5l?e f^ey F^eport^r VOLUME XLLX 0 NUMBER ONE a AUTUMN 1983

THE UNITED CHAPTERS: A CENTENNIAL REVIEW by Kenneth M. Greene

In an informal survey of Phi Beta Precisely when the idea for this consti Kappa members, many of them, when tutional convention originated is not asked what they understood the United certain. As early as 1856 the Trinity Chapters to be, said, "The people in College Chapter had proposed a general

office." the Washington That is, to be meeting of the members of Phi Beta sure, partly correct. The Washington Kappa, and two years later the Amherst people are, at any rate, laborers in the Chapter raised the question of holding vineyard. But the United Chapters is, a general convention. The first mater in the constitutional sense, composed ialization of these impulses, however, of all the chapters and the associations, did not occur until the Alpha of Massa which are represented by delegates to chusetts at Harvard University issued the triennial council meetings. The an invitation to all the other chapters to Council, which is the legislative body meet together at the Alpha's centennial of the United Chapters, elects the Sen celebration on June 30, 1881. ate, which is the general administrative This invitation was prompted more body. Recommendations for Phi Beta by than social and ceremonial motives. Kappa actions and programs are usu The Alpha was concerned about varia ally initiated by the Senate and are tions in the form of the charters being submitted for consideration by the granted to establish new chapters and, Council. The decisions of the Council no doubt, by implication, about the are then implemented by the Senate lack of uniformity in the whole process and its committees and by the Wash of charters. It therefore re ington staff. Since announcements and granting quested the invited chapters to give pronouncements generally emanate their delegates such power that the as 'ii mm from the Washington headquarters, it sembly might act as a convention of Phi tends to stand, symbolically at least, Beta Kappa and might vote for the United Chapters. But credit for specifically on changes in the charter. the accomplishments of the United Chapters, which celebrates this year the Twenty-nine delegates, representing one-hundredth its first anniversary of twelve chapters, came to Cambridge for belongs to the Council and to meeting, the celebration. Prior to the ceremonies the Senate and to all ultimately of they met in convention in Gore Hall. you who make it possible for the na Although mindful of the need to con tional organization to function and sider the question of the charters, the '*siy flourish. delegates agreed on the necessity of first effecting a permanent organization Beginnings that should serve the interest of Phi Beta Kappa on a broad scale. This pur On the morning of September 6, 1882, The Town Hall in Saratoga pose is clearly indicated in the pream Springs, representatives of fifteen of the then New York was the birthplace ble and resolution brought forward fabovej, twenty-two active chapters of Phi Beta by the United Chapters Phi Beta Francis P. Nash, the delegate from the of of Kappa met in the Town Hall at Sara Kappa the first National Council was Hobart Chapter: toga Springs, New York, to consider the convened there in September 1883. adoption of a constitution that would Whereas the Phi Beta Kappa Society has not (Photograph is from the original nega help to bring the chapters together into hitherto exerted upon the intellectual life of tive taken in 1887 Seneca Stod by Ray a national organization. The meeting America an influence commensurate to its dard and was obtained from the collec culminated in the adoption of the con true and legitimate importance, having been tion George S. Bolster Saratoga precluded therefrom the lack of regu of of stitution, although only seven of the by any New lar method of and Springs, York.) representatives had the authority of ascertaining expressing the views of the Society as a whole; their chapters to ratify it at that time. It was resolved that as soon as fourteen And whereas it is highly desirable that a Kenneth M. Greene has been secretary ratifications had been obtained, the first voice and utterance should be given to the of the United Chapters of Phi Beta National Council would be convened at collective learning, wisdom, and experience Kappa since 1975. Saratoga Springs in September 1883. of the Society in order that the Society may

www.pbk.org obtain that influence and moral power new charter to a petitioner. In practice, presidents, academic vice presidents, which legitimately belong to it; however, this did not always occur. provosts, deans, and faculty members to the Washington The secretary of the Alpha of New York still make their way And whereas this object cannot otherwise be of Phi Beta seek wrote to a petitioning correspondent at headquarters Kappa, attained than by entrusting the expression of Cornell in 1881 that it has "of late ing advice on how they can improve the opinions of this Society to some suffi their chances of a charter. As years . . . been construed that the gaining ciently representative body delegated by the tacitly of each shall have jurisdic the Committee on Qualifications has several chapters; therefore, Alpha State State." tion in this matter over its own tried to make clear, however, there is That this Convention do there are Resolved, hereby But there is no evidence to indicate no magic formula. Indeed, no earnestly recommend to all chapters of the and Phi Beta that even this tacit understanding was absolute standards, Kappa Phi Beta Kappa to choose delegates Society should not be thought of as an accredit widely accepted. ... to meet together . . . , who when thus as ing agency. As stated in a Phi Beta sembled shall constitute the National Coun After the United Chapters was formed, Kappa brochure entitled "The Found and shall cil of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Chapters," a procedure was adopted whereby of New have power to express the opinion and sen ing charter applications were submitted to timent of this upon all such ques Society Because of the great differences insti for its recommendation and among tions as from time to time be presented the Senate may number tutions . . ., such as the and kinds of to said Council for consideration. then to the Council for the determining books in the library, the nature of the teach vote on the granting of charters. Until and the publications of the faculty, the The Nash resolution was and ing accepted, 1922, each application had to be sup character of the students . . . and the general was a of in October 1881 there meeting ported five endorsements from exist by attitude toward scholarship, no absolute a constitutional committee in New York chapters. As applications piled ing up standards can be formulated. The Society is City. This led to the al meeting already before the Senate and chapters were in above all interested in the development of

luded to in Saratoga Springs in Septem women. undated with requests for endorse liberally educated men and In and to the of with which institu ber 1882, finally meeting ments, the need for a more efficient measuring the success of work towards this the Committee the First National Council the United procedure became clear. In 1922 the tions goal, Septem evaluates each institution individually. Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa in Senate proposed to the Council a new

