Dartmouth Authors
John B. Torinus '34, The Packer Legend: An Inside Look. Laranmark Press, 1982. 251 pp., cloth. Nobody could be better qualified to write the history of the Green Bay Packers than John Torinus: from the day he became a schoolboy summer intern with George W. Calhoun, the newspaperman who shares the credit with Curly Lambeau for launching this unique football team, he has watched its progress. First, it was with a journalist's eagle eye, and then, after his 1949 election to the team's board of directors, it was with a trustee's care and concern as well. The years with Vince Lombardi are most vividly recalled, understandably, but the whole story bears the imprint of the true enthusiast.
John D. Wright Jr. '42, Lexington: Heartof the Bluegrass. The Lexington Fayette County Historic Commission, 1982. 244 pp., cloth. The writing of histories of cities and towns is yet another branch of historiography which increasingly attracts the attention of the professional. Wright, a member of the faculty of Transylvania University for more than 30 years, has brought his expertise to this account of a community which seemed to early settlers to be blessed with almost Eden-like bounty, which became a frontier metropolis, and which still retains its special status as the cultural and economic center of the most beautiful of Kentucky regions. There's a lot more to it than horse racing and stud farming.
Joseph Goldstein '44, Anna Freud, and Albert J. Solnit, Before the Best Interests ofthe Child. Free Press, 1979- 288 pp., paper. The same authors' Beyond the Best Interests of the Child has been described as a classic, and the president of the Association of Child Psychoanalysis suggests in his commentary that this new book will attain the same status. It begins, "When and why should a child's relationship to his parents become a matter of state concern?" and goes on to take the reader through the potentially excruciating complexity of the way to their answer: "So long as the child is part of a viable family, his own interests are merged with those of the other members. Only after the family fails in its function should the child's interests become a matter for state intrusion." Goldstein is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale.
David Sices '54 and Jacqueline B. Sices, revisers of 2001 French and English Idioms by Francois Denoeu. Barrons Educational Series, 1982. 588 pp., paper. If you hear a French person talk about une pomme de discorde and think "an apple of discord" rather than "a bone of contention," you've not yet reached an idiomatic understanding of the language. It's a crucial step, and this reference book is designed to help in making it by putting more idioms at your command; it is better equipped to do so than your average pocket lexicon or phrasebook, and more manageable for the purpose than the desk-sized dictionary. It embodies a lifetime of observation by the late Professor Denoeu and a labor of love in organizing and updating on the part of two long-time friends and colleagues.
Charles A. Monagan '72, The Neurotic'sHandbook. Atheneum, 1982. 150 pp., paper. The covers of the book are a reliable indicator to the inside. On the front, "The Very Nervous Person's Guide to Life in the Modern World, Including Blind Dates, Shallow Breathing, Alien Cultures, New Year's Eve, Touching the Bottom of the Lake with Your Feet, Appendix Operations and Just About Anything Else You Can Think Of." And on the back, among other things, "He now lives in Wolcott, Connecticut, where he pitches for a softball team. His lifetime record is 2-11."
Kevin Dann '78, 25 Walks in New Jersey. Rutgers University Press, 1982. 193 pp., paper. Those of us who know the Garden State only as the result of battling the NewJersey Turnpike may have wondered how it ever got its nickname; this book explains. The author guides his reader through entirely manageable walks in hill country, river valley and pine barren, giving information along the way about the geology and plant and animal life the walker will encounter. Maps for each walk, directions on how to get to the points of departure, and reflections on the impact of humans on the land, all add to the value of a useful and appealing book.
Peter W. Travis, Dramatic Design in theChester Cycle. University of Chicago Press, 1982. 310 pp., paper. At one point, Travis, an associate professor of English at the College, writes, "The great Corpus Christi plays, one would like to think, are in many ways similar to the great English cathedrals." It proves an apt analogy, in that the book approaches its subject in a way similar to an architectural analysis: The Chester Cycle is looked at not only as a whole but in terms of each of its six pageantgroups and 24 individual pageants. It is as though an immense and richly-decorated structure were opened up for us by the most knowledgeable and expert guide, a guide who knows that the plays were created, as the cathedrals were, in the context of a view of the world in which the goal of ad maiorem gloriam dei - "to the greater glory of God" - was incentive enough
William N. Fenton '30 is the contributor of "John Canfield Ewers and the Great Tradition of Artists and Ethnologists of the West" to Plains Indians Studies, A Collection of Essays in Honor of John C. Ewers{'3l} and Waldo R. Wedel, Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hellbent on Insanity, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982. 226 pp., paper, is a collection of items from college humor magazines of the seventies. It includes five pieces of writing and four drawings from the Jack o'Lantern.
