VassarQuarterly - Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly

SPRING 1983
Vassar Quarterly
VOL.
Ruth Fulton Benedict
’O9 at the time of her book
A mother of
the first detailed
on
LXXIX/NO. 3,
Japan
anthropology:
portrait of Ruth Benedict
Also inside:
the search for Vassar’s Japanese
princess
A chance to
renew some
Shown here, the class of 1882. Class president and valedictorian Sutematsu
classic ties
Yamakawa (seated fourth row, fifth from left) is the subject of
in this issue, page 10.
Reunion 1983
June 3-5
’2B
’33
‘5l
’52
’53
’5B
’77
’7B
’79
a
feature
Vassar Quarterly
SPRING 1983
VOL LXXIX/NO. 3
Features
VassarQuarterly
Editorial Staff
5
Editor
Mindy
Assistant editor
Georgette Weir
Designer
Abigail Sturges
Copy
Patterns
of
a
Life
published the first full-length critical biography of Ruth Fulton Benedict, V.C. ’09,
a
’66
poet who went
In this
editor
Geraldine
Ruth Benedict:
By the time you read these words, the University of Pennsylvania Press will have
’69
Aloff
issue,
the
become
on to
one
Quarterly brings
of the foremost anthropologists of the century.
you an excerpt from this work
by Judith
Schachter Modell ’63, who speaks of the connections between Benedict and herself
Herron
that led to the book.
Books editor
Susan Osborn ’77
Quarterly Committee
Anne S.
Alexander ’67
Ruth Brine
(AAVC
board
liaison)
10
’6l, William W. Gifford
Elizabeth Davis
Frances Aaron Hess ’53
telligence and self-possession.
(exofficio)
first Japanese
Sally Kirkland ’34, Kathleen Holman Langan ’46
Dana Little
The girl thrown away forever:
memories of
woman to
Her
earn a
full-fledged princess. With
’62, Judith Woracek Mullen ’59
Nancy Newhouse ’5B, David L. Schalk
princess
a
a
student of unusual in-
Sutematsu Yamakawa;
name was
she
President
Frances Aaron Hess ’53
a
women
the
a
little help from the Vassar community, Megan
Japan with her ancestor’s story. As
letter about
was
baccalaureate degree, and she eventually became
Baldrige Murray writes, Sutematsu’s great-granddaughter is intriguing
Board of Directors of AAVC
First
a
One hundred years ago, there graduated from Vassar
’4l, Fred R. Brooks, Jr.
a
point of reference, Jorge Ribeiro
modern
’75 provides
in Japan today.
vice-president
Anne Morris Macdonald
Second
’42
vice-president
Alix Gould
Myerson ’7l
Secretary
Marilyn Palmer
Departments
Helmholz ’6O
Treasurer
Stone
Margaret
’3B
Zilboorg
2
Letters
3
Omnium Gatherum
Fund chr.
Caroline
House
Dabney Standley
’52
committee chr.
Beatrice
Meyer Wilson
Nominating committee
Frances
’36
Books
18
Person Place &
19
Class Notes
Thing
director
Liz Wexler Quinlan ’59
The
Directors-at-large
last page
A curable romantic
Anne S. Alexander ’67
Susan
Club Source & Resource
16
chr.
Thompson Clark ’53
Publicity
15
’40
by Susanna Eszenyi Bedell
Deßevoise ’69
Emily Richardson Hewitt ’4B
Kim Landsman ’74
James Mitchell
’75
Elizabeth Mills
Schilling
Cover: Drawing of anthropologist Ruth Fulton Benedict ’O9 by
an
unknown artist
’42
around the 1946 publication of The Chrysanthemum
Nora Ann Wallace ’73
pathbreaking book
AA VC trustees
Georgia Sims Carson ’52
Back cover: The
Alice Frey Emerson ’53
on
and the Sword, her
Japanese culture. Drawing courtesy
Santa Fe Opera House,
®
Vassar
Special Collections
1979 David Stein.
Billie Davis Gaines ’5B
Eugenie Aiguier Havemeyer
Jayne M. Kurzman ’6B
Margot Bell Woodwell ’57
’5l
AAVC Staff
Executive director (also AA VC board member)
Polly Messinger
Kuhn ’47
Second year in
CASE honors
a row
Quarterly
in “Best Articles”
competition
Associate directors
Mary
Meeker Gesek ’5B
“Seeing Mary plain,”
Terri O’Shea ’76
Assistant
for
recent
classes
Deborah Macfarlan ’B2
The Vassar Quarterly, USPS 657-080, is published in the
fall, winter, spring, and summer by the Alumnae and
Alumni of Vassar College (AAVC). POSTMASTER:
changes to Record Room, Alumnae
House, Box 19, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. Second class
at
Poughkeepsie, NY. Yearly subscriptions
postage paid
$7. Single copies $2. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be
returned
unless
accompanied by a self-addressed,
stamped envelope. Copyright © 1983 by AAVC.
and
in Poughkeepsie, NY, by Maar
printed
Typeset
Send
address
a
portrait
of
Mary McCarthy ’33 by Thomas Mallon of the
Vassar English department, has earned
a
citation from the Council for Advance-
ment and
Support of Education (CASE) in its “Best Articles of the Year” prize
category.
Mr. Mallon’s
in the
piece, which appeared
occasioned by Miss McCarthy’s residence
on
Spring
campus the
subject of the President’s Distinguished Visitor
a
citation for
’74, published in the Spring/Summer
an
Quarterly,
was
as
the
program. CASE introduced the
“Best Articles” category into its annual Recognition awards
judges accorded the Quarterly
1982
preceding February
essay on
in 1982. That
teaching by
Brett
year, the
Singer
1981 issue.
Printing Service. ISSN: 0042-2851
1
The Quarterly welcomes letters to the
Letters
editor, preferably typed, double-spaced,
and
longer than 350 words.
no
We
reserve
the right to edit letters for style and
length.
Losing
at Authors?
the greats, I think I would, very solemnly,
Editor’s note: Although
vomit.
view
did
Why
In
“Lights and Shadows,
Gardner
has
(1933-1982),”
written
tribute to
a
tribute to John
a
Andes
Karen
her
own
rather than the late novelist’s.
ally
interested
very
in
looking forward
was
New
former
disappointment.
fortunate
in
just
died.
New
York,
NY
to have shed my fear
time to study
I
’7B
Sally Kilbridge
though, considering
was,
his fame and busy life, didn’t have to be. I
learn-
to
patient teacher he
might assist
artists
once
George
saw
crowded
Plimpton
His hair
room.
while
admirers,
party, got
same
who went
the
group of fer-
Bill Buckley,
of
pleasure
at
someone
Tom
admired
yellow linen
suit
nose.
Wolfe’s
at
nice
lemonin
Stommel
tunity
clear up
to
flected
misunderstanding
a
re-
in her letter.
AAVC
Fund.
AAVC
tion to
its
the college,
agreement between
result,
the
During
transferred
mid-seventies,
fund-raising
of
part
as
opera-
overall
an
Vassar and AAVC. As
AAVC staff and
overhead
are
a
no
longer directly underwritten by the
AAVC
Fund, but instead
college
The
budget.
AAVC
is
but
a
the
by
administered
controlled
ultimately
of
is approved
budget
board,
out
come
by
complicated relationship
and
This
Vassar.
notwithstanding,
the editorial independence of the magazine
continues to be supported
Judices
both Main
by
Building and Alumnae House.
My mother, Dorothy Embry Cross, class of
I
1913,
now
lives with
much appreciate
here.
conference
a
different
a
we’re delighted to have the oppor-
does,
to learn
uncaring
from.
the
intimidated,
standing,
underneath his aristocratic
I
a
mixed up with
me
too distant and
that the great
a
St. George’s prep; and I had
to
are
or
publicity hound,
slick journalist, he attracted
vent
a
silver. Yalie,
was
computer-game huckster,
across
he
other
young artists who feel that their work is not
good enough for sharing,
I
of him,
with him before
this
thought
take
It concerns the link between AAVC and
John
on
Gardner I wanted to show what a thorough,
was
a
New York
York,
Karen Andes replies: In my piece
ing something about Mr. Gardner and his
remarkable work. What
such
publish
career
classmates have taken since graduation, but
in this case, I
to
Shane Mitchell ’79
tripe?
(’7B)
1 am gener-
the paths
bother
you
we
of the magazine than Ms.
me, and
receiving
your
She thoroughly enjoys
and over!
over
would very
the
enjoy
reads it
another
much
so
more
day when it had
my
magazine
it
name.
Susan Yorke (Suzette Telenga) ’36
Olivia Davies
the
Quarterly,
sophisticated than in
Woollahra,
Los Gatos, California
Australia
Plaza Hotel, but he didn’t get around to
asking
never
me
if I wanted to be
have gotten up the
Bashevis
Singer
read
to
promptu scribbles,
going
to be
that I’m
Kurt
a
great writer. I
nerve
to ask
certainly
are
included, arbitrarily, in
working
not
Sales
a
me
the
silt-
a
12. Michael Weller thought my senior thesis
was
nice and
however,
I
even came
resisted
the
Popular Mechanics for
Isaac
Asimov
to see it
a
on
flee
to
a
film
during
dinner at
a
opening
the other side of the
me
sushi restaurant after
a
gallery opening, but dreams of his asking
me
to be his protegee never did come true.
The
only
thing
I
wanted
to
Gardner at that lecture (which
Cushing living room)
was
Authors
too
were
Chaucer for
many
on
And if any writer
Famous
morals and
to get a word in. I
regret the lost opportunity
writing
held in
fairy tales? Unfuture
quizzing him
me
sincerely
were to
one-sided and
tell me:
keep
one
of
or
emphasis,” in its approach, and in its slant!
are
“
.
.
.
editorial decisions
solely the responsibility of the editor”
and “The Quarterly committee,
appointed
and chaired by the editor, is purely
an
visory group” and “Some alumnae/i
zines
are
The editor tells
(only)
published
us
by
publishes includes
Vassar’s
Vassar’s
for,
(including
we
of
its office space and
being responsive
as
one
If
of
our
unre-
allot to the Quarterly
might make the editor awake
of
AAVC.
I,
wish that the AAVC
would withhold the portion
stricted giving that
con-
of them.”
that the Quarterly is
pays
Old Grads,
one
ad-
maga-
indeed under their colleges’
staff)- This
to
the reality
to all of one’s reader-
ship.
I liked
used to be. Since becoming the
our
In memoriam
Florence
McCulloch
French at
Wellesley College, died Novem-
ber 29,
cancer.
1982, after
She
was
Quarterly,
AAVC publication has been deterioratus
feel.
Anne Melson Stommel ’45-4
Rumson,
New
Jersey
a
Medieval
Latin
published
by
Carolina Press,
’44,
of the most distinclass.
Her book,
French
Bestiaries,
our
and
the
University
of
North
is the recognized authority
in the field, and many of her articles
lives
of medieval
Speculum,
of
professor
triumphant battle with
one
guished scholars of
the
on
saints have appeared
Romaina,
and
other
in
distin-
guished journals.
Florence
was
a
tireless traveler in pursuit
of her special interest. Bestiaries, popular in
the Middle Ages,
imagined
and
were
animals,
described.
stories of real and
fantastically
They
symbolism prevalent
in
pictured
the
inspired
religious
animal
art
and
literature of the time.
At Vassar I
what Vassar’s Alumnae Magazine
ing rapidly. I wonder how others of
now.
like this, kid, and you’ll be
2 VQ Spring 1983
John
how he managed
to come up with such great
fortunately,
ask
was
so
trol. Vassar’s magazine isn’t
audience. And Jamie Collier stared at
a
to
makeover.
attended
with me, but he sat
performed;
urge
Quarterly is
One reads (sic):
into
in the
...
11, Winter 1983) why
page
restricted in its socio-political “content
novel
Vassar
on
im-
square dance when I was
a
boxed italics
anyway.
threw
once
choked pond at
on
Aha! At last I found (somewhere
not
of my
any
which
Isaac
had missed French and art
history, but with others I
was
inspired by
Florence and in 1980 I received my Ph.D. in
medieval French, cheered
on
by
my
grand-
children. Florence and I made several trips
together
while 1
was
studying
Continued
in France.
on
page
48
Omnium Gatherum
Weir
Foreign policy and
Georget
the C.I.A.
“There is always the danger that local wars,
Phot s:
civil wars, will draw in the major powers.”
Flora Lewis, foreign
affairs columnist for
the New
York
Times
audience
that
had
Room in
speaking
was
crowded
“But the
February.
to
the
an
Villard
to peace is
key
still in Europe.
“There has been
change in attitude in
a
War
Europe since World
western
II,” she
went on.
“It wasn’t very long ago that
was seen
as
that
of
change,
enormous
there
really
are
no
border
more
western
Europe.
that keeps
western
Europe stable.
going
would
to
war
It
is
consent
Those
conceive
longer
no
an
importance,
great
disputes in
countries
war
noble enterprise. But it is
a
(with each other). But
of
every
border in eastern Europe is still in dispute.
It
is
the
borders
Red
in
which enforces
Army
This
Europe.
eastern
the
was
a
John Stockwell, formerly of the C.I.A
Flora Lewis, foreign affairs columnist
tain control. But this partition of Europe is
decide how to
mined policy decisions
unnatural. It can’t last. It is intolerable, but
and despair that brings its
deliberate policy initiated by Stalin to main-
I
visible way of getting out of it that
see no
is not
is
Europe
still
the
partition of
The
dangerous.
more
danger
greatest
to
We need to
have
have
common
And,
Having stated her view of foreign affairs,
Ms. Lewis, who
at Vassar to deliver the
was
reminded
have
to,
act on
ternational
understanding,
always
worry
outline
her
favored
policy.
The
policy
went
approach
of
loss
one
Vietnam
a
to
foreign
bipartisan
foreign
consequence, she
has resulted in
war
tree sways in the wind it is
said, of the
a
vacillating
rhetoric,
four
years),
or
to the
even
of
for both
need is
a
broad
consensus
American goals in the world and
on
how
She suggests that such
for
developed
arms
broad
around
control.
consensus
with
the
a
a
consensus
could
bipartisan proposal
“But
on
Soviet Union and
tions
we
we
also
need
a
how to deal with the
on
how to
Third World.
an
“Governments
insufficient data.
get
we
almost
We
must
confident
too
The next
evening,
again
in
Villard Room, again the subject
a
was
foreign
affairs. Former Central Intelligence Agency
field
now
pose
and
agent
Stockwell,
Colonel John
C.I.A. renegade and author of the
In
Search
of Enemies,
warned
audience that the United States “must
verse
its position of paranoia against
Mr. Stockwell
“When the C.I.A.
formed in 1947, part
of the
whose
sponsored by
organizations,
regaled
appearance
bevy
a
his
participation
audience
with
in C.I.A. opera-
tions in the (then) Belgian Congo,
nam, and in
at
in Viet-
Angola. He told tales of inept-
repugnant,
operations
But these
repugnant. They
are
are
fundamentally
not
Mr.
fact,
C.l.A.’s
sary. “In
“But
intelligence
We
(spies).
our
horror;
We
that
support
the agency
would
so
predeter-
neces-
from human
comes
were
two
to
one
not
‘quality’
not old news.
the
U.S.
name
mit that these
wants anti-
government
installed,
at
cost.
any
of the game. Where this is
done, the C.I.A. claims
of
not
knew that
reports
communist leaders
cess
the
claims,
are
are
success.