ber 1883. which gave to chapters within plan, The quality of the institutions currently specified geographical districts the re chapters of Phi Beta Kappa The meeting of the First National Coun sheltering charter- for recommending to set a kind of standard cil, the one-hundredth anniversary of sponsibility does, be sure, institutions to the Senate. This institutions are which is being celebrated this year, was worthy against which applying plan, however, caused sharp disagree measured. Awareness of this made possible by the ratification of the inevitably ments and among the districts, standard of excellence figures constitution by sixteen chapters rivalry certainly and it was dropped after two triennial of the namely, the Alphas of Massachusetts in the deliberations Committee experiences. In 1931 the National (Harvard), Vermont (University of Ver on Qualifications and the Senate as Council (or Triennial Council, as it undertake their assessments of mont], New Hampshire (Dartmouth), they ap came to be established the Com New York (Union), and Maine (Bow called) plicant institutions and prepare their mittee on Qualifications, which ever doin); the Betas of Connecticut (Trin recommendations for the Council. And since has been responsible for investi ity), Massachusetts (Amherst), Ohio the Council must then determine if the and institutions to be (Kenyon), New York (New York Uni gating selecting excellence achieved warrants the grant recommended for charters. versity), and Vermont (Middlebury); the ing of a charter. Gammas of Connecticut (Wesleyan), The authority of the United Chapters to Massachusetts (Williams), and New Quest for Stability establish new chapters of Phi Beta York (City College); the Delta of New Kappa is, of course, one of the impor York (Columbia); the Epsilon of New To translate noble aims into active proj tant ways in which it affects education York (Hamilton); and the Zeta of New ects requires, of course, money and la in America. President Clark S. Northup York (Hobart). The meeting was held in bor, even for Phi Beta Kappa. In the did not, perhaps, overstate the case in the Town Hall at Saratoga Springs, on early days of the United Chapters, his remarks to the Seventeenth Council September 5, 1883, with 24 delegates money was in very short supply, and in 1931. Speaking of the need for a present, representing 13 chapters. With those who labored in behalf of the soci truly efficient way of granting charters, out delay the delegates elected the first ety did so voluntarily and in the time he said; Senate, as provided for in the constitu they could spare from the duties that tion. Among the 20 elected were Ed This is particularly important because of the earned them their bread. In its infancy ward Everett Hale, Oliver Wendell increasing desire for Phi Beta Kappa ap the United Chapters derived a small in proval both individuals and institutions. Holmes, Charles W. Eliot, James B. An by come from a triennial fee ($5 at first, More than 200 institutions have indicated a gell, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, raised to $10 in 1904) collected from desire for charters and have not yet received and Joseph H. Choate. Charles W. Eliot, each chapter. In 1910 the smaller, more them. Institutions are willing to alter their then president of Harvard University, impecunious chapters com faculties, curricula, endowments, libraries, having was elected president of the Council. plained that such an assessment was and other elements or facilities to gain our

recognition. . . . Phi Beta Kappa can set a inequitable, the chapter fee was re The Challenge of Chartering New gold standard for liberal education in Amer placed by a fee of $1 charged for the ica. Chapters registration of each newly elected mem ber. Since everyone thus registered re The first task of the Senate and the Although 120 new chapters have been ceived a one-year subscription to the Council was to regularize the proce established since President Northup society's newsletter, the net income to dures for granting charters. Prior to the made these comments, the records of the United Chapters was effectively re establishment of the United Chapters, the United Chapters in Washington, duced by half. In 1916 the process of the system if it can fairly be called D.C, currently contain files for more ordering Phi Beta Kappa keys was cen- that of granting charters had been er than 400 institutions that at one time or traiized in the hands of the United all Alphas were another applied for ratic. Theoretically, the have chapters and Chapters, which received a royalty from supposed to agree on the granting of a have not yet received them. College the official jeweler for each key pur-

THE KEY REPORTER www.pbk.org chased and thus managed to augment The goal of the 150th Anniversary Me By 1954 the society's financial position its income in a modest way. morial Endowment Fund was placed at was stable enough to permit it to pur $1 million. Little more than a third of chase a building in the Dupont Circle this was a Nevertheless, precarious way that amount was reached at the end of area of Washington, D.C, to serve as a in which to mount programs or to run the campaign, but the gift of $100,000 headquarters. Thus the United Chap an organization. The leanness of the to the Memorial Building was made, ters, which had occupied rented offices made treasury anything like a perma and the Senate never lost sight of its in New York from 1921 to 1951 and nent headquarters for the United Chap obligation to find practical ways of ex temporary quarters in Williamsburg for ters impossible in these In early days. ercising Phi Beta Kappa's idealism. the next three years, at last acquired deed, the headquarters was wherever permanent headquarters to house its the secretary, himself a volunteer, hap One practical and necessary measure staff and the staff of The American pened to be. Until the end of the nine immediately adopted was the incorpo Scholar. Here, amidst such interesting teenth it was at ration of century, Williams Col by the Senate the Phi Beta neighbors as the Argentine Embassy lege, where Eben Parsons, the United Kappa Foundation. The reason for in and the Woman's National Democratic Chapters secretary, was registrar. Dr. corporation was to enable the United Club, in a location now designated as a Parsons was succeeded by Oscar Voor Chapters, through the Foundation, to historic preservation area, the work of hees, during whose tenure the head hold and administer trust funds. As the United Chapters goes on. A staff of quarters shifted from one parsonage to soon as the organization was completed nearly thirty sees to the maintenance of as Dr. Voorhees served in in accu another, 1924, the funds that had been membership records, the provision of churches in New Jersey for several mulating were turned over to the Foun services to the chapters and associa years and then moved to the Reformed dation. Ever since, the Foundation has tions, the conduct of financial business, Church of Mott Haven in New York held the society's endowment funds the editorial work and subscription

