Briefly Noted

Attention fathers! If your daughter shows an interest in cooking, resist your generous temptation to take her out for a $12.50 dinner and buy her instead Royal Cookbook:Favorite Court Recipes from theWorld's Royal Families, compiled and edited by outstanding culinary and historical authorities (224 pages, Parents' Magazine Press, New York, 1971). The range is vast: Ancient Rome to Japan, the Low Countries to the Scandinavian North, the Balkans to the Iberian Peninsula, France to Russia, Poland to Greece, China to the Pacific Islands. The Royal Cookbook has more than 150 illustrations in full color and, in addition, black and white photographs of reigning families, table settings, and displays of royal china, silver, and crystal. Of particular interest to Dartmouth men is the chapter on France written by the bon viveur Robert Misch '25. Your daughter will see not only what Charlemagne and Louis XIV looked like; she will also learn what they enjoyed and why Charlemagne, who loved a dormouse stuffed with nuts and spices, was a trencherman rather than a gourmet and Louis XIV, who had 50 chefs, a gourmand rather than a gourmet. Francis I drank asses' milk. Madame de Pompadour lent her name to filet of sole and Madame Du Barry hers to chartreuse of partridge. Do not be surprised if your daughter turns from the picture of trout in wine to the handsome men and beautifully dressed women in the Nicolas Lancret painting "The Picnic After the Hunt" and from ballotine of pheasant to Rainier III of Monaco and Princess Grace. After reading this book, however, she may quote Brillat-Savarin, "A new dish confers more happiness on humanity than the discovery of a new star."

So you still think that you would like to buy. a brownstone house in New York City and live happily ever afterward. Any problems? Four major ones: (1) How to find and choose the "right" building. (2) How to estimate purchase and renovation costs. (3) How to finance the project adequately. (4) How to select and work effectively with the professionals who will be responsible for carrying out the renovation. Costs? Total purchase price: $60,000 to $120,000. Immediate capital needed: $20,000 to $40,000. Renovation costs (minimum quality levels): $60,000 to $100,000. Advantages: conveniences of city living without pouring money away in rentals. Number of brownstones available: at least 30,000. Further problems: Plenty. An absolute must for you is the only book in the field, the product of William H. Edgerton '57 and ten experts, How To Renovate a Brownstone (1970, Halsey Publishing Company, 373 pages, $14.95). Mr. Edgerton is a good man to trust. He and his wife live in a brownstone on Manhattan's West Side. He is Manager-Editor of Building Cost Services for the McGraw-Hill Informations Systems Company, Building Cost Consultant to Architectural Records Magazine, author of more than 30 articles about building construction with specific emphasis on costs, and general partner in two brownstone renovation projects. There is not much that he does not know about tenants, attorneys, architects, contractors, real estate brokers, and insurance specialists. All sorts of romantic persons from newlyweds to grandparents in New York and other large cities yearning for the attractive and warm charm of a brownstone seem to disregard Mr. Edgerton's realistic warning that the attempt to satisfy this urge can be frustrating, consume vast amounts of time, strain patience, melt away money, threaten a marriage, and occasionally end in ignominious bankruptcy.

A retired Dartmouth professor and a cooperative Dartmouth archivist have received applause for their help in producing a book. John B. Stearns '16, Daniel Webster Professor and Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, Emeritus, notified an aspiring author that Baker Library had valuable material. Thus, she, a working journalist on the Newark Evening News, was given further impetus to write a colorful biography. Kenneth C. Cramer in the Archives gave her "great help," and so did his assistant Jan Ouellette. And so finally appears, written by Elizabeth McFadden and published by The Dial Press, TheGlitter and the Gold: A Spirited Account ofthe Metropolitan Museum of Art's FirstDirector, the Audacious and High-HandedLuigi Palma di Cesnola (277 pages, $7.95). In Baker Library she found two cartons of personal letters by Cesnola to his friend Hiram Hitchcock, the Trustee of Dartmouth College who in memory of his wife built the Mary Hitchcock Hospital. Luigi di Cesnola is described as an Italian nobleman, a cavalry officer in Italy and in the American Civil War, a prisoner of war, a pioneering archaeologist, an American consul in Cyprus, the first Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a sometime opportunist involved in scandal and law suits. Such a volatile and flamboyant nineteenth-century original makes spicy reading.