But I sub-
failures, because the pro-
installing those
in-
governments
volves the corruption of those governments
and those societies. The people who want to
reform their societies
are
forced
the world
quiet
of intelligence”
are
1972 we were told that four per-
cent of U.S.
sources
Stockwell
operations
covert
and
which elicited
was
necessary.
irresistible. They
the Soviet Union for support.
sadism,
work
but
ness, which elicited laughter; tales of deaths
tales of the “corruption
said.
fun.”
‘corrupted,’
of campus
was
legislation said that the
fundamentally
his
com-
running operations
for operations sake,”
That’s the
Stockwell,
was
“I could see the C.I.A.
percent of
re-
which brought in-
question the raison d’etre of the C.I.A.
ex-
munism.”
Vassar
to
In
crowded
handle relahave to
ar-
confidence, she
audience,
when
all
aren’t looking far enough.”
stories of his
to meet them.”
be
that
Mr.
opponents. The most im-
our
we
oak
changes of
extremely disruptive
allies and
portant thing
on
dangerous
which implies drastic
are
an
Our drastic reversals
whole neighborhood.
policy (every
to
on
U.S. approach to the world. “When
our
against
Henry Kissinger said,
as
always
we
needs.”
common
Americans
her
arrogance.
acceptance that
an
interests,
warning
annual Barbara Bailey Brown lecture for in-
policy,
own
rogance that can come with
peace.”
of
deal with the exasperation
to
the Soviet Union
to
turn
to
It’s handing
on
a
silver
platter.”
Though
the
operations
by
which
the
3
OmniumGatherum
C.I.A. intervenes in the affairs
countries
of foreign
frequently labeled “covert,”
are
Mr. Stockwell
maintains that “the people
out in the world who are the victims know
that the United States is responsible.
secrecy is
The
the American people
to prevent
everything far
dent
can
do
they
are
the only
who
ones
anything.
people possessed
“We need good
intelligence,”
a
Mr. Stock-
brief rundown of
the technology that is used to obtain information without risk to human life. “But
we
need desperately to get rid of the C.1.A.”
G.W.
the center of the stu-
had already given
place
the 55
populated
overdose
an
of anyone
suspicion
a
of self-
that sardonic, knowing smile that
instead,
And
his
he
attitude
wanted
to
toward
study,
the
world.
of all
things,
American Colonial history, scarcely
vant” subject in the
We talked, and
that this
more
was
as
a
language
once
was
he
27.
was
seen
Before
bit of the
a
world and watched the way it works.
was
and
out
Pres
not the
grown
never
point; the point
that
state
a
up,
was
some
But
the
Office
ready
Courtesy,
more
and
he
one
had
been watching.
demand
to
the world is
ever
fairness,
likely
more
better than to
give,
to
more
to
justice,
what
get
injustice,
at
more
moved
were
trying
said
they
mind open to
may have
each
to
a
other.
words, he treated them fairly.
meant
In other
As a
result,
I
think he understood them better than anyelse has.
In
at the age of 41, life
striking him down
to have dealt
seems
unfairly with Jon. And
indeed it has. But that is not quite the way
that
with
Jon,
Jack
tell him
to
remarked
have
on
the bad
this, and Jack
Jon would have: “Fairness is
as
built into the system.” It isn’t. But
not
people like Jon
we
would
realism,
Hexter,
news, we both
just
his
it. When I called his and my old
at
remind
can
us
that,
while
should not expect it of the system,
should keep
on
we
demanding it of ourselves.
Edmund
Morgan
he de-
manded. He knew how to be angry, but
surprised,
what
responded,
was
seriously,
what hidden motives
but he knew
honesty,
expect
He
striving
founding
most historians ever have. He
possibility that they
friend,
of the world than
more
these
looked at what they did with
the
Jon’s
distinguished
took
He took all that for granted and
to protect.
people
better place than
he
their
ask
not
looked
losing the enthusiasm of youth for maka
did
of attention:
them, what vested interests they
that he
reach. And he had managed it with-
ing the world somehow
of
What
that
was
fathers
one
little older than
a
graduate students;
was
me
teach him.
ever
be sure, Jon
“rele-
who would teach
man
than I could
a
of the time.
talked I knew at
we
finishing college he had
that
Constitution.
work
good deal
a
who drafted the United States
men
seriously than
Jon didn’t look much like that. He wore,
most
Information
by
30.
over
To
Living instruction
by
and
righteousness
mirrored
well said, and then gave
a
people with long hair and freakish clothes,
from learning what is being done in their
name, because
out
revolution,
unfairness,
not
and
is
Edmund Morgan
Sterling Professor of
History Emeritus at Yale University.
dishonesty.
I think he was drawn to
history,
as
many of
so
of
recognition
among the
the
New
us
same
Early American
have been,
Such
unrighteousness.
an
and
at
Clark,
associate professor of history
an
Vassar, died this past winter after
illness.
The
delivered
It is
following
were
profession that the students
you like
to
most
are
those
really teach anything.
best
whom you
Not
nothing cynical
they
because
ment
too,
They already
Jon
know
Clark, for
me, was that kind
dent. I remember him just
my
office
straight
door
from
those days
was
14
4 VQ Spring 1983
as
years
Berkeley.
a
you.
the important things.
of stu-
he appeared at
ago.
And
He
was
Berkeley
symbol in these parts
in
for
not
and
an
was
Behind that infec-
was not
only
amuse-
human pretensions, but sympathy
only
recognition of human weak-
a
ness, but an admiration for human
eagerness to
striving
take part in it.
More than that, there
they can’t learn, but because they already
have, because they got there ahead of
at
there
about Jon Clark. He and
both realists.
were
nothing
was
Puritans and
tious smile of his there
of the ironies of the teaching
and appreciate
can’t
brief
memorial service for him.
at a
one
a
reflections
the
cynical about
expected
attitude is quite
different from cynicism. There
Mr.
of attitude
sort
was
Corrigenda
a
England Puritans. They,
too, demanded righteousness
The late Jonathan Clark (1941-1983)
by
Geraldine
Herron,
was
family
illness
while
we
were
gether the Spring issue,
building
copy
on
page
putting
First of all,
1 is not San
the Cathedral of Florence. Then, the “Dr.
Steele” mentioned
“Dr.
on
page
10 should read
Seelman.” In the caption
the
name
for
Girl
of the
at
on
page
Spinning
Machine,
Carolina
Cotton Mill was inadvertently omitted: it is,
Lewis
Hine. And speaking
photography, Steven
Tucker
page 20 and the Roman
the
same
reason
that
he
was
took their striving seriously.
Jon wound up
a
group of
so
good
a
other people seriously and
spending
people
As a
student,
most of his time on
to whom other historians
shown
poem
on
by
page
29.
E-su Zen
page
The passage should read,
rage, and
of love.”
on
sarcophagus panel
Finally,
on
of
photographed
both the Ivos Pacetti print reproduced
friend: he took
18,
photographer responsible
present. Jon Clark
good historian for
the
Lorenzo, but
drew him to other human beings, past and
was a
to-
and the mice did
play during her absence.
of course,
something that
sharp-eyed
our
called away from her work by
editor,
a
word in the
14 is incorrect.
“Where there is
struggle, and tears, / And visions
—
M.A.
Ruth Benedict: Patterns
Ruth Benedict
perhaps the best-selling American anthropologist of
about culture helped
helped change
of
change
our
intellectual life. Her friendship
social attitudes.
our
This spring,
time. Her ideas
our
with
Life
a
Margaret Mead
the University of Pennsylvania
Press
publishes the first full-length biography of the figure whom cultural anthropologists
might
“the mother of
term
all.
us
now
”
by Judith Schachter Modell ’63
Introduction
“There
stood
versity,”
Ruth
Columbia
wrote
in
1978
a
preface
to a
V.C.
biographical
reprint
Woman.
“I
its time-
tramped through
halls,
ment
from
with
another,
to
question:
‘What
you teach that will
understand
help
of
truth.
But
typed
they
to
the
and
the
late
was
said:
of
well
stereo-
and
In
more
Ruth Fulton Benedict ’O9
famous
anthropologist, Margaret Mead,
student in
then-young discipline.
psychology at Columbia,
had
similarly
At that time
a
Mead had de-
veloped an appetite
for
in classes
Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict, Benedict
turned
taught by
Mead’s
sional
anthropology as
enthusiasm
for
to do
The
V.C.
Margery
of
a
nothing
Vassar
would
(and then, they
After
jobs
as
up for
courses
in
Parsons.
moved,
From
in
There she
teacher
in
1921,
to
earned
the
spent
sister
Vassar
of
separate division
a
a
at
department
majored
in
traveling
in
Benedict
1939).
Upon her
year
return to the
States,
she
social worker. In 1914 she
in New York
in 1919, she
City, where,
at the New School for Social Research,
happening onto anthropology
the
Shattuck
her
anthropology
did not become
she
New
her
classes
School
Columbia
Ph.D,
taught by
and
and
1923 and
graduate department
Elsie Clews
Benedict
Parsons,
University
in
scientific
same
for
Franz Boas.
stayed
over
on
20
as
a
years.
wrote:
heredity
mean
quences of
War
challenged commonly
notions
and
of
racial
In
correspondence (part
of
the
Benedict
in
Collection
Benedict
superiority
read
“People always
been
ever
‘skin color’ to
her
by
politics
anthropology.
“To
the
stress
fact
that
deny
not to
that
the
they
conse-
were
in-
In 1934 she had
that
out
point
bases of cultural behavior in mankind
to
that
“always
environment and the
of Culture:
Patterns
part irrelevant is
merely
pamphlet that
have
discrimination.” Benedict’s
formed and motivated
written in
II
ac-
inferiority.
disregarding
race
pub-
were
World
culture-free. ...” In another letter of the
are
year she
and
Races
1944
of
measurements
devised which
biological
20 years before
included in the
teacher and
courses
Benedict and
in 1905
graduating,
with classmates.
married and settled
signed
reported,
to offer but an oppor-
College
be
zoology. Anthropology
drifted into
profes-
a
graduate (Bertrice
of the Vassar curriculum until
Europe
to
has
no
most
Ruth Fulton
1885),
entered Vassar
the introduction of any
English.
Mead
as
work that matters.”
daughter
Fulton
senior at Barnard
a
anthropology
commitment, telling her,
“Professor Boas and I have
tunity
These
in it she stressed
subsequently
a
found her way into the
graduate
pamphlet,
noted about the
1923
result of
a
Science
Special Collections),
‘Come in here.’ And that
settled it.”
a
public figure
during
superiority
She
and
1946)
Race:
and
cepted
Benedict.
learned.
as
anthro-
Chrysanthemum
Mankind.
lished
kind and beautiful
a
woman as
became
primarily
book
Politics,
Anthropology
Ruth
Benedict
Sword,
the latter
out of a book.
right
Until I reached
Mexico,
controversial
ultimate
were
Cali-
New
The
1934;
sounded like
answers
proclamation
in
best-selling
a
her
“Most
She
time,
and
ior?’
a
study
to
pologist {Patterns of Culture,
behav-
people’s
Indians
In
do
me
American
both
my
subjects
West
and Montana.
depart-
one
vacations she
summer
traveled
fornia, Arizona,
of her 1936
monograph Papago
worn
During
Uni-
anthropologist
Murray Underhill,
’O5,
by Georgette Weir
are
the
for the
are
present. It is
historical
factors
are
dynamic.”
In
a
brief
biography
prepared recently
by
members
department preliminary
of Benedict for
“the
1986-87,
theory
ever,
Patterns
sales
had the greatest
and continues to be
Patterns
of
widely
Culture is
no
her work
disciplines
is still
theoretical
seen
as
of
Benedict
anthropology
centennial celebration
Culture is described
book.
of any
.
.
,
It
.
.
to
book
today.
.
.
.
anthropological
ethnographic inaccuracy;
as
as
has
.
anthropology
read and influential
such
a
of Ruth
Vassar’s
longer central
because of Benedict’s
in other
how-
sociology and psychology
serious
contribution
to
current
perspectives.”
About The
thropologists
Japanese
of
planning a
to
popular anthropology
first
probably
evaluation
and
Chrysanthemum and
wrote:
“As
the Sword the Vassar
significant
in
its
study itself is her demonstration that
way
as
an-
the
anthropology
5
Ruth Benedict
anticipated
current feminist
thought precisely in
perception of links between self and other in the conduct of
She learned that
vividly evoked
a
mirrored self
scene
an
much
as
her
inquiry.
did
as
varied personae.
was no
but
esoteric subject
offered
“Today
used
seen
in
as
used
In
her Vassar
The
courses.
and the Sword is used in
in
while Patterns of
History
and
Theory
sonality.
of
addition,
of AnthroPer-
Culture and
it
psychology department in
is
used
in
Recently,
as
a
consequence
accompanied
tions
Unmaking
of
Mead and,
have
ously,
Benedict
public
life.
“(T)he
eager young student
this
In
she
based
vides
the
of
portrait.
Anthro-
less
returned
Freeman
to
notes:
(Mead) and the
intellectual collaboration
and
that
consequences for
cultural
interpretation
a
was
the
anthropology.”
is that those con-
importantly include
sequences most
thropological perspective that is
has been criticized for
one
of ab-
misreading the
viewpoint espoused by Benedict and Mead.
Ruth
of Pennsylvania
Benedict:
book, scheduled
(May 1983),
Patterns
to
be
of
Press
a
deliver
Life.
both
and
an
a
dent
took root in Dr. Modell’s read-
Work.
at
biography written by
here,
close
long-time
Modell’s volume,
pears
Mead’s
book
anthology of Benedict’s
and
The
published this month
ing of Margaret Mead’s 1959 work, An
thropologist
is
an
a
Anwas
writings
former stufriend.
Dr.
excerpt of which ap-
the first
full-length
biography of Ruth Benedict.
aim
not
for
Phot s
a
for
or
analysis of Ruth’s
organize into
meaningful
a
friendship.
a
The friendship flourished between
and
World
War
11,
guidepost
a
Ten
course.
in
after
years
the
ideal
at
Ruth
Benedict.
but
Mead
on
even
her
Ruth’s
im-
literary
as
or
in-
Their
her
public interpretations of Ruth’s struggles
unify love, work, marriage, and
two women discussed
tioned.
