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

Page 28 text:

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.

Page 27 text:

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.

Page 29 text:

Lewis P. Curtis LEWIS PERRY CURTIS, JR. joined. the Princeton History Depart- ment in 1959. An expert in modem British history, Dr. Curtis has studied at Yale and Oxford. Recently he has been engaged in extensive research on unionist policy in Ireland in the late nineteenth century. He also is writing several articles on the political history of modem England as well :15 teaching a history seminar on British imperialism. Dr. Curtis seems to have over- come successfully the fact that he is a Yalie, and in the classes which he conducts for a whole range of history courses, he man- ages to put across his points with a decisive hnlf-Ivy League, hultlBritish flavor. C. S. WHITAKER, JR., a lecturer in the Department of Politics, obtained his BA. from Swarthmore in 1956 and his MA. from Princeton in 1958. After six monthsi training in England, Mr. Whitaker traveled to Africa to study the political situation in northern Nigeria. Currently he is writing his doctoral dissertation on this research which he will eventually publish in book form under the title Politirs of Tradition: A Study of Continuity and C. Sylvester Whitaker 19 Social Sciences Frederick C. Shorter Change in Northern Nigeria. Having joined the Princeton faculty in 1960, Mr. Whitaker precepts several undergraduate courses in addition to advising theses and junior independent work. As a specialist in African affairs, he taught a junior seminar on Nigerian politics during the fall semester. A great traveler, Assistant Professor of Economics FREDERICK C. SHORTER has spent five of the last eight years outside the United States He is primarily interested in economic development in the countries of Southern Asia, especially Pakistan and India. Serving on the Planning Commission in Pakistan before coming to Princeton in 1959, he again worked with planning committees in Turkey and Pakistan while on leave in 1960. The whole Shorter family is interested in India. While Dr. Shorter is con- cerned with the Indian economy, Mrs. Shorter is presently writing her second childi'exfs book about India, in addition to tending to their two Indian children. Spending this year in Princeton, Professor Shorter teaches the upperclass Economics course about the Middle East and lectures the basic undergraduate maem- economtcs course.