ALEXANDER LAING
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES, 1925—NUMBER 1
Alex Laing was born in Great Neck, Long Island, August 7, 1903. After graduation from Dartmouth, again in residence in Hanover in 1932- 33 and 1937. Married Isabel Frost in Hanover, June 10, 1930. Married Dilys Bennett in Seattle, May 30, 1936. Some facts: technical editor RadioNezi's, 1925-26; editor The PowerSpecialist, 1927-28; copy writer Erwin Wasey & Cos., 1929; tutorial adviser English department, Dartmouth College, 1930; adviser to the Arts, 1930-34; associate editor College Verse, 1931-33; Fellow Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for creative writing abroad, 1934-35; assistant librarian, Dartmouth College, May, 1937—.
Editor:—"The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck," 1934; "The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner," 1936; "The Haunted Omnibus," 1937.
Author:—(with R. A. Lattimore) "Hanover Poems," 1927; "Fool's Errand, " 1928; "End of Roaming," 1930; "The Sea Witch," 1933; "Wine and Physic," 1934; (with Thomas Painter) "The Motives of Nicholas Holtz," 1936; "Dr. Scarlett," 1936; "Sailing In," 1937; "The Methods of Dr. Scarlett," 1937. In addition has written short stories in various magazines "ranging in height Of brow from Liberty to the Neiv Yorker and ditto for verse, except that the brow retained a somewhat higher level, dropping no lower than the old VanityFair."
Alex has traveled widely, willingly, and well. In the fall of 1926 shipped as ordinary seaman on the S. S. Leviathan from New York to Southampton and return; in 1928 from port of Newark to Wilmington, Calif., via the Panama Canal. After arrival there thumbed his way up west coast as far as Aberdeen, Wash., spending a more or less beachcombing summer there. Guggenheim grant in 1934 was occasion for a round-the-world jaunt; 5 months in London, ship to Marseilles, overland from Riviera to Florence, Rome, and Sicily; by ship from Syracuse to Malta, by another ship to Singapore via the Suez. Three weeks ashore at Singapore, then Hongkong, Shanghai, the Japanese ports, and Honolulu. Six months on Oahu and Kauai. Then San Francisco, a few weeks in Seattle, and back to New Hampshire for a winter on a farm at East Wolfeboro—"very primitive, no plumbing—all water in a pail got via the break-the-ice method. This got the tropics out of my system." In 1928 Alex says the most notable event of his stay in the state of Washington was, as it turned out, the sight of his present spouse. For seven years later on his way back from around the world he looked her up and in May of 1936, after the winter at East Wolfeboro, returned to Seattle, where they were married. The honeymoon brought them back East via the Panama Canal. "The Big Book, material for which was gathered in London, Singapore, and Honolulu, is still in process of evolution, but may be ready in another eighteen months or so."
The Secretary urges all of you not familiar with Alex's writings to delve into them. Certainly there shouldn't be anyone in the class who hasn't read "The Sea Witch." If you like to read at all, if you enjoy stories of adventure and love, if you've ever had the desire to "go down to the sea in ships," you'll delight in every page of it. It's a superb work from the hand of a talented young man. SKOAL, ALEX from all Quarters!