Benedict
critical
Ruth’s
remained
.
.
my
Ruth
ments
points
at
not
encouraged
all the docu-
had been used and that not all the
had
been
made.
Her
collection
these
otherwise unavailable materials
laid
the foundation for
well, for
a
significant anthropology. Not all
could be told and,
given
the
as
Mead
conversations
perpetual
still things
admitted,
about Ruth
even
there
she did
not
as a
ward
major
Sapir’s
source
a
friend
woman
for me, containing
Ruth’s
letters,
having been lost in
close
that
at
Work inspired my
Mead
Margaret
served
discussions
Margaret
.
affairs to international peace negotiations;
lifetime habits of mind and emotion and,
men-
Stanley
to
perplexity
project, knowing that
The
attach-
never
problem.
a
Anthropologist
undertaking.
compare
other
marriage
her
expressed
relationship.
An
Ruth’s
to
“passions”
Too,
openly
from love
career.
everything
to
relationship
ments: some
exe-
constrained
more,
understand.
not
each
intense around interruptions,
restraints
did
knowing,
or,
Margaret could not, for instance,
look appraisingly
to
person
analytically
know
1923
death in 1948, Margaret may not have been
Ed-
(e.g.,
presumably
fire), information
would
have,
and
a
an
awareness
of Benedict’s professionalization
special
a
to
fellow anthropologist.
In 1972 I added to the account of An An-
Judith Modell graduated from
member of Phi Beta Kappa,
A.B.
Vassar
as a
receiving her
with honors in English. She went
on
Columbia University, where she received
to
her M.A.
with honors in English in 1965,
thropologist at
Work
Blackberry
Winter, and memories crowded
amount to suppress
1978.
She has served
as
fessor in the department
an
assistant pro-
of humanities
the University of Minnesota and as
tant
professor
University
assistant
of
anthropology
of Colorado.
professor
of
in
She
an
at
assis-
at
the
is currently
anthropology
at
in Maine.
Ruth Benedict:
Patterns of
Life, pub-
lished this May by the University of Penn-
sylvania Press,
a
with
much to
is her first book.
Mead left
think about,
(or
not
a
certain
announce), and
great deal of support for my interpreta-
tions. Her support of my biography lasted
until her death in November 1978. .
My
own
point of view
comes
.
from
.
an
in-
volvement with Ruth Benedict that, though
not
firsthand,
was
intense. I did not have to
manage the constraints of
a
vividly, and
lovingly about Ruth. Margaret
she
in anthropology
extended interview
her mind; she talked eagerly,
me
earned her Ph.D.
an
with Margaret Mead. She had just published
and to the University of Minnesota, where
Colby College
6 VQ Spring 1983
courtesy
anthropologist and
author Judith Schachter Modell ’63 and the
University
did
“whole.” She also described
were
The debate continues, with gusto.
It is in this storm that
Mead
.
an an-
solute cultural determinism. In turn, Freeman
form.
motives in her friend’s life, leaving material
cutor,
Freeman’s
.
strict and penetrating
woman’s
conspicu-
intimate friendship
of
the anthro-
on
distanced overview of life-and-works
posed
development
Special
Vas ar
on
pro-
whole, integrated, and evocative
.
for a reader to
publica-
an
been
book
momentous
perspectives
collection
she also emphasized the impor-
tance of a
entered into
have
sec-
contact and
life story in anthology
a
spectives;
interest in cultural patterns (Benedict) had
to
Colections
the
Ruth appreciated the value of multiple per-
timacy,
zealous
personal
on
The resulting
several
pologist:
shy teaching assistant with the consuming
an
An An-
Throughout
interspersed biographical
documents.
Samoan fieldwork, Mead and Samoa: The
pological Myth,
Work.
at
character. Mead does sketch the dominant
that has
and
Margaret Mead published
book, between “the writings of Ruth Bene-
cross-
tion of Derek Freeman’s study of Mead’s
Making
1959
thropologist
a
in
courses
the
cultural development.”
brouhaha
In
dict,”
works also continue to
of Japan,
Ethnography
Culture is
of people
. .
.
credit to
a
number
a
Chrysanthemum
pological
lives
Vassar College Ruth Benedict
at
education, but her
be
the
in many ways.
only
not
into
insights
meaningful
is
from reality
remote
substantive applied discipline which
a
friendship;
have to struggle with the demands of
tinual self-exploration.
Ruth
Benedict’s
A
I did
a con-
question about
life often prompted
one
Facing page: Ruth Fulton
from the Vassarion
Vassar
as a
senior,
Left: Biographer Judith Schachter Modell ’63
Below: Ruth, her husband Stanley Benedict,
and her mother Bertrice Shat tuck Fulton,
V.C.
1885
about my
own.
This set up
process of
a
reciprocal insight, and
I learned
Ruth as a woman and
anthropologist while
.
was
about
my responses to those roles.
exploring
I
more
.
alert
.
.
.
and
temperamental
to
.
contextual differences. Ruth Benedict and I
were
we
not alike and not
contemporaries, but
did share certain situations. I recognized
the Vassar that Ruth Benedict went to from
I
1909, surprisingly like the Vassar
1905 to
attended half
University
a
century later. The Columbia
neighborhood
in
had changed
fifty years, but I “knew” her office, classLow
rooms,
course
ture to
restau-
nearby
had
similarities
life-
parallels: I, too, shifted from literaanthropology after
These
interruption.
my
and
Library,
Situational
rants.
nonacademic
a
similarities
supported
decision to compare her statements
instances in my life. I opted for
judgment entailing
a
a
to
kind of
large but (I hope) pro-
portioned dose of speculation.
between Ruth and Franz Boas grew
and then
thropology.
American
editor arguing
contributors,
The material Ruth
stantiated my view of
and discreet
woman.
Benedict saved
diaries,
she saved
poems,
and
drafts of short
I
literary pieces.
College.
Vassar
are
The
small
I
assume
in the closed boxes at Vassar
Ruth Benedict
contained
boxes; two boxes
ten
open
were
sarcastic phrase,
advice,
an
read
I
restriction iterated in Mead’s will in 1978.
biographies
the bearing of selected disciplines
cesses
turns of
phrase which
as
more
life in
shape
they do in reality.”.
of
she also saved letters about research money
Mead’s
testify
to
the
of her profes-
intertwining
An
Margaret Mead’s
public
These letters
.
Anthropologist
ings,
“translation”
statement,
from
focus
selectively
a
arranged
to
private
on
women.
collection of Ruth Benedict
memories of
my
my
writ-
around
her
friend and colleague, caught
attention, the juxtaposition of private
and public startlingly apt. My initial attrac-
spoke about her work in
tion
no
a
neutral voice,
time, breath,
issues she considered trivial
or
or
paper on
people she
The
American
Philosophical
Society
houses the Franz Boas correspondence,
cluding letters
In
these
I
to and from
observed
close friend and
the
in-
Ruth Benedict.
student
become
colleague; the friendship
Ruth had not been
to
anthropologist
or
My decision
count
deemed inconsequential.
“woman
anticipated
current
.
Benedict
of links between self and other in the
duct of
an
In order to
inquiry.
a
con-
specify the
on
her life
as
imagined herself in another
woman, she
a
ever,
dict’s
with
a
full-length biography,
a
settings and heroines
“figures”
constructed and changed
an
how-
Her
distinct
expression
importance
style
as
into public
because
“public”
influential anthropology and
a
Ruth
conceptualiza-
a
Hers was not a
a woman.
engaged intellec-
an
first to the lives
tual approach
feminism
of
women
much of
be
to
appears
piece
a
with hers.
carried
Ruth
“woman’s
demands
her
influenced
the
focused
and
and
the
of
an
dict adopted
conventional
to
a
on
respect
with
a
need
to
of
the
of
to
individual
that
designs did
maintain
an
widen
choice.
anthropologist,
viewpoint
women
an
an-
individual-in-
attitude
baffled and frustrated her.
diverse
with
concern
content
determined
thropologist
relate
to
attempt
her cross-cultural research.
into
thropology
the
nature”
Her feminism
woman
of
as
and then to the life of any individual. My
parameters
judgment of Ruth Bene-
importance.
had
ac-
too,
mirrored self
scene
did varied personae. Through her
as
culture
supplement Mead’s
to
presumed
became
important
to a feminist.
translating private
text
to an
learned,
She
entirely.
vividly evoked
tion of herself
.
sional life and her private life. Ruth rarely
and she wasted
the
feminist thought precisely in her perception
much
Work ten years ago while studying pro-
cultural research. A foresightful academic,
her students.
.
of
understanding
called
political feminism, but
the place of folklore in anthropology, and
1930 s for
.
Ruth
that
has been to gather “those im-
than any statement of fact
at
the
she
temperament
from
comes
constant reinterpretation of data. Through-
I read
and publications, written for herself and by
her
what
dis-
den realization of pattern that
the profession: the future of anthropology,
cross-
with
features of and the constraints
I think Ruth
Ruth did save letters about her work and
on
covered,
her
I
roots,
woman’s life, in another place, of another
pressions and
a
a
shared
feminism,
issue.”
and
approaches
attitudes
political
Ruth’s
events.
contemporary
on
Benedict would have, waiting for the sud-
and
file
as
position
anthropological
support
candid plea for help and
a
these materials
out my aim
full
to
unstinted appreciation of effort
Collection at
closed until 1999,
clumsy
bemoaning
for money
revealed the woman’s character.
stories,
found little
personal correspondence, though
such letters
sub-
She kept few personal
aside from the journals and
papers;
harassed
the Journal of American Folklore. Again,
searching, restless,
a
a
uncooperative and
against
style, and pleading
an-
Folk-Lore
Society letters (1927-1940) show
wordy
. . .
The
of
out
determined the contours of
the
As
a
Ruth Benesometimes
The effort
not
an-
rest
to
easily
and occasionally
7
From Patterns
of Culture
by Ruth Fulton Benedict
long-held principles. The result
preach
continual compromise,
a
was
of her outlook
on
anthropological
the
characteristic
issue, of her
woman
of cultures and
assessment
of her political activism in World War 11.
Yet Ruth clung to
belief in individuality
a
and in the importance of individual vision.
She persuaded herself, and others, to attend
Benedict and Native Americans
The
diversity
on
one
of her
of custom in the world is
not... a matter which we can
only help-
trips
summer
which
hunting there, prenuptial chastity in
ence
are
not a list of unrelated
them to be greeted with
it is found
or
tabus
killing
on
wherever it is absent. The
oneself
similarly, though they
solute standard,
tuitous. The
havior is
clearly
facts, each of
surprise wherever
are
another,
or
relate to
not
cultural be-
exhausted when
understood that
ab-
therefore for-
significance of
not
no
we
have
it is local and
style in
a
in what
one
the Southwest
art comes into
persists. Gothic architecture,
lessly chronicle. Self-torture here, head-
tribe and adolescent license in another,
to
hardly
was
more
operation
that
developed
of
some
within its
teenth
that
It
century.
than
a
preferby
the
technique,
art of the thir-
discarded
elements
more or
pattern of thought
each culture there
less consistent
and action.
Within
into being char-
come
scribe
the
evitably
sion
process
When
we
historically,
we
dein-
animistic forms of expres-
use
if there
as
is
were
choice and purpose
purpose.
first
no
more
people
further
and
in
proportion
the
to
behavior take
Taken
shape.
and
more
up
by
the most
culture,
more
a
often
by
well-integrated
the most
unlikely
understand only by
acts
be-
peculiar goals,
phoses. The form that these
can
congruous
ill-assorted
characteristic of its
come
items of
metamor-
acts take we
understanding
first the emotional and intellectual mainof that
springs
Such
ignored
if it
as
sisting
sum
as
unimportant de-
modern science is in-
in many fields, is not merely the
of all its parts, but the result of
unique arrangement
the parts that has
entity.
.
.
a
new
What
was
at
slight bias in local
a
itself
forcibly, integrated itself
definite
more
standards,
mystical.
The
What has happened
styles happens
whole.
All
the
directed toward
and
warring,
made
over
cordance
even
miscellaneous
getting
as
a
behavior
living, mating,
a
unconscious
like
canons
of
within the culture.
develop
periods of art,
some
integration,
and about many
know too little to understand
motives
cultures
cultures
worshipping the gods, is
with
Some cultures,
the
in the great artin
into consistent patterns in ac-
choice that
we
also
at
that
every
actuate
level
them.
But
of complexity,
the simplest, have achieved it. Such
cultures
are more
tainments
of
or
less
successful at-
integrated behavior,
the marvel is that there
can
be
so
and
many
of these possible configurations.
in the
It is the same process
Copyright
by
of
Vassar
®
1934 by Ruth Benedict.
College.
Reprinted by permission
with acquaintances,
ultimately
outlook,
.
.
.
with
of
her
jobs and
“barren” marriage,
a
bewildered
own
all
struggles”
a
broader political
philosophical posi-
a
tion. Throughout her life, her writings, and
her
career
she searched for ways of channel-
ing restless energies into
proper and effec-
tive form. In the end this quest led to
thropology
at once
an an-
original and obedient
to
disciplinary rules.
In
first
1919
Ruth Benedict enrolled in
anthropology
“Nature
lays
almost
in
writing
moment
same
course,
her
too, she drafted
an
women.”
the
dis-
very
That
essay on the
issue.” Unknowingly
her
at
journal:
compelling and
a
hand upon
year,
“woman
she had by then the
building blocks of her discipline:
a
percep-
tion of conflict between self-fulfillment and
custom,
and
rhetoric
a
that
embedded
“cold dry logic” in evocative imagery. Consistent with the rest of her life, Ruth’s
thropology acknowledged the
stress
an-
of indi-
viduality, the push of the particular against
conventions and absolutes. And her anthro-
pology illustrated the delicate balance
en-
tailed when attention is paid to the human
and
to
straint,
Ruth
the
creativeness
constitutes the
Benedict
with
that,
human
incorporated
into professional work that
the
was
con-
condition.
balance
powerfully
popular in appeal.
I became
a
Benedictian anthropologist.
some
the affinities between
a
extent, recognizing
biographical and
anthropological approach. Becoming
thropologist involved, for
8 VQ Spring 1983
individual
fantasies
dissatisfaction
childhood,
This involved, to
not
and
daydreams
tressing
.