City in 1909. and overseen their investment. services of The American Scholar and The Key Reporter, and the staff work Between 1917 and 1939 the United The of the charter to the Foun granting required for the Visiting Scholar Pro Chapters undertook three endowment dation in 1924 w?as considered the by gram, the Associates Lectureship, and fund drives. None of the three suc Senate to be an appropriate occasion the various award programs, as well as ceeded in the declared goals, for a celebration, which was held reaching duly the staff support for the dozen or more the first and last from in New York on 26. To suffering having City February committees of the Senate and the Coun been launched on the eves of America's his account of this Oscar celebration, cil. entrance into World War I and World Voorhees adds the following interesting War II, respectively. Nevertheless, sig postscript: Programs and Publications nificant benefits to Phi Beta Kappa emerged from these efforts. The welfare This occasion, notable in itself, had as a se Even as the quest for financial stability

quel an incident of rare importance. . . . was the Council had been un of the society aroused the interest of going on, W.A.R. Goodwin, pastor of Bruton Church at programs to the Francis Phelps Dodge, who, insisting dertaking keep society Williamsburg, spoke in behalf of William on a on anonymity, provided a headquarters vital and to encourage scholarship and College. Dr. Goodwin laid stress Mary scale. as the for the United Chapters for five years broad As early 1910 on the difficulties through which the College the 1920s and funds sufficient United Chapters began publishing The during had passed, the importance of its special of a Phi Beta Kappa Key, a that to pay the salary full-time secretary contribution through the Phi Beta Kappa to quarterly carried in addition to news of the for three years. In December 1921, Os higher education, and the appropriateness of chap and and occa car Voorhees was elected to that office, the proposed Memorial to the College and ters the Council, poetry sional on of intellectual and in the new headquarters in a suite the Society. articles topics of rooms in the neighborhood of Carne interest. Although it was primarily an Senator John D. Jr. was gie Hall work went forward with plans Rockefeller, present, interchapter bulletin, it did attempt to and at the conclusion [was to to launch an endowment fund drive in introduced] stimulate interest among the members Dr. Goodwin. The events of the evening and cause of connection with Phi Beta Kappa's in promoting the scholarship the continuing friendship between Mr. Rock sesquicentennial celebra generally. forthcoming efeller and Dr. Goodwin later resulted in the tion in 1926. restoration of Williamsburg, the value and Still, The Key was primarily a house importance of to the citizens of this which, organ. It printed accounts of The plan of the sesquicentennial cam chatty country, it would be impossible to estimate. chapter and association activities and paign incorporated an earlier proposal, a column entitled "In the originated the Alpha of Virginia and in Busy by World" Although the Society's small endow carried brief news notes about endorsed by the Senate, to raise funds ment suffered from the ef individual members. In general it con for a memorial to the fifty founders of constricting fects of the depressed conditions of the veyed a sense of that Phi Beta Kappa a memorial building family intimacy support for Phi Beta Kappa was was, possible because the to be erected on the campus of the Col 1930s, perhaps, only no means lacking. in a was then small, in contrast lege of William and Mary. The endow by Early 1940, society very small of members met at the Har to its current of over ment fund, it was stipulated, should group living membership vard in New York and orga 400,000. Even the President of the provide the $100,000 needed for the Club City nized the Phi Beta Kappa Associates United States was part of the as memorial building, and the balance was family, with the intention of the so suggested in a paragraph to be used increasing recounting ciety's endowment so as to provide an how United Chapters President Edwin in the high for encouraging true scholarship assured source of income to assist the Grosvenor went to keep an appoint and universities of our schools, colleges, United Chapters in the realization of its ment with President Theodore Roose and also for encouraging and develop land, objectives. Through regular and sub velt at the White House and found high character and inspired leadership ing stantial contributions to the Founda Roosevelt him beyond his to keeping among our members by pointing the way signifi scheduled order talk about idealism tion, the Associates have helped time in to this end by systematized practical to increase the endowment from Phi Beta Kappa. out his in ways to be outlined, and perhaps superin cantly Holding key $290,000 in 1940 to over $4 million to and to "This is one tended committees appointed by the Sen saying Grosvenor, by possessions," Roose- ate of the United Chapters. day. of my most valued

AUTUMN 1983 www.pbk.org veit went on to declare that every col part in the actual editing than is the cil delegates generally agreed, as the lege in the country ought to have a case today. Members of the board such records of the 1934 Council indicate, chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. "And after as Ada Louise Comstock, Will Howe, that the United Chapters achieves the it," they get it, make them live up to he John H. Finley, and William Allen "ideal of unity among independent and

