Deep River High School - This Year Yearbook (Deep River, CT)

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,,,,,,,,,-, ,,,. ,,,,.-..,. .... ,... .,...--...--,, .,... .. ...,,,. 5,,,,,..,.-,..,...,,,.. ,...,...,....k,--.., .,, Avuu ., v-.... V-NN 'pak xyxu .MX a, ,X X H ,,z , ,c . , . X 4 c Xxff , . ,r c. i gi uAMERICA'S CONTRIBUTION TO LITERATUREU Members of the Board of Education, Mr. Superintend- ent, Faculty, parents and friends, we, of the class of 1941, heartily welcome you here tonight. We feel honored and pleased to have you with us at our gradu- ation exercises. Hay you enjoy them, and carry away with you pleasant memories of your last evening to- gether. The growth of the United States territorially, in- dustrially and politically, has been so rapid and re- markable that one is alto- gether too likely to dwell on these outstandin feats rather than on the cultural advancement f America Literature however has one hard in hand with the other ackievements and if it las been less spectacu lar it has been no less great Durin the Colonial pe riod, people were oriaarily occupied in the difficult task of gaining food shel ter arc clothin lt is not to be wondered then that fev people ffand enough time to write ny thing e ceot letters though some like John Smith with his nTrue Re lations did do some pio neerinc in the field lite ature these works written in stilted lan guage all historical or r ligious and had little any real literary value Not until America became roused against England did her writers produce any literature of merit Out standing among the works of that period were Thomas Paine's, nCommon Senseu, and Thomas Jefferson's, nDeclaration of Independ- ence.u As Americans became more settled after the war, in a now independent nation, more time was devoted to education and culture. Dur- ing this period Charles Brown wrote, nUielandH, America's first novel. In this era also, Freneau wrote poetry of much dis- tinction that he has become known as America's first real poet. Although the authors of the im ediate pre war and post war days wrote well composed and scholarly lit erature they lacked the creative power that the au trors of the age following possessed This age known as the period of romantic revival produced such writers James Fenimore Cooper Edgar Allen Poe Washington Irvirg and J l llan Cullen Bryant though they wrote on diver sified topics such as ad venture mysteri and relig ion, they all had one qual ity of writing in common imagination Irving won wide acclaim in England be was truly recog the United States such a period of writing Emerson with his essays and poems and Hawthorne with his stories and novels led literature into a more rious vein Characteristic of both authors was unusual depth of thought and relig ious fervor fore he nized After fanciful . U , - 1 5 S - . I o ' . . - - , . 1, ' A U F, A Y 1 . I - 4. - . A L V . w - , A V . , ' Q I s rv . , A- . Q ' - as ' - . 7' . Q 1 M 1 o 1 ' . . : Q u yr 0 - L A 1 1. p -' I 9 Al' - . ,. . 1 +' S- E - . . an , - ' .1 v ' , , U v . , ca J U , 1 V 8 if ' - V X , . . Al- ' ' ' ,I -- A . . . . J I ' V ' , - 1 u - I' n u Q I A - , Of L in . . . Y' , 1 A , , I . G ' ' ' i I J , I , if ' ' 9 . ' , . L 5 e - . ' I I 1.1 ' 1 0 ' . U t A . 1 kJ A 0 f, , --1' X X' ,f ,- U -'.'- . .'.. .M ,v,- W-NLM-, IFQI, ,Q ,,-,. wig- '.,,..-.,' - ,,,-, NA- ,,,,,, U-,Wu-,,, ,,k,,,,- ,,-. h- Mygf ,,,,. ,-,, ,,,. ,031 ,,.A ,,,,,,,.,, ,, ,, ,,,.:A,,, .,,,- ,,..... ,... .,,.- ..., , ,..,. I ,, ..,, ,- -10-