(I)ntegration of cultures is
least
a
and interrelation of
brought about
more
and
more
others
of culture cannot be
were an
tail. The whole,
and
than
conscious
techniques expressed
fail of such
society.
patterning
more
and
was no
our
and eventuated in Gothic art.
of
urgency
these drives the heterogeneous
in
no
in
difficulty
language-forms.
by other types of society. In obedience
these purposes, each
the
to
choice, and
forms
to
due
There
acteristic purposes not necessarily shared
and further consolidates its experience,
her innovative anthropology.
stretched feminism into
with its taste.
each
by,
both her particular feminism and
accorded
this
a
created
being
its
view of culture creating,
“her
also to be integrated. A culture, like
is
then
formed
society
a
could recompose
to its purposes, and invented others that
in the growth of this great art-form. But
individual,
Ruth’s
pattern.
of taste
and
invigorated
dreams;
the existing
was
man-made and hugely variable. It tends
an
nature and of
design. Through individual vision,
incongruous, modified others
were
fit into and revitalized
being and
canon
unique and homogeneous
promptings of
these
beginning
for altitude and light, became,
the
to the
me
as
an
an an-
for Ruth
Ruth
forgot
never
understanding
that her
the human condition. Out of this
anthropological perspective and, unshakably,
‘ordinary person.’
Benedict,
charting
server-observed
I believed
my
the
observer
the
claimed
commitment
a
To MM
to
with these
“observed.” I also shared Ruth’s view that
self-awareness
guard
some
against
channel
can
of observer
integrity
convinced
Of
a
sense
and
of one’s
engagement
Surfeited
At last and
of anthropologists
generation
doubts
about
traditional
gories of cultural description.
Still
cate-
Current ef-
forts to redefine goals and methods bring
story, I realized
tists today
view.
rary
who, like
Those
do
proach
world-society and
rated
historically
the
adopt her
because she
ap-
her
of
precepts
proven
one
state-
and
living
her
writings,
Ruth Benedict contributed to the intellectual
milieu
which
feminists, both
She
for
argued
anthropologists,
we
or
I
would do
positions.
well
.
.
a
justice in her inquiries
to
attend to, whatever
we
our
“remarkable
written the
woman”
biography of
or
combination
ongoing
write of the
:
pological genius.” Rather,
“anthro-
an
I
a
i
not
those
of
two
in
Ruth’s experiences and in her perspectives.
In the
I have outlined,
the parameters
,
following chapters
for her,
“search
of a
for
truth.”
commitment.
ment to
to
me
She
made
a
commit-
exploring and conveying the terms
5
fierce
seems
enduring, and often
i
of extraordinary,
:
The life of Ruth Benedict
one
;
of living, to specifying the unfolding theme
own
life, and
to realize
never
the motives
i
with
in
entirely banished
1
her
straining
She began
i
in any individual pattern.
herself,
floor.
their roots
through
the most secret
runs
no
hurrying bees
Let the haws blossom,
let their
petals
liquor,
shall
sip;
scatter,
gathers
to their
lip.
wrote
poetry throughout most of her life, frequently publishing it under
The poem above was
Anne Singleton in the Nation, Dial, and other journals.
name
many she wrote to
of
College from
Vassar
Margaret Mead, and is reprinted by permission of
early draft of Mead’s An Anthropologist
an
at Work:
Writings of
Ruth
Benedict. Like our cover drawing and photographs here. Mead’s manuscript is part of
Colthe Benedict Collection in Special Collections at the Vassar library. The Benedict
in 1959, consists largely of the anthropologist’s profes(including 60 letters from Franz Boas), field and lecture
lection, acquired by Vassar early
sional papers: correspondence
notes, manuscripts, and publications.
dreams,
fiction
and
Benedict
Fantasies and day-
herself from inquiries.
sonnets
gave
to
way
ethnographies,
theories of folklore, public
and
propaganda, but Ruth kept
speeches,
.
i
have
to grassy
No wind shall tamper,
the quest and the
I
dainty-stepping petalsflutter
publicly
wisdom”
“individualized
;
humility and
bush the more,
still inhabit.
neither
and ideas tested in experience. This fostered
a
one
Ruth Fulton Benedict
the
her discipline.
Through
dust the wind may scatter
In covert earth wine
Ruth Benedict
incorpo-
committed
passionately
into
ments
me,
bodies,
her point of
because she suits a contempo-
so
golden
inevitably social scien-
acknowledge
must
their
us
back to Ruth Benedict. Absorbed in her life
how
summer,
has
little interest in “salvage ethnography” and
increasing
honey, flaunt
bees maul yet
And all their
responsibility.
My
front of
to eyes incurious.
quick
Their fertile
Ruth
researcher’s
a
in the
preserving
observed.
and
blossom
wind-dissolved
Secret and
of the connection between
me
personal
plodding
the curiosity,
they
verses
Snow breasted to the sun, and odorous
the life of another.
through
Curiosity inspires the task;
self
Haws when
both sharpened inquiry and
thoughtlessly
an
.
inquiry included the observer
an
came
to the
subject,
and could finally be justified because
provided
.
attention
an
the ob-
through
away
problem. Like
.
movements toward
personal struggles and
characterized
in
educating,
detect
an
earliest,
and
visions,
urgency in her
drafts
private
her belief in
energy of
in
I
changes.
living, from the
of
to
story
a
the
last years. The voice
public writings of her
Her contribution extends beyond anthro-
beyond
political
statements.
do
to
with
in
a
and
feminism
pology,
debates
the
for
separate
a
resolution
public
modes
rooted in her
of
encounter
Her
resolution
of
broader
interpretation
contemporary world. Her sig-
from
sonal
condition.
effort she did
in an
the construction of
of this
human
the
anthro-
an
came
per-
toward
movements
characterized
Out
pological perspective and, unshakably,
to
the
“ordinary
a
not
an an-
forgot that her
never
and
struggles
understanding
her construct of
from
living
thropology. Ruth
an
person”
wherever that person lived and however she
or
he “recast the universe.”
Ruth Benedict believed that each
contribution
Ruth’s
thoughtful professionalism.
and
design
a
comes
attention
is consistent.
has
to
nificance
create the terms of an
one
existence,
of
can
private
us can
and
individually take the initiative of imagining
a
impulses
remained
of the “woman
a
better world.
have
I
hope
in my
biography
to
conveyed her vision of human poten-
tial and its
sources
in
a
lived experience. (\oi
issue” in American culture,
Contribution
word
to
cover
seems
the
finally
too
significance
small
of
a
Ruth
Reprinted by permission from
Ruth
Benedict;
Patterns
of a
Lite
®
1983, University of Pennsylvania
by Judith Modell. Copyright
Press.
9
The
thrown away forever:
girl
memories of
a
princess
From class president to princess. From Vassar valedictorian to volunteer
From
nurse.
Sutematsu
independence to security.
From one
Yamakawa’s life resonates like
a
to
century
another,
story by Henry James.
by Megan Baldrige Murray
readers
Quarterly
remember
may
in the Person
elegiac paragraph
this
Colections
Place &
Thing column of the Summer 1980 issue:
“Seeking memories of
who
later
Yamakawa,
matsu
a
Sute-
princess.
Princess
Special
Vas ar
Oyama,
graduated from Vassar in 1882
vale-
as
dictorian of her class, is thought to be the
first Japanese
be educated
to
woman
out-
Courtesy
side of Japan. Because of her importance in
the history
of Japanese women, her great-
granddaughter is trying
to write a book
her story for
preserve
and seeks to meet
future
to
generations
hear from descendants
or
of the class of ’B2. Any information should
be
sent
Akiko
to:
Miyanosaka,
Kuno,
1-20-19-204,
Setagayaku, Tokyo, Japan.”
The inquiry
part of
was
an
extensive
historical hunt organized by Mrs. Kuno,
40-year-old Tokyo
book
about
princess,
a
woman
her
a
who is writing
a
great-grandmother:
samurai daughter,
brilliant member of her
a
a
beloved and
college class,
and
Vassar’s first Japanese graduate.
No
Rip Van Winkles
were
awoke by the
Quarterly notice, but, with the assistance of
the AAVC staff and several other alumnae,
Mrs. Kuno
was
able to follow up
leads and discovered the
descendants
from
names
of Yale University,
in New
a
1976 graduate
where she majored in
Japanese Language and
working
Sutematsu’s
among
Megan Baldrige Murray is
on some
of several
York
Literature. She is
as a
part-time
corre-
spondent for several Japanese magazines,
and
beginning
language
a
career
general
as
an
English-
Sutematsu
Yamakawa,
alumna of the Madeira School in Virginia,
American friends.
she has her
States
own
she tied together
she
was
a
story about the first time
Vassar and Japan.
Madeira junior,
a
When
delegation of
Japanese photographers and writersfrom
general features
magazine
in
Tokyo
a
came
during
covered
had
the
On
documents she had
a
They
were
as
the
filming
magazine story about Daddy Long-legs,
’Ol that takes place at
Vassar.
“The
Sutematsu
for image.
wore a
uniform
they eschewed truth
as
of
extensive collecas
well
Sunday Advertiser
S’temats’)
junior, and senior
class
was a
was one
of the brain-
1882. During her sopho-
president
Philaletheis Society
”
10 VQ Spring 1983
lost. At
chosen to read their theses aloud to guests
graduation.
at
Upon returning
she married Japan’s
ing
to her husband’s
became
finally
a
a
war
and
years, she served
president
of the
(a drama group), and
feared player of chess and whist. In
ow-
honors, she eventually
marchioness,
a
and
countess,
princess.
Sutematsu’s story is the
cause
Japan,
to
minister, and,
she
was
more
unusual be-
the first Japanese
woman to
graduate from college.
Until the twentieth
century, there
colleges for
were no
women
daughter of wealthy samurai parents,
more,
So
were
her senior year, she was one of six students
in
like Vassar to them. What they wanted
oxfords.
an
(pronounced
iest members
school where everyone
re-
Yamakawa, the princess in this JapaneseAmerican fairy tale,
a
1982, she
and the New York Times.
delegation had already been in Poughkeep-
and brown
to the United
dozens of articles about her published in
sie and decided that Vassar just didn V look
was
of
of her forebear,
newspapers such as the
the popular novel by Jean Webster McKinney
trip
thought
Vassar, she also found
as
”
a
written to friends in this country
students for two days, “without stop,
apt to do.
Vassar years
letters that her great-grandmother
tion of photographs
are
1882, during her
summer
down to the school and photographed the
Japanese
VC.
An
writer.
features
Japan; had she been the
would have been sent to
temple
priests,
learned the
where
a
she
average young
school
she
run
would
by
have
fundamentals of reading
and
writing,
and
adding and subtracting
abacus.
Or,
if her family could have af-
on an
Piecing
together
the
story
Akiko Kuno
forded
she
it,
would
have
had
private
a
Mrs.
great-granddaughter,
tutor work with her at home. The main part
graduated
of her learning would have been Confucian-
continue
ist
United States. Mrs. Kuno
philosophy
to
obedient wife and
Sutematsu
mission
a
was
sent
were
was
a
the
by
Japanese
of five girls who
one
to
American education. The fact that
ese
was
allowed
even
an
member of
the United States
to
be
to
good mother.
a
different. As
sponsored
government, she
her
prepare
leave
to
get
an
Japan-
a
her native
land in the 1870 s can be traced back
the
to
forced opening of Japan in 1853 by Ameri-
ship
can
Perry.
Commodore
captain
for
Although
Perry’s arrival
centuries
Japan had
state with isolationist
it quickly changed
been
became
eager to learn from the West. Missions sud-
denly
Germany
sent to
were
famed Teutonic army,
their system
the
study
of law,
study the
to
England
and
study
America
to
and
government
to
to
American
While it was the Japanese consul in
women.
D.C., who thought
Washington,
soring
to
of spon-
mission of young Japanese
a
girls
to
study in America, Emperor Meiji, who had
the
replaced
Shogun
leader,
Japan’s
as
strongly supported the idea. “My country is
undergoing
now
old to new
a
complete change from
ideas, which I sincerely desire,”
he wrote, “and therefore (I) call upon all
wise and strong-minded to appear and become
good guides
to the Government.
Females heretofore
because
socially,
have had
it
without understanding;
were
.
. .
position
no
considered
was
to
but
for
exchange
one
and
summer,
stay for the following year
a
She
at
says that
lot of confidence
and helped her fluency in English
well.
as
“The greatest difference I noticed between
Japanese
women
that American
and American
“I had to
says.
learn
to
if
they
edu-
When Mrs. Kuno
her
year and
took
have
to
an
speak up.”
a
homesick
was
summer
in
during
America, she
strength from the thought
of
Sute-
It
began with six
Vassar,
to
Bacons.
with
Sutematsu’s
the
government-spon-
(Sutematsu herself
of 12
sent
prior
American family,
with
live
to
twelve),
was
American
exemplary
for
an
American college.
There
household.
children
14
were
Paterfamilias
who had been chosen
in
the
Bacon
Leonard Bacon,
Sutematsu’s host
as
teenth-century
temporary
about
under
the
American historian,
American
historian
a
con-
writing
Japan noted that “While children
ten
years of age
were
wholly under
influence of their mothers, it was, of
course, of the utmost
should
be
educated.
importance that they
As
leavens the whole lump,
cation
of
Japan.”
elevate
A century later,
a
little
leaven
would the eduthe
people
Japanese
of
women
number of all-women and coed col-
have
a
leges
to
Still,
women
so
pick
some
a
minister
Church
years),
(his
tenure
professor
a
School, and
one
views.
about
His
each
Center
would
the
40
last
Yale
Divinity
of the city’s most liberal
his
youngest
Sutematsu’s
considered
Haven’s
there
at
known for
well
citizens,
New
of
other
strong antichild,
the
and
age,
sisters.
Alice,
It
two
was
a
women, such
and,
Sutematsu
area,
neighbor of the
them,
through
Sutematsu’s,
a
a
life-long friend of
remembered
was
a
Bacons
years
later that
welcome addition
to
the
“a slender, graceful little creature, full
of life and
to
spirit and willing
every game; a swift runner, a
and later
a
take part in
good climber,
marvelous swimmer.”
Mrs. Bacon,
an
invalid,
took
as
Sutematsu’s
members
family
stories
Sutematsu’s
possessions
Mrs, Kuno’s next step
with
where
AAVC,
D.
C., for visits
to
destroyed
piqued the
to get in touch
story
attention of Mary Meeker Gesek
director for clubs.
put Mrs. Kuno in touch with
alumnae and
further
was
Sutematsu’s
college
her
staff in
research.
positions
“Every
to
and
now
then,” she says, “I find in my mail folder
request from
third-
some
or
a
fourth-genera-
tion descendant trying to research
relative.
Vassar
a
That kind of assistance is pretty
run-of-the-mill
Sutematsu’s
The
story.
that Mrs. Kuno
starting
was
But luckily for
us,
kept
women
the
was not
fact
that
family history had been destroyed
those
her
meant
in many
over
the
were
saved
mementos,
letters, and put together scrapbooks.”
In-
deed,
the
there
in
princess
was
so
much
material
Special
Vassar’s
on
Collections
that Mrs. Kuno couldn’t examine it all.
Mrs. Gesek also
the
help of
for
points
out
that
lacking
Grace Lewis Case ’25, the search
information about
Princess Oyama’s
life in the States would have ended
Mrs. Case,
Vassar.