units." added. Grosvenor was charmed but not Neilson devoted a great deal of time to differing convinced. the development of the magazine and The 1934 Council put the case more attracted manuscripts from writ many in this way: The continued until at which specifically Key 1931, ers of distinction. In the first years of time it was for finan chapters have adapted themselves to dropped, partly its existence, The American Scholar The the cial reasons and because the peculiarities of their institutions. partly had a paid circulation of just under sheltering Council had approved a Senate pro should continue to do so. . . . The 5000. Its current circulation of over They key stand for the same posal to replace it with a journal that should approximately 27,000 is larger than that of any other kind and degree of throughout would publish articles of a scholarship scholarly intellectual quarterly. the country, but this end should be attained, general nature and would promote lib insofar as possible, by other means than gen eral education and culture the inter other projects initiated in the by Among eral legislation. change of ideas among scholars. It was 1930s by the United Chapters and still to be a quarterly publication and was to is the address, spon flourishing jointly Thus, although the Councils of the be called The American Scholar. The sored Phi Beta Kappa and the Amer by United Chapters have taken some mea American Scholar was, indeed, brought ican Association for the Advancement sures to achieve uniformity in election forth in 1932, but 1933, its success of Science, given at the annual by meeting practices the adoption, for example, notwithstanding, the need for some of the AAAS. The purpose of this ad of a model chapter constitution (bind thing like the old Phi Beta Kappa Key dress, as it was conceived in 1936 and ing only on chapters founded since became evident. The Senate proposed still obtains today, is to stress the inter 1889), the adoption of requirements that the need be met the publication dependence of science and the humani by that amendments to chapter by-laws be of an annual report designed to stimu ties. The series has featured of many approved by the Senate (binding only late interest in the society and to con the world's most eminent scientists and on chapters founded since 1925) and stitute a permanent historical record. scholars, them Arthur among Compton, that the original by-laws be approved Such a publication was duly produced, George Lyman Kittredge, Margaret by the Senate (binding only on chapters under the title Phi Beta Kappa Annals, Rene Dubos, and Freeman Mead, Dy founded since 1937), and the adoption in 1934; but it proved to be an expen son. Also in the mid-1930s, the first of a set of stipulations for the election sive enterprise and a generally inade Isabel was Mary Sibley Fellowship of members in course (binding only on quate substitute for a quarterly. Accord awarded the United Chapters. Made by chapters founded after 1952) the indi ingly, a new quarterly in a newsletter possible a bequest from Mrs. Sib by vidual chapters have generally thought format was given the of the ley's the provides blessing daughter, fellowship the functions most appropriate to the Council, and in December 1935 the first funds to assist women who are young United Chapters to be the initiation and issue of The Reporter appeared. projects in either Key completing scholarly conduct of projects for the encourage Greek or French studies. ment of scholarship, such as fellow It should be noted, too, that three sets ships or prizes or the publication of of Phi Beta Kappa orations were pub Policies and Reforms writing, and the provision of lished between 1915 and 1962 as part scholarly services to the chapters and of the society's aim to enhance the na The constraints of the depression years necessary associations. In short, the role of the tion's culture. The orations embrace di did not allow the United Chapters to do United Chapters, in the view of many, verse themes and convey the thoughts as much as it wished to encourage should be less to dictate than to facili of serious thinkers. Ralph Waldo Emer scholarship, but it did what it could. Scholar" tate. son's famous "The American The Council meetings in those years is among them, and Bliss Perry's "The gave needed attention to general policy Spirit." Amateur So, too, are Josiah and constitutional reform and dealt Visits and Awards Christianity" Royce's "What is Vital in with such weighty matters as the ap and Marjorie Nicolson's "The Romance proved pronunciation of Phi Beta As the resources of the United Chapters Scholarship." of Kappa, settling in favor of Phy Bayta increased, new programs were devel Kappa (123 votes at the 1937 Council oped. In 1951 the Christian Gauss No doubt the boldest ven publishing meeting) over Phy Beeta Kappa (31 Award was established for books of lit ture undertaken the United Chapters by votes) and Phee Bayta Kappa (11 votes). erary criticism. This was followed in was the of The American launching 1959 by a second book award the Phi Scholar in 1932. The times were The United Chapters, the hard, recognizing Beta Kappa Award in Science and in and the had little money. worth of a alumni organization, society very strong 1960 by a thirdthe Ralph Waldo But the senators who proposed the sought ways of the forma encouraging Emerson Award for studies in history, publication of "a non-technical journal tion of associations, and the associa philosophy, and the social sci life" religion, of intellectual were confident and tions, the oldest one of which the Phi ences. Each award is made annually enthusiastic about its prospects, and Beta Kappa Alumni in New York pre and carries with it a prize of $2500, as with the endorsement of the entire Sen dates the United Chapters several by well as the prestige of Phi Beta Kappa's of 1931 years, continued their active support of ate before it, the Council ap recognition. proved the plan. Phi Beta Kappa goals. In 1956 the Senate initiated the Visiting The appeal of The American Scholar In addition to the attention, noted ear Scholar Program, which has enjoyed was from the first issue in 1932 so re lier, given to the granting of new chart enormous success in the 27 years of its markable that the United Chapters has ers, the United Chapters also concerned existence. Each year, twelve or more never begrudged the expense of sup itself to some extent with election prac distinguished scholars, selected by a porting it. Much of the early success tices in the existing chapters. In spite of committee of the Senate, visit institu can be attributed to the Editorial Board, periodic expressions of dismay over the tions that have asked to participate in played a more prominent of election the which then variety practices, Coun (continued on back cover)

THE KEY REPORTER www.pbk.org liographical notes and comments. Lesky 's own opinions are succinctly expressed.

The Art of Aeschylus. Thomas Rosenmeyer. California. 1983. S34.95, S12.95. A broad, penetrating study, avoiding ques tions of connections between this ancient tragedian's plays and the events of his times and focusing upon his theatrical practices. Rosenmeyer's analysis and arguments con cerning the gods, the human characters, and plot are fresh and stimulating, and they are illuminated by comparisons with later play wrights. He carefully counters much re

