Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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t-y'HIM 5.73 r ' . waht'ni'r'i Entering :1 large, book-linetl oihce in Dickinson Hail, one may find Professor H. iV. VICTOR LANCE helping 11 German exchange student with a college problem, preparing an article for a scholarly magazine, or perhaps reading about his favorite aca- demic subject, the German poet-author Goethe. Chairman of Princetonfs Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures since its formation in 1958, Professor Lnnge is a specialist in Goethe and modern German literature. A modest and unpre- tentious scholar, he teaches two upperclass courses on Goethe and also the popular freshman course, uEuropean Fiction . Author of several books on German literature, Professor Lange returned to his native land last summer to lecture on modern criticism at the Free University of Berlin. Upon meeting Professor E. D. SULLIVAN, the Chairman of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, one is struck by the immense vigor with which he acts. Leaning over a desk covered with books and papers, he will periodically accentuate a point in his conversation with quick gestures or remarks, precisely illustrating his point. For Professor Sullivan the most challenging problems are the insoluble ones such as those of providing American students with the background to understand a foreign culture and achieving a coalescence of: this knowledge in their departmental studies. Professor Sullivan compares his aims to those of a sociologist or an economist, but while the latter are chiefly quantitative, he attempts to give his students :1 qualitative viewpoint of foreign cultures through literature. A graduate of Princeton and a member of the faculty since 1932, Professor RAYMOND 1-1. WILLts is engaged in the study oi D011 Alvaro de Luna, a nobleman and political favorite of the king in fifteenth century Spain. Eventually he plans to write a book on this curious historical figure. His main interests lie in Medieval Spanish literature, Cervantes, and the modern noveL Combining a scholarly attitude and a personal warmth, Professor Willis cnlivens his course material with humorous and interesting anecdotes drawn from his own experiences and his seemingly inexhaustible knowl- edge of Spanish culture. Professor Willis, Emory L. Ford Professor of Spanish Literature, is an ardent linguist and is currently a member of the Com- mittee for Linguistics in Princeton. DR. IRA O. WADE, John N. Woodhull Professor of Modern Languages, is personally responsible for the success of the Special Program in European Civilization of which he is Director. Geninl and unassuming. Dr. Wade has become a favorite lecturer in his threC decades at Princeton. His courses in European literature. especially From Humanism to Existentialism, are among the most popular on campus. Dr. Wade is an outstanding authority on Voltaire and eighteenth century French philosophy. Author of numerous books on these subjects, he is currently preparing two manu- scripts, one of Voltaire and his philosophical background, and another on the philosophy of the Enlightenment.

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If the Administ izition ever decided to charge undergraduates admission to lectures, they would probably get away with it in the courses lectured by Professor JOHN RUPERT MARTIN of the Art Department. There are only one or two lecturers on the Princeton faculty with an equal lecturing ability. His course, European Painting from 1600 to 1800 , though considered dith- cult, has become extremely popular. Whether he is lecturing 0n the early Italian Baroque, his own field of interest, or the predominantly French rococo style, he holds undergraduate interest with lectures which manage to explain the purely technical aspects of painting without becoming dry or 1111- interesting. At present he is also en- gaged ill finishing up a study Of Anni- It is a Yale treat to fmd a professor who has the qualities of a bale Carraccils FFOHdBSi Gallery. flue scholar and also those of an accomplished after-dinner speaker. Such a man is Associate Professor of English RICHARD LUDWIG, an outstanding student of American literature and Director of Princetoxfs Special Program in the Humanities. Professor Ludwig has served as the editor of several collections of works of American writers. In his undergraduate courses he manages to combine scholarly insight with a generous sprinkling 0!? humorous anecdotes. In his sophomore coursee Main Curv rents of American Literntlli'elleProfessor Ludwig ties the reading done by his students into the mainstream of American literary development by giving biographical sketches of authors and descriptions of major movements and trends. ERIC SJijQVIST, Professor of Classical Archeology, has been play- ing a dual role Lit Princeton since 1953. Along with his teaching duties, Professor Sjt'iqvist, in conjunction with Professor Richard Stillwcll, has been directing the Princeton Archeological expedi- tion to Sicily. This latter task is an especially familiar one for Professor Sjbqvist, who served in a similar capacity for a Swedish expedition. In the present project it is hoped that by tracing the development of a typical Greek town from the sixth to the second century B. C., new light will be shed on the Hellenistic civilization. Professor Sjiiqvist is one of the last of a disappearing group, the classical archeologists. In appraising his work, he has this to say: tiExcavations are the principal means of reconstructing and reinterpreting the past. Without them, archeology and scholarship in the art, history, and language of antiquity would become unproductive, stereotyped, and superficial. DR. RENSSELAER W. LEE, Chairman of the Department of Art and Archaeology, has recently returned from a trip to Sweden, where he attended the Union Academique Internationale, a council devoted to all aspects of the humanities. A member of many national Fine arts committees, he is :1 specialist in the history of painting in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. He teaches a giztduzite course in Baroque theory and also the popular undergraduate course, uItalian Painters of the Renaissance. Combining a study of literature and painting, Professor Lee is currently writing a book concerning the influence of the Italian poet, Torquato Tasso, on the history of painting. 8? want! :In

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Professor of English ALAN SEYMOUR DOWNER has tirelessly devoted his time, both in the classroom and out of it, in this country and abroad, to furthering appreciation of the per- forming arts. In line with this, he was instrumental last year in bringing to Princeton :1 repertory company, which has already greatly increased campus interest in the theater. He enjoys combining his dramatic skills with his vocation of teachingr English literature. Scowling, smiling, shouting, whispering, he frequently reads from the plays he analyses to the delight of his students. According to Professor Downer a play should be analyzed as a stage production, not merely as a piece of literature. In his course he emphasizes the methodology of the theater, concentrating on the functions of stage sets and props, the techniques of character representation and of stage exits and entrances, and similar problems peculiar to the dramatic art. CARLOS HEARD BAKER, XVoodrow Wilson Professor of Litera- ture, is one of the busiest men on campus. A leading authority in the related fields of American and English literature, he is at present working on an anthology of Keats. In this anthology he will try to show Keats, development and the characteristics that make Keats a representative Romantic poet. In addition Professor Baker has almost completed his second novel, The Land of Rumbolo, which deals with the incursion of evil into modern life. He has also written some highly respected poetry. A member of many important university committees, Dr. Baker started the good reading supplement in the Princeton Alumni Weekly and has also been a member of the local school board. One can only marvel at the multiplicity of the projects in which Professor of English WILLARD T110111, is currently engaged. In addition to his duties as Chairman of the Department of English and lecturer in undergraduate and graduate courses, he has recently served as editor for a number of paperback editions of great American novels, contributing extensive afterwords. Con- currently with this seemingly heavy load of work, Professor Thorp has continued research in his study of the social history of the early American novel, which promises to yield a monumental hook. Yet he seems more like an executive than a scholar, not only lending his talents to the administration of the department, but also taking an active part in community allairs. GERALD EADES BENTLEY, Professor of English, devotes his atten- tion in his undergraduate course, English Drama, not only to the ideas in the plays, but also to the actual development of the stage on which they were originally acted. Professor Bentley, known on campus as a very entertaining lecturer, holds the honor of being the only professor in the University who can appease fashion-conscious undergraduates and yet wear a double breasted suit to class. A renowned editor of: play anthologies and historian of the theater, he is at present writing the sixth and seventh volumes of Jacobean and Caroline Stage, a work considered to be the tlelinitivc study of the development of the British stage during the seventeenth century.