1925’s
a
Quarterly correspondent
the past 26 years), and
of New
Haven,
earliest
was
information
covering
American
with
writer (she has been
for 21
of
long-time resident
a
instrumental in disabout
years.
“I
Sutematsu’s
she
thought
would be intrigued by the story and interested in finding
someone
puzzle it together,”
who would help
Case began research in the Yale library
find
out more
us
Mrs. Gesek says. Mrs.
to
about the Bacon family, and
she contacted Bacon descendants to
see
if
they knew of Sutematsu. By “a great deal
luck,”
descendants
Mrs.
gave
Case insists,
her
a
of
Washington,
Alas, all of
during World War 11.
became acculturated in other ways. During
Sutematsu would get together
the
and
heard,
were
newspaper article that led
summers,
she
about
had
they
teaching Sutematsu English. And the visitor
the
that
as
strong Japanese
a
their recollections.
recording
of
charge of
with Japanese girls in New Haven, and in
from.
Sutematsu
by the Japanese consulate in Washington,
was
on a
so
She started her research at home,
interviewing
ways.
prepare
Marian Whitney,
nine-
woman.
days when
to
embark
might be inspired,
example of
an
families in order to learn about American
educated
a
by
culture first hand, and
friendship each would cherish all her life.
to
her countrywomen
was,
to
moved
was
straightforward.But
mission included five girls under the
sored
age
years in New Haven
an
to train better educated women to be better
According
Kuno
about her great-grandmother
’SB, AAVC’s associate
matsu’s ten-year-long absence from Japan.
was
mothers.
book
Mrs. Gesek
respect.”
intended
Akiko
women was
seemed
women
opinion about absolutely everything,” she
cated and intelligent, they should have due
was
Stanford
the experience gave her
slavery
The educational experiment
University,
was an
Hope College in Michigan.
feudal
a
and
course
at
decided
who
Kuno,
Keio
further their education in the
to
student
from
before
after his visit
policies,
its
Matthew
1964
in
a
one
photocopy
to
of
the
of
a
the discovery
local amateur historian and free-lance
writer who had been researching the Bacon
family.
M.B.M.
Montreal,
11
At her
wedding, attended by 1,000 guests, Sutematsu shook hands with
each Westerner but bowed six times to each Japanese family. “It
feat that would have killed
American
an
woman,”
was
a
friend later
one
wrote.
Watkins
Niagara,
educator recalled
that the girls
Glen.
in
adapting
were
American
An
newspaper account
a
American
to
life, for example, by abandoning the
pomatum in their hair
use
of
arrange it in
so as to
her
Following
rolled
Vassar
at
Bacon’s
Sutematsu
B.G.
of
president
was
en-
she
was
Shakespeare Club
member
a
of the
“confined to students
of serious literary tastes and interests,”
newspaper put it
and served
In a class
Founder’s Day.
she is shown sitting amidst
dividualists,
with
girls
a
as a
marshal
as a
applauded America for its liberality.
classmate
Backus
a
described
her
looks.
Her
with
and
personality.”
among
girls,
as
she certainly
of the
power those
terested
her
career.
in
When the classroom
which
alien.
A
her
development.
depressed by that
was
teachers
experienced
herself, charmed all with her
became
in
literature
or
of which she
The
logic.
English
mistress for all
was
practical purposes would be twisted
what awry by her surge of feeling,
friends asked her to describe the
her childhood, the
life,
or
indeed
spirit
that
if
scenes
of
system
so
and
on
commerce
stately
at the woman for
and
long
de-
juris-
her Commencement day,
the magic wand at last revealed the
Looking
of
selfish
pressed
prudence. But
some
of Japanese home
diplomacy by which the British
Japanese
some-
graceful
broideries of her
own
college audience
by
a
in
princess.
the first time,
the
silken
em-
land she thrilled the
glowing
patriotic feeling. Many listened
of her
life stress the
a
recreated
the
longing
soul!
Japan: who of
us
the
for home which
girl
settled
in Tokyo,
and
Sutematsu herself,
or
no
Helen Hiscock Backus, V.C. 1873
Vassar Professor of English
for
Japan,
with
some
she
for
her
from
Sachiko (literally,
life
new
knowledge.
her
changed
that
possible
of her siblings,
There’s
question of the mother’s distress
news:
at the
daughter’s
name
little blossom)
to
Sutematsu (literally, thrown-away pine tree.
In
the pine
Japan,
eternity,
group
a
of
so
family and friends. Ever the
her reacquaintance
with
tree
is the symbol
of
fuller translation of “Sute-
a
the
through
away
write to her brothers
sisters from America;
whether she and her
mother stayed in contact,
no one
knows.
Vassar years, Sutematsu
her Japanese by practicing with
patriot
from the
week
forget
deep
to
never
noted
good-natured,
speak
meetings
their
feelings
demonstrated
kept
Japanese
so
in
her
lazy
once-a-
would not
Sutematsu’s
country
school
an
Sutematsu
during
tongue.
her
received
somewhat
that the two
native
for
that
were
work.
also
Her
which she read aloud at graduation,
streets lined
a
on
if I were
as
first
“skill in using the chopsticks
herited and the last thing
otherwise
Japanese
also
wrote to
serviceable:
to
lunch of
seems
denationalized.”
friends that her
“As
it were, and
as
to be in-
be forgotten by
soon
as
though
I
She
Japanese
was
touched
my
I
native soil my tongue seemed
be loosed,
to
spoke bad Japan-
1 could make all my wants known and
ese,
converse
two
with my family very easily.” After
Sutematsu had
months,
and
but she
She had
ate.
never
no
was
problems
her
speaking
native
functionally illiter-
learned
to
read
or
write
the language’s thousands of many-stroked
characters.
In the late nineteenth century,
a com-
mission, Shige Nagai (V.C.
1881, music division. She
Shige
and
narrow
Japanese delicacies, she noted with joy that
language,
did
put in-
carriage and whirled
Lilliput.” After
visiting
1 left
rickshaw) before
was
a
so
person,
either side with tiny houses I felt
Sutematsu
During her
reminded
Japan
means
the overgrown baby
to
understanding
up
the
on
Tokyo Bay
student of literature, her first impression of
matsu” would be “thrown away forever”).
thesis,
12 VQ Spring 1983
it is
one
the arrangements
the
her
that her
departure
living temporarily
was
forced
possessed
fact
missionaries in the north while her mother
that day
imagine
many ac-
America. At the time Sutematsu left
A.8.).
can
the
approved
never
Classmates
for the first time to the prophetic accents of
by
means
outburst of
on
trip
Japan,” she wrote, “yet, when I
without the mother’s
language
three-week
rough,
a
seas, Sutematsu was met at
‘jinrickisha’
a
family. Indeed,
made
tion
After
high
contact with her
American classmates with
brilliant recita-
and sailed
her of Gulliver’s Travels: “I had ridden in
dread, Stematz could confound her languid
a
un-
it again
never see
Americanized Vassar girl, she also stayed in
mother
especially in-
she would
back.
(‘jin’
betrayed
of
a rare
she chose back
jinrickisha
counts
sense
was
relations,
career
thoroughly
patrician
never
felt who
themselves
‘sleepiness’
any
to
her social
While Sutematsu
student,
great
a
claiming
never
loneliness
reserve
college
modest, generous, fun-loving girl
immunities,
the
insouciance
in
in
Training School
Then, she said farewell to America
home.
stu-
as
interesting
her spirit and natural gifts. She
consciously
She
women
young
I know of not one more
student,
predicted for
months, and studied
at the Connecticut
thought, in whatever
1873) of the English depart-
(V.C.
would later recall: “In my extensive
ment
grace, the suavity,
was a
Sutematsu returned to
graduation,
for Nurses; such study would help her, she
Few of the many who enjoyed the supple
would have
After
back. “A beautiful Jewess of poetic type,”
dents,
seeming
she
college.
being elected presi-
brown,
must have
many in the audience:
Northrop,
the
professor’s portrait
slender,
to
nursing
of ‘Stematz’
the
been pleasing
and serious, with bangs and her hair pulled
acquaintance
of
insights,” and her point of view
New Haven for several
dent of her class at Vassar three years in
the
ceremonies praised Sutematsu’s “prophetic
and
mind also compelled notice. Helen Hiscock
A
Toward
Policy
beflowered hats. Sutematsu looks attractive
slight lisp when she pro-
‘th.’ Besides
Foreign
York Times account of the
group of in-
befeathered
one
nounced
New
criticized British policy toward Japan, and
Sutematsu’s only problem with English by
a
“British
on
Japan.” A
photograph,
this time
was
was
Mrs.
because
probably
brother-in-law,
the
was
New
from
graduation
High School,
becoming president of the Phila-
letheis Society,
on
the “American bushy style.”
Haven
row, and
no
paradise for
matsu: a
a
Japanese
single
woman
samurai background
pected
was
to
from
woman
was,
of her age and
good family that
her father had died before she
it
was
an
was
like Sute-
by custom,
be married young.
a
Japan
Because
was
was
ex-
she
poor
born
expected that her family would plan
arranged marriage for her. When talking
to Vassar friends about her return to
Japan,
however, Sutematsu always emphasized her
Ribeiro
Jorge
in
A.B.
an
in
mostly
”
and mysticism.
then left
“being
M.A. pro-
an
in Kobe.
lege
be necessary. Most unmarried
Tokyo, 1983
at
eties to
He returned to the States and
in
Stanford
two
he
Now
years.
neighbors
though big city life, with its cloak
even
of anonymity, has helped relax
col-
live
women
to be back in the
expected
are
house by nine at night lest the
some
such anxi-
Promoters breathed a
degree.
sigh of relief when
M.A. in East Asian Studies from
an
home, and
talk,
where he taught
Japan,
English for three years at the Y.M.C.A.
earned
Letter from
at Ohio State for a year,
to
go
studies
He attended
history
to
his
and primitive religions
eastern
gram in art
Vassar with
graduated from
religion,
pop star Momoe
Yama-
guchi, photographed with her skirts up in
teaches
breeze,
English for Time-Life Educational Systems
image,
Jorge Ribeiro
geared
a
white
wearing
woman
the
to
be
to
A young
underwear.
in Tokyo.
found
was
her
herself,
affluent junior and
senior high-school crowd, would have been
commitment
to
and
career
about American
Japan
teaching
to
customs and
cul-
ture. She voiced no interest in rushing into a
But
marriage.
to Alice Bacon and to
wrote
of
(one
1882’s
Jessie Wheeler
indefatigable
that her Japanese
spondents)
actively
that
after her return, she
soon
matchmaking
she
for
Although she had written
her
through
letters
many
and couldn’t read
woman
there
because
them,
to
she
to
get
was
her
18
her
with
senior,
from his first marriage,
three
in Paris, and hoped
seen
children
he had spent two
wife. When he sent Sutematsu’s family
they refused
proposal,
Oyama had
their
once
final decision
perhaps
a
battle against
made
Sutematsu
accept Oyama,
to
a
the offer because
fought in
clan.
samurai
the
however,
because she realized that she had
better chance of
conforming
taking
a
power-
ful husband.
were married
They
followed by
and 200
in a private ceremony,
ball to which 800 Japanese
a
Westerners
were
invited. Her dis-
mayed American friends noted that Suteshook
matsu
hands
with
there, but bowed six times
in
a
was
newspaper account of the
feat
a
that
unaccustomed
would
left
inadvertently
Her
killed
an
Japanese guests,
social
behind
events,
when
coming
manner
went
to
the
to
the
back to shepherd the
accounts
marriage, and Sutematsu
career.
Oyama left for
and she began
The couple
it
was
Soon after
a
to
was
a
too
the
happy
busy
to
wedding,
business trip to Europe,
take
lived in
a
care
of his affairs.
black.
one
But
or move
young wife was
feisty, and, in the
to
modern,
of older viewers,
eyes
bit selfish. She wanted
a
place of her
a
own.
Modernization, westernization, individualcall it what you will,
man
to opt
for moving out, and Japan hasn’t been the
since.
in
Marriage
Japan
and
It is a
social responsibility.
a
marriageable
proper
side (any
area
all marvel
for
age
the
not
a
and
men
fact that I’m 28,
a
social stigma, and
marriage without children is
when young people
family home, it
un-
worrying about it.
even
To remain unmarried is
So,
idea of
outside Tokyo). My students
over
married, and
The
necessity
especially in the country-
persists,
women
a
continuing the
means
seen as
The
traditional
completely changed
thinking
yet, however. The traditional man, after in-
of
thus
Japanese
and
one
hand,
bies
and
parlors,
and
mistresses,
massage
in just carousing with male
colleagues after work while the wife stays
home.
One’s wife is
family,
and
the
not
at
the mother of one’s
type
of
woman
one
might socialize with in the outside world.
Still, the tables
twist that nature
lentlessly by
its
ascent
young
their
know
seems
men
more
Japanese
ironical
lives,
many
find themselves
nights facing
women
on
who
than they do. Polls reveal that
modern young Japanese
ingly
an
to adore. Pushed re-
in their
early
very
Japanese
more
turning in
escalator system that begins
an
wedding
are
women are
surpris-
experienced sexually than
men.
This has resulted in
young
passive,
neurotic young men, according
to local newspapers.
Travel agencies which
plan honeymoon travel packages have had
to
supply impromptu counseling
the arrangements
For wojuen,
a
on some
as
part of
occasions.
pristine image continues
sex.
find themselves in
than Japanese
freer
to
interests,
to
travel
more
On
men.
pursue hob-
abroad
and
broaden their thinking; they needn’t live the
narrow,
regimented life of the organization
man, a life most
Japanese
men
can’t avoid.
On the other hand, the
women are
into
and
being housewives
little
chance
career.
The
chance to
of
stimulating
from
large
at
the working
doesn’t
days marriage
meeting
husbands
shorter,
whose companies
five-day
work
be
to
Workaholic
adopting
are
a
week have created
in their wives,
neuroses
at
to marry,
seem
many women’s needs.
ex-
world
Despite all the cultural pressure
these
with
force that gives them the
explore the world
them
pushed
mothers
successful,
a
same
weekend
affairs,
conven-
casual
all-important.
women are
from headaches
or even
quickly than
women now
less freedom
in-
ladies”
the peculiar situation of having both
suring the continuation of his line, is then
marital
con-
an
that these
was
suggesting
a
as
brassieres
“office
The speculation
free to find pleasure and release
in extra-
front-catch
Tokyo
young
In Japan, image is
of the
idea of the nuclear family has not
sales
tional styles,
home.
but also tugs at the very glue of the society.
such
imagine parents’
can
bras come off more
cludes
out
move
in
(“OLs”).
lonely.
only bothers the old,
not
wearing
color
when lingerie companies noted
cern
among
place. The
new
feminized,
into dinner.
By all public
a
“It
Westerners adjourned
Vassar
fore, Sutematsu
need
party,
have
Western
to
bridal party and
women
suf-
woman.” At the dinner follow-
ing the ball, the female
dine.