ceived opinion on these matters, as also on reading recommended by the book committee the subject of human and divine responsibil ity in the plays. FREDERICK J. humanities CROSSON, ROBERT B. HEILMAN, The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean ROBERT P. SONKOWSKY. LAWRENCE WILLSON Tragedy. B. M. W. Knox. California. 1983. social sciences EARL W. LEONARD W. COUNT, DOOB, S7.95. ANDREW GYORGY, MADELINE R. ROBINTON, This first paperback printing of Knox's 1964 VICTORIA SCHUCK Sather lectures volume will be a valuable ac natural sciences RONALD GEBALLE, RUSSELL B. STEVENS quisition for more and more seekers of a truly fundamental understanding of Sopho cles. Readers of his earlier Oedipus at Thebes as well as those who have not yet ROBERT P. SONKOWSKY poem of the best Roman poet. First, Wil discovered Knox will find no truer, more liams analyzes Vergil's techniques in isola guide to the heart of Sophocles Plato's Parmenides: Translation and Analy entrancing tion from questions about the poet's point of nor a more expositor of the ex sis. R. E. Allen. Minnesota. 1983. $25. illuminating view, studying figural uses of fate and the quisite and mysterious details of his plays. An exhaustive study of a very difficult and gods, various structural devices, and uses of complex work. Allen calls his elegant ap literary allusion. Only then does Williams proach code-cracking. This gradually reveals RUSSELL B. STEVENS get into deeper complexities con the relation between the structure of the dia involving notations about Augustan Rome, human uni- The of Insulin. Michael Bliss. logue and the perplexities it treats concern Discovery versals, Vergil's own comments, and the Univ. Chicago. 1982. $20. ing Plato's theory of forms. The appendix on like. The result is shining clarity, in which Chances are very good indeed that books modern set theory analysis of infinity helps Vergil emerges as a poet, not of but such as this one another example is James the less mathematical reader. ideology, of ideas. Watson's Double Helix come far closer to Publica Carmina: Ovid's Books from Exile. the true story of scientific The Idea of Lyric: Lyric Modes in Ancient telling discovery Harry B. Evans. Nebraska. 1983. $23.50. than more orthodox accounts of what we are and Modern Poetry. W. R. Johnson. Califor This clear and persuasive study of Ovid's accustomed to speak of as the "scientific nia. 1983. S7.95. Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto fills a gap in Bliss shows that science advances An analysis of the essence of lyric poetry, our understanding of one of the greatest in the context of real-life situations and that rather than its accidents, as exemplified in poets of antiquity. Avoiding mere biography. it is done by real people, with all the Greek, Roman, and modern poets, and as re Evans shows how the poet of the Heroides, strengths, shortcomings, and idiosyncracies vealed in ancient and modern theory. In Ars Amatoria, and Metamorphoses contin this implies. He also, in this account, re these imaginative and es ues to the final profoundly witty develop artistically during minds us that discovery as often as not leads says, Johnson shows how the personal and years of his life in exile. The exile poems re to acceptance and widespread application the public, experience and rhetoric were flect poetic departures unparalleled in clas only after painful delays and setbacks. Fi fused in the ancient lyric mode, and he sical literature and include sufficient literary nally, it becomes clear how soon the public makes ancient and modern lyricists illumi merit to close study. Good biblio repay tends to forget, as it were, even a very great nate each other through comparison. Avoid graphical notes. health hazard once an effective measure for ing discussion of particular meters or music, its control or amelioration is and de Before Pastoral: Theocritus and the Ancient widely Johnson selectively traces the idea of lyric pendably available. In short, the story most Tradition of Bucolic Poetry. David Halperin. genres, monody, choral lyric, lyric drama, of us encountered, early in our schooling, of Yale. 1983. $26. lyric pastoral, from Greek and Roman to the discovery of insulin is a remarkably in A highly instructive treatise, based on the Western European and American poets. complete and indeed one this author's and the dif misleading dissertation directed to Among theorists he relies mostly, and volume redresses that balance. ficult task of offering a definition of bucolic rightly, upon those whose eras look back in as invented Theocritus in the third poetry by time upon the poetry they are analyzing, as The Wolf in the Southwest: The Making of post- century B.C. Halperin clears away the the Alexandrians and the postmoderns, and an Endangered Species. Ed. by David E. classical theories by means of an historical he attends carefully to audiences, real and Brown. Arizona. 1983. $19.95, S9.95. discussion of their development down to imaginary. The authors of this small volume are to be Northrop Frye and distinguishes between congratulated for providing a dispassionate "pastoral" Greek Tragic Poetry. Albin Lesky. Tr. by more general, features and a more account of the elimination of the wolf from Matthew Dillon. Yale. 1983. $50. specific, albeit flexible, definition of "bu the American Southwest, an episode about Theocritus' colic" Two earlier translations of books by the late poetry applicable in own which, in hindsight, it is difficult indeed to German classicist, Albin Lesky, Greek Trag times. Intelligently and persuasively orga be unmoved. Few who follow this story will edy and History of Greek Literature, espe nized. fail to be troubled by this striking example cially the latter, have been useful to English "Aeneid." of the unequal contest between the need for Technique and Ideas in the Gor readers, and now this translation of his 1972 $27.50. long-term conservation of wildlife species don Williams. Yale. 1983. work will serve students needing a compre and the urgent economic pressures of every One of the best critics analyzes the best hensive reference tool and history of Greek day human activity. Once again, introduced tragedy from its origins to its decline in the livestock husbandry scored a complete vic Hellenistic period. The extant plays, frag tory over indigenous predators. Robert P. Sonkowsky. of the University of ments, and other relevant evidence, the spe Minnesota, has recently been appointed to cific argumentation of scholars, as well as Aging: An Exploration. David P, Barash, the Book Committee and will recommend broader interpretations and conclusions, are Washington. 1983. $14.95. books on the classics. thoroughly summarized, with detailed bib Barash's examination of aging is so

