DETUR

It was almost three hundred years ago when Edward Hopkins carried Anne Yale across his polished threshold into the comfort of a well-appointed home. Governor Hopkins was a busy man, a wealthy London merchant, but well he understood the Chaucer's exclamation "on bokes." As befitted his wealth and inclination, the good man's library was a matter of envy; and in the long absences of her husband, Mistress Anne, being a "goodly young woman of special parts," was quick to 'sconce herself in the deep chairs and seek companionship in that cozy den. Too long however did the small head pore and ponder, for shortly, as one learns there befell "a sad infirmity, the loss of understanding and reason, which had been growing on her by occasion of giving herself wholly to reading..."

But the lonely widower had not lost his faith. In 1657 he bequeathed a fund, "to give some encouragement in those foreign plantations for the breeding up of hopeful youths." Harvard College came into possession of the bequest and in 1712 established its permanently unique tradition of Deturs: "lot it be given" to worthy students a book of rare value and beauty.

Today Deturs are presented by the dean of Harvard University to men of "highest honors." This year, fifty-five men, the largest number over to be so distinguished, are to receive this recognition of their attainment. To the average undergraduate, however, the word Detur represents either a misspelling or, somehow, an intricate, incomprehensible pun. There has hitherto been no attempt to publicize the institution of Deturs, and small fault can be found with such an attitude. But as peculiarly a Harvard tradition, as a valuable incentive to scholarship, and as interesting to the booklovers, the Detur is worthy of greater fame. The suggestion that each House should display in its library the Deturs of its members is a sober recognition of those claims.