JUL 18 1961
Baah Needs a Pen Friend
The following Air Letter, addressed to "The Principal,
Lincoln University," came to the Summer Nebraskan office
from Harry L. Weaver, foreign student adviser. He re-'
ceived the letter after it bounced around the University for
some time and asked that we might give it some attention.
The letter speaks for itself;
Baah Anlagyel, 15744,
1 Supp. Depot, Gast,
Ghana Army, Burma Camp,
ACCRA
4th July, 61 '
Dear Sir,
I am very much pleased to write to ask; you here
therefore for pen friends from your school.
Thus, I beg you to bear these troubles of mine to give
my address to those who are Interested about Radio Me
chnics to write to me.
I am yours,
Bah Aei
Fur bay Lectures
On Africa Today
Dr. John H. Furbay, inter
nationally known explorer,
lecturer and global air com
muter, will speak on "Dawn
in Darkest Africa" today at
1 p.m. in Love Library audi
torium. Furbay's lecture will be the
third in a series of the Sum
mer Sessions' World Affairs
Preview programs.
Director of the global edu
cation program of TWA, Dr.
Furbay is said to be the
"most traveled man alive,"
having flown over three mil
lion miles to nearly every
country on the earth.
Because of his intimate
knowledge of the African con
tinent during World War II,
Furbay carried out special
assignments for the federal
government related to the in
vasion and occupation of Af
rica. He has made numerous
studies first-hand of the cus
toms among the peoples of
Latin Amtrica, the Pacific
Islands, Africa and the Near
East, has carried out explor
ations for the American Mu
seum of Natural History and
has appeared on countless
coast-to-coast radio and TV
programs here and abroad.
For 10 years he wrote a syn
dicated newspaper feature,
"The Debunker," which was
carried daily in over 100 U.S.
papers.
A fellow of the Royal Geo
graphic Society of London,
the Royal Anthropological So
ciety and the National Geo
graphic Society, Dr. Furbay
spent several years in the
U.S. Office of Education as a
senior specialist. While edu-j School, Washington, D.C
DR. JOHN FURBAY
cational consultant to the Re
public of Liberia, he served
as President of the College of
West Africa.
Furbay was an official del
egate and reporter to the
first Pan-American - Confer
ence on Cultural Cooperation
at Havana, Cuba and served
as aviation's observer on the
U.S. delegation to UNESCO
in Mexico, City, Beirut, Par
is and Florence.
He is associated with many
leading organizations which
are helping to create a more
active awareness of the
forces at play in the world
today.
Furbay has recently re
turned from several interna
tional conferences abroad and
is a regular lecturer at the
World Seminar of Education
in Geneva Switzerland and of
t h e Strategic Intelligence
MJTMA MV SS UMFWFml Wwll I J - II
IMIfL
Lincoln, Nebraska
Summer Nebraskan
Tuesday, July 18, 1961
What is Midwest?
NU May
Editor's note: This is the -X-flfth
article in a series on
the Midwest and its role as
"a part" of the world.
This story on the Peace
Corps discusses the possi- ,
billty of the University of
Nebraska becoming a train
ing center for the Corps.
On page two there appears
a more detailed sketch of
the countries these volun
teers will be in training to
serve.
Aid
Training Ground?
Peace Corps
By Gretchen Shellberg
"The Peace Corps defi-"
nitely has the University of
Nebraska in mind as one
of the schools which would
participate as an institution
according to the man from
Washington," Dean of Stu
dent Affairs Phillip Colbert
told a Summer Nebraskan
reporter.
"The man from Washing
ton" to whom Dean Colbert
referred is Robert Bowman,
official field representative
of the Peace Corps who
was.cn the University cam
pus "last week.
Bowman was scheduled to
speak to a convocation of
some 150 people, but he did
not arrive on time. Bow
man did interview some
men and women interested
in the Peace Corps Wednes
day afternoon, however,
and discussed organiza
tional plans with Colbert
and other faculty members.
According to Bowman,
himself a member of t h e
Peace Corps who has just
returned from Laos, a school "
that wishes to become a
training center for some
work or field must forward
a request to the Peace
Corps, 806 Connecticut Ave.,
Washington D.C.
As the need arises, these
institutions may.be -used, :
he said. The school selected
must be climatically related
to the host country.
