Literary Landscapes

   This post is for those intending to go to the United States and who would like some literary guides. It is also meant for anyone who has no intention to go to the States, but would like to read about some of the more exotic locales from the safety of the couch.
   The literature related to particular places can be very interesting and useful for the travellers passing through them. The descriptions in fiction of the local areas visited are generally better than we can provide and reading them helps revive the memories of trips taken long ago. Local histories supply the background needed if one bothers to explore beyond the interstate intersections which are now all the same. If you are thinking of a road trip, Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon will put you in the proper mood. If you are staying home, settle in and read about such places as this one, which is the title of a book by Wallace Stegner about the west: Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs.
   More such books are found below. The first source will direct you to over a thousand novels. The other sources also include works of non-fiction. Many are related to the southeastern U.S., around where I grew up and will soon revisit. The northwest is not neglected, however, and we also hope to go in that direction when we can. 

Start From Here: "1,001 Novels: A Library of America," by Susan Straight. 
   No matter where you are, and whether you are leaving by car or staying on the couch, begin with this website. You can click on a map and quickly find the books and/or authors relating to a particular region. There are eleven of them which are nicely named and two are illustrated above. Some of the others: “Pointed Firs, Granite Coves and Revolution”, which relates to, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and “Golden Dreams & Sapphire Waves”, which is about California and Hawaii. Here is a description from: "Mapping USA Via Novels, Not Left and RIght Politics," Giuliana Mayo, KCRW, Los Angeles, June 29, 2023:
"Partnering with ArcGIS Story Maps, Straight began putting together novels that spoke to a broader America....The interactive map allows people to zoom in on locations where novels are set all over the country. “[Story Maps] made it so easy to navigate the map. You click on one of the dots, and you see the exact GPS location [where the book takes place], and then the book cover comes up,” she explains. She also wrote two-sentence thumbnail descriptions for all 1,001 books.

Heading South

 You have missed this year's New Orleans Book Festival, but you can take the SOUTHERN LITERARY TRAIL, to learn about the places lived in, related to or written about by authors from Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Among them you will find: Shelby Foote, Lilian Hellman, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty and Margaret Mitchell, about whom I have posted. 

There is also a Facebook page for the SLT, and for Alabama, more information is found in the Encyclopedia of Alabama. For Mississippi see the "Southern Literary Trail Gallery" at Mississippi State University Libraries. 

Heading Southeast
 Additional information about Georgia is found on the "Guide to Georgia's Literary Landmarks" which provides links to the Georgia Writer's Museum, Flannery O'Connor's Homes, Martha Mitchell's House and others. If you are really interested in O'Connor, see the book: A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia. I wrote recently about Erskine Caldwell and you can learn more about him by visiting Moreland, Georgia. It is also the home of Lewis Grizzard and if you come by my house I will give you my copy of "Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them Taters Got Eyes, for reading this far. 
   For South Carolina, see Libby Wiersema's, "Six South Carolina Literary Landmarks" for information about: James Dickey, Pat Conroy and some other local authors.
   North Carolina's Literary Trails can be explored by ordering a three volume set which covers all the areas of the Tar Heel State, the east, the Piedmont area and the mountains.

 

   "The Mountains volume brings together more than 170 writers from the past and present, including Sequoyah, Elizabeth Spencer, Fred Chappell, Charles Frazier, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Robert Morgan, William Bartram, Gail Godwin, O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anne Tyler, Lillian Jackson Braun, Nina Simone, and Romulus Linney. Each tour provides information about the libraries, museums, colleges, bookstores, and other venues open to the public where writers regularly present their work or are represented in exhibits, events, performances, and festivals."

 

  "In the Piedmont volume featured authors include O. Henry, Doris Betts, Alex Haley, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, John Hart, Betty Smith, Edward R. Murrow, Patricia Cornwell, Carson McCullers, Maya Angelou, Lee Smith, Reynolds Price, and David Sedaris."

"The third volume focuses on the eastern portion of the state. Georgann Eubanks has organized the manuscript into three “trails”: "The Southeastern Corridor" from Raleigh to Wilmington, "The Middle Corridor" from eastern Wake County to Carteret County, and "The Northeastern Corridor" from Wake Forest to the northern Outer Banks. Each trail is further broken down into several tours of half-day segments. Each tour features a map detailing how to get from site to site, brief biographies of the writers included in the trail, passages from the writers that refer to the places along the trail, reading lists, and web addresses linking to further information about sites and authors."

More Books About Regional Books

The Ideals Guide to Literary Places in the U.S Paperback – January 1, 1998

by Michelle Prater Burke (Author)

"Here is a travel book with a difference! For the armchair traveler, there are fascinating descriptions, sketches, and quotes from the authors. For the more adventurous, there are maps, directions, and information on how to ger there and the features of each place. And there are over 50 places included, each associated with one of America's greatest writers. Clearly and logically presented, this is a beautiful book that is fun to read as well as a practical guide to America."

Traveling Literary America: A Complete Guide to Literary Landmarks Paperback – January 1, 2005

by B. J. Welborn

"Readers and travelers are guided to more than 200 homes and historic sites of America’s greatest writers—from the Jack London Ranch in northern California to William Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Mississippi. Clear driving directions and visitor instructions are combined with unique tidbits about each site and author, such as the story of Jack London’s custom-made furniture and the roll top desk and Dictaphone on display in his study. Literary enthusiasts are guided to the site of Thoreau’s bean field, where they can poke around an exact replica of his cabin. They can drop in on Margaret Mitchell’s recently restored Atlanta apartment or visit John Steinbeck’s haunts in the cozy California seaside town of Pacific Grove. This family-oriented, user-friendly guide teaches literary folk about writers' work, their philosophies, and the forces that compelled them to write. All 50 states are represented, and the literary sites are divided by geographic regions."

