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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 1951)
"W" .FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1951 DAILY NEBRASKAN PAGE 3 'Prairie Of Able Ncbraskans, longest-lived of all Americans, don't consider 25 a very ripe old age. But in the magazine publishing business a quarter of a century is quite a respectable life span for . any publication. This is particularly true of the little magazines, whicti publish chletly the work of able but un known writers, and hence cannot compete with "slick" publications like The Saturday Evening Post lor advertising revenue or circu lation. In this strange world of little magazines, a Nebraskan now in its 25th year would take a prize for longevity. This fs "Prairie Schooner," a literary quarterly published by the University of jNCDrasKa. But the real prize that Prairie Schooner ought to win, if such things were given, would not be for its age but rer the consistent ly high quality of the stories, poems and essays it Contains. Sound writing, whether by a new or experienced author, has been a Schooner requirement since the beginning. And, since the begin ning, final judgment as to whether material meets the magazine's high standards has rested with one man. He is Lowry C. Wimberly, who was chairman of the board of editors for the first issue and who still serves as editor of the maga zine. It is Dr. Wimberly's prac tice to select a piece for its own worth rather than for the name of its author. This policy, although directly opposite to that of many leading magazines, which will buy almost anythng from a big-name author, has paid in praises won The magazine has earned for itself a reputation as one of the country's foremost literary quar terlies, receiving highly favorable comment from experts like Mar tha Foley, editor of the annual collection of "Best Short Stories," Miss Foley gave thanks in her 1950 preface that, despite the failure of other little magazines, " 'Prairie Schooner continues to flourish and publish distinguished fiction." While the magazine is strictly amateur in the sense that nothing is paid for manuscripts accepted for publication, it has been the starting place for many a writer who has gone on to literary fame. And many rising young authors like Jesse Stuart, Marie Sandoz and Eudora Welty have chosen to have their work appear in the Schooner rather than in magazines financially more rewarding. Strangely enough, recognition has come much more steadily to the magazine from the outside than inside Nebraska. Even now the number of Nebraska subscrib ers, exclusive of those in Lincoln, 60 per cent of the subscribers are f thr ctatAC nnH fmWn countries. Prairie Schooner was born in the fall of 1926, shortly after ajeager prin, sound writing on group oi ui iversuy swueius Middle Western themes, but Dr. Wimberfy, who then as nowiwhlch weIcomes significant work was a member of the English de-'of a kinds Dn Wmiberiy has partment faculty, had organized made Jt a reg0nal magazine in the Wordsmith chapter of Sigma Up- bcst sense of the term. silon, a national honorary liter- . w ni, ,. arv fraternitv ' He has been at the University aiy rraiernny. sjnce 1912. firgt gs a student and Most of the men were inter- iater as instructor, assistant pro ested in writing for publication fessor associate professor and and, like most Ncbraskans, had professor of English. in them a streak of both the pio- neer and the conservative. They ffpt that tli ni!ir97inH anrinp'inr ' . . - - o "----- up in the East to print amateur work were too full of pseudo- sophisticated, "n e w direction" writing, just as many of the es- tablished publications leaned back- morous writings of Mark Twain ward too far to the sentimental Ior being an authority on bal style of earlier days.' j lads and antiques and fishing and Then, too, they were tired of people, hearing the Middle West referred' One of his stories appeared in to as a literary desert because it a collection of the Best American was lacking in publications of its Short Stories and many have -been own. printed in magazines like Harper's As a few other universities, nd ie Yale Review. The most magazines like the Frontier (Uni-,recen"y published story is in the versity of Montana) and the Southwest Review (Southern, Methodist University), were printing material bearing chiefly on the region in which they were located. Why not a regional magazine devoted to m&terial about the Middle West? They asked them- selves. With this idea in mind! the men gathered some short stories, articles, essays and poetry chiefly from Nebraskans got a Schooner' Prints Works But Unknown Writers "1 