1979

Thirty years ago this month several classmates began their 1975 freshman seminar, "Shakespeare's Major Tragedies." John Bussey, deputy managing editor of The Wall StreetJournal, writes, "That seminar is easily the most memorable class I had at Dartmouth." John wrote a powerful eyewitness account of 9/11.

Peter Robinson, former presidential speech-writer ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!") and recently elected College trustee, writes, "Professor David Kastan was younger then than we are now. What energy, intelligence and love of language! At first I felt in awe of Kastan and my fellow students, but he insisted on drawing out everyone at the table. The seminar represented one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I'd never seen language or intellect taken so seriously. I'd never been pushed so hard. I'd never encountered a mind as quick or elegant as Kastan's. The seminar made me feel I could handle anything else the College might throw at me."

John writes, "We tried to be smarter than this 29-year-old kid telling us what to think. We were rarely successful, at least I wasn't—except once.

"Kastan liked to sit at the front of the table. This caused Peter Robinson and me to sit at the other end. One day Peter and I were whispering about something while Kastan was gesticulating through one of the rain/lightning scenes in KingLear. Justly annoyed by us gabbing in the back of the room, Kastan stopped mid-thunderclap, looked at us and said: 'Bussey, don't talk to Robinson. Your mind will turn to petroleum jelly.'

"This was a pretty good putdown. And it left Peter collateral damage. A two-fer. It got a giggle from the class.

"Not really thinking, I fired back: 'Peter and I were just wondering whether it was too late to change seminars.'

"The place burst into laughter. Kastan laughed hardest."

Writes the Rev. Robert Keefer, "The seminar's influence on my later work was in appreciating literature as an arena for grappling with life in the world." Today along with traditional pastoral duties, Bob annually blesses the first beer keg at every Cincinnati Bockfest. Other seminar classmates included Gina Barreca, Mark Raabe, Cindy Ricks, Jeanne Straus, Elien Welty and Rick Leonardi. Rick, now an illustrator for Marvel's Spiderman comics, enjoys the challenge of creating frames that best advance the storyline. "When I saw Rick at reunion this past summer," writes Peter, "I felt that we might only have parted the day before."

Polly Ingraham writes, "I remember the huge table we sat around, suggesting that whatever we said was important. We learned how much power words could pack, even a single word, like Cordelia's 'Nothing.' We pontificated. We argued. We laughed. We got to know one another through these tremendous works of literature." Today Polly is teaching teen mothers who have dropped out of school. "Wish I had my old classmates with me some days!"

Writes Peter, "I just looked at my bookshelf and found the very copies of Hamlet,Macbeth and King Lear that I used. When flipping through KingLear I came across an index card used as bookmark. Scrawled across one side is handwriting of John Bussey, I suspect, since we worked on a few assignments together.

"On the card: 'Lear viii 8-19. Sum it up. Include tone. Literally, attitude. Then, in light of the whole play describe Lear's present state in that passage: his attitude toward himself, Cordelia, life/death, the world.'

"Life. Death. The world. That's the magic of this seminar. Under inspiration of Shakespeare and Kastan, we 18-year-olds found it perfectly natural to find ourselves addressing the ultimate things."

17 Southview, Pleasantvill,e NY 10570;mwinkler@marthastewart.com