A Literary Tour Guide to the United States: Northeast, Paperback – May 1, 1978

by Emilie C. Harting (Author)

"A comprehensive guide to visiting the homes and haunts of American writers and the settings of their works in the U.S. Northeast."

Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions, Bruce Barcott.

"Northwest Passages, an anthology of approximately 90 short pieces and excerpts from longer works published over the last two centuries, is by far the more exhaustive treatment of the region. Its selections, from the legends of native tribes to the stories and poems of the freshest transplants, provide a remarkably complete history of the Northwest. As for what the area is like, the answers to be gleaned from works by Rudyard Kipling, Chief Joseph, lack Kerouac, Theodore Roethke, and Raymond Carver, to name just a few, are as varied as a landscape that includes deserts, mountains, fertile valleys and plains, forests, beaches, and water in unparalleled abundance. The only unanimity is inspired by the weather. The explorer William Clark reported "rain falling in torrents," and, on the evidence of these pieces, the sky has scarcely cleared since. As Seattle poet Denise Levertov notes, "Gray is the price/of neighboring with eagles, of knowing / a mountain's vast presence, seen, or unseen."

Local London Readers: 

  As I mentioned above somewhere, I am willing to part with my copy of Grizzard's book about Granny. Almost by accident, I suppose, I have acquired other books of regional interest, which I am quite willing to lend if you want to come by and pick them up. Without looking around much, I can think of:

About ten books by Reynolds Price (North Carolina.) 
About the same number by RIchard Russo (New York State.)

A few by Pat Conroy and Padgett Powell (South Carolina)

A few about the Northwest - e.g. Notes From the Century Before, Passage to Juneau and Far Corner.

If you wish to leave the continent, there are more books, such as this one about some remote islands in the Indian Ocean - Kings of the Cocos. 

Just remember, I used to work in libraries and there will be fines. 

Beyond the Palewall (11)

How Bad Is It?
   About eight years ago I provided a post with the title "It's Even Worse Than It Looks." It copied the title of a recently published book which answered the question posed above. A few years later, a new edition of the book appeared with a cover proclaiming, It's Even Worse Than It Was.  A few might want to quibble about the indefinite "It's", so I will say, Things Have Gotten Even Worse Than They Were Then. Proof is offered.
   The Republican nominee for the Superintendent of Public Schools in North Carolina disagreed with the suggestion that Barack Obama be sent to Guantánamo Bay for treason. She offered a better idea (note, she is not a Proud Boy, just a good ol' GOP mom):

I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad. I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.

She also called for the killing of then-President Elect Joe Biden. We live in an age of both misinformation and disinformation, so I will offer supporting sources, which some of you may distrust: "One Purple State is 'Testing the Outer Limits of MAGAism,", Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times, Mar.27, 2024 and, "GOP Nominee to Run North Carolina Public Schools Called for Violence Against Democrats, Including Executing Obama and Biden," Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN, March 15, 2024. 

The Canadian Drought
   Canada is not much noticed south of here, but appeared recently in this headline: "World News: Drought Hampers Canada Push To Become a Hydro Superpower --- About 70% of the Country is Suffering from Abnormally Dry Weather Conditions," Vipal Monga, The Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2024. It may be the case that this publication is more concerned about Nestlé's stock price than thirsty Canadians.

The Canadian province of Quebec has big plans of becoming the "battery of the U.S. northeast" by feeding power generated from its dams and other hydro plants to millions of people in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York state. But dry conditions that have affected energy output worldwide are forcing one of the world's largest hydropower producers to cut exports....
But drought conditions extending from the west coast to the east are so bad that rivers and lakes in parts of Canada are drying up....
While one bad year shouldn't cause too much concern, the north often has periods of persistent drought, and climate change could make those periods much worse, threatening the sustainability of Quebec's hydro supply, Boucher said. "The past is becoming less of a good analog for what is going to occur in the future," he said.
The impact threatens to undermine Canada's reputation as a stable provider of clean and sustainable energy, and risks derailing the nation's efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions....
The province of British Columbia, Canada's second-largest hydro producer, has been in a drought since the middle of 2022. Water levels in the giant reserves in the northern and southeastern regions of British Columbia have fallen because there has been less snow in the winter and less rain in the spring, forcing the province to conserve water, said a spokesman for BC Hydro, the provincial utility.

Scam Alert!
  Another disconcerting headline is this one from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission:  "As Nationwide Fraud Losses Top $10 Billion in 2023, FTC Steps Up Efforts to Protect the Public: Investment Scams Lead in Reported Losses at More Than $4.6 Billion," Feb. 9, 2024. You also probably received yesterday, an alert from Amazon which notes that, "In 2023, we initiated takedown of more than 40,000 phishing websites and 10,000 phone numbers impersonating Amazon. However, the fight against scammers is never over."
A picture is worth a billion words:

                                              Quotes Worth Quoting

For Husbands: Notice Your Wife's New Glasses or Hair Cut:

In The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., Ammi Midstokke reacted to the latest compliment from her husband. “I was struck by a realization: Either I am perfect or my husband enjoys the relative peace that reigns when we both pretend I am,” she wrote.

