perhaps about 1937, we find May Lamberton Becker on her page in New York Herald Tribune Books under the caption "Bright College Years" giving some information on the subject for the benefit of a correspondent from Bloomington, Ind., who was preparing a research paper on novels dealing primarily with American college life. More recently Ernest Earnest, Academic Procession (Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1953) has citations and comments taken from numerous novels covering college life. A. C. Spectorsky, The College Years (New York, Hawthorn, 1958) has produced a very extensive anthology of fiction and other writing about college. I9S8.] HARVARD FICTION 213 Clearly this subject of college fiction has been currently on the minds of many people. This paper will deal with one phase of it. Back in 1931 Mr. Theodore Hall wrote: Harvard men are itchingly literate. To even a casual inquirer it must appear that one youth out of every ten who depart to serve better their country and their kind exhibits the stigmata and avows his intentions of becoming an author. One cold, cis-academic year and the ranks are again decimated. But the residue of Harvard men who persist in getting words upon paper is still large enough to afïect the pulp market; Ameri- can literature by college-bred men is sufficiently crimson in its pedigree. What every last Harvard novelist (to limit our field) writes about, sooner or later, is Harvard. Some do it in one cathartic effort as a first novel; others, battening down their hatches as they put out, wait for years before they allow themselves a concentrated paragraph. The flavor of Cambridge, diffuse, timeless, beautifully adolescent, assails their nostrils by Schylkill [sic] or Arno and they picture it with nostalgic pen.' In the following pages that writing has been listed. It makes an impressive total; but if one should actually look up these books and read them—or read only some of them— one would be impressed by the varying pictures their au- thors have carried away from Cambridge. In Mr. Randel's article just mentioned he had written: "Someday a graduate student in American Civilization will choose as his thesis subject the fiction written about Harvard. There have always been things about Harvard incomprehensible to the rest of the country; and the novels suggest that not even Harvard men fully comprehend the place." This article is not, however, that graduate thesis; the field is still open for such a work, but these comments may help that future scholar.^ ' Theodore Hall, "Harvard in Fiction—A Short Anthology," The Harvard GraduaUs' Magazine, XL, 30 (September, 1931). • The Harvard Book (Cambridge, Harvard, 1953) by William Bentinck-Smith is not 8uch a thesis, but it is a finely edited anthology of writings about Harvard over a period of three centuries with extracts from many of the novels which are hereinafter considered; and his Introduction, "Writing Like a Harvard Man," is desirable reading in connection with this work A note in the Antiquarian Bookman of May 7, 1949, indicated that Joseph Lauren was preparing a book on "Harvard in Fiction." 214 AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY [Oct., In the first place it is necessary to do some defining and explaining. We have found that to many people "Harvard Fiction" seems to mean fiction by Harvard men. In this case at least it means fiction about Harvard. Furthermore, vire have had people suggest for inclusion in the work books whose only pertinency seemed to be the fact that one or more characters were described as alumni or students of the institution; or even that the word Harvard appeared in the book. Clearly that is not enough to qualify. Beyond that, however, we have attempted to include either in the main list or in the supplement all books of fiction which had at least a page or two dealing with the physical place, or the life of the students, or with those things tangible or other- wise for which the college has stood. We have gone further and listed in the supplement several books which deal chiefiy with faculty life and problems and allied Cambridge society which it would have been our inclination to omit entirely. We have probably failed to locate a number of novels which have some limited Harvard interest. It is hoped they are few. The copies which form the basis for the descriptions have been those in The Library of Con- gress which were deposited for copyright purposes where these have been available. Exceptions have been noted. The inclusion of a book in the main list for extended treatment rather than in the supplement for brief mention may perhaps be based on nothing but this author's personal choice. In general, however, the latter books did not seem to have enough Harvard interest to warrant detailed consideration. One great void in this list is the short story. They should have been included, but the task was beyond the compiler. Rather than include only the few that he had happened upon, it seemed wise to omit them all. There must be many in The Harvard Advocate and The Harvard 1958-] HARVARD FICTION 215 Monthly; Flandrau, Marquand, and DeVoto each had several in The Saturday Evening Post and there are probably others in that publication; a search of all the other story magazines, including Street & Smith's College Stories, would reveal still more; very recently Sloan Wilson had four stories about veterans at post-war Harvard in The New Yorker; the earliest we have come across is one of minor interest in The Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion of 1842.