AUTUMN 1983 www.pbk.org sprightly, contains so much "intentional" relevant yet trend. The one by Hawkes treats in general nature of such states and how unknown and deals largely information, the resources represented by cultivated spe it is that words have this peculiarity im with a topic of such pervasive interest that cies and the need to insure those crops posed on them. The analysis is meticulous most readers will be to accord it likely against a dangerous erosion of their genetic and imaginative and regularly engages op word-for-word examination. After of all, underpinning. He rightly underscores the posing critics, both past and potential. First what process other than aging can it be said fact that these are global issues, and ones rate. that everyone devotes full time, night and that cannot longer be neglected. In the sec to it? But The Shaping of Man: Philosophical Aspects day, whereas we all devote our ond book, Myers addresses a related closely of Sociobiology. Roger Trigg. time to Schocken. aging, few devote appreciable atten but distinct matter. He examines the value, 1983. $14.95. tion to it. is It the special virtue of this vol in terms well beyond the emotional simply The subtitle suggests that this is a ume that critique of aging emerges as a reasonable, an and esoteric, of the enormously diverse sociobiology, but its focus is broader than acceptable, and albeit inescapable, a modifi plant communities of such relatively un that. It is a cogent critique of a number able of phenomenon. Most will be more com touched areas of the world as still remain. philosophical and forted than views, scientific, that troubled by the knowledge to be For the most part, Myers's writings have de that there is a constant human gained deny nature from this work. cried the loss of natural vegetation and different in kind from the nature of other an fauna from an idealistic view of our respon Behavioral Energetics: The Cost of Survival. imals. The method is to exhibit the intrinsic sibilities as stewards of the globe as a habitat Ed. by Wayne P. Aspey and Sheldon I. Lus- inconsistencies into which any such views for mankind. He does this well and is to be tick. Ohio. 1983. $27.50. are inevitably constrained, and the author honored therefor, but in the book here re To be fair, because it is a collection of re proceeds with admirable sobriety. viewed he openly keys his remarks to an search reports mostly by specialists for spe economic yardstick, on the doubtless valid Aristotle and the Renaissance. Charles B. cialists, this book is rather too technical for assumption that as an entering wedge such Schmitt. Harvard. 1983. $18.50. the nonscientist. At the same time, it em an approach will touch more readers than The conventional wisdom is that the Renais phasizes one of the newer themes in the any other. In the term, no issue in biol sance and Reformation shook off the fetters analysis of biological phenomena in that it long ogy is more important than that addressed of Aristotle and medieval AristoteUanism, or deals with energy costs as an underlying and by Hawkes and Myers the wise husbandry at least preferred Plato. Quite the contrary unifying factor. In so doing, it also exempli of our global plant resources. was true, as this first overview of the accu fies, for this reviewer at least, why science mulating research on the period demon truth is so much more exciting than science FREDERICK J. CROSSON strates for the period 1400-1650. More fiction. Who would believe, for example, if translations of Aristotle were published in it appeared in science fiction literature, that The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. the sixteenth than in all the previous centu certain migratory birds fly 3000 kilometers Martin Heidegger. Trans, by Alfred Hofstad- ries; more Protestants than Catholics used in 80 hours nonstop, can detect altitudinal ter. Indiana. 1982. $27,50. his texts and arguments; more commentaries pressure changes equivalent to less than one Perhaps the most generally accessible text were written on them than in all previous inch, are sensitive to radiation frequencies that Heidegger published, this analysis for "beginner" ages; and even scientific inquiry continued as low as three per minute, and operate at a the (it originated in a lecture to take its bearings from his natural philoso gasoline-equivalent fuel efficiency of course) deals with the inadequate concep phy. A deft and readable marshaling of the 720,000 miles per gallon? tions of being in Kant, scholasticism, and evidence for these claims marks this schol Descartes and in theories of logic. Thus one The Secular Ark: Studies in the of arly and even-handed book. History has some more familiar guideposts when the Biogeography. Janet Browne. Yale. 1983. author turns to his own thought in the last Nietzsche and Philosophy. Gilles Deleuze. S27.50. third of the book and explicates the meaning Trans, by H. Tomlinson. Columbia. 1983. The current resurgence of support, at least in of being in terms of temporality. The transla $25. limited circles, for a literal interpre closely tion is superb. The tidal waves from the volcanic explosion tation of the Biblical account of the origins "Utopia." of Nietzsche's thought into The of More's (long dormant) of life, under the guise of so-called "Creation Meaning George M. continental continue to reach Science." Logan. Princeton. 1983. philosophy seems all the more bizarre once $27.50. our shores, much diminished. This 20-year- No of and the fuller is known. Browne has cho reading certainly no writing about story old interpretation became a minor classic More's imagined commonwealth should be sen the clever and provocative The "new" title, because it not presents a ignorant of this only Secular Ark. to underscore how in the scholarly and thoughtful es early Nietzsche, but shows the import of his pas say. Logan shows of plant and animal distributions the decisively that Utopia is study sionate critique for the premises of to be understood binary Noachian flood was agreed upon as pure primarily in the tradition structuralism and dialectic. Not for the gen of classical political myth. Given that, however, it took well over philosophy and not in eral reader without some knowledge of that of Renaissance humanism. Moreover, a century of study and debate to come Nietzsche. the moral and political within even recognizable distance of the pat issues that are cen tral to Utopia are still much terns and processes that do indeed deter very with us. American Catholics: A History of the Ro Recommended. man mine the current geographic picture of the Catholic Community in the United world. The Secular Ark States. James Hennesey. Oxford. 1981. living traces the The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Es $22.50, $8.95. gradual, almost painful, pathway along says. Max Black. Cornell. 1983. $16.95. A one-volume which the and history of such scope has all early geologists, biologists, Amusing and enlightening, these essays for of geographers unraveled that puzzle. the merits and demerits of a por the general reader deal with such topics as family trait: everyone is there, arranged in reasonable, what it is to be order, The of Plants. J, G. Hawkes. being humane, Diversity Crop with some more visible than but the and P. T. Barnum's delightful book on hum others, Harvard. 1983. $20. formal pose gives a hint of the bugs. them, one is reminded of Wil only story A Wealth of Wild Species: Storehouse for Reading within each face. The first parish liam James's similar not to was estab Human Welfare. Norman Myers. Westview. essays, adulterate lished in Florida in 1565. That the into chit-chat but to elevate book 1983. $11.95. philosophy S27, traces the growth of that common sense. community through Like it or not, science is no less subject to 415 years while remaining mostly readable the ebbs and flows of public interest and in Intentionality: An in Essay the Philosophy is quite an achievement. volvement than any of a myriad of other hu of Mind. John R. Searle. Cambridge. 1983. man activities. Over the past few decades we $39.50, $12.95. have seen a marked diminution in the sup Verbs signifying psychological acts (like be ROBERT B. HEILMAN port of research and teaching in the plant lieving and desiring) have the peculiarity sciences. Predictably, this neglect that are related very they intrinsically to some A Woman. Sibilla Aleramo. Tr. by Rosalind seems now to be a corrective envisaged contents generating (grammatically: they take Delmar. California. 1980. $10.95. counter movement, as the crucial impor an object) but that the content or may may Aleramo's autobiographic novel (1906), tance of this sector of the living world is in not correspond to real objects. This peculiar known widely in Europe, records the psy recognized. The two books here has been taken to be a creasingly ity defining character chological turmoil of a creative woman's noted are those that bolster this istic of the mind, and Searle among explores the marriage to a cloddish businessman, her joy 6 THE KEY REPORTER www.pbk.org in motherhood, and hence the double strain Shakespeare performances; equally at home of walking out when such a move was in England and America; a divorcee before largely unheard of. Halfway through the divorce was acceptable; and a friend of Aleramo uses novel, the word feminism for many famous people, notably such writers the first time, and thence on she /cnolor sees her as Henry James. o personal suffering in the light of general Young Charles Lamb 1775-1802. Winifred problems. The style is plain. F. Courtney. New York University. 1982.