Through the good offices of James C. Risk '37, author of British Orders and Decorations and Director of Coin Galleries, New York City, the Dartmouth College Library has received its fourth donation of numismatic books of nearly 100 items including several issues of the Royal Numismatic Society's The Numismatic Chronicle of which Dartmouth is attempting to obtain a complete run. The donation was given by Stack's, the New York City numismatic firm, to promote numismatic research and writing at the college level. The Dartmouth collection now totals more than 500 volumes, plus many long runs of major journals. They cover all fields of numismatics: coins, medals, orders and decorations, and standard references. Among the most valuable books are Berch's Svenska Mynt (Uppsala, 1773), Brenner's Thesaurus Nummorum (Stock- holm, 1731), Lt. General Fox's Engraving ofUnedited or Rare Greek Coins (London, 1856-62), Dalton's work on the English silver token coinage of 1811-12, Wilkins' History of the Victoria Cross, and Count Tolstoi's early work on Byzantine coinage.

After more than six years of work by Frederick L. Rath Jr. '34, Vice President of the New York State Historical Association, and by Merrilyn Rogers O'Connell, Director of the Oneida Historical Society, Utica, an important reference book has been published. It is Guide to Historic Preservation,Historical Agencies, and Museum Practices:A Selective Bibliography (369 pages, $12.50), designed for professionals, students, and the thousands of volunteers who serve as officers, trustees, members, and workers in more than 5000 historical and preservation societies and history museums throughout the United States. It deals with the saving and use of sites, buildings, and objects significant in American history and culture and with the organizations preserving our heritage, such as history and art museums and their collections and educational use. Mr. Rath was an historian with the National Park Service until he was named the first Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. He has served as President of the American Association for State and Local History and is a member of Governor Rockefeller's Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation in New York State.

Charles T. Morrissey '56, the son of Leonard E. Morrissey '22, is becoming increasingly influential in writing history, American especially, in a particular vein. As President-elect of the Oral History Association, he will be helping to add to the 220 oral history projects started in the United States and other countries by the 440 members of the Oral History Association. He has done interviewing for oral history projects centering on Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover, Christian Herter, and Eugene McCarthy. Before assuming his present position as Director of the Vermont Historical Society, Mr. Morrissey was Director of the John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Project in Washington. He has taught seminars at the University of Vermont in oral history techniques, written several articles about the problems and procedures of interviewing, and for the past three years edited the quarterly newsletter of the Oral History Association.

Gordon Ferrie Hull III '63, Editor of the High School Literary Department of Scott, Foresman and Company, spent "a wild summer and fall getting off the ground Typog, published in February." It is a new magazine of 112 pages by and for high school students interested in all forms of communication (literary and otherwise) which can be conveyed by the printed page. In this first issue most of the writings and graphics had recently appeared in various high school magazines. An editorial board of six high school students from the Chicago area worked overtime last summer reading through several hundred student magazines to select the works printed in this first issue. Future issues will rely entirely on original written or graphic work by high school students, i.e. poetry, fiction, fantasy, essays, satires, one-act plays, monologues, impressions, collages, line drawings, photographs, cartoons, prints, and etchings. Student editorial boards will make all selections. For each piece printed, no matter the length, the author or artist will receive $10.

Winner of the first prize in an official Dartmouth College competition, "Reform of a College," written by Jerome B. King '48, attempts to throw light on the nature of widespread student discontent in general and in particular on the "occupation" of the Dartmouth Administration Building (Park- hurst), May 6, 1969. It appears in the summer 1970 issue of The MassachusettsReview.