On Politics: This title and brief summary will save you from having to read all of the polls between now an November: 

"The Meme-ification of American Politics," Clare Malone, The Atlantic, Jan.25, 2024

"Why more and more voters will be forming opinions in the 2024 election based on a funny video that their cousin’s husband’s sister shared in the group chat."

On The Culture Wars and Cancel Culture: If you are older and accused of becoming more conservative, keep this quotation in mind and reply that, you are not more conservative, but just continuing to be reasonable:

"That is why cancel culture is so worrisome: not because it reflects the familiar political divide between left and right, but because it reflects a generational war between old and young, a war between liberals and illiberals across parties. Liberals in my generation are surprised, and not a little uncomfortable, to find themselves opposing illiberals to their left and supporting conservatives to their right, sharing concern about cancel culture’s methods and the take-no-prisoners ideology that justifies them."

That is from this review: 

- “The Ghost of Joe McCarthy: Why Universities Have Surrendered on Free Speech Again,” Carol Tavris, Times Literary Supplement, Feb. 9, 2024.

Oscar's Library

   This is another in the series relating to "private libraries." Among the others you will find information about the libraries of Mark Twain, Edward Gorey, Stalin and the late Professor Macksey who's collection was covered twice. There is even one about the furniture found in such libraries and the catalogues that were produced to list the books they contained. 

   There is a book about Wilde's library which has the title, Oscar’s Books: A Journey Around the Library of Oscar Wilde, in Great Britain and, Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde over here. Thomas Wright is the author of both books, but the titles may be the products of others in the marketing department. The point of books such as this one and the others in this series is that one may learn something from examining the books read, rather then the lives led.
   Unfortunately the the type of life Wilde was living led to the auctioning off of his library while he was in Holloway prison. A collection carefully collected was quickly ransacked and sold off to pay his legal fees. Using the auction catalogue pictured above, the author of Built of Books was able to determine the contents of Oscar's library and undertake the project of finding copies of all of the books and then reading them, which he has been unable to do, even though Oscar's collection was rather small. It consisted of around 2,000 volumes. Professor Macksey's contained over 50,000.

Oscar the Speed Reader
   Apparently, "Wilde was one of the speediest of speed readers. He claimed to be able to read both pages at once. 'He turned the pages [of a novel] fast to begin with,' a friend remembered, 'then faster and faster, and a little slower towards the end of the book. But he could not have been more than three minutes.' It is hard to believe that Wilde literally took three minutes to peruse an entire volume, but others confirm this report, and embellish it with the astonishing detail that he often chattered away on other subjects while he read."

Oscar's Memory
   He would demonstrate his quick reading skills and then submit to a test and "Wilde's memory became as legendary as his speed-reading." It is described as a "photographic" one and examples are provided of Wilde being able to recite long passages of both prose and poetry. "He regurgitated passages of Carlyle's The French Revolution, and declaimed line after line from the novels of Meredith. One friend described him reeling off sentences from Flaubert which seemed to 'unfold just like jewel-studded brocades'". 
   Those of you with good memories will recall that I have written about people with very good memories including, Professors Porson, Bloom and Chomsky, as well as William Empson and Chimen Abramsky, who also had a good library. Speed reading (and even Evelyn Wood) were also touched upon in "Reading Time (A Painful 5 Min.)

Single Author Journals
   Entire periodicals  devoted to particular authors have also been discussed in MM (see, e.g. "Periodical Ramblings (8)) and, of course, Wilde has one all to himself. Produced by "The Oscar Wilde Society", The Wildean: A Journal of Oscar Wilde Studies," is published twice a year. There is also an illustrated newsletter called Intentions which is published four times a year. Subscribe if you appreciate Wildean witticisms such as this: "Given sufficient notice, one can always be spontaneous."

The Bonus: 
   The author of Built of Books is clearly a fan of Oscar Wilde and books. The five thousand pound prize he was awarded for the proposal for his book about Wilde was spent at a Sotheby's auction for the purchase of Wilde's copy of Swinburne's Essays and Studies.

AMERICAN FOLKWAYS & ERSKINE CALDWELL

   
   For readers or book collectors here is another series to start before summer begins. "American Folkways" books were published between 1940 and 1958 and like the "American Customs Series", about which I have posted, the books will be of interest to those curious about regional histories and local folkways and customs.
   The volumes dealing with areas near our border are likely to be most appealing to Canadians. The review of Niagara Country, is found under this headline, "A Worthy Addition to Americana," and the reviewer notes:
   "There are three sets of books I would not be without: The River Series (Rinehart), The Lake Series (Boobs-Merrill) and The Folkways Series Duell, Sloan & Pearce). All three share an important secret -- the secret of making American regional history readable and fascinating." (Sterling North, The Washington Post, July 3, 1949.) The first two have already been covered in MM.

  The kind of wisdom to be found in such books is evident in the title of a review of Smoky Mountain Country, which is, "Blow Smoke in the Ears." That is how one cures a headache. Humour is also found in the mountains when a witness is asked what he knew about a recent killing:

  "All I know is this," the witness drawled. "We was all up thar at the big dance celebratin' Robert E. Lee's birthday. The fiddles was playin' and we were swinging corners, and the boys got to slappin' each other on the back as they swung. Finally one of them slapped too hard and the other knocked him down. His brother shot that feller, and that feller's brother cut t'other fellers throat, and the feller that was knocked down drawed his knife and cut that fellow's liver out; the old man of the house got mad and run to the bed, turned up the tick and grabbed his shotgun and turned both barrels loose on the crowd, and I saw there was goin' to be trouble and I left."

Good thing he left before the trouble started. (From the review by John N. Popham, New York Times, July 6, 1952.) 