Japanese
sophisticated”
wife would live with his parents,
a
whole family. One friend wrote
a
American
were
to each
added that six bows
although they
ficed for
Westerner
each
“naughty,
crease
a
becoming influential by
to the rules and
newly married
mother-in-law: the
family line and the society.
remarry an educated
to
the wife’s
shattered had she been caught
husband had to decide whether he and his
same
years in France at the Ecole Militaire
happy
couple and
something motivated the young
several social occasions. A widower
years
opera. Its focus was a
soap
ization, liberation
write Japanese
interested in Sutematsu, having
on
controversial TV
a
a
Japan’s Minister of War, Iwao Oyama, became
day evenings watching
stepped in. Soon after her return,
Fate
Japanese spent Sun-
many
a
to be had.
jobs
were no
or
and
future.
the Ministry of Education hoping
job
were
her behalf
on
desperate
was
corre-
friends
Four years ago,
ranging
amnesia; she can’t face
to
the prospect of having him home
on
week-
ends. As the divorce rate creeps upwards,
another
fact
divorced
is
while only 50
men
“mother
hope
of the
percent
(The Japanese view this
widespread
95
emerging:
Japanese
as
of
percent
to
remarry,
women
do.
confirmation of
complexes”
among
the men.)
Japan
into
two
sees
its modern history
as
divided
parts, before and after World War
11. Men, especially the older politicians who
run
the country, tend to be before-the-war
types
traditional
and
Women, in comparison,
the-war types
cratic. They’ve
modern,
come
ing started from
long way
to go.
Japanese
men
so
a
feudalistic.
tend to
long
be after-
liberal, demoway,
but hav-
far behind they have
Their
major task
is to
a
pull
who will, I’m sure, resist,
kicking and screaming
the way—every inch of
into the post-War world.
to
Jorge Ribeiro ’75
Western-style, red-
13
“What
I say that will be of interest to you? Do you
can
why I discharged
one
officers to dinner
or
that my silk
brick
furnished
called
furniture
that
The
Hisa,
girl, and
a
had
one
of
style
in
bought
three
Oyama’s
children
in
traditionally
more
a
Besides
wars
her
mothering
her own,
raising
far from uneventful.
was
she lived
with Russia and
dubbed
Japan,
commander of
often traveling
churia and
the
to
of
“Napoleon”
Japanese troops,
remote
China. Like
of Man-
parts
those of her hus-
interests
Sutematsu’s
band,
three
through
China in which her
husband,
was
and
step-children
of
around
war
activities.
Tokyo’s
most
active volunteers. As director
of the Ladies
Ladies
She
revolved
was
one
Relief Association
Volunteer
Nursing
and
the
Association,
president of the Ladies Patriotic Association,
and
Red
chairman of the Japanese
Cross Society,
she set
an
example. (Even-
tually, conflict took its toll: in 1907, her beloved
Takashi
son
blown up at sea.)
was
of the
shop all the time,
was
patience
cold weather.”
lessons
at
that my silk
or
not
are
cold weather,
that I
which
etc.”
reams,
which I
bothered
letters
me
re-
matsu’s
husband
forbade
letters
the United States, because, he
he
military
afraid
was
her
she
let
that
they live
ex-
that
women
menial,
showed
an
other
volunteer
idea
new
to
Japanese
nursing
not
was
Japan. In
1905
a
ticle for the American magazine
ar-
Collier’s,
out
Many of Sutematsu’s classmates
to
you know
waiting
their
themselves
them,
on
hands
one
visit
of their houses without
than
never went
two
or
their
outside
three atten-
alone to the hospital
their little lunch baskets and bundles
taining their
nurses’
uniforms.”
helped raise funds and organize
language school
headed by
for
young
excruciating, twentieth-century visit
uates of the
girls’ mission.
Bacon
to
Yet,
can
as
full
Japan
her to occupy
rank required
box
and
to
she
thinking
expensive
us one
would
recognized in the background of
box,
but
before the
the
to
tendants. She agreed to go with
‘incognito,’
where her
an
fees
handsome
give
themselves
trating
performance
at-
night
honor to
lofty
so
have had the
her
at
a
best
etc.
be
not
as
Sutematsu’s
days
her Vassar
classmates,
“As for myself, what
can
of interest to you? Do you
place
class
constructing
a
were, one
I discharged
have engaged
some
one
to hear
or
why
that I
ones, or that I have had
military officers
14 VQ Spring 1983
com-
she wrote:
of my servants
new
vex-
to dinner who talked
paid
to
re-
had
a
later,
years
tribute
to
her
room
at
Vassar.
Japanese
feet,
mission
by
Apart
matsu
one
was
She tells of
“I
to
so
aside by
officer and
wonder
ladies
are
the
chance
woman
as
into
of
a
so
was
was
sent to the
talking
valuable.”
was
not
woman
public
But,
proper
to
in
unspoken
been
be
for
as
the
little
They
attentively
an
opin-
freely
with
most
such
Oyama,
on
for I
interesting
and
Whitney remarked,
etiquette
for
a
Japan. Imagine
one
of that
how
society
of Vassar’s
a
Japanese
it
Japanese
talk about “public affairs”
rules
on
unable to find
was
Kuno’s
Sutematsu has been
American
recent
Japan, interest in
the increase, fueled,
doubt, by Mrs. Kuno’s enthusiasm and
the
wealth
of
information
earthed.
Already,
Japanese
TV feature about
there
she
has
has
un-
been
one
Sutematsu,
en-
titled Bright Star of Dawn. In it, Mrs. Kuno
it with the photographs, articles, and letters
she received
dition,
in
stifling the
must
have
stars! The great
in the
United States.
fictionalized
a
series
TV
ad-
In
based
on
Sutematsu’s life has been running for the
past several months
Perhaps
Japanese
students
Japanese
would be
a
we
woman
wrote
Miscellany,
the stars
astonished
need
on a
major
TV
will
network.
lure
It
even
in
a
1900 issue of the
“Since
Japanese
in their
their
courses
friendliest
men
have
critics,
doubt that the educated Japanese
will fulfill her great opportunities?
At present
our own
American solution of
social and economic problems
lame and unsatisfactory.
of grace
from their
Let
seems
us
a
capital.”
fertile
fgj
gardens
of
the
as
re-
glorious
fruitage of American seed-thoughts
the
often
take heart
hopeful phases
vealed in the New-Old World in
to
more
Poughkeepsie.
to
beneficial cross-fertilization. As
Helen Backus
Vassar
following
discussion. I envy you
the Marchioness
would
Mrs.
during
no
New York. Un-
Japan Society in
fortunately, the society
who told
but it is almost
have often felt that her opinion
affairs
“brilliant
these
to get them to express
or enter
dames.
about.
thinking
a
Sute-
diplomat,
what
everything that is said,
ion
a
Henry of Prussia,”
intelligent and listen
impossible
that
reported
being taken
always
(After the
room.
narrated Sutematsu’s story, and illustrated
of Tokyo’s grandes
German
young
half
but she would
formal
a
owned by Sutematsu to
In the past few years in
again.”
visit, and
once
attended
on
room
trip.)
in their humble
had
disassembled in the 19605, the kimono
over
was
Shige Nagai, the
who
girl
music division, sent
display in the
was
protesting
Oyama
and
they could find,
former
it
this, however, Whitney had
delightful
Japanese
I say that will be
care
from
look
ation. For the 20-year reunion book
piled by
not go with us
English-
find glimpses of what appears to be
again.
never
1918, she died of influenza. Six
little
personage who should
Madame
her,
Her friend Alice
she
States,
Sutematsu’s
our
their horror that they had not done proper
con-
to teach at the school.
were not
president
1916, her husband died, and in
court kimono
often visit the theater,
aide of Prince
was
In
did not
She also
girls that
United
Vassar’s
with
of the other Japanese grad-
one
came
an
the
the theater in Tokyo with Sutematsu: “She
maids
held in
never
heavier
anything
come
without
who
they
handkerchiefs, they who
dants, all
unless
their life intimately. They who
dressed
never
are
their illustrious
see
They decorated it with what Japanese furni-
the ladies
classes
difficulty
feeding myself.”
ture
Whitney described
amused and half distressed,
upper
with
childhood friend Marian
theater,
our
I had little
youth
of
use
practice
than they could really afford. Sutematsu’s
she wrote: “You cannot realize how earnest
of
the
much
to
also
much,
very
to
respect
“Due
castanets in my
the proprietor and his wife appeared, prosSutematsu
with
Wheeler
herself
enjoyed
chopsticks,
chance.
expensively
more
and
writing,
in
Jessie
correspondent
visited
Although she had hoped, someday,
write
to
would
Sute-
Her husband’s rank also
secrets.
demanded
wife.
Japanese
class
by
the rubs and
were
a
plained,
of
out
strictions of being
to
am
societies, clubs and
send
There
lost my
account of the
on
am
my life with all sorts of
I
and
worms
doing well
or
at lessons or
that my youngest boy
or
stupid
very
associations
Japanese-style wing.
Sutematsu’s life
account
on
rearing
boys, Takashi and
two
lived
what
florid”
Oyama
France.
Kashiwa
with
“rather
a
doing well
military
some
stupid
was very
hear
care to
that I have had
or
that my youngest boy
are not
worms
house,
visitor
of my servants
blown
Japanese
& Resource
Club Source
by Liz Wexler Quinlan ’59
AAVC Publicity Director
persuading them
When time
Wanted:
events
Special
with
manager
designing informative
in
experience
proven
volunteers
means
and entertaining programs that will draw
highly educated,
and budgeting,
marketing, promotion,
achieved
more
as
change their
to
key bill affecting
who
they should penalize members
volunteers. Over the dinner table
night recently,
a
ad,
or a
Wall Street Journal
typical
listing from the files of
theoretical
executive
an
but it really describes
volunteer position
with
a
local
a
I could
as
programs”
“benefit
or
chairman.” And for the skills, look out for
relations
professional, perhaps,
conference planner for
or even a
important for
forming
good
at
.
your volunteers is that their
all,
Think
delegating.
on
jobs they’ll be
above
and,
.
titles appear
organ-
superb partygiver. What’s
skills should match the
.
nonprofit
a
or
their
per-
that they’re
beyond
what
Like the best executive recruiters, Vassar
clubs should draw up job descriptions
needs,
identify
perience required
the
but that
they needed
for
they analyze
talent
and
ex-
to turn an idea into a suc-
time
my
sources
were
few
a
of funding for
us
to go
after, worked
the outline for
by phone
on
posal with
two committee members who are
wonderful
at
people
on
a
grant pro-
writing, and assigned various
the committee the job of contact-
ing foundations. Everyone in the
assignment,
no
one
group
felt overloaded.
This volunteer knew that she could draw
a
upon
lifetime of experience
make
to
and contacts
valuable contribution
a
she
organization
cared
about.
load, and give her entire committee
a
new
a
four-letter word,
potential recruits who
are
can
are so
about
the
value
counts. Some
a
few hours,
can
one
need to be
discriminating in the way they apporand
tion volunteer time,
of
people
or
that
can
time.
remarked:
Quality
more
in
quarter hours, than others
The president of
voluntary
organization,
known for the commitment
service it expects
discerning
contribute
in weeks of meetings.
national
more
of
volunteer
of its members, recently
“The advocate
who
spends
else’s
everyone
and
only
about an hour
or
two a
45
minutes calling three state legislators and
week
to
work
feel-
a
took her
ing of shared leadership. That it
work.
What about the positions
even
greater responsibility,
on a
board
dency of
a
of directors
club?
get the
to
will thrive
had
two
to
cause
give.”
her to
“We’ve
committee meetings in six months,”
made
its presidents by dividing
on
the
club’s
ecutive
the
president
to
oversee
every
reports
perience
an
or
performed
This
system has lightened
that
by
for
opportunities
we
way
would operate, and the second after
we
got the grant to decide what to do next, and
celebrate what
group
that
we
had accomplished.” The
benefited
so
immensely
from
The
Mad Hatter
the proper
care
might
do
“
the
‘lf you knew Time
Hatter,
wasting it.
beating.
terms
or
and
both sexes,
with
Alice
‘you
It’s
Now,
him
well as I
wouldn’t
...
it in
answers.’
no
as
on
something better
time,’ she said, ‘than wasting
asking riddles that have
this volunteer’s limited but valuable time is
match her skills and experience with the
as
people
could be talking about
of volunteers,
“T think you
with the
also to be applauded for having the vision
to
more
leadership
time.
respective skills and the
the super-
growth.
beginning of the
our
committee.
visory role carried by the president, and,
ions, “one
get acquainted, discuss goals and priorities,
ex-
particular expertise matches the
functions
new
now
officer whose past board
when he has this exchange
and review
committee
personally. Each committee chairman
to
ex-
than requiring
rather
committee,
re-
com-
mittees among different members of the
told her dinner companyear to
up
working
she triumphantly
at the
years
York Vassar Club pared down the demands
greater
yet,
in the
feasible for busy members. The New
more
and stay in touch with her committee didn’t
worse
the presi-
making their top leadership jobs
are
the opening ad says, has given
fill her with guilt or,
service
as
or even
Here, too, the volunteer
organizations that
ahead
that demand
such
project under way, delegate responsibility,
think she had “nothing
busy people.
attract such
Individuals and organizations
more
busy and
that worry about
the organizations
how they
from
afraid to “get in-
volved” because their days
from
both
flexibility is required,
also
divide up responsibilities
volunteer for the job. Nor does it matter
person can contribute.
the
to
She
how many hours
a
job, regardless of her unorthodox approach
to committee
sponsibility for
own
world where time is
P.S.:
We got the grant!”
reduce her
a
is
person one small
the right
In
any-
calls, identified potential
to
out
own
get the funding
knew how
cessful project, and then seek
long
not look
might
accomplishing
would
we
was
it so
and by the time they needed
it. So I made
the committee slots they must fill, think in
their
demanding
the work in my
busy, but by giving each
resumes.
terms of functional resumes as
them
approach
if the committee
as
ization,
a
to chair the grants
me
told
I warned them that it
way.
thing,
a
consulting firm,
own
limited, but that I would gladly do
read
“chairman of
I
committee,
Vassar club. For “special events manager”
public
one
young woman,
volunteer assignment:
recruitment firm
a
bright
very
“When they asked
a
who don’t
We need to think of new rules and roles
for
described how she had tackled
like
roomful
a
‘do their fair share’ of the work.”
the president of her
It reads
to
wondering how
are
innate instinct for what the public
ship and growth.
votes
children has
with her time than
of administrators
Unlimited opportunities for leader-
as
wants.
a
Broad
discerning public.
with speakers, solid experience in
contacts
well
a
support
do,’ said
talk
about
he won’t stand
if you only
kept
with him, he’d do almost
on
good
anything
you’d like with the clock.’”
