Hicks and Hillyer Residing in Same House Presents Problem

Among the many problems David M. Little '17 will face next fall when he becomes the new Master of Adams House will be reconciling two members in the Senior Common Room, for it is no deep secret in whispering corners that Robert S. Hillyer '17, associate tutor, has protested Granville Hicks' residence in the House next year.

Professor Hillyer has cause to remember the new advisor in American History, for the Harvard poet and Pulitzer Prize winner was subject to a severe attack by the new Conant appointee last fall in the October issue of "The New Republic."

The Hicks diatribe, entitled "A Letter to Robert Hillyer," referred specifically to Hillyer's recent book of poetry, addressed in the same manner to Robert Frost. In a full page of caustic verse Hicks belittled the poet on both personal and professional grounds. Some extracts from "A Letter to Robert Hillyer' are below:

Our meetings, Robert, spaced through fifteen years

May just excuse the brashness that in heres

In my addressing by his Christian name

A man who has been Pulitzered to fame.

I've read your letters, and I'm sure you'll find

Most critics fulsome and the others--blind,

Count me among the blind ones. I agree

With what you say about philology--And little else. The philosophic vein

You cultivate may help you to explain

Why, when some men have won a mild success,

They talk of spirit more and show it less,

And as they richer grow-richer and fatter--

They scold the common herd who worship matter.

To criticize is anybody's right,

But if you jeer you recklessly invite

Comparison, how odious is plain

When Hillyer's set near Eliot or Crane,

Or even Wolfe, if his dense tomes are read

After a startled glance at "Riverhead."

The Hopkins, Faulkners, Pounds you damn In toto,

But speak with awed respect of one DeVoto, . . .