University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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An Individualist w W HhN wc have had a remarkable man among us. it is well (o .stop and take note of the fact, Such a man was Oscar W. f irkins. Society has a healthy instinct to protect itself against its own pet virtues, which are diplomacy, complacency, conformity and mediocrity. These virtues it inculcates and forces upon its citizens, who readily absorb them—for they are congenial to the nature of ordinary men. and easily seen to be the best means of making one's way in the world. But when it comes to the point where wc all look alike, share the same opinions, make the same remarks, and spend our time amiably patting one another on the back, society—out of the sheer instinct of self-preservation, turns for help to some man like Mr. hirkins. who has refused to take on its plausible virtues. who won't lie. who knows what he thinks, svho has reasons for thinking as he does, and who in general has maintained his own picturesque individuality. hirst. however, society makes him run the gauntlet, the man of individual character. A prophet is not without honor save in his own country, liver since about 1915. when he was writing his brilliant reviews of poetry for The Nation, Mr F-irkins has been among the two or three most highly appreciated of professors in the university But I can well remember the time when he was an obscure instructor in rhetoric, with a bare half-dozen students, who were more impressed with his classroom eccentricities than with the splendor and subtlety of his thought. Then at length came Mr. I irkins' books and his national reputation to convert the skeptical or indifferent at home. I ally fourteen years ago the university administration paid him the unique honor of creating for him a special department—that of comparative literature—so that he might have a perfectly tree hand in the conduct of his work F or it is true that the born nonconformist does not work well in harness. Mr. I irkins' poetry, which has not been collected, is invariably marked by a fine sensibiliiy and by classic clearness and precision of outline, lie was a dramatic critic of rare dis-unction. Much of his finest criticism doubtless lies unpublished in his students' notebooks. He was passionately devoted to the theater, and svas often to be seen between acts restlessly pacing the aisles, umbrella in hand, sublimely oblivious to the observation of more placid burgesses. If he was not in a mood for the play, he would go home. I have seen him thus quit the famous national theater in Paris, and leave his seat unoc- cupied for the rest of the evening Perhaps he had been seized with the impulse to original creation. In the later years his imagination seethed with dramatic conceptions, which took the form of one-act plays. Some dozen of these have been collected in the volume entitled I wo Pas sengers for Chelsea. These delightful plays are most various in subject, tone and setting. They range from the seventeenth century to the present day. and romantic fantasy to drawing room comedy, from the desert of Algiers to a smart New York apartment. They are sparkling with wit. sometimes wistfully poetic, always sufficiently provided with the element of stir prise, and above all refined and humane in the interpretation of human nature. Considering how limited were his personal contacts, it is amazing how freely his imagination ranged over the whole field of life and human relationships. It is typical of him that, while he would not himself use the telephone or ride in an automobile, he did not deprive the people of his plays of these material conveniences. But the best of his writing is probably to be found in four volumes of biography and criticism He could not write a dull book. Those who read his life of Cyrus Northrop were surprised to find that, instead of the conventional record of a public man's career, he had produced a highly colored portrait of a human being, as interesting for bis personality and private life as for the part be played in the creation of out university. More important, however, are the biographies of three great writers, Itmcrson. Howells and .Jane Austen For here his interest in portraiture could be combined with his passion for literary analysis and critical appraisal And it was this combination which gave especial play to his wizard like, his prodigious command of words. F incst of all is his rendering of the benign and gracious per vonality of limerson, wfiom he calls the first of American ihmkcrs. That pertinacious individualist and nonconformist was, I believe, the strongest of formative influences on his own life and thought. Certainly his analysis of Ftmerson's thought is his finest display of dialectical skill And one is conscious here of something more than that There is a warm and vibrant sympathy in his account of Fimcrson's philosophy which brought together the three noblest of human conccp lions—beauty, truth, and virtue—together with that of God. in a single radiant synthesis That, one feels, must have been the faith in which he himself lived and died. —Joseph Warren Bearh 27

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O. W. Firkins 26

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c W-jOMl.: I IMES, though infrequently, it happens that a man is so long associated with an institution that he becomes a part of it. and in passing, he becomes one of its traditions. Such a man was Professor Firkins. During the forty odd years that he was a member of the faculty, he watched thousands of students come and go, he saw the school grow from an insignificant beginning to the massive institution of today. Me was a familiar figure in Folwell Mall and in the Library, and he ranks with the greatest scholars of all lime. To the drama, he was. in the terms of the noted critic William Archer. “The greatest critic in America.” In the classroom, he will be remembered as an instructor who not only taught his work, but also lived it. There can be no doubt that with him. Minnesota has lost a figure never to be regained. It seems fitting and properthat the Gopher of 1932 should be a memorial to him. The old man of Folwell Hall has passed away, but so great was his influence that to the thousands of students and alumni who knew and loved him. Professor Firkins will never really be gone. 28