No Request
The University has not
IT'S BEAUTIFUL m WE Vim SoRf Of HtflNG fofc. A fUM."
yet made ' a request to be'
used as a training center,
although Dean Colbert,
temporary director of Corps
activity on this campus, in
dicated that the University
Karl Shapiro Turns Barbed Pen
On Scientific Mind, Youth, Midwest
Editor's note: Karl Shapiro is presently on a year's leave
of absence from the University to write and study in
France.
By Carroll Krans
Books and anthologies of poetry are regaining their
places on the book shelves of homes in this country after
an entire generation of Americans turned their reading
attention elsewhere.
People are even spontaneously interested in the works
of a new generation of poets who look upon their art as
entertainment as well as work, a breed of poets writing
for the eye and ear of the general public rather than only
for intense study by other poets.
That is the outlook on the U.S. poetry scene today,
according to Karl Shapiro. And the outlook is pleasing to
the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, who only slightly more
than a year ago wrote that 20th century poetry was a
"diseased art."
The University of Nebraska professor of English, a
"critic in spite of himself," has been waging a running
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Carroll Kraus, author of this profile of Karl Shapiro,
is a January graduate of the University and Is now sta
tioned at Fort Benning, Ga. in the Army. Carroll has a
long record of journalism experience. He served the Daily
Nebraskan as managing editor and editor during his senior
year. Upon graduation from the University he worked at
the Lincoln Journal as a copy editor. Carrcll also ranked
third in the Hearst journalistic competition last fall with
a series of depth articles on the Nebraska tax base sys
tem. Carroll is married to another School of Journalism
graduate, Ingrid Leader, whose article on Nebraska missile
bases appeared in an earlier issue of the Summer Nebras
kan. '
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battle for years against the Modern-Classical or Neo-Classi-cal
brand of poetry.
Barbed Pen
He also has turned a barbed pen and tongue upon "the
scientific mind," a youth of America "completely devoid
of any intellectual idealism," and a culturally backward
Midwest.
But it probably would be difficult to pick out of a crowd
this man whose vitriolic words have won him both literary
praise and literary lumps. For, as one writer put ,it, his
outward appearance "frames a picture of casualness and
serenity . . . belying the creative turmoil bubbling within."
The dark-complexioned, medium-built Shapiro speaks
softly but speaks and thinks like a man who has attained
his mark. And he has in many ways.
The Baltimore-born poet attended the University of Vir
ginia, Johns Hopkins and the Enoch Pratt Library School
before entering the Army in 1941. He published his first
and favorite book of poems "Person, Place and Thing"
in 1942, but had written a smaller series called simply
"Poems" before enrolling at Johns Hopkins. ' '
Poetry Editor
After the war, he acted as a consultant in poetry at
the Library of Congress for a year, then joined the Johns
Hopkins faculty. In 1950 he took the post of editor of Poetry
Magazine and in 1954 studied in Rome as a Guggenheim
Fellow.
The next summer he lectured on American poetry in
India and Ireland before joining the staff of the University
of California and then moving to Nebraska in 1956.
Besides his Pulitzer Prize, won in 1945 for "V-Letter
and Other Poems," mostly penned during service years in
the Southwest Pacific, Shapiro has received the Jeannette
S. Davis Prize, the American Arts and Letters Grant and
the Shelley Memorial Prize among other awards.
He has written nearly a dozen volumes of poetry and
criticism, has delivered many a lceture at universities and
other cultural centers at home and abroad and now is at
the helm of the University of Nebraska's quarterly "little
magazine," the Prairie Schooner.
Although gray streaks his curly crop of black hair,
Shapiro at 47 gives the 'appearance of a young man. And
although he has been pouring out poems since the 1930's,
Shapiro is far from calling an end to his writing career.
No End -
For instance, in 1960 the Shapiro mind turned out a
textbook series of essays and helped two University Eng
lish department associates, Dr. James Miller and Miss
Bernice Slote, put together "an Anthology of American
Poetry," and a study of poets with a "cosmic conscience"
called "Start with the Sun," ruled the outstanding book
on poetry in the United States in 1960 as judged by the
Poetry Society of America.
And besides writing, Shapiro also heads classes in cre
ative writing and contemporary poetry at NU. And in that
connection he is dead set against "academic' or textbook
poetry "good for teaching" but which nobody reads "except
around examination time."
