SUCH IS LIFE
by William W. Grant '03. PrivatelyPrinted, 1952, 235 pp.
After a stroke which forced him to discontinue the active life he had been used to, Mr. Grant, until recently a Life Trustee of Dartmouth, set himself to write for his family and friends a few discursive chapters about his life.
I found it a particularly appealing book, mainly because it reveals an honest, forth- right and shrewd personality. There is a noticeable freedom from cant in all he says. Mr. Grant knows his Samuel Johnson, as well as other great writers. The book is curiously attractive in the selfless and unegotistical manner in which Mr. Grant has recalled to memory certain periods and personalities of his life.
He reveals himself to be a successful lawyer, a progressive and public-spirited citizen, an Anglo-Catholic in religion, and a devoted family man.
He has many sound ideas on education and democracy. He believes that education should produce disciplined minds, and that progressive education does not often do this. "Good manners," he writes, "are at the base of democracy in its best sense.... Democracy means respect for the rights of others."
His remarks on college education are equally sound and I wish could be widely read by those most directly concerned.
Altogether this is a charming and a completely honest book of reminiscence.