  Twenty-eight volumes were produced for this series and most will be easily found on AbeBooks or elsewhere. Those who live in London and have access to the Western Libraries will only find eleven and a few of those are in other Ontario university libraries. The ones bolded below are the ones available.

                                             AMERICAN FOLKWAYS

Adirondack Country, William Chapman White

Big Country: Texas, Donald Day 

Blue Ridge Country, Jean Thomas 

Corn Country, Homer Croy

Deep Delta Country, Harnett Kane  

Desert Country, Edwin Corle 

Far North Country, Thames Williamson

Golden Gate Country, Gertrude Atherton  

Gulf Coast Country, Hodding Carter

High Border Country, Eric Thane 

High Sierra Country, Oscar Lewis 

The Other Illinois, Baker Brownell  

Old Kentucky Country, Clark McMeekin 

Lower Piedmont Country, H.C. Nixon   Contents Annals of the hills -- Civil War and after -- Worship of industry and business -- Small farms and country stores -- Cities and towns -- Sam Jones and the ol' time religion -- Songs of the hills -- Rustic wit and laughing stock -- Ol' corn liquor -- These are our lives -- Ups and downs between world wars -- Possum trot in wartime -- Labor stirs -- Piedmont politics -- The mind of the hills.

Mormon Country, Wallace Stegner  

Niagara Country, Lloyd Graham 

North Star Country, Meridel Le Sueur 

Ozark Country, Ernest Rayburn 

Palmetto Country, Stetson Kennedy 

Piñon Country, Haniel Long 

Pittsylvania Country, George Swetnam 

Redwood Country: The Lava Regions and the Redwoods, Alfred Powers

Rocky Mountain Country, Albert N. Williams 

Short Grass Country, Stanley Vestal  

Smoky Mountain Country, North Callahan  

Southern California Country: An Island on the Land, Carey McWilliams 

Town Meeting Country, Clarence Mertoun Webster Wheat Country, William B. Bracke

There is even a YouTube video devoted to the American Folkway Series.

The Bonus: Erskine Caldwell

The series was edited by the southern author, Erskine Caldwell. I associated him only with Tobacco Road and magazines such as Gent or Swank, but I was wrong and he is worth a look if you need more reading material. Some of his books were given lurid covers when they were published in paperback to make them sell better. Here are the books authored by Caldwell that are in the Western Libraries and there are more about him. See the Wiki entry for him and this biographical piece at the "Georgia Writers Hall of Fame." He was also married (for a while) to Margaret Bourke-White, with whom he published, You Have Seen Their Faces.

Selected Books by Erskine Caldwell

Afternoons in Mid-America : Observations and Impressions

All Night Long; A Novel of Guerrilla Warfare in Russia.

All-out on the Road to Smolensk.

American Earth.

Around About America.

The Caldwell Caravan : Novels and Stories

Call it Experience, The Years of Learning How to Write.

Certain Women.

Claudelle Inglish

Close to Home.

Complete Stories.

Conversations with Erskine Caldwell

The Courting of Susie Brown.

A Day's Wooing and Other Stories.

Deep South; Memory and Observation.

Episode in Palmetto.

Georgia Boy.

God's Little Acre.

Gulf Coast Stories.

In Search of Bisco.

Jackpot, the Short Stories of Erskine Caldwell.

Jenny by Nature.

Journeyman

Kneel to the Rising Sun, and Other Stories.

A Lamp for Nightfall.

The Last Night of Summer.

Men and Women; Twenty-two stories

Place called Estherville.

Poor Fool

Some American People.

The Sure Hand of God

This Very Earth.

Three by Caldwell: Tobacco Road; Georgia Boy: The Sure Hand of God

Tobacco Road

Tobacco Road : A Facsimile of the Final Chapter

Tragic ground.

Trouble in July.

We Are the Living

When You Think of Me

With All My Might: An Autobiography

You Have Seen Their Faces, (with Margaret Bourke-White)

Academic Freedom & Free Speech

There is much written about the conflicts on college campuses south of our border. There have been some controversies in Canada and more are likely, and one suspects that there is not much respect for the concept of "freedom of speech" at Canadian universities. I assume, for example, that there is a long list of people who would not be allowed to give a talk at the campus close by, even if the talk had nothing to do with the current Middle East conflict. 
  In the United States there are some attempts to again allow universities to be  places where ideas are debatable. Six examples of the radical notion that arguments should be allowed are provided below. Keep them in mind since they may be useful for a campus near you. 

Campus Call for Free Expression

  "The Institute for Citizens & Scholars Campus Call for Free Expression is a commitment by a diverse group of college presidents to urgently spotlight, uplift, and re-emphasize the principles of critical inquiry and civic discourse on their campuses. The Campus Call is centered on a coordinated set of presidential and campus activities focused on free expression that collectively amplify higher education’s role in preparing young people to be the empowered citizens our democracy needs."
   Here are a couple of related articles:
"Group Of College Presidents Launches New Campaign In Defense Of Free Speech, Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes, Aug. 16, 2023
"The Campus Call is a project of College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, a recent initiative convened by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars. The group ‘brings together college presidents who are committed to addressing the challenge of ensuring today’s young people are well-informed, productively engaged, and committed citizens.”
The College Presidents for Civic Preparedness is a consortium that currently consists of 15 presidents of four-year institutions, most of which are private. The schools include public flagships, Ivy-plus institutions, HBCUs, liberal arts colleges, and faith-based institutions."