DR. L. C. WIMBERLY small subsidy from the University with the help of Lucius A. Sher man, then head of the English de partment, and put out the first issue of Prairie Schooner. In an article in that first issue Bess Streeter Aldrich, well-known now as a novelist, wrote: "I be lieve there should Come from Ne braska a select group of young writers to tell simply and clearly the story of the land that neither east nor west." The telling of this story has been and still is the goal of the magazine, although the Schooner has lost much of its original em phasis on regionalism. (There has not been enough consistently good material on the Middle West,. to warant so limiting the magazine.) In the early days Dr. Wimberly not only selected material for each issue and prepared a layout, but read proof - and addressed mailing envelopes as well. DurT ing the Depression he frequently paid the postage out of his owh pocket, and personally delivered the magazine to Omaha news stands in order to build up the circulation. Dr. Wimberly still reads many of the 3000 manuscripts submitted for publication each year, al though he has the help of Fred erick L. Christensen on the pre liminary weeding out. A thin faced man with a large mustache, Dr. Wimberly looks more like Sehrlock Holmes than a profes sor of English or a magazine editor. Unpretentious, as only the great are, he is as Midwestern as a prairie schooner. And, unlike a good many Nebraskans who have migrated to the East -or West, he is proud of it. But to Dr. Wimberly being Mid western does not mean ignoring th 1 "Portance and special ad vantages of other parts of th the United States and world. 'In turning the "Schooner" into a magazine which is particularly He is known for his matter-of- t..t wav f wrir.in iftv nn t .versaiions ana egotistic personsi back to earth for probing to the bottom nf student's recitation . I for reading aloud in a dryly hu-j morous way from the dryly hu y ,ssuc OI M,c aDICT,l:an er- cuf He is the author of books on English and Scottish ballads, the oo-author of "Using Better Eng lish," the co-editor of an an thology of English literature and the editor of "Famous Cats in Fairyland." But he is better known for "Prairie Schooner Caravan," a se- lection of outstanding material from the magazine, which he edited in 1944. Critics all over the country were unusually high in their praises, hailing it as "ex cellent" and "attractively pre sented," and "an informative cross-section of typical work be ing done by contemporary re gionalists." Dr. 'Wimbely is less likely to talk about his own achievements, however, than those of his asso ciates on the magazine. He points with pride to the success of the students who formed the board of editors of the first issue. Volta Torrey is now editor of Popular Science magazine; Jacob H. Gable, Jr., is editor of Writer's Markets and Methods, a trade magazine in Hollywood; Marion Edward Stanley, formerly head of the Associated Press London bureau and executive editor of Exquire-Coronet magazines, is the author of several published novels; Roscoe Schaupp has been professor of English at Ohio State University; Royce West, who actually suggested the first issue and was a business man ager, edited the Nebraska Alum nus and was publicity director for the University of Omaha be fore becoming public relations di rector for Pillsbury Mills in Minneapolis. Dr. Wimberly is proud, too, that the first story in the first issue of the "Schooner" was writ ten by Marie Macumber, a Ne braskan who is now widely known as "Marie Sandoz, distin guished author of "Old Jules," "Crazy Horse" and other books. Other authors who first re ceived the recognition in the "Sthooner" include Jesse Stuart, author of "Taps for Private Tussie"; Jessamyn West,, author of "Trie Friendly Persuasion"; Peter Viereck, Pulitzer prize win ning poet; William March, who has been called , the best short story writer! an America; ' Eudora Welty, winner of the O. Henry prize for the best short story of 1943; and John Henry Reese Of Louisville, Neb., a popular writer for slick magazines. Bess Streeter Aldrich and John G. Neihardt, Nebraska's "poet laureate," have had work pub lished in the "Schooner," as have many University of Nebraska faculty members like Louise Pound, Wilbur Gaffney and Ber nice Slote. "Confessions of a Clergyman," the experiences of Bishop Gerald Kennedy, formerly of St. Paul Methodist church in Lincoln, were first published in the "Schooner" and later pub lished in Reader's Digest. Rudolph Umland, Lincoln, is the most frequent contributor, having had over 20 pieces published. That the magazine was a suc cess from the beginning is evident in a clipping which