Life’s Beginnings • Learning from the Liberal Arts September-OctOber 2013 • $4.95 TThehe PersistencePersistence ofof PrintPrint Helen Vendler Arion Press & The Radcliffe Campaign Invest in Ideas launching october 28, 2013 photo by stu rosner To Sid and Susan, and to each member of the Institute’s advisory councils, thank you for your visionary leadership as we further our mission to advance new ideas and to share them widely. As A great university needs a place where we look to the Institute’s future, we have ambitious thinkers from across its campus and around plans to increase our the globe come together to take risks, explore photo by kathleen dooher photo by kathleen impact on students and new ideas, and connect theory and practice. faculty at Harvard and audiences around the world— through our highly selective Fellowship Program, At Harvard, the Radcliffe Institute is that the preeminent Schlesinger Library on the History place and is contributing to the future of of Women in America, groundbreaking research Harvard’s excellence and leadership. initiatives organized by our Academic Ventures program, and a full calendar of public events. Sidney R. Knafel ’52, MBA ’54, Campaign Co-Chair Lizabeth Cohen, Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Conceived as a bold interdisciplinary, inter- Advanced Study and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies generational, and international experiment, the Radcliffe Institute is now one of the world’s leading institutes for advanced study. Dean’s Advisory Council Schlesinger Library Council A vast range of pathbreaking intellectual Susan S. Wallach ’68, JD ’71 (Chair) Caroline Minot Bell ’77 Catherine A. Gellert ’93 Terrie F. Bloom ’75, MBA ’81 work happens in and across the sciences, Perrin Moorhead Grayson ’72 A’Lelia P. Bundles ’74 the humanities, the social sciences, and the Lea Paine Highet ’88 Phyllis Trustman Gelfman ’56 Leslie P. Hume ’69 Alice Geller arts. The Institute is a credit to Radcliffe’s David A. Jackson ’64 Marilynn Wood Hill Ralph M. James MBA ’82 Maisie K. Houghton ’62 history and Harvard’s future. Sidney R. Knafel ’52, MBA ’54 John W. Ingraham ’52, MBA ’57 Renée M. Landers ’77 Ralph M. James MBA ’82 Susan S. Wallach ’68, JD ’71, Campaign Co-Chair George M. Lovejoy Jr. ’51 Gish Jen ’77, BI ’87, RI ’02 Suzanne Young Murray ’62 Priscilla F. Kauff ’62 Diana L. Nelson ’84 Barbara N. Kravitz ’52, EdM ’53 THE HARVARD CAMPAIGN Melanie Mason Niemiec ’71, MBA ’75 Diana M. Meehan RADCLIFFE Nancy-Beth Gordon Sheerr ’71 Carol Smith Miller ’74 William A. Shutzer ’69, MBA ’72 Paula J. Omansky ’56, HRP ’57, LLB ’62 www.radcliffe.harvard.edu Prudence Linder Steiner ’58, AM ’76, PhD ’80 C. Andrew Pforzheimer ’83 Deborah Fiedler Stiles ’69, JD ’74 Elizabeth F. Rosenman ’54 For more information, please contact Leah Joy Zell ’71, AM ’72, PhD ’79 Susan W. Ware AM ’73, PhD ’78 [email protected] apply now Harvard_mag Ad with 4 Commas.indd 1 8/9/13 2:26 PM SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013 VOLUME 116, NUMBER 1 FEATURES 29 Life’s Beginnings Astronomers, earth scientists, geneticists, and others probe the origins of life on JIM HARRISON JIM this planet—and possibly elsewhere in the universe page 47 by Courtney Humphries DEPARTMENTS 2 7 Ware Street 34 A Nearly Perfect Book 3 Cambridge 02138 The collaboration between poetry critic Helen Communications from our readers Vendler and letterpress publisher Andrew Hoyem sustains the art of print in a digital era 4 The View from Mass Hall by Nathan Heller 13 Right Now The rise of the grassroots, post-9/11 World Trade Center visions, life on Earth: Vita: Henry Beston Sheahan the poster 40 Brief life of a nature writer in a machine 18 Montage age: 1888-1968 From cinema to cheese, avoiding a by John Nelson bloodbath in Johannesburg, sonorous saxophonist, writing Assassin’s Creed, the capitalist economy of the slaveholding South, self-made maps 42 Self-Fashioning in Society of Manhattan, and more and Solitude Finding a life path, through a thoughtful STU ROSNER 28A New England Regional Section page 29 Autumn events, a museum guide, liberal-arts education Alzheimer’s care, and an Asian-infused by Nannerl O. Keohane luncheonette 64 The Alumni A recession-inspired art gallery, Harvard 47 John Harvard’s Journal Alumni Association’s new president, An uncommon space, The Harvard Campaign…and and Hiram Hunn honorands its financial context, the external review of the e- 68 The College Pump mail investigations, sports-stadium skeptic, a legal Beating the heat afoot in Antarctica scholar for Education School dean, Radcliffe gradu- ates’ matrimonial bent, innovation for the humanities 76 Treasure Care for the Civil War wounded curriculum, women faculty, Allston plans advance, the Undergraduate’s advice to herself, the College’s 69 Crimson Classifieds interim head, new Undergraduate fellows, coaching On the cover: Letterpress type from Arion Press, San Francisco. Photograph women’s rugby as an NCAA sport, and rowing’s by ToniBird Photography peerless mentor DAN WILLIAMS DAN page 42 www.harvardmagazine.com Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 7 WARE STREET EDITOR: John S. Rosenberg PUBLISHER: Irina Kuksin SENIOR EDITOR: Jean Martin DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION AND By the FUNDRAISING Felecia Carter MANAGING EDITOR: Jonathan S. Shaw : DONOR RELATIONS AND STEWARDSHIP DEPUTY EDITOR: Craig Lambert MANAGER: Allison Kern ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Katherine Xue Books DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING: ASSISTANT EDITOR-ONLINE: Laura Levis Robert D. Fitta ASSISTANT EDITOR: Nell Porter Brown NEW ENGLAND ADVERTISING MANAGER: re the humanities in crisis (a spi- ART DIRECTOR: Jennifer Carling Abby Shepard ral of declining student interest CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING MANAGER: and course enrollments) or sim- BERTA GREENWALD LEDECKY Gretchen Bostrom UNDERGRADUATE FELLOWS ply in need of some intelligent re- DESIGNER AND INTEGRATED MARKETING A Noah Pisner, Jessica C. 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