"13 Presidents Launch Campus Free Speech Group", By  Josh Moody, 
Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 16, 2023.
"The group—known as the Campus Call for Free Expression—is launching a coordinated effort across their campuses to support free speech, according to a press release from The Institute for Citizens & Scholars and the James L. Knight Foundation. The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, a nonprofit, is the coordinating body while the Knight Foundation is providing $250,000 in funding.The 13 participating institutions are: Benedict College; Claremont McKenna College; Cornell University; DePauw University; Duke University; James Madison University; Rollins College; Rutgers University; University of Notre Dame; University of Pittsburgh; University of Richmond; Wellesley College; and Wesleyan University."

Columbia University - Dialogue Across Difference

"Freedom of expression thrives within a culture of civility and empathy. Dialogue Across Difference (DxD), part of the Values in Action initiative, is designed to foster a resilient and inclusive community of learners among students, faculty, and staff and to engage with diverse perspectives and navigate challenging conversations with a shared commitment to mutual understanding and respect."

Georgetown University - The Free Speech Project

"THE FREE SPEECH PROJECT AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY IS FOUNDED ON THE CORE BELIEF THAT MEANINGFUL EDUCATION AND GREATER CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AROUND THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY."
They offer a "Free Speech Tracker" to provide information about current free speech controversies. 

Harvard University - Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard

“A university has two great obligations to society: to foster the discovery and dissemination of knowledge and understanding, and to prepare students for lives of meaning, purpose, and service.”

  Found here is an article about the formation of CAFH: "More than 70 Harvard Faculty Form Council on Academic Freedom, Co-Led by Steven Pinker, Rahem D. Hamid & Elias J. Schisgall, The Harvard Crimson, April 14, 2023

"Pinker and Madras wrote that the group “will encourage the adoption and enforcement of policies that protect academic freedom.”

“When an individual is threatened or slandered for a scholarly opinion, which can be emotionally devastating, we will lend our personal and professional support,” they wrote. “When activists are shouting into an administrator’s ear, we will speak calmly but vigorously into the other one, which will require them to take the reasoned rather than the easy way out.”

Stanford University - Academic Freedom and Free Expression
  Provided are resources related to:

Statement on Academic Freedom

Fundamental Standard for student conduct

Freedom of Speech and the Fundamental Standard

Protected Identity Harm Reporting process

Policy on Campus Disruption

Non-discrimination Policy

Policy for Events Requiring Security or Extraordinary Resources

Student Event Planning Policies

Anti-Doxxing Policy

University of Chicago - Forum For Free Inquiry and Expression

"The Chicago Forum: promotes the understanding, practice, and advancement of free and open discourse at the University of Chicago and beyond."

 

The Bonus: 
   Institutional Neutrality is also a good idea - see the FIRE site where this is written: "A College Should Host Critics - Not Become the Critic Itself."

   The adjacent image is from the Scholars at Risk Network and their mission is "Protecting Scholars and the Freedom to Think, Question and Share Ideas." 

CANCON - The Society For Academic Freedom and Scholarship's goal is "Defending Freedom and Excellence in Teaching and Research."

SAFS began in London.

For related posts on MM see:

"Free Speech & Ontario Universities"
"Cowards in Coventry"
"S.W.I.N.E." (Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything)
"The Dreaded N-Word" 
"Dawkins Not Talklng"

UWO SQUASH AND THE U.S. COLLEGIATE SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIPS

  This post is about the University of Western Ontario (now known as "Western University") and squash, the sport not the gourd. It is also a tribute to the coach of the squash teams at that University, Jack Fairs, who passed away in August, 2021. 

   Over the years, the men’s squash teams at UWO/Western were very good and still are. They have won every Ontario University Athletics Men’s Championship over the last forty years. In the recent one in February, they won again without dropping a match. They also play in the “Big Leagues” which is what this post is about. It is a rare thing for any Canadian university to compete against U.S. universities and to do so regularly and at the highest level. That Western has done so and won, is unique. Just how unique the accomplishment is, was noted in a Globe & Mail article back in 1994, where this is found (the source is provided at the end of this post):

“ IMAGINE the hoopla that would surround a Canadian university basketball team if it reached the Final Four of the NCAA championships. Or if a football team crushed all its Canadian opponents consistently for more than a decade and then headed south each year for a bowl game.
Preposterous?
   Perhaps, but the University of Western Ontario's men's squash team has been doing the equivalent of just that and more for the past 20 years. And doing it more quietly and with less recognition than you'd expect from such an accomplishment.”

U.S. Intercollegiate Squash

   The “Ivy League” universities are generally found high in the academic rankings, but typically do not do so well in the athletic ones. That is not the case with squash. Until around the turn of this century, when Trinity College began recruiting aggressively and globally, the Ivies dominated in the collegiate squash rankings. Over many years you will find variations of a statement indicating the supremacy of the Ivies in collegiate squash competitions. In an article in 2011 about the arrival of Trinity, Paul Wachter notes in, “Squashing the Ivies” that, “no school outside the Ivy League had won the Potter Cup, given to the men’s national champion in college squash, since the U.S. Naval Academy’s surprise victory in 1967.” Another Ivy (Penn) just won that national championship in 2024 and this statement was made: “For the first time in program history, the University of Pennsylvania are crowned National Champions (Potter Cup)! There have only been five Potter Cup champions in the CSA, Harvard University, Princeton University, Trinity College, United States Naval Academy and Yale University.”  A similar statement is found on the website of the College Squash Association and it is provided below. Apparently everyone agrees that prior to the arrival of Trinity, the Naval Academy was the only non-Ivy to win the collegiate national title in squash. I disagree. UWO won the title twice. 