reports that the "Schooner," in its second year of existence was given the high est rating in an anthology pre pared by EdviSrd J. O'Brien, then probably the best known author ity on the short story. From its beginning the maga zine has steered away from stories which were too vaguely "modern" INSIDE THE WALLS OF Folsom Prison "Repealing & Startling" 8TAHKIN0 Steve Cochran Dorothy Hart STARTS TIE. "A Hitchcock Master Suspense Thriller" "Strangers on a Train" Bobt. Walker Ruth Roman " Farley Granger Healthfully Air-Conditioned experimental purely for the sake of being experimental yet it has encouraged the develop ment, of new techniques. As Wimberly says, "We aim at neither the high brow nor the low brow. Selections are chosen be cause we feel the authors have something to say which Is of gen eral interest." Nearly every year since its birth the "Schooner" has had one or more short stories included among the 15 or 20 works in the anthology "Best American Short Stories." In 1950, 19 Prairie Schooner stories were listed on the volume's roll of distinctive short stories in American magazines. More of the 250 stories thus rec ognized were from the "Schooner" .school student will receive the than from any of 100 other maga- summer edition newspaper intro zines, including The Saturday ducing the University and activi Evening Post, Harper's, Atlantic, ties. Esquire, Good Housekeeping and' New Student Week will begin the New Yorker. j September 9 when each student Another honor came to the,'11 receive a freshman handbook magazine in 1948 when it was one nd other information. of a limited number of Amer ican magazines selected for the UNESCO Literary Pool, and sent abroad to further understanding of this country and its people. iNot oniy nas tne magazine helped the people of other nations j will include group meetings on to understand this country. -It has .Monday, Tuesday and Saturday of also gone a long way toward giv- the week, individual educational ing an accurate picture of the planning conferences on Tuesday Middle West and its literary capa-J and Wednesday, and registration bilities to the often skeDticalon Wednesdav. Thursdav and Fri Americans of other regions. Former Sludcnt Promoted: Is Research Head Dr. Clement W. Theobald, for mer student and a native Nebras kan was rfrfntlv rrrmnrrl trt search supervisor of the Du Pont se UJ-ne-ll-u"u-c-chemical department. iWednesday, September 12, at 7:30 The promotion took place after; Open Houses-Student Religious the resignation of the former de- Houses. partment head, Dr. Elmer K. Bol-! A11 of the Religious houses on ton. Dr. Cole Coolidge became campus to hold student parties, director of the department. jThursday, September 13, at 7:30. Thirty-three years old, Dr.' IRLS: Co-ed Counselors party Theobald has been with Du Pont ,1 . c l- eight years, starting at the expert-L ME?: enSr?Z ?l h B mental station soon after he had dress by. Regent Dwlght Gnswo,d received his Ph.D. degree in or- Friday, -September 14, at 7:30 ganic chemistry from the Univer - sity of Illinois. ' " . . ; In 1940 he received the master of science degree" in chemistry from the University of Nebraska He is a native of Lincoln. AT miLLER'S 1 '7 Buy Noiv 4K 1 ii Ginghams Seersuckers Oiambray6 Tissue Ginghams SIZES 10 to 20, 1414 to 4ii Originally 9.95 lo 14.95 79S f. SPORTSWEAR fTl iLLER iij!;i!iii!iiiiii!iti!i;;::i!;:!!:ii;iiiiiiiiii!:!:!iiiiE New Student Week Plans Nearly Done Plans for the "newly organized New Student Week are nearly completed, according to Dr. Ar thur A. Hitchcock, director of the Junior Division and counselling service. The week, September 10 to 16, will include activities such as pic nics, convocations, open houses, new student orientation and more advisor-student contact. In a few weeks, incoming stu dents will receive bulletins from the Junior Division including an explanation of the general pro gram of activities. Later in the summer each graduated high Activties during the day will include physical examinations, pre-registration testing, two ori entation sessions, and college as semblies. Advisor - advisee relationships day. m The general schedule for the evening programs is as follows: Monday's September 10, at 7:30 New Student Convocation. Address to New Students by Chancellor R. G. Gustavson. Tuesday, September 11, at 5:30 Cornhusker Night. Barbecue and an evening of Cornhusker Traditions on the Col- ! Chancellor's Reception for new (students followed by Open house at Union. Saturday, September 15, at 8:30 Freshman Hop and Activities Mart at the Union. ENTIRE STOCK! American Golfer D resses REDUCED FOR CLEARANCE! and Save! 1295 . . . Second Floor 6 PAIflE --1 --V" -n-r- -