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.Q t il ...I . A ,- .gk . V 1, X. .N lx. x lic became interested in mural paintings and illus- itrations and we now come to the early twentieth century painters. Figure and por- ftrait painting seemed to I, x fade during this period and probably the most important treason was the camera. It had by this time reached a fair degree of perfection and people did not care to make from. ten to twenty sittings have their pic tures when they could oo tain them by photography with one an so a new fphase is ushered in to the ,f American public, mural p inting and illustrations, and th t is how we come to Hofard Pyle, the most not ed general illustrator of the day Pyle was loved by the American people because of his hundreds of illus trations which they could understand Pyle first started his art training by writing short storie and illustr ting them dur ing h s Hoff hours They became so popular th t he soon gave up his other bus ines nd dcvoied his whole time to Jriting and p int ing Pyle also vainted murals of distinct merit, and many of these are new located in the Wilmington Institute Libr ry special gallery devoted to his xerks American art is Rockwell Kent who s a schoolboy was a real trial to his teach fers He was not bad but simply had too strong mind of his own nd as a result he w s always at the 1 foot of his class Later as a student of architect . 1 f '. f .,c - n eoo c ,oy,ocooeooe ooo o,co c do X ure at Columbia his stand- , 1 ings were so high that hisji family realized his intel-.i ligence. He soon tired of architecture and as a di- rect outcome he started tdf study painting. Bleak places and sdlitude far away from the haunts of man have always held a fascin- ation for him and his trav- eling naturn carried him tel far and distant places where he retained his mem cries on canvas Kent us- ually visualizes an entire theme before he puts stroke on canvas his paintings have that re alistic spect bout them Mr Kent always had dre ms of going around the world ture more the time most little cr ft to pic still stranger and desolate places been s id t at rt portrays the and this seems the logical nswer for our l test phase of p inting c llcd surre lism This type of painting proves confusing, but it is prob ably the rtists only may of relieveing the tension th t his enveloped all of us during the past decade And row in sumring up Amer ican P inting we find have come a long way since the fir t portr it painters of he coloni 1 period Although our painting has to time by the art of other countries we re new quite individu l and one can truly say HAMGFIC Paints A Picture As arts reflect the spirit of the times so does the youth of a n tion re Continued on page 25 :Y ' f 'f 1 X f I 1 . . S d af 1 and all f ' ' ., 3 Q f ' ' a a . - ' ' , . r C ,- V I - 1 I . ,xi . . . . . 'ln an in a a . -f if . ' . rx , f ' 1 A4 . 0 J? V3 a , ' It has , a h pf ff ' Ha ' 3 . . '- S A ' Q1 su- . ' . . c. EL ' ff ' -S a L - a' ' -- 3 . nfl 5 Q ' ' ' I n 5 . 1 H M. , . Xf ,W . A L a ' ' ' -Q , I ' a ' We H S , , ' c 1 u U ! 't'1 v ' ' Ya' - .,. 5 O 1 f L F C K 5 v 1 A ' ' . Q .V J. 7 D 1 . V .F . . 0 ,-. S' H -J . a in a 3 - Q- ' ! -fl l V t . Q 1 . . . H It it Tve arCh'adv?nturer in been influenced from time!! 1 -'I 1 . 1 f ' fi ' I 0 H , - , Q . , 3 , I . . . Q . . A , r 0 ' e X . L '. F 1 . . 3 n. z 'g a fl Z1 'r' XX . I Q ' .. -, .-4-' - A- ,-v, -, .--.. A VV .- l A .V lv 4 I., A Q! .F -I I wifi..-'fd ,,... -,.. ,. ..., . .. :1-1 .,-...., , ,... ,-,.. . , 'TE , . ..., . , affix .. . . .. 'A .. -o,

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Gradually this serious- ness were away and an age of varied cultural writing took its place. Oliver Wendell Holmes, a doctor by profession, became famous for his humorous writing and James Russell Lowell, if he had written nothing else, would still remain a great literary figure for The Vision of Sir LaunfalW Henry Wordsworth Longfellow with his almost epic poem, nHiawathan out above all the others. His genius was so universally recognized, that England placed his statue in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey--the first time such an honor had been conferred upon an American As a nat1on's history always influences its lit erature it was only natu ral that with the growing rift between North and South authors should de vote themselves to the con demnation or defense f slavery 'Uncle Tom's Cab i by Harriet Beecher Stowe raised the anti slav ery feeling to such a pitch that the Civil War soon broke out and Abraham Lin coln later referred to the author as nthe woman who caused the great war Lin coln, himself, won a place in the literary world with is ' ettysburg Add ess Nhereas the war period produced a great many writ ers of merit the post war period belonged chiefly to two individualist poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Both were dis tinctly original though in very different ways Whit man thref all poetic . Ili ... .. ,. .,.. . ,. .-,... .... .,.. ..,......... H .Y.. ... ......,. ..., ., .. .,......... ,. , .... , . .. .. V.... ...- ..,.,....,,...-..-.......,. . ......l .. ., , , -.5 ' '- .- x, ' . X'-. X: .1, . ., strictions to the winds and introduced an entirely new form of poetry--free verse. Emily Dickinson who had lived a secluded life wrote short poems full of meaning and not influenced by the outside world. Not long after the Civil War, migration to the West began, opening up vast, new material for authors. The literature of this period was colorful, adventurous and full of local dialect. Edward Eggleston with his UHoosier Schoolmastern was the first to use dialect but he was soon followed by Mark Twain nthe Lincoln of literature, and James Whit combe Riley, the famous hu morous poet While the West was fur nishing highly localized material, the East vas in troducing Realism to Amer ican literature Thomas Bailey Aldrich with 'The Story of a Bad Boyn has be come one of the best known realistic authors The his torical novel such as nBen Hur' by Lew Wallace was al so begun in this period with the passing of the age of Realism the twen tieth century was reached The writings of the present century have not had years of reading to test their worth and it is therefore almost impossible to pre dict which authors will re main famous Thus far however several writers have enjoyed such great popularity, that it seems not unreasonable to suppose that their works will con tinue to be read and up preciated Certainly NThe ll of the Mild' and nSea J -., Q 2 .4 fi .f ? tg N5 H .2 if , vf 2 N Y., E N, ? W , 1 'x 9 A r a I .X .X- 1 .-'R I , , x ' . 0 5' f - X J Y ' ,fl 4. - - f A 7 J , ' 0 -E5 ' , - , Q s- , if Y -. n J H ' ' - - r . f , I ll. . . , ' f 1 X, - , - ffl C - u - 'H , ' - , ' , . If 1 'f' - 1 rr H h , G rl Q ' - 15 L .' V' ' . f . -' q 1 1 , ' I . , u I ' ,!'- I 12 D Q I'- Q . 0 . - . I - Q ' Q - . 0 . ' . X , I 1' Pe- Ca - ' F ' N' . . 'R xx'-. . AS- 1' A- K 1' V ,ft -'K ' ff, X. sX - ' H., 'R ,f AR 'M ff R, ' xx XX ,f X 1-Mfg, Iulll, -HM ,,-, .fg3.,,Q ,,--,,, ,,,,,.,, K Qlg,-QV,-I ,U ,,,,, 1-,,, , ,1,jf, ,,,,,,.,,Q:- ,,,,,... .., ..... I-...L. ,.............., B. .,.v. .... a ...IH-.ILM ...,...... up-gl. . .. 3 s