Where’s Western/UWO?

  I recall reading the 2011 article by Wachter which appeared in the New York Times Magazine and remember thinking that an egregious error had been made. Two, in fact. Apart from the Naval Academy, the very non-Ivy league University of Western Ontario has won the U.S. national squash title twice - in 1977 and 1980. When I quickly went searching for proof I found that the author, Paul Wachter, likely supported his claim by using the CSA data, where, in fact, UWO is not listed among the national champions. I then went looking for a list which I remembered and which may have been provided by  the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association (NISRA) the precursor of the CSA and could not find it and have not found it on the Internet Archive or elsewhere. But, I did finally find UWO somewhere. UWO is listed under "Six-Man Trophy", under "Past Champions" on the website of the College Squash Association. 

   My memory is not good and I will declare an interest in that I knew Jack Fairs and sometimes sold squash rackets out of my office, to help him raise gas money to go play with the Ivies (and Trinity) in New England and elsewhere. I am not incorrect, however, in writing that UWO won two U.S. national titles in squash.

   At first I thought that UWO might have been erased because having another non-Ivy name spoiled the symmetry of the squash rankings. Plus, in a “national” championship, perhaps such an exclusion can be justified because the school is from another nation. Apparently, however, a new distinction developed based on the number of players on the team and one will find UWO listed twice as the winner of the “Six-Man Team Trophy” on the CSA website. I remain confused about the relationship between the size of the teams and the national title, but will provide the information you need to sort it all out. I don't think there were two national champions in 1977 or 1980, based on team size. UWO won the title in both years. 
   After typing all of that I realized that there is a simpler solution which explains why UWO does not appear as the national champion. According to the CSA, prior to 1989, the national champion was the team with the best record, not the winner of the National Team Championship. Simply put, UWO won the National Team Championships in 1977 and 1980, but the national champions were Princeton and Harvard, both of whom were beaten by UWO. 

Sources:

   You were likely not reassured by the last few sentences and are also confused. For those reasons I will follow the usual format of this blog and provide information from those less confused and more knowledgeable. I will begin with the College Squash Association description and their list and a simulated one provided by me, which I think is not totally inaccurate. I then offer original sources in support of the assertion that the University of Western Ontario won two US intercollegiate squash championships, in 1977 and 1980. Additional information about UWO squash and Coach Fairs follows.

                             Potter Cup (A Division/National Championship)

 "The top eight teams in the nation compete in the “A” division of the men’s National Team Championships for the national title and the Potter Cup. The Potter Cup is named for Art Potter, the United States Naval Academy’s longtime coach. Potter, who started coaching at Navy in 1950, coached the midshipmen to national team titles in 1957, 1959, and 1967. Until Trinity won its first title in 1998, Navy was the only non-Ivy League school to win a national nine-player team championship. Potter was inducted into the College Squash Hall of Fame in 1990.
   The records below list the national nine-player team champions. From 1942 to 1988, the title was based on dual-match records, with the team with the best record becoming the national champion. Since 1989, the title has been based on performance in the National Team Championships, with the team winning the “A” division becoming the national champion." [ the information above is from the CSA and a link provided. The table on the right below is my fabrication.]

      NATIONAL TEAM CHAMPIONS/POTTER CUP WINNERS (COACH): 1967-1997

College Squash Association (CSA) List              Revised List From a Canadian Perspective

1967: United States Naval Academy (Art Potter)  1967: United States Naval Academy (Art Potter)
1968: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby).            1968: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)
1969: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby).            1969: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)
1970: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)             1970: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)
1971: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby).            1971: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)
1972: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby).            1972: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)
1973: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby).            1973: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)
1974: Princeton University (Bill Summers).         1974: Princeton University (Bill Summers)
1975: Princeton University (David Benjamin).     1975: Princeton University (David Benjamin)
1976: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby).            1976: Harvard University (Jack Barnaby)
1977: Princeton University (David Benjamin).     1977: University of Western Ontario (J. Fairs)
1978: Princeton University (David Benjamin).     1978: Princeton University (David Benjamin)
1979: Princeton University (Norm Peck).             1979: Princeton University (Norm Peck)
1980: Harvard University (Dave Fish).                 1980: University of Western Ontario (J. Fairs)
1981: Princeton University (Norm Peck).             1981: Princeton University (Norm Peck)
1982: Princeton University (Bob Callahan).         1982: Princeton University (Bob Callahan)
1983: Harvard University (Dave Fish).                 1983: Harvard University (Dave Fish)
1984: Harvard University (Dave Fish).                 1984: Harvard University (Dave Fish)
1985: Harvard University (Dave Fish).                 1985: Harvard University (Dave Fish)
1986: Harvard University (Dave Fish).                 1986: Harvard University (Dave Fish)
1987: Harvard University (Dave Fish).                 1987: Harvard University (Dave Fish)
1988: Harvard University (Dave Fish).                 1988: Harvard University (Dave Fish)
1989: Yale University (David Talbott).                 1989: Yale University (David Talbott)
1990: Yale University (David Talbott).                 1990: Yale University (David Talbott)  
1991: Harvard University (Steve Piltch).              1991: Harvard University (Steve Piltch) 
1992: Harvard University (Steve Piltch).              1992: Harvard University (Steve Piltch)
1993: Princeton University (Bob Callahan).         1993: Princeton University (Bob Callahan)
1994: Harvard University (Bill Doyle).                1994: Harvard University (Bill Doyle)  
1995: Harvard University (Bill Doyle).                1995: Harvard University (Bill Doyle)
1996: Harvard University (Bill Doyle).                1996: Harvard University (Bill Doyle)
1997: Harvard University (Bill Doyle).                1997: Harvard University (Bill Doyle

                                        1977

1977 - UWO Wins U.S. Intercollegiate Squash Championship

"Squash Team Captures U.S. College Title"

   A screen shot of the article in Western News about UWO's capture of the U.S. Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Championship in 1977 is provided below. Western News has been digitized and the article can be read by clicking on this link: Western News, March 10, 1977, p.2.

