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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1959
HUMANITIES LECTURER—Prof. Walter Blair, on the left, discusses last night's speech with Cyrus DeCoster, professor of Romance languages.
Official Bulletin
Items for the Official Bulletin must be brought to the public relations office, 222-A Strong, before 9:30 a.m. on the day of publication. Do not bring Bulletin material to The Daily Kansan. Notices of the Name, place, date, and time of function
I. L.E. foreign students; Mr. Roben, *Mike* will be on the campus this afternoon.
TODAY
Tryouts for Children's Theatre productions and the Shoemaker will be in 402 MDZ, 7:30 p.m.
KU Young Democrats will hold election
at 7:30 p.m. in Rooms
306A and B, Room KU-1
Quill Club, 7:30 p.m., Room 305B of the
University. Jayhawk pictures will be
taken.
IFC Rush Smoker, 8:00 p.m., Ballroom, Kansas Union.
Teachers Appointment Bureau, 117
Bailley Hall; Robert C. Morton, Torrance C.
Business Placement Bureau Interview
2. Strong Resume.
2. Southwestern Bell, Executive and Ad-
d.
ministrative positions; Long Lines, Executive and Administrative Positions.
El Ateneo comienza sus actividades del segundo zenestre el proximo mueren a la sala 11 Fraser, La Sra. Donna Fink y la Sra. Marcia Green hablan y proyectoan vistas en colores del niaje que presenta el Mejico y Guatemala el nevanzado.
Jay James, Oread Room of the Union.
5:00 p.m. Attendance required.
Lutheran Gamma Delta, 5-5-30 p.m.
Difforton Ladder, Led by Britton Britain,
Ladder service.
K Fuccity Club, Duplicate Bridge,
74 Hospital, and Mrs. J. Neal
Carman, VI 3-3035.
Experimental Theatre, 8:00 p.m., Pirandello's "Naked." MORROW
Business Placement Bureau Interviews.
214 Strong, Mr. Harry L. Snell, Southwestern Hospital, New York, Administrative positions; Long Lines, Executive and Administrative positions.
Twain Scholar Rates Huck As Top American Novel
Today's fiction writers agree that "Huckleberry Finn" is the most influential work of modern fiction, an eminent scholar on Mark Twain and the history of American humor said last night.
Walter Blair, chairman of the department of English of the University of Chicago, delivered the fourth
annual Humanities Lecture, "Mark and Huck: the Biography of a Book," in Fraser Theater.
His address included findings made during 15 years of research culminating in nine months of study last year of the Mark Twain papers at the University of California.
"Huckleberry Finn' interests critics more than any American book," Prof. Blair said. "Since 1950, at least 50 articles have appeared on it.
"Many modern writers have acknowledged indebedness to 'Finn.' Hemingway says it's the best book we've had," Prof. Blair said.
"It is the funniest book ever written in America. It is full of incongruities. The life of Twain gave the book much of its humor.
"Clemens could write both sympathetically and humorously. His balance between savagery and civilization accounts for a balance of the humor in Huck."
Prof. Blair said that unlike many respected books, "Huckleberry Finn" has consistently been popular with the man on the street. It was a best seller in the year of its appearance and made more money than any of Mark Twain's books, he said.
"Even today it sells extremely
well. The book must have sold approximately six million copies since its first appearance," he said,
Prof. Blair said that the novel was written during "seven very active years of an active writer's life."
Authors in general in this period looked toward the past for subjects, he said. The local color movement arose in this period, of which Clemens was a part. His own life made it "ossible for him to write of these things, Prof. Blair said.
1025 Mass., VI 3-2966
LAWRENCE OPTICAL CO.
The setting for the novel was a fictional place based on a town where Clemens once lived. The town was a part of the writer's memory, he said.
Clemens was able to write about river adventures, Prof. Blair said, because of his experience as a river pilot.
Prof. Blair said that Clemens expressed his struggles for escape from civilization in his writing.
"Clemens' own life had an impact on this," he said. Critics said he showed an irreverence for things other men held sacred. He married
in the hope that his wife could civilize him.
"At the time of his writing, Clemens remembered his past and present struggles to reform," Prof. Blair said.
"His vivid memories help him to create characters and incidents embodying these struggles," he said. "He could create fiction rich in its commentary, appeal, and humor."
Ex-U.S. Treasurer To Speak Tomorrow
Mrs. Georgia Neese Clark, Democratical national committeeweman from Kansas and former treasurer of the United States, will speak to Phi Delta Kappa and Pi Lambda Theta education fraternities tomorrow.
The annual joint dinner meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the John Steuart Curry Room of the Kansas Union.
Engineers have developed a switch weighing 1/28th of an ounce.
11th Annual
BROTHERHOOD BANQUET
Thursday, Feb. 19, 1959
Kansas Room Union
SPEAKER: JACK ISSELHARDT
Executive Secretary-of-State Anti-Discrimination Committee
Tickets may be secured from:
Mrs. Howard Baumgartel, Mrs. Raymond Cerf, Mrs. Alberta McGee, Mrs. Arthur Johnson, Mrs. Calvin VanderWerf, Mrs. Wyman Storer, Mrs. Gwen Bell, Mrs. William Argersinger, Mrs. Eldon Fields, Jesse Milan, Ed Miller, and Mrs. Russell Carter.
DON'T WAIT! Get Ready for That Thesis or Paper Now
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