15
Books
expect children to be able
and parents
of the
Aspects
Present
Children
here, and child-rearing
Metraux ’34
topics
1980
The
$10.95 hardcover
which
authors
family
believe
collection of short essays which
a
in Redbook
originally appeared
1969
between
dicates, they
tions
on
1979. As
and
proposed
reflec-
life-styles
the contemporary scene, informed
by her personal experience
well
as
by her
as
and Ms. Metraux’s anthropological studies.
Ms.
collaborator
Most
acted
previously
Metraux
Mead’s
as
several other books.
on
topical material tends
but these essays have survived
the lapse of
time and the transition to hard
covers
markably well; their qualities
freshness,
of
re-
example, this
day it
seems
the
come
which people
of
handicaps
fewer among
the
abolishing
trying
can
poverty
to
over-
that
so
will be trapped by it in the
us
generation,
next
1976 article: “To-
a
to me that rather than
find ways through
as, for
written,
were
from
one
we
the
to
abolish the poor. And in
that they will be
attempting,
are
services
so
doing
we ensure
hostile
a
so
that
old
the
family, and the
and
singles
as
thus would
well
as
a
com-
alleviate
the
the
responsibilities
of
those
within it.
The
in
broad
on
range of
of
the
Present
topics. There
well
as
as
less weighty pieces
U.F.O.s, the Woodstock festival,
mer
and
camp
a
particularly fine
sum-
one on
Halloween and the decline of mischief. This
book, Mead’s last,
her
lucidity,
is
a
fitting example
fairness,
compassion,
of
and
David Linzee ’74
optimism.
a
novelist
who lives in St.
The
of “we”
use
—
—
in
problems
titudes of
society
battlegrounds
groups, and
what
at
can
are our
frustration
rather
and
on
us
are
within
responsibility
sense
bickering
statement,
as
we
think
—
our
is
a
useful
of
us
of
feel
when
On the sub-
primary educa-
through the buck-passing
over
methods
and
with the flat
“Children have learned to read
by being beaten
—
and by learning their
letters from cookies coated with honey. As
as
the
has
misery
present
its
change and
circumstances
what
gadgets.
No
did.
they
No gurus.
No
rather
(which,
is
rewards),
own
As Ms. Whitbread writes:
do
can
desire to
over
continue
to
mount.
para-
“Anyone
electronic
wonder
No
drugs.
miracles of modern medicine. No magical
medicos.
These
They learned
of
help
cured themselves.
people
to kick the
doctors,
pain habit with the
psychologists,
nurses,
and
each
other
treatment centers for chronic
According
the author, most pain
to
the
at
pain.”
con-
trol centers suggest that the sufferer be wary
of drugs
prescribed
to
pain, for the body is
sponsive
who reach
suppress
chronic
continually
not
chronic pain
a
heavily addicted
treatment proto
tranquilizers
and narcotics; many take 75 percent
than
recommended
are
behavior
re-
them. At least half the people
to
gram are
levels.
more
At the clinics,
replaced by relaxation techniques,
modification
activity,
relative
appropriate
to
family
the society
16 VQ Spring 1983
—
and
so
Although the pain control
Stop Hurting!
Start
ment is
Living!
exercise
interac-
the teachers
barely
ten years
clinic
move-
old, the heavy in-
volvement of and endorsement by medical
The Pain Control Book
specialists has made the
eligible
programs
for insurance coverage, and the author pro-
by Jane Whitbread ’36
vides
Delacorte Press,
cost-effective outcomes for both employers
240 pages
considerable material
and insurance companies.
If you suffer from chronic pain and your
intensive
time
commitment
doctors
costly for
many
sufferers, and
Even so, the
organic
have been unable to diagnose
or
traumatic
tinued misery, read
cess
problem.
for your con-
this book. It may just
offer amelioration, if
your
cause
an
Within
not
a
specific
suc-
stories, journalistic description of pain
control centers, and
information,
a
great deal of how-to
Jane Whitbread explains the
developments in holistic health
care
settings
that have successfully treated many chronic
pain control clinics and their
part of the book
may
a
be
too
significant
offers step-by-step
direc-
tions for self-treatment.
the solution, for
mix of
anticipated
on
1981, $12.95 hardcover
grasp
of helplessness and
which many
cut
at-
than
from above. Their in-
ject of the inadequacies
tion, they
see con-
do, rather than of de-
confronting complex problems.
long
it and
overcome
groups.
say,
pressure
they write about how
we
corrective to the
the
control
after all,
Repub-
of the
terms
large,
sistence that solutions
and
“the
of politicians
cisions imposed
—
rather than,
or
is revealing. The authors
temporary
and
how to
one
tions, and the encouragement of self-help
Administration”
licans”
Whit-
do not promise to end pain,
body therapies,
and
Louis.
setting of
Ms.
curtail its crippling effects. As in all mind-
drugs
David Linzee is
world.”
“the
she describes
they do teach
are
the women’s movement, abor-
tion, bussing,
on
Aspects
Holistic
patients.
Although
group.
physiotherapists,
essays
a
pain
bread’s book and the clinics and treatments
than
into proximity,
head
whole body-mind relationships with-
human
bring different generations and
loneliness of those outside the family, while
lightening
the
exert
to
poor,
helpless in
more
by
and
parents
in housing
sharing of parental duties,
cover
today than when they
both
on
would be eased. This would make possible
articles
relevant
burden
rigid division between families
the comments, in fact,
more
prevalent
single-family
heavy
would not be shut out of the
balance, and insight remain intact. Some of
seem
to
and
in the natural and technological
patterns is
panionship, and
date badly,
to
isolates
children. A change
in-
the title
Mead’s
Margaret
are
magazine
and
parents,
a
are
the book.
the
the
puts
concern
the family
that
arrangement
household
This is
and
throughout
recur
back
means
perhaps the central
are
by Margaret Mead and Rhoda (Bubendey)
Morrow, 319 pages,
to
learn, they will learn.”
Jane Whitbread (Levin) began her
as
a
journalist
at
Vassar,
career
where she
editor of the Miscellany News.
was
A former
member of the New York Times Magazine
staff and
a
medical columnist for McCall’s
she has also
zine.
been
She has
not
an
editor of this maga-
suffered
from
chronic
Books for Quarterly notice should be
to: Susan
Osborn
sent
(book editor), 424 W.
57th St., H4-D, New
or
NY 10019.
York,
fiction, nonfiction for
scholarly work
are
general audience,
a
asked to send
a
letter and tearsheets to Ms. Osborn at the
Books for the Alumnae/i collection in the
above address.
library should be
Quarterly,
the number of volumes received, individual
NY
acknowledgements of books
sent to: Vassar
Alumnae House, Poughkeepsie,
12601, attn.: Alumnae/i Collection.
sent
Unfortunately, owing
to
cannot be
out.
Alumnae/i interested in reviewing poetry,
pain herself, but she lends
to its
description and
trol.
a
sympathetic
clear pen to its
a
ear
armed
intervention
these issues retain
con-
In each case, Welch
Molly Geiger Schuchat ’4B
liberal
Molly Schuchat, Ph.D., is
who directs
thropologist
mental
private
health
applied
an
an-
evaluations for
She
center.
a
also
teaches the sociology of health and illness at
the
National
Institutes
Health
of
in
in
position,
Central
America,
applies
moderately
a
of
mindful
always
the
the
On abortion,
state.
is
ment
to
choose;
individual
protect
abortion
therefore,
he
right
for
argues
as
such, and therefore
that
maintains that government has
1981, $4.95
pages,
excludes
tion
not
paper
homosexuals.
the license to
for questionable
Is there
an
“art”
political thinking that is
to
clear
and
security
Welch thinks so, and explains it in this ele-
armed intervention
ing involves
temporary
a
issues
the
through
political
which the nation
The book
principles
carefully
idea, and applies the
art
con-
lens of the
founded,
was
a
upon
return to
lays
out
this
science
Welch
death,
the
at
Colorado. The book
edited by his wife,
was
a
of
completed and
was
Katherine. Happily,
unity of form and
content has been
science
remain
general reader
mired
hopelessly
political concepts in
as
a
before
Vietnam)
be sanctioned.
that
prose
science classes.
as
has
while ignoring
security”
best
his
far
as
as
sistent,
produces
its
he be-
of
out
and
our
political thinking
imaginations
not the final word on the
a
superb place
education.
Michael Kimmel is
a
to
adequate
political theory
with Rousseau;
’70s.
the individual” and simultaneously express
the
an
that
community
political
aggregation
of
is
underlies
body politic is
life. The
physical body
It is
political
Helms and Hyde amendments
individual choice,
the rights
lesbians
to
access
eroded,
and
equal
our
to
President
at
first,
studies might
But
student,
with the
threatening
of gays
and
employment
flirting
writer and
sociology
its
more
parts,
than
particularly difficult
with
we
apply the
contemporary
state
minimal
adventures
a
national
more
than
just
as
a
collection of
to
espouse
art of
an
political
sanctions
under
political thinking
the
events.
race,
under the
of national
guise
and
stalls
on
class, and sexual preference
guise of providing
environment
The
imperial military
security; perpetuates inequalities based
gender,
for
at
by Carol S. Kushner ’68-’69
1981, $9.29 hardcover
127 pages,
govern-
individual muscles and bones.
the contemporary
’60s and
of
A Career Alternative
For
those who long to “create
individual
meaningful
an
in stained glass, exploring
the medium of
leather, throwing pots and adorning them
with
whimsical
fully decorated
creatures,
functional
jewelry,
designing
wood,
by becoming
or
ten
creating
a
an
people
in
in the early
Carol Kushner has writ-
instructional book.
It will tell
you
you want to know about a few
who
their tools,
style, and
pieces
maker of brooms
other household objects
everything
color-
tee shirts or intricate metal
have chosen this way of life;
training, skills, products,
more.
life
Frances Schwartz ’7B
unfettered
achievement;
reforms
something
beautiful” by making fiber pieces, working
to
of the
free-lance
“provide safety and security for
ob-
political
only
employment, and Vietnam.
dated
our
University.
American style
seem
a
professor
and
relics
subject, Welch’s
begin
Michael Kimmel ’72
day if
case
to
ment must
in
of
Crafts:
half the problem. Welch uncritically accepts
an
art
political
beyond individual happiness
Locke
to three controversial issues: abor-
that these three
our
incon-
social definitions of justice. Even if it is
unadulterated Lockean political theory to-
afraid
stretch
must
must fuse
“clarifying,”
I was,
The
theory.
other
is careful and convincing,
it goes. Yet it seems to address
But
political
internally
an
contradictory
tion, discrimination against homosexuals in
thinking
liberal
the centerpiece of political theory almost
inevitably
to
of
limits
social
demystifies
of
the
start and end with the individual
Julian Messner
Both political think-
notion
and
a
pro-
be solved by streamlining
Welch’s book
as
is
Thinking
(a division of Simon & Schuster)
“ordering,” and “reasoning.”
applies
mise
theory. To
Rutgers
can
be different.
to
Political
of
thoughtful book that shows both the
of the individual.” Both problems,
lieves,
discrimina-
whose purpose is the protection of the indi-
for introductory
are
Art
book is
government
choose
orientation
main-
book intended for the
much
ing and Welch’s narrative
Welch
a
national
to
mean
To
oppose.
the minimal state must protect
the individual’s right
The
to
sworn
sexual
to
even
currently
vidual.
in academic
books
fuscating jargon, Welch’s
social
in
to
not
was
alternative
the Lockean notion of the minimal state,
a
tained.
most
ought
tion;
an
primary function of “protecting the liberty
political
University
en-
in its efforts to provide
been “overzealous
equality
threat
can
concludes
and
citizens, but
nations’ backyards.
professor
While
evident
the state, getting it
three contem-
to
porary issues.
Until his
Welch
of political think-
reasoned examination of
fundamental
basics.
art
obliga-
There must be
causes.
different from political “science”? William
gant little book. The
an
jeopardize citizens’ lives
immediate
(not
he
Finally,
for its
provide security
to
are
“limited affirmative action”
a
edited by Katherine Welch ’42
225
to
remain
must
state
choose
equal opportunity,
ensure
discriminated against
NJ)
legitimate
a
Lockean
and
argues that the proper function of govern-
by William Welch
Littlefield and Adams (Totowa,
have
not
claim to equal employment opportunity
dividual
he is unconvinced that gays and lesbians
Thinking
do
in-
forces the very social homogeneity that the
government must
The Art of Political
gays and lesbians
meddling in
Welch does, that
as
fragility of the relationship between the in-
legal and available. Though he believes that
Bethesda, Maryland.
guise of restraint against
dividual life. To argue,
striking immediacy.
a
under the
Frances Schwartz lives
and teaches
English
in
at the
New
York
City
Chapin School.
17
Vassar faculty, students, alumnae/i, and
staff
Person Place&Thing
invited
are
Person
submit entries to
to
Place & Thing. There is
charge.
no
Submissions should be typed, doubleif
spaced, and,
The Quarterly
75 words or less.
possible,
the right to edit
reserves
for length and style. Deadlines for copy:
Magazine
PP&T
Fall issue
August
Winter issue
Gourmands
and/or
exotic
luscious,
gourmets.
Large,
from
tropical
mangoes
mountain country. Excellent
ing, hiking nearby.
Florida, May through August, one-half lug
through
(7-9 lbs.) $15.95,
201/234-1010, Jane Myers Baker ’4l.
ful
tropical
or
full lug $22.50. Flavorchoose
jams:
grapefruit, kumquat,
lime,
2'/ 2
Three 2
1/2
jars $11.50, three 8
oz.
six 8
orange-grapefruit,
mango, papaya, guava, or coconut
spread.
toast
six
oz.
jars SB,
oz.
jars $10.50,
jars sl6. Please add 10 percent for
oz.
deliveries west of the Mississippi. Send in-
quiries,
and
orders,
South
Florida
checks,
Vassar
Richard P. Emerson,
payable
Club,
to:
to
Mrs.
1551 Salvatierra Dr.,
Coral Gables, FL 33134.
searching for
women
who were in the
services during
women’s
of education benefits of the
G.I.
use
Bill.
Veterans
please send
ticipating,
and I
will mail you
Verdicchio,
NY
interested
5
a
in
par-
Beth
Storybook
St.
La.,
James,
Gardening/animal
tenance in
1982 Vassar graduate, currently
mer
Law
a
New York
legal position in the Albany,
City,
Long Island
or
quiries
Apt.
V.
to:
108,
areas.
Richards,
Prospect
student at
for a sum-
School, is looking
Please send in-
100
Orchard St.,
Heights,
Rensselaer,
NY 12144.
Boston.
sunny,
to
apartment
from June through the
for one, two,
or
located
stores and
near
Rent
tion.
Meltzer
reasonable.
MA
three-
furnished,
sublet
and
summer.
share
Available
three people. Conveniently
46
(’80),
Allston,
to live.
