Dartmouth Authors

J. Laurie Snell, Professor of Mathematics. Introduction to Probability Theory With Computing, Prentice-Hall, $9.95, This book grew out of a course given jointly with Professor John G. Kemeny, who persuaded Snell that finite mathematics and computing were fun. Here are binomial coefficients, conditional probability, random variables, expected value, variance, law of large numbers, addition of independent random variables, central limit theorem, the Poisson approximation, "penny matching revisited," and the arc sine law. The final chapter deals with Markov chains. The programming language reflects the Kemeny automobile license plate: BASIC.

Stanwood Cobb '03. Thoughts on Educationand Life, Avalon Press, 53.00. Answers to questions on "misguided" education today: too few gifted and dedicated teachers; high-school assignments are boring; college has too many automatons; old lecture methods instead of free discussion; graduate work too prolonged; the rigorous exclusion of religion from public-school education and the prevalence of scientific materialism; the failure of educators to appreciate the sacredness of individuality.

Richard P. White '18. A Century of Service: AHistory of the Nursery Association of theUnited States, the American Association of Nurserymen, Washington, D. C. Information for nurserymen and horticultural students: transportation, grades and standards, false advertising, taxation, and inter-organization difficulties about representation, officer election, and site selection. Treated also is a shift from a fruit tree/plant business to one dominated by the production of ornamentals.

R.T. Blackwood '49 and A. L. Herman, editors. Problems in Philosophy: West andEast, Prentice-Hall, $11.95. Students are introduced to the problems of Eastern and Western philosophies and made aware that the ultimate questions of today have occupied the world's finest minds for several thousand years. Chapters are organized on the following basis: metaphysics, epistemology, theology, and ethics.

Steve Chontos '56. The Death of Dover, Vermont, Vantage Press, $4.95. Mostly through dialogue in this 143-page novel, Chontos follows Mark Terrick of New York and his wife Lee, formerly a Greenwich Village girl friend, as they attempt to establish a better life in Vermont. Marriage, children, a ski shop, an improved house, freedom from debt, a gas station, and an honorable role in politics should do the trick. Starry eyes lose their romantic glint when local planners and boost-and-blurb ruin Dover, and the Terricks retreat for a better life back in New York.

Richard M. Sanders '59. Behavior Modification in a Rehabilitation Facility, Southern Illinois University Press, $8.95 cloth, $3.95 paper. Working with boys and girls 16 and older with a wide variety of rehabilitation needs, Professor Sanders attempted to change their behavior to make them more readily employable. He trained them to work at industrially competitive rates, attempted to normalize their inept behavior, and encouraged them to spruce up in their personal appearance. The aim is to help rehabilitation centers become more effective.

John White '61 and Brad Steiger. OtherWorlds, Other Universes: Playing the RealityGame, Doubleday, $7.95. The reality game is defined as the challenge to mankind to participate in a kind of cosmic interest. "To play the Reality Game totally is to get in true step with time, space, and the source of being." The first move involved exobiology, the search for extraterrestrial life, which, according to White and Steiger, exists among a large number, perhaps half, of the several hundred billion stars in our Milky Way. Sixteen scholars have contributed essays. White and Steiger affirm that they "have moved from orthodox science through occult science to spiritual science in search of omni-science."