On April 6, 1878, Lady Saxelbye of Croome Castle made her debut in literary society. On February 7, 1884, Lady Emmeline of Stroome Castle was similarly introduced to the public. And early in 1891, the Duchess of Hamptonshire, of Batton Castle, was presented to the literary world. The lady's sponsor in each case was Thomas Hardy. Half a century has now gone by since the Duchess made her bow, but not until the week in which I begin this report (April 1942) was the surprising fact discovered that the Duchess and the Lady Emmeline were none other than Lady Saxelbye in disguise. After all these years, evidence has come to hand that Croome and Stroome and Batton are Hardy's names for the same castle, and that he told his story three times, disguising the repetitions by a change of names. The bibliographical facts may be briefly stated.

Walt Whitman's services as a Federal clerk are treated briefly by all his biographers, and his dismissal from the Office of Indian Affairs is one of the best-known incidents in the poet's life. Yet no systematic canvass of the records in the National Archives, particularly in respect to Whitman's longer employment in the Department of Justice, has been published. In consequence a crop of errors has sprung up among the poet's biographers. For example, Harrison S. Morris's reminiscent Walt Whitman (Harvard University Press, 1929), p. 65, states that “in 1864 Walt had secured a clerkship in the Indian Bureau of the Interior Department”; other biographers state or imply that Whitman's tenure began in February 1865, whereas the records cited hereafter show that his appointment and salary began as of January 1, 1865, although he did not set to work until several weeks later. Clara Barrus's generally admirable Whitman and Burroughs, Comrades (Boston and New York, 1931), p. 25, incorrectly states that Whitman “was removed from his post in the Department of the Interior on June 10, 1865.” The dates of the poet's promotions, from the lowest (first class) to higher ranks of clerkship, are not stated with accuracy in any biography; and his movements during these Washington years are not always carefully described. Bliss Perry, for instance, in writing of Whitman's visit to Dartmouth College in June 1872 for the delivery of his Commencement Poem, says that “by the first of July he was back in Washington”—whereas one of the documents printed below shows that he was lingering in Brooklyn, and applying for extension of leave on grounds of illness, as late as July 9. The clerical duties he performed during these eight years after the Civil War, while of minor import in Whitman's life as an artist—the life that created “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd” and “Passage to India”—did furnish him a livelihood and the convenience of a bachelor's study after hours, with stationery, free heat, the gas for his “astral lamp,” and the right to order books for the Office library. They may thus repay a brief review.

Der französische Dichter Léon-Paul Fargue (geboren 1878) sagt in einer Unterredung mit Frédéric Lefèvre, daβ er beim Wiederlesen seiner Prosagedichte und bei der Prüfung, welche Aenderungen er jetzt, nach vielen Jahren, vornehmen würde, immer auf die alte Fassung zurückgekommen sei als die beste, um das auszudrücken, was er beschreiben wollte. Diese Aeusserung erstaunt den Leser, der bei der ersten Lektüre Fargue's vieles Bizarre, ja Willkürliche festzustellen meint. Wenn er sich aber nach wiederholter Lektüre ein Verständnis des Dichters verschafft hat, erscheinen ihm seine Gedichte nicht mehr als unbegründet phantastisch, sondern als notwendig. Diese Notwendigkeit, die einen gewiβen sicheren Glanz ausstrahlt,—“splendor veri” sagen die Platoniker—ist die Form des Geschriebenen. Die wirkliche Form, wollen wir sie einmal “innere” Form nennen, hat nichts mit der “äusseren” Form zu tun, die die Sitte verlangt. Ein Sonett, eine Ode kann absolut formlos, mit Leere aufgepumpt sein, während ein Fragment, ja ein Satz vollkommen geformt sein, in sich selbst, ja für sich selbst bestehen können. Ein geformtes Geschriebenes ist erreicht, wenn die Wort-Materie und die Vision des Autors sich absolut decken, wenn die Materie durch und durch verwandelt ist vom Geist, so daβ sich das Geformte vom Autor vollkommen ablöst, in sich selbst ruht, und ein eigenes Leben mit eigener Wirkung beginnt. Aus dieser Ansicht geht hervor, daβ ein Fragment oder ein Prosagedicht ebenso gut eine gültige Form erreichen kann wie ein Sonett oder eine Ode. Ja, den Möglichkeiten der Form des Geschriebenen (und alle geformte Sprache pflegen wir Dichtung zu nennen) ist keine Grenze gesetzt—wobei der durch die Erfahrung bedingte Wert der Konvention ein anderes Kapitel bildet.

The purposes of this article are two: 1) to consider the sources of “The Wanderings of Oisin” that Yeats himself gives; and 2) to consider additional sources, not given by Yeats, that I have found in the Irish literature written in English that we are fairly sure Yeats was familiar with. I shall be concerned throughout with only the first version of the poem—that of 1889—for in subsequent printings it was much changed.

During his busiest years as a novelist Charles Dickens was also the editor, and for twenty years the controlling proprietor, of a series of periodicals, the greatest of which attained a circulation larger than that of the London Times of the period. At the same time, he issued successful American editions of his periodicals, developed distinctive editorial methods, became a pioneer in the art of serialization in weekly publications, and throughout his entire career as a journalist was activated by certain well-considered editorial policies. In this article I shall confine my remarks to the general policies, or principles, that guided Dickens in the development of his periodicals, with special attention to those practiced in Household Words and All the Year Round.

When Gottfried Keller in his poetic rejoinder to Justinus Kerner's romantic plaint extolled the world-transforming forces of technology, he expressed the dominant faith of his time in a possible synthesis of the spiritual and the utilitarian, of idealism and materialism. To use the vernacular: he did not doubt but that he could eat his cake and have it. To Kerner it was a bad dream that after the steamship and the locomotive the next step would be aviation, that in the future leaking airborne oil vats might sully the pure atmosphere, the last element to remain undefiled by man; he wished to lie in the grass and gaze up into the serene blue depths while yet he might. Keller replied that there was nothing to prevent such idyllic escape, but that he for one preferred to identify himself with the dynamism of the new “fire dragon.” In fact, was not only now the magic of Kerner's old parchments at last being transformed into reality by the forces of nature in the service of the human spirit? Were they not building for man a “brave new world?”

The Executive Council met in the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York, N. Y., on September 18–19, 1943, in three sessions: 2:30–5:30 p.m., 8:00–10:00 p.m., and 9:30 a m. to 12:00 noon. There were present throughout the sessions all five officers and Professors Blankenagel, Holmes, Gauss, Wade, and Baugh, constituting a quorum. The following were present as alternates: Professors Odell Shepard (for Foerster), E. H. Wright (for L. B. Wright), Marjorie Nicolson (for Hard), H. G. Doyle (for Parmenter), O. J. Campbell (for Aron). Professor Orie W. Long and the Managing Trustees were present on Saturday, September 18.