MacLeish Succeeds Finley As Master of Eliot House

Archibald MacLeish, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, has been named Acting Master of Eliot House for the next academic year, McGeorge Bundy, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Seviences, announced today.

MacLeish will temporarily replace John H. Finley '27, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature who has accepted a one-year term as the George Eastman Visiting Professor at Oxford. Finley's appointment starts in September.

Finley commended the University's decision. "There couldn't have been a happier choice," said Finley. "I expect the best possible year for Eliot with such a wonderful man in charge."

Certainly Not

Questioned about speculation that he might not return from Oxford at all, Finley immediately disclaimed any such intention. "Of course not," he said, "They wouldn't invite me and I wouldn't want to stay permanently. I'll definitely be back a year from next autumn."

Finley is the fourth Harvard professor to win the Eastman seat at Oxford in the Professorship's ten-year history. He will take over the post from Willard Van Orman Quine, professor of Philosophy here.

Pulltzer Prize Winner

MacLeish, a graduate of Yale and the Law School, has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and has served as both Assistant Secretary of State and Librarian of the Library of Congress. He was also the first Curator of the University's Nieman Foundation. He has held the Boylston seat since 1949.

Two one-act plays by MacLeish, "The Trojan Horse" and "This Music Crept by Me Upon the Sea," were recently produced by the Poets Theatre. He currently teaches an advance English course in creative writing.

Contacted last night, associate professor Herschel Baker, Chairman of the English Department, said he "hopes MacLeish will continue to teach."

MacLeish will return shortly from the British West Indies where he has been vacationing.