Lipschutz/Terry
Con-
Purinton,
212/460-5674.
For
in
rent
cheerful,
on
88
Southern
furnished
modernized,
of
acres
Vermont.
woodland and
Large,
Colonial
meadows.
Sleeps eight. Views, fireplace, deck, patio,
Available
One mile from
miles
ten
from
town
Mt.
from
May for
one
of
Snow.
year or
part
thereof. Write: Lenore Hochman Blegvad
113
(’47),
Fulham Rd.,
London
S.W.
3,
England.
Cape: Julie Conant Merchant
’46 cordially invites alumnae/i who
for
area,
August 17, from 5
Roy
Merchant,
cocktails,
are
in
Box
or
653,
phone 617/548-1850.
Alumnae/i at-
public transportaContact:
Parkvale
Shelley
Ave.,
#4,
02134, 617/783-4934.
I am
Vassar
a
graduate is looking
am
to house-sit any-
this coming
summer
specifically interested in
situation.
Please
1530
O’Connor,
write
Locust
an au
Peter
soon:
St.,
and
spending
lot of time in Italy. I would consider
pair
cottage
For
rent:
through
walking distance of a
furnished,
with
the privilege
roads
for
to
walking,
pharmacy,
and
garden
country
inform
please
Apt.
5-C,
C.
Portuguese
March,
by week
or
month. Fully
3
modern, three-bedroom,
bathroom house overlooking the
walk to
October
Algarve,
town
and
beach.
sea.
1/2Short
Gordon Post,
professor emeritus of politi-
kitchen, electric heat, telephone. Large
Vassar, and, after 14
race.
about to
become
a
professor
Wells College. P.O. Box 81,
years,
emeritus of
Aurora,
NY
Part-time maid.
piano,
and
small
End,
$l6O
Wiener ’43), 2254 48th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20007,
Northwest Montana wilderness hideaway.
300 acres,
with woods, meadows, lakes in spectacular
18 VQ Spring 1983
week
per
amenities,
easy
to
access
include
to
utilities. Write: Mrs, W. C. Bowman (’25),
51
Gloucester Crescent,
London,
N.W.
1,
England.
London.
able
in
area
for
Attractive furnished
flats
convenient
charming,
sabbaticals,
work/study tours,
avail-
Hampstead
relocation,
overseas
(minimum stay
etc.
months). Can place individuals
Orientation for schools and
feld (Judith Edwin
York,
NY
two
families.
or
services
Scotland. For rent
my
during July
house.
lovely old Highland
domestic
50 E. 72
’56),
201/569-5336
10021,
will-
help available.
St., New
(evenings).
and
August,
Sleeps eight,
is necessary.
Car
$l5O per week plus electric heating and hot
(about
Winifred
SSO
Contact:
p.w.).
Comstock
Gloucester
Paris.
Large
kitchen,
(’25),
51
London
N.W.
1,
8342.
quiet,
studio,
bath,
sunny,
summer, fall.
de
central
floor.
Chatillon,
phone 542-57 03,
or
For
heating;
during
rent
of time negotiable.
Length
Harmsworth
Margaret
Square
bedrooms,
two
elevator,
top
Mrs.
Bowman
Crescent,
10
Phillips (’sl),
75014
Paris.
15
Tele-
86-75 91 71.
Wedgwood plates. Eight plates, each
1/2”
campus
in
England.
Six to eight
months from January 1984. Large, duplex,
family
flat
academics.
regularly
Near
diameter,
buildings c.
showing
1929. The
different
set of
eight:
S2OO. Mrs. John Fitzpatrick, 47 Cumberland
Ave., Plattsburgh,
Mount
Holyoke
Two-week
NY
12901, 518/561-4424.
rented
Victoria
College
to
visiting
and
Albert
Contact:
or
July 25-August
Summer Math for
South
413/538-2608.
school
Choice of sessions:
Joan F. Mundy, Director,
College,
SummerMath.
institutes for secondary
July 11-22
on
all
garden,
mathematics teachers.
202/342-0919.
For rent in London,
log house
small house in
bedrooms,
ter-
Lanny Atlas (Liane
13026.
New, comfortable,
Two
charming
1.
Fully equipped
cal science
at
Lenore
Philadelphia, PA 19102.
to rent an hour or so from Boston, within
grocery and
To let:
N.W.
Vassar
In case anyone may know of a small
Write:
rent
113 Fulham Rd.,
Blegvad (’47),
England, Tel: 01, 485,
stuck in Philadelphia! An ’B2
where in Europe
fall. I
lift,
Monthly
to
Merchant’s house in West Falmouth
Help!
London.
water
guest welcome.
or
Fal-
West
tending the party will be given directions
Mrs.
utilities.
plus
Wednesday,
to 7 p.m. R.S.V.P.: Mrs.
Jr.,
mouth, MA 02574;
Spouse
dishwasher,
charm.
ingly provided. Contact; Mrs. Henry Haber-
Vassar on the
the
dryer,
London S.W. 3, England.
West
when they R.S.V.P.
Large,
bedroom
washer,
old-world
area.
main-
care/general
exchange for place
Marion
tact;
in
Albany
views,
’80) looking for
25
Museum. Three double bedrooms, central
Call:
residence year round, and those vacationing
11780.
May
heating,
and address,
name
questionnaire.
Summer issue
$llOO
caretaking job in greater New York
all conveniences.
World War II for a survey
on
the class of
Couple (from
November 25
February 25
Hochman
Wardsboro,
I am
Pictures available.
25
Spring issue
May
orange,
tangerine, tangerine-
orange-coconut,
tropical
from
October.
riding, fish-
Rent week/month
VQ office by
at
Mount
Hadley,
5, 1983.
Teachers, Dr.
MA
Holyoke
01075,
19
20 VQ Spring 1983
21
22 VQ Spring 1983
23
24 VQ Spring 1983
25
26 VQ Spring 1983
27
28 VQ Spring 1983
29
30 VQ Spring 1983
31
32 VQ Spring 1983
33
34 VQ Spring 1983
35
36 VQ Spring 1983
37
38 VQ Spring 1983
39
40 / Q Spring 1981
41
42 VQ Spring 1983
43
44 VQ Spring 1983
45
46 VQ Spring 1983
47
letters
Continued from page 2
After she contracted
her
vigorous
life,
wherever she
medical
taking
happened
In 1979 she
she continued
cancer
care
to be.
her last research sab-
was on
batical in Paris and I joined her to continue
work
on
dissertation, the transcript
my
the Genesis portion of
an
of
early manuscript
of Roger de Lisle’s Histoire Ancienne. Be-
gruelling chemotherapy
tween
treatments at
the Curie Institute, she and I set forth
long
awaited
pilgrimage
Spain. We traveled
a
as
to
Bayonne by train, in
six-person couchette with four rough
fellow passengers. There
we
rented
and Florence drove to Roncesvalles,
she quoted
Roland.
for
We
me
from
followed
twelfth-century
Le
the
pilgrims
fingers
where
of
route
to
men
a car
Chanson
de
the
Santiago
Compostela. With great emotion
our
on a
Compostela,
to
we
de
placed
in the five holes worn in the cen-
tral pillar of the western portico
by
pilgrims of nine centuries searching
a
weary
bless-
ing. Surely Florence found hers.
Her contribution to medieval scholarship
is important and
gift
to
us
lasting,
but her greatest
is the gallant example she set
she continued to teach,
after
publish
year
terminal
cancer.
as
study, travel, and
year,
undaunted
by
Mary Coker Joslin ’44, Ph.D.
Professor of French and
St.
Humanities,
Augustin College,
Raleigh,
North Carolina
Elspeth McClure Clarke ’44
48 VQ Spring 1983
theLastPage
Hungarian-born
Vassar and
A curable romantic
of counsel
to
She is
a
also
and
my
alumnae. (I had
alumna is
no
I used to be
such
She is
Water & Van De Water in Poughkeepsie.
past vice-president of A A VC.
Conrad,
“Stepping Out,
in
appeared
”
her
last year's
run.
of my
Westen
of my fellow
news
convinced, romantically, that there
I married the
marriage.
as
botany from
School.
least one
at
D.
spice.
with whom one could be involved
son
this magazine
to
similar
fellow alumni.) Now I declare that
all sugar and
not
read
infants, and
in
A.B.
an
University Law
Quarterly feature about the Poughkeepsie-New York
Bedell ’40
Ever since 1940, I sent dear little notices
traipsings
Van De
of her claim against
account
by Susanna Eszenyi
Susanna Bedell holds
J.D. from Columbia
a
in
perfect
a
was
only
one
Richard
per-
long-term relationship
In
man.
1978
I married the
fact,
©
man
mother would have selected for
my
parent of mine to do any selection
on
rejected that venerable Hungarian
(me)
dazzling insights
into either a
divorced
I
state.
man
and I
“never-never land” of
marriage
perfect
a
divorced.
perfect
woman
Not at all. I am not about to offer
or
what I consider
and a
man
a
that the search
merely suggesting
am
were
to the rescue of the
come
explain what happened?
to
However, I had
custom.
Nineteen years later, the perfect
Does the perfect logic
had I permitted any
me
my behalf.
perfect
happily
for the
woman
in
a
Susanna Bedel!
perfect marriage doing the perfect things, having the statistically
perfect number of children
is romantic fantasy.
I do
though
perfect environment in the country
know
what the best alternative
It is
not.
is,
the romantic notion of
not
objectives which require superhuman tolerance for
you
necessarily fail
neither strokes,
nor
every
self-respect,
more
and
the possibility of such
more
Anita
anything else which nourishes
to her Moral
Majority
a
literature
thing
as a
to the
high divorce
perfect divorce.
Family Advocate, published by the American
practitioners of family law, carried
the
the
use
of
a
mediator in
two
little
as
humanly possible.
I
do
one’s
professional life.
every
break-up involves
hard
much
of
to
It is
a
bear, particularly
an
or
in
is accomplished
part of
measure
one
with
own
court
a
a
one
romanticism is
to
of rejection.
to
name
to
In the
to
live
women,
society.
to mate when
out
mothers and fathers have
market,
absurd part of that
most
we
are
Most of us are
young,
or
also in
whether
a
we
our
fantasy
programmed in
of the dream
us.
live in
It is often said also
a
capitalist
needing
any
ever
as
relations
of
that women do not want power, or, if
such
than
would
awful
just
go
amendment,
Notwithstanding
exciting;
is
not
grapes than
need,
we must
perceive
aged wine.
and not
me.
have to worry about
I do not find domestic
the
intellectually,
question
on
field
is
less
First Amendment
I debunk romance,
I view my own
marriage,
the
experience less
as
I have found that whatever culture we
and that
carry with us,
many of the limitations
in our lives have resulted from our own
be
of life
the way life is.
the fact that
family, and other sacred subjects,
sour
contentment
I could devote my entire atten-
degree that
sophisticated
a
But “content”
rights.
a
That would be fine with
particularly
challenging
we
ignorance. The im-
feels makes
portant thing is
to
contribution
the world. It is my firm belief that women who do
not
have a
to
doing something
meaningful occupation,
homes, almost invariably
ation
can
young.
start
at
One has
the
our
if all those
problems
constitutional
a
her
(always
after. According to this notion, if we could just push Mother
that
other kind
adopted
man
This antifeminist
back into her electrified, air-conditioned, push-button, dishwasher-
husband
whether we are men
or
not
that
Phyllis
snuggling in-
the argument runs, husbands and wives would live together happily
arrange-
As workers in the job
competitive situation,
were
the idea
articles about leases
group. We are not a great
compatible sexual, social, and economic
which
we are
a
for each other’s interests.
out
rapacious females needing
find at least
First, the
away. If E.R.A.
on
all women’s
around,
virile
cases.
of the game; you cannot make
women as
predicated
a
with her.
writing
realize that
out.
is
weren’t
feminists
entice
to
go to bed
divorce
Every rejection is
that is voluntarily dished
women.
think of
big sorority looking
in
costume
to
like
antifeminists,
tion to
I also
of that sort of
and the “Total Woman”
to
cannot escape, even in
lawyer’s job
romanticism
the
quarrel with
Bryant,
would increase
take issue with the romantic notions propagated by my
fellow feminists about
ments
also
filled kitchen, and out of the job market, the
endearing and loving experience.
even
I
as
divorce,
weight, but
it. Nobody who has power feels
cited in support
to
amicable divorce is another of the
an
of divorce, rejection is the
case
whatsoever,
relationship that has broken by its
think that the question
or
The idea prompting
courts.
“bluebird of happiness” chases which
to
pro, one con
One way to secure an amicable
think that nothing
cement a
I
one
case.
no trauma
the suggestion goes, is to avoid the
it
A recent issue of
articles, indeed, the law’s whole approach of mediation, is
get clients out of a marriage with
in
Bar Association for
articles
divorce
a
rate
be devoting itself to
seems to
use
ever
wishful thinking.
legally wedded husband)
this country,
on
fact is
no
Of course,
interesting turnabout, thanks
an
and
would use it in some fashion that is
would
men
Schlafly, and
the soul.
In
that way—
they
power,
different from how
in every way, and get
single day
nor
they did acquire
you aim for artificial
failings; “superhuman” because if
own
perfection
in a
not
know what it is
unachievable
one’s
I do
or
lover,
myth of
any age. In
are
fact,
or
a
a
significant
whether inside or outside their
to excesses
and addictions.
Desper-
I think it is a lot harder to be
much more pressure
Colette
The media
turn
one
to
chauffeur to one’s
become
an
adjunct
to a
children, and succumb
to
Dowling’s Cinderella Complex.
full of enticements
to
far-off places of
pure, white, snow-filled slopes, with nary
sand,
or
sight.
But I invite you to
come
to
the
a
shadowy prospect
dence where I stand. You might enjoy the view
as
sun
and
slushy road
of
much
in
indepenas
1 do.
This summer, play it by
ear
A vacation for those with music on their minds. AAVC’s
“Beyond
grand
Music 140“ takes you to
opera
The
by night.
features attendance at four
operas)
a
of the Santa Fe
performances (four
Opera’s
concert of chamber
grand country by day and
week-long tour, August 14-20,
renowned summer
music,
and a
Santa Fe Festival Theatre. Richard
music at Vassar,
include
is
trips
to Indian
$1,325, excluding
140,” AAVC,
will lecture
and
Alumnae
Also from AAVC:
festival,
performance
of the
Wilson, professor
daily,
of
and excursions will
Cost per person
Spanish villages.
travel to Santa Fe.
different
Write:
“Beyond
House, Poughkeepsie,
Music
NY 12601.
“Discovering the Italian Renaissance,”
June 12-27. Benjamin Kohl, Vassar professor of history, will
lead a
trip
that combines
lectures,
visits to historic sites, and
events with local alumnae/i. Write: AAVC
Dynamics, 1290 Avenue of
the
Americas,
New
Tour, c/o Travel
York, NY 10104.