Sex and Sensibility: Ideal and Erotic Love $30. from Milton to Mozart. Jean H. Hagstrum. Despite a somewhat pedestrian style and a Chicago. 1980. $30. massive assemblage of facts that resist a *G if you send Literary Loneliness in Mid-Eighteenth Cen fully controlling organization, this account tury England. John Sitter. Cornell. 1982. of Lamb to age 27 is a quite readable story. O US$12. $19.50. Lamb triumphed over great difficulties, had "everyone" a gift for friendship, and knew Two good but quite different books are we'll give you based on the same general period. With a Coleridge, ordsworth, Hazlitt, Godwin, rare combination of erudition and ease, Southey, and many radical eminences of the day. portrays them all. scholarship and vivacity, Hagstrum traces Courtney S a year filled the varieties of erotic feeling from Milton (an These the Companions: Recollections. Don advocate of in married sensuality love), Dry ald Davie. Cambridge. 1982. $22.50. with den and other reading Restoration dramatists, Davie's autobiographical work is not a con Q) through and Richardson Rousseau, to Goethe ventional chronological affair but a series of and Austen. There are references to |C you many reflections and meditations hung on sharply may music and and 32 painting, black-and-white detailed impressions of experiences, scenes, reproductions of paintings on love themes. and personalities at home, at Cambridge, at never forget! Sitter offers a fresh view of literary history Dublin, in Italy and parts of America. an unusual combination by studying figures portrayed, F. R. Among literary "An afternoon spent other and reading The Hume, Law, figures in the 1740s Leavis looms largest. Some 30 good illustra American Scholar is like a through Fielding's Amelia and Richardson's trip 1750s, tions from a family album. time to the lost age of elegant Grandison and discovering a literary sense literary "purity," The Image of the Poet: British Poets and salons. The best writers that of of isolation from the public and America Their Portraits. David Piper. Oxford. 1983. has produced have filled its pages from history, and, in this "pre-Romanti- cism," $25. with works of and a link with recent views of literature wit, intelligence, The British Dissonance: Essays on Ten Con with as nonreferential. scholarship, replete the verve and temporary Poets. A. Kingsley Weatherhead. excitement of discovery experienced F. R. Leavis. William Walsh. Indiana. 1980. 1983. $21. Missouri. with all of one's senses ... the Scholar $15. The Witness of Poetry. The Charles Eliot should be required reading for men Walsh has written an excellent guide to the Norton Lectures. Czeslaw Milosz. Harvard. and women in pursuit of the future. It life and works of Leavis. It is comprehensive 1983. $8.95. should be read slowly and leisurely, but compact, generally admiring but objec Poetry and poets are the subject of three savored and reread. For the intelligent and independent. It provides the habit- tive satisfy books that are all good in very different man or woman, it may well be forming." ing experience of following a major, if ways. Piper's handsome book contains 225 (from Magazines for crotchety, critic in judgments of major poets illustrations painted and sculptured por Libraries, R. R. Bowker & Company) and novelists, and the none-too-frequent ex traits of many poets from the Renaissance to We couldn't have said it perience of an intellectual work in civilized about 1930. The expository prose of the au better! The prose. thor, a first-rate art critic and historian who Scholar isn't just another magazine has been director of three major British mu you won't have time to read. Whether Literary Lifelines: The Richard Aldington- seums, is always colloquial and urbane, and you read it as soon as it arrives, or Lawrence Durrell Correspondence. Ed. by often witty. Weatherhead makes low-key, weeks or even months later, its fresh Ian S. MacNiven and Harry T. Moore. Vi compact, and unaffected critiques of the ness and significance remain. Join us king. 1981. $17.50. works to date of ten British poets, the now a year's subscription is only $1 2 About 175 letters exchanged from 1957 to youngest aged 44; the best known are Ted ($1 1 if you include payment with your 1962 between the old writer in disfavor and Hughes and the late David Jones. Occasional order). Just complete and return the exile and one just coming into fame reveal understated or ironic judgments season the form below, and we'll begin your their personalities and contain many com explication of methods (especially subscription with the current issue! ments, often and witty, on other mod sharp American influences and the relation to ern writers. graphic and plastic arts) and meaning (or the Romantics, Rebels, and Reactionaries: Eng poet's flight from it). Brief biographical notes lish Literature and Its Background 1760- and ample bibliographies help place the 1830. Marilyn Butler. Oxford. 1982. $17.95. poets. Sketching the relations among thought 'American Scholar This history of ideas strives impressively for patterns, society, and poetry in various ages, Department 7 a new look at the Enlightenment and Ro Milosz, the 1980 Nobel winner, opposes bo- 1811 Q Street. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009 manticism as it examines many facets of Ro hemian alienation and insists that poetry be mantic and thought. Butler is good "faithful to and maintain a "sense of writing enter subscription Scholar hierarchy" Please my to the at the of events and ideas of values. He predicts a revival of detecting interplay tor the term checked below, in the lives of various individuals. The prose a sense of history, and hence humanistic ? 1 year $1 2 ($1 1 payment with order) is disciplined and public. progress. He is often profound, and his style shuns the esoteric. ? 3 years $30 ($27 payment with order) Fanny Kemble: Leading Lady of the Nine Add $3.00 per year for Canadian and Stage. J. C. Furnas. Dial. Twentieth-Century French Literature. Ger teenth-Century foreign postage; please allow 6-8 weeks 1982. $19.95. maine Bree. Tr. Louise Guiney. Chicago. by for delivery of first issue Furnas's journalistic biography, jocose at 1983. $25. D Payment enclosed ? Please bill me "popu Bree's thorough of period 1920- times but generally adult rather than history the lar," laces together numerous quotes from 1970 pays attention not only to eight princi Name . Fanny Kemble's books to make a lively pic pal writers but to social, historical, and cul tural forces that impinged on literature. ture of an unusually attractive, intelligent, the Address . woman volume and independent despite her fam The has reference value in a "Dic Authors" actress but en of with City -State _ .Zip. ily tradition a somewhat taut tionary 175 entries and in ample classified thusiastic and successful in one-woman biographies.