"U.S. Collegiate Squash Champs!"

   That is the headline in The Gazette on March 11,1977 (p.16.) A screen shot of the issue is provided below. Unfortunately, The Gazette has not been digitized. The poor picture is from my printed copy of The Gazette. 

    The article is a long one with considerable detail about all of the matches. I will provide here the first three paragraphs and the concluding two:

   "The United States Naval Academy located in historic Annapolis, Maryland was the site of the 1976-77 United States Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Championship. 

   It was the twenty-eighth holding of this peerless display of intercollegiate squash, with the quality of play consistent with the team rosters, which was headed by top United States ranked, Princeton, perennially tough Harvard, powerful University of Pennsylvania, Pacific Coach [sic] champion University of California (Berkley) [sic] and the No. 1 Canadian team -- the University of Western Ontario Mustangs.

   The Intercollegiate team tournament format can be confusing. Essentially there are "A", "B", and "C" classifications, producing, of course, six finalists. Each team is permitted two entries in each of the classifications and scores a point for each victory attained by one of its team members. In addition, all first round losers play in a consolation tournament with each match worth a half-point to victory. The institution winning the most points is declared the Tournament Team Champion and receives the Potter Trophy.

   When the dust was settled, Western was in first place with 25 points. Princeton second with 22, Penn third with 20 and Harvard fourth with 18 1/2. It was the first time that a Canadian university won the Potter Trophy since the 1950 inception of the event....

   [ the conclusion]

   When the hostilities subsided on Sunday, Western had 25 points and the National Intercollegiate Squash Championship. Coach Fairs described the victory as "a total team effort. No one can be singled out for special distinction -- to win everyone had to turn in a creditable performance. It is a victory that all of us will savour forever."

   Although highly regarded, Western was only generally regarded as an outsider to win behind Princeton, Penn and Harvard." (The Gazette, March 11, 1977, p.16.)

"Western Ontario Wins Squash Title" 

  (Special to The Washington Post)

   ANNAPOLIS, March 6 - "Western Ontario University of London, Ontario, won the team championship today at the National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets tournament at the U.S. Naval Academy. Mike DeSaulnier [sic] of Harvard won the individual title, defeating defending champion Phil Mohtadi of Western Ontario, 3-0." (The Washington Post, March 7, 1977.)

   Desaulniers, from Montreal, was an exceptional player. As the article above indicates, however, Mohtadi was the top player in the U.S. in 1976. Here is a portion of an article about Mohtadi's win. UWO finished in third place in 1976.

 "Western Player Wins U.S. College Crown," 

"Phil Mohtadi, 19-year-old University of Western Ontario freshman, won his first U.S. intercollegiate squash-racquets singles title at the Williams College courts yesterday.

  Seeded second, Mohtadi defeated third-ranked Tom Page, a 19-year-old Princeton University freshman from Philadelphia, 15-8, 15-6, 15-8....

   The six-member-team title went to Princeton with 29 points followed by Penn, 27 and Western 25." (The Globe and Mail, March 9, 1976, p. 34.

                                         1980

1980 - UWO Wins U.S. Intercollegiate Squash Championship

“Western Ontario Wins Six-Man Team Title"

Squash News, April, 1980, p.18. The entire article is reproduced below.

     Western Ontario's coach Jack Fairs carried the six-man team trophy for the Intercollegiate Squash Championship north of the border. They ended the host Penn team 30-28. The favored teams, Princeton and Harvard, finished third and fourth with 24 and 22 points respectively. Yale and Navy tied for fifth with 18 ½ points.

Western Ontario also won in 1977. Other than that, the trophy which was started in 1956, has been kept between Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Penn and Williams.

Team totals are compiled by scoring one point for each entrant, one point for each match won, and half a point for each consolation win. If a player draws a bye and wins the next match he gains two points. If he draws a bye and then loses, he gets no points. 

Western Ontario’s strength was that all the entrants reached at least the quarterfinals. Number one, John Lennard, lost in the quarterfinals to Jim Huebner; 

Number two Gajenera Singh, lost in the quarterfinals to Michael Desaulniers; number three, Murray Shaw, won the B tournament; number four, Fred Reid, lost in the B semifinal; number five Dennis Hisey and number six David Cox, both reached the C semifinal.

The runner-up Penn team had number five, Pat Murray, and number six, Eben Hardie, both in the C final, as well as number one, Ned Edwards in the A final.

A record 32 teams participated, which attests to the growth of squash in colleges.

     The intercollegiate association in their annual meeting exclusively endorsed Manta racquets and Manta in return is funding an effort by the intercollegiate association to promote squash in colleges which do not have a team.

