Common Man's Egghead

The living room is warm and friendly. On one side an attractive gray-haired woman is sitting in front of a tea service. Opposite her sits a smallish, bespectacled man, his legs crossed, a dark, unlit pipe in his hand. Grouped in a circle with them are two Nieman Fellows, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Classics professor, two visitors from a small school in Appleton, Wisconsin, an itinerant Dutchman, and a teaching fellow in History. The tone of the conversation is serious, the expressions of the participants intent. They are discussing the situation facing L'il Abner and Daisy Mae.

The group is not indulging in some new egghead fad. Host Arthur Meier Schlesinger has always been a L'il Abner fan. Mrs. Schlesinger delights in telling of the encounter her husband once had with a flesh and blood representative of the comic strip.

"It was when he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Leyden," she related, "when we were staying at a hotel in the Netherlands. After we had been there a few days Professor Schlesinger told me that he thought he recognized a very attractive girl. He went up to her and introduced himself:

"'I'm Arthur Schlesinger,' he said, 'your face seems very familiar.'

"Perhaps you've seen it in the comic strips,' she said. 'I was the original model for Daisy Mae, but my real name is Choo Choo Johnson.'

"When we 'went back to our rooms a bit later Professor Schlesinger turned to me and said, 'You know, that must be an Indian name.'"

The connection between these incidents and the renowned teacher and scholar who is retiring this month may be a tenuous one, but it provides a sharp insight into the personality of the man who has placed the study of "Americana" in its proper historical perspective. For Arthur Schlesinger, more than any other man, is responsible for the humanization of American history. Through his writing, editing, and teaching he has led the movement away from the study of history as a series of political and economic events toward a comprehensive picture of American life. His writings run the gamut from a study of the influence the Colonial Merchants had on the War of Independence to a treatise on the mergence of new trends in the practice of etiquette.

Schlesinger first rose to national prominence with the publication of his doctoral thesis at Columbia in 1918, "The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution." Four years later, with "New View points in American History," he was to strike out on his own path in historical study. At that time scholars thought of history either in terms of political events such as presidential succession, or in economic terms. In this book Schlesinger first introduced the elements of social and cultural development to the study of American life.

Despite this prominence as a scholar the group surrounding him at this typical Sunday afternoon open house is ample testimony to the fact that his influence is not limited to the work he has written. As a teacher he has the unique distinction of having four of his students as holders of the Pulitzer Prize. Two of these, Paul H. Buck and Fred Shannon, received their awards for doctoral theses done directly under his supervision. The other two are Oscar Handlin, winner in 1952, and his son, Arthur, Jr.

Although not so much in the public spotlight as his son Arthur, Schlesinger has played an active role in political life. He was an organizer of the state chapter of Americans for Democratic Action and still holds its vice presidency. In 1946 he helped organize the United Labor Committee of Massachusetts and served as its chairman until this year.

Another foray into national politics came as a climax to his long-standing protest against the Sacco-Vanzetti decision. On the 20th anniversary of the execution, in 1947, Schlesinger presented a plaque honoring the pair to the Governor of Massachusetts, requesting that they be honored in the same manner as Roger Williams and Ann Hutchins. The Governor refused to accept it.

Schlesinger has received so many distinctions and held so many offices that it is impossible to list them all here. He has received honorary degrees from four universities, and has held visiting lectureships at the Universities of London, Edinburgh, and Leyden.

But to the person who happened to drop in for tea on that Sunday afternoon, he would appear just another man sitting at home entertaining his friends. If the visitor had stopped by a few hours earlier he might have seen him mowing the lawn, or watering his tomato plants, while his wife-his campus sweetheart-tended the flowers. Chances are that if the same person stops at the same place a few years hence he will find the same scene, for Arthur Schlesinger, with his teaching career ended, still has some books to write and some very important things to say. HERBERT S. MEYER '52