Lawrence High School - Lawrencian Yearbook (Falmouth, MA)

Page 17 text:

The Lawrencian Class Motto Possunt quia posse videntur Flower Color Garnet Carnation Garnet and Silver LAWRENCE HIGH SCHOOL— CLASS OF 1933 CONSTANCE ABBOTT ELDON PARKER ALLEN VIOLET ANITA AVANT DOROTHYE PARKER BAILEY CAROLINE BARROWS LLOYD ALLEYNE BOHAKER JAMES WILBUR BOYATT EDWIN GARRISON BROWN AINSLIE RODERICK CAMERON ERNEST CARDOZE, JR. SOPHIE NORMAN CLARK EVELYN FRANCES CZEPIEL WOODROW EDWARD DACKSON EMMA LILLY ERSKINE •ANNA MAY FULLER EDWARD HOAG GIFFORD GIFFORD GRIFFIN MARTHA GILLINGWATER GRINNELL HELEN GIFFORD HALL •MARY MARGARET HUNT RALPH INGRAM ISABEL ALDANA JENKINS •THEODORE OLIVER JONAS THOMAS EDWARD LARKIN, JR. ARLENE LOUISE MANLEY GEORGE MARKS ROBERT LEO McKENZIE, JR. DOROTHY INEZ McLANE ISABEL ROSE MILLER FERDINAND LINCOLN MTLI.S LLOYD TURNER NIGHTINGALE WALTER RALPH NOYES •ALEXANDER PAPP, JR. ANTONE RODERICK PERRY MARIE FRANCES PERRY GEORG IANNA OAKLEY POTTER •GLADYS LOUISE ROBBINS LOUIS GONSALVES SANTOS, JR. ELSIE JEANNE SPO ONER HELEN LOUISE STUDLEY GEORGE GILBERT SWAIN, JR. MARY ANN WHITE Honor Pupils

Page 19 text:

Lawrence High School THE RISE OF AMERICAN LITERATURE Salutatory: Members of the school commit- tee, our superintendent, our princi- pal, members of the faculty, par- ents, friends, and schoolmates: In behalf of the Lawrence High School Class 1933, I want to take this time to welcome you most sin- cerely and heartily to our gradu- ation exercises. We wish to thank you for your never-failing interest in our welfare and hope that you will enjoy our program tonight. American literature had a strange beginning. Nearly every other nation began its literary work before it had a language in defin- ite form. In America, however, the first author’s language was the language of one of the world’s great literary nations. He knew that within a few months after he finished his book it would be copied and distributed by the print- ing press. The author of the first book was John Smith, who came to James- town, Virginia, in 1607. His work belongs to history rather than to literature, and to England, perhaps, rather than to America. Nearly all of the early writers wrote histori- cal essays, which can not be omit- ted from American literature. Some of the writers were given to boast- ing and exaggeration, but their ac- counts of early life in America are considered trustworthy on the whole. Many modern critics think that the Puritans exerted an unhappy influence upon American literature. This criticism is, however, slowly losing its force as people begin to see that Puritanism did not have an enduring effect. It began to lose its power at the close of the seventeenth century and was com- pletely wiped out in the early part of the eighteenth by the coming of machinery and the rise of the manufacturing class. As the Puritanic spirit died out, Benjamin Franklin came into prom- inence. He was the first American to gain recognition abroad. His work, “The Way to Health, or Pre- face to Poor Richard Improved,” is known as “the most famous piece cf literature the colonies produced.” In the early part of the nine- teenth century, Washington Irving published his “Knickerbocker’s His- tory of New York.” This was the beginning of the period when Am- erican literature reached its high- est peak. Such writers as Cooper, Bryant, Poe, and Hawthorne are included in it. Poe and Hawthorne are ranked highest among Ameri- can writers because of their indi- viduality. Both are best known for their short stories. The slavery question was an im- portant factor in this period, and great statesmen and orators came into prominence. The period fol- lowing the Civil War found no writers to rank with Poe or Haw- thorne. Perhaps the greatest writer fol- lowing the Civil War was Longfel- low. Although probably not the greatest American poet, he is the best known and the best loved in this country. He was a great story teller, and everybody enjoys good stories. Three other well known poets of this period are James Russell Low- ell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. These writers are popular and well liked, but they are ranked as inferior to Poe and Hawthorne and some other