Six-Man Team Totals

1. Western Ontario        30
2. Penn                          28
3. Princeton                   24
4. Harvard                      22
5. Yale                           18 1/2
     Navy
7. Stony Brook               17 1/2
8. Washington                16
9. Trinity                         15 1/2
10. Tufts                         15
       California
       Army
13. Dartmouth                13 1/2
14. Williams                    13
15. Fordham                   12 1/2
16 Columbia                    11
17. Franklin & Marshall.  11
18. Wesleyan                  10 1/2
19. Amherst                     10 1/2
20. Toronto                       9 1/2
21. M.I.T.                          9
22. Bowdoin                     8 1/2
      Vassar
       Lehigh
25. Rochester                   8
26. Cornell                        7 1/2
27. Hobart                         7
28. Colgate                       6
      Stevens
30. George Washington.   3
31. Stanford                       2 1/2
32. Michigan                      1 1/2

   The caption of the poor photograph above reads: " The Victorious Six Man Team from the University of Western Ontario: #6 Dave Cox, #5 Dennis Hisey, #4 Fred Reid, #3 Murray Shawl, #2 Gajenera Singh, #1 John Lennard" (left to right.)
   The same issue of Squash News contains, on the cover page, a picture of John Lennard, the winner of the "Skillman Sportsmanship Trophy," Coach Fairs of the winning team and Murray Shaw, the B winner. The title of the article: "Desaulniers Defeats Edward To Take Intercollegiate Crown," (Vol.3, No.1, April, 1980.)

   "Western Squash Team Wins U.S. Crown"

   As you will see from the picture below, that is the title of an article found in The Gazette on March 11,1980. The piece, a long and thorough one, is unsigned. The first two paragraphs and the last one are provided below.

PHILADELPHIA -- A battalion of 185 aspirants from 32 North American universities hustled into Philadelphia, The City of Brotherly Love, to do battle for the six-man team championship of the United States and for the coveted Commander E.M. Potter Trophy that is awarded to the winner of the prestigious event. Playing their best squash of the year the underdog Western Mustangs stunned the packed galleries that thronged the expansive Ringe Squash Complex at the University of Pennsylvania by wrestling from the squash powers of Princeton, Harvard, and Yale, the most aspired-after title in the intercollegiate squash competition. Western's win kept their unbeaten 1979-80 tournament record intact having previously won the Ontario Open Team Championship, the Ontario Open Singles, the OUAA Championship and the Canadian Open Singles. 
   The record of the Mustangs in the U.S. Intercollegiates is an enviable one. In addition to this year's title victory, the Mustangs were second in 1976, champions in 1977 and third in 1978 and 1979. The 1980 Mustang Championship Team was comprised of John Lennard, Gajendra Singh, Murray Shaw, Fred Reid, Dennis Hisey and Dave Cox....

   In an interview with The Gazette, Coach Fairs saw the victory this way: The win was one of the most gratifying of my coaching career. It was an uphill struggle all the way. Our personnel entered the tournament with a high resoluteness which resulted in a very energetic brand of attacking play. This helped to lower the stress that is so prominent in such a national championship. Particularly high demands were made on the two freshman members of the team, Fred Reid and Murray Shaw -- and they more than rose to the occasion. In addition, it was particularly rewarding that John Lennard was the first recipient of the John Skillman Sportsmanship Award. The victory is a major landmark in Western squash history. Traditions live on. The outstanding victory will undoubtedly influence the further course of Western squash in a positive way. 

Post Script:

  Unfortunately things did not develop in a positive way. The squash team did not have courts on campus on which to play and the financial support was limited. In 2002, this letter is found in the London Free Press, June 1.:

“Squash at Western Deserves Better Fate.”

   "In reading the stories on Western’s restructuring of its men’s

And women’s athletic teams, I was shocked to see one item.

  Men’s squash –Category 3, (self-funded, limited services.)

  Category 3 – not even second-class citizens!

   Certainly coach Jack Fairs and the young men who have represented

Western so well, both in Canada and the U.S., deserve a much

better fate. A look at the records would explain why.

   Of the last 32 OUA squash championships, the Mustangs have won

28 of them, including the last 19 in a row.

   The Mustangs have twice won the U.S. intercollegiate squash

championships (1977,1980).

   Two of the Mustangs, Phil Mohtadi in 1976 and Scott Dumage in 1989, 

were crowned singles champion at the U.S. intercollegiate championships.

   A four-time All-American, Mohtadi was inducted into the U.S. intercollegiate

squash hall of fame in 1999.

   Retired from Western’s faculty of kinesiology in 1989, Fairs has continued as 

the Mustang’s highly successful squash coach. It’s an impressive record, one 

that will be difficult to match and one that should not be ignored." 

Bob Gage  London

(Bob "Scoop" Gage was a London journalist who died in 2009. For a profile, see this Western essay.)

  Even with limited resources, the team plays on and after winning the OUA championship, travelled to the U.S. one in Philadelphia last week. The current coach, Chris Hanebury, was named OUA "Coach of the Year." Congratulations to the coach and the team. 

The 1994 Globe and Mail article is this one: “Western Thrives Without Fanfare: SQUASH DYNASTY / One Canadian University Consistently Succeeds Against the Best U.S. Schools,” Mark Kearney, The Globe and Mail, Dec. 29, 1994, P.C7

Jack Fairs - much has been written about him.

For obituaries see: "Remembering Beloved Coach Jack Fairs," Western Communications, August 20, 2021 and "John Fairs", London Free Press, Sept. 4, 2021.  

"In Memoriam - Jack Fairs," Squash Canada, Sept. 1, 2021.
In it you will find links to the Canadian Squash Hall of Fame and the Ontario Squash Hall of Fame and a few others.

"Legendary Coach Jack Fairs Passes Away at 98," College Squash Association, Aug. 31, 2021.