Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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CLASSICS Freshmen are usually introduced to Classics through the elementary courses, Greek G or Latin B, taught by Professors C. N. Jackson and E. K. Rand, respectively. To most, these courses are the requirements for the Baccalaureate, but to a few students in this unclassical age, they mark the beginning of four years ' concentration in the field. Professor Post, and Dr. Finley, new Master of Eliot House, lecture on Homer and the Greek dramatists. Seniors learn to write Greek and Latin in the composition courses of Professors Jackson and Pease. Classics concentrators learn the poetry of Homer, Ovid, Vergil, Horace; read the natural histories of Pliny and Herodotus. They learn satire and the satirists with the humorist Professor Pease, and recall the Augustans with Professor Rand. Professors Jaeger, Hammond, Greene, Dr. Else, and many others help to give the liberal classical education, beloved by many, that was until recently the symbol of a Harvard education. COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY, INDIC PHILOLOGY, SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND HISTORY Indie Philology is a scholarly field, giving the student a basic knowledge of the Indo-European languages, as well as an acquaintance with the philosophy, religion, and history of Classical India. Ele- mentary Sanskrit has a range of interest for philologists and anthropo- logists, and attracts students from other languages. Professor W. E. Clark and Junior Fellow D. H. H. Ingalls constitute the department. Comparative Philology is a similar field, more suited to gradu- ates, because it takes time to become familiar with the many languages required. For that reason only two undergraduate courses are regularly given in the department, while graduate courses include Celtic, Ro- mance Philology, Baltoslavic Philology and Old Persian. Comparative Philology attracts the phoneticist, the linguist, and those who have a knowledge of many languages and wish to study their relationship to one another. Semitic Languages and History, today of interest to students of the Bible, the Near East, and religions, steadily hold their own, I Hkir IIP LJ ULi ' f ■ i ■ f 2lHlI Ran J retirts after 41 years of Latin teaching at Harvard { } J. H. FINLEY W. C. GREENE Assoc. Prof, of Greek and Latin Assoc. Prof, of Greek and Latin MASON HAMMOND Assoc. Prof, of Greek and Latin W. W. JAEGER University Professor A. S. PEASE Professor of Latin E. K. RAND Pope Professor of Latin W. E. CLARK Wales Professor of Sanskrit K. H. JACKSON Associate Professor of ( Yin.- JOSHUA WHATMOUGH I ' c.l. ...,r ..f ( ' ..ni|.iirstive PIiIIoIok.v J. N. D. BUSH Professor of l-lnglish D. H. CLOUD HccieUrt ..( ih« CoamrillM oil I he I K of I Indian C. T. COPELAND Hoylstoti Professor ol |{lnt.„i. and Oratory, IJmerilus

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HUMANITIES Philosophy has been defined as a study of the world in the light of the fact that the world is known. This defini- tion could be broadened to include the humanities in general. For the humanities assume that man is the central fact in the world in which he lives, that he is fundamentally different from other animals, and that a knowledge of what has been thought and recorded of his nature, in philosophy and art, is an essen- tial part of wisdom, and hence of education. The humanities enrich man ' s awareness of himself and the world through an ordered appeal to the mind and the emotions. They give pleasure and solace and they increase sympathy and under- standing. They are a storehouse of recorded values. By giving to educated men a common standard of reference they make the past available for the present and the future. THEODORE SPENCER, Associate Professor of English an P. G. E. Miller, Associate Professor of History and Literature, in his office

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V R. S. HILLYER Boylston Prof, of Rhetoric, Oratory F. P. MAGOUN Prof, of Comparative Literature F. O. MATTHIESSEN Assoc. Professor of History and Literature P. G. E. MILLER Assoc. Prof, of History, Literature J. B. MUNN Professor of English K. B. MURDOCK Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English Literature F. C. PACKARD Associate Professor of Public Speaking H. E. ROLLINS Gurney Prof, of English Literature G. E. SHERBURN Professor of English because the subjects treated maintain their importance despite fluct- uating world affairs. Hebrew, a required subject in the old days at Harvard, attracts many students from other fields. Dr. Pfeiffer and Professor Wolfson both explain the language well, and interpret books of the Bible in a modern and illuminating manner. For biblical students, and those interested in Mesopotamian archaeology, the department gives courses in Assyrian, while Arabic and the Koran under Professor Thomson draw theologians and historians. ENGLISH English, the largest, most comprehensive, and best-staffed field in the Humanities, reaches most undergraduates in some form. A splendid variety of courses are offered, covering all periods of English writing, and all branches of the English-speaking world. The linguistic aspects are stressed in Spencer ' s Forms of the Drama, courses on Old, Middle, and Chaucerian English. The courses in English and American literature range from Professor Howard Mun- ford Jones ' on the development of English literature, to Munn ' s lectures on the Bible, and discussions of translations of Proust and Mann, and the meanings in Joyce. Nor is the student limited to study of others, for he is encouraged to express himself; verbally in Professor Packard ' s courses in Public Speaking, poetically in Professor Hillyer ' s courses, and in the many prose courses in composition. Concentrators are urged to write novels, novelettes, or short stories, and may com- pete for prizes. With such a wide range for study, the individual interests , lost in smaller fields, come to light in a multitude of courses. There are more than a dozen courses on the novel, an equal number on the backgrounds of literature, a half-dozen on the linguistic background of English, a half-dozen for the creative writer. Concentrators specialize on some period or phase of literature, and write their thesis within this phase under a tutor chosen because of his familiarity with the subject. Some fields of English literature are at present gaining in popularity, as a recent trend in modernism favors the psychological writers and the more recent American and British novels. The old standbys — Shakespeare, the Bible, and Chaucer continue to hold their place. More and Hillyer analyze recent trends in poetry THEODORE SPENCER Assoc. Prof, of English B. J. WHITING Assoc. Prof, of English ■{ 18