AUTUMN 1983 www.pbk.org near. Its position is UNITED CHAPTERS (continued) may read 65 or 70 entries in a given tion that is felt far and not manufactured. It is a growth of which its year in the process of selecting a win the program. Visits two and last days members may be proud. ner. The Committee on the Visiting permit exchanges of ideas between the Scholar Program meets in intensive ses scholars and the resident faculty and The full extent to which the United sions of candidates for to draw up lists founders' students. Scholars and host institutions Chapters is achieving the appointments to the annual panel. The alike have consistently expressed their goals remains to be assessed. Some in members of the Sibley Fellowship enthusiasm for the intellectual stimula stances of the society's influence on Committee pore over stacks of applica tion engendered by this program. Since American intellectual and cultural life tions, and the members of the Commit its inception, 2138 visits have been are obvious enough. In 1963, for exam tee on the Romanell Professorship eval made by 239 Visiting Scholars. ple, when Phi Beta Kappa joined with uate scores of nominations submitted the American Council of Learned Soci At the meeting of the Thirty-third by the chapters. These and others con eties and the Council of Graduate Triennial Council in Boston in 1982, tribute their wisdom, time, and intel Schools to form a Commission on the the Phi Beta Kappa Award for Distin lectual energy in the cause of "practical idealism." Humanities, the commission's recom guished Service to the Humanities was What compels them to de mendations resulted in the establish presented to Dumas Malone, the noted vote themselves to Phi Beta Kappa is ment by Congress of the National En Jefferson scholar. This was the fifth not easy to define precisely, but it cer dowment for the Arts and the National presentation of the award, which was tainly is in part a loyalty to an organi Endowment for the Humanities. first given in 1970 and was made possi zation that has consistently been dedi ble a gift from B. by William Jaffe cated to excellence and in part, no Not so obvious, however, are other (Union and Mrs. Jaffe. 1926) doubt, the pride they feel in their mem kinds of influence, such as that previ bership. It is perhaps the same Phi Beta alluded to in connection with the The most recent award to be adminis ously Kappa mystique that prompts members aspirations of colleges to achieve tered by the United Chapters is the chart to on the society's work in the establish new chapters. Also Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professor carry ers to to graduate associations and to be gener be considered is the influence exerted ship in Philosophy. The inaugural lec ous in their financial support of Phi Phi Beta Kappa's insistence on com tures associated with the award are to by Beta Kappa. The United Chapters ex petence in foreign languages and math be given in the spring of 1984 by the acts no dues from its members. It has, as a condition for election to Professor Herbert Fingar ematics first recipient, low- however, since 1939, conducted a membership, as well as its insistence ette of the University of California, keyed annual fund appeal (the sug on a liberal education that avoids ex Santa Barbara. The purpose of the gested contribution of $5 in 1939 has narrow specialization. These award is to encourage public under cessively been edged upward over the past 44 and other influences will no doubt be standing of philosophy. It is to be given years, with characteristic Phi Beta examined in detail when an up-to-date annually and carries with it a stipend Kappa circumspection, to its current of the United Chapters, a proj of S6000, which derives from the in history of that produces almost half level $15) ect now under consideration by the come of an endowment gift from Pa Chapters' the United annual operating Senate, is written. trick Romanell, H. Y. Benedict Profes income. sor of Philosophy Emeritus at the Meanwhile, it is perhaps appropriate to of at El and Mrs. University Texas Paso, Speculating on the force of Phi Beta conclude with the hope that the current Romanell. Kappa's reputation and its unique ap state of the United Chapters would, on peal, Oscar Voorhees wrote in 1920: the whole, not disappoint the expecta Dedicated to the Ideals tions of the founders and that the pres Phi Beta Kappa possesses a spirit that ap and guardians of the United Working behind the scenes with the ent future peals to the imagination. . . . The fact that it United Chapters staff to effectuate these Chapters will carry on the honorable has come down from the Revolutionary pe are and Senate traditions of our venerable programs many Council riod and still retains a vigorous organization society by to work for the enhance committee members, themselves distin and an undisputed primacy among the intel continuing and cul guished in their respective fields. Mem lectual organizations of our land somehow ment of America's intellectual a reputa tural bers of the book awards committees casts a halo about it, and gives it life.

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