"The kind of poetry I don't like is the kind that has
been given the most attention recently and it involves a
certain amount of education before you can even read the
stuff," he says.
In a late 1959 article in the New York Times book sec
tion, Shapiro charged "our poetry can boast only a tangle
of subtleties and the obscurantism for which it is famous.
It is diseased because the -standards of poetry, criticism
d'etat of Modernism, a minor intellectual program which
took the stage more than a generation ago, about 1915.
'Sick' . . .
"Ours is probably the only poetry in history that has
had to be taught in its own time. A contemporary art that
must be taught to adults before it can be enjoyed is sick."
Forerunners of this Modernist movement in the United
States were poets like T. S. Eliot, James Joyce and Ezra
Pound, who received much of their inspiration from a
group of earlier French poets.
Eliot, Pound and Ireland's William Butler Yeats
"worked pretty much together trying to set up the right
standards for modern poetry" which although an exclusive
type of poetry has been dominant in recent decades.
Shapiro's battle for a revival of new forms of poetry
coupled with his poetic works themselves won him selec
tion in 1959 to the National Institute of Arts and Letters,
the nation's top honor society of the arts, and an honorary
degree of Doctor of Humane Letters at Wayne State Uni
versity in Detroit in 1960 for his "deep concern with the
issues of the day social, intellectual and aesthetic and
his sensitive service to them."
Criticism
But while some critics and literary people have de
scribed Shapiro as "a scholar in the true sense of the
term" and a "possessor of brilliant humor, ready wit and
wide understanding," others such as Saturday Review
poetry editor John Ciardi and critics Theodore Solotaroff
Continued on Page 3.
is interested in participat
ing in the program.
In response to some re
ports that Nebraska was be
ing considered for one of
the special training pro
grams, particularly in the
area of language, the Daily
Nebraskan conducted a poll
last spring which showed
many faculty and students
favored such a center be
ing established on this cam
pus. According to Colbert, "If
the University s h o u 1 d be
picked and should partici
pate, there would be a con
tract with the federal gov
ernment" concerning fi
nancing of such a p r o
gram. When asked how many
students could be expected
to come to Nebraska were
it to become a training
center, Colbert said he did
not know.
"What we gleened from
Mr. Bowman is all we
know," Colbert said, indi
cating that the Corps, it
self, was still in the infant
stages of organization.
Regional Meeting
"There will be a regional
meeting early in Septem
ber the time and place
have not yet been an
nounced where institu
tions in that region will
come to discuss institutional
participation," Colbert said.
"It is all so new," he
said, "that in Washington
they are all just getting
their plans laid. We don't,
know what we will discuss
or where or who will go
from Nebraska U."
According to B o w m a n,
the "purpose of the Peace
Corps is to aid in teaching
in schools, to help in con
struction projects, to dem
onstrate modern methods in
sanitation and health and to
perform many tasks calling
for special training and
knowledge."
Bowman indicated that
persons who go into the
Peace Corps to serve in
Latin America should know
Spanish and that persons
who will serve in the Mid
East and Africa, although
they will receive training in
language and dialect, will
use mostly English.
Language is a necessary
tool, Dean Colbert said.
He listed other areas
"not exclusive but import
ant" as being teaching,
architecture, home econom
ics and engineering. C o 1
bert indicated Nebraska
might also be helpful in pro
viding training in these
areas. ;
Training Already
Already Texas Western
University in El Paso is
training a group to be sent,
to Tanganyika to help in
the engineering and build
ing of secondary roads.
A center at Notre Dame
under the sponsorship of 28
colleges and universities in
Indiana is preparing volun
teers for work in commu
nity development in Chile.
Those volunteers learning
community development at
Rutger University in New
Brunswick, New Jersey,
will go to Columbia. Among
the special requests from
Columbia is the develop
ment of fish ponds. The
work there is in conjunc
tion with Care. Inc.
Bowman indicated that in
community development,
the host country usually in
housing, roads, water, san
itation, health or agricul
ture. The Philippines have re
quested 1,500 teachers for
all grade levels. The Corps
plans to send 300.
A group now in training
at Iowa State College,
Ames, Iowa, will be sent
to the Island of Saint
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Story
of
Projects
Page 2
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Lucia in the West Indies to
work with cattle, swine
and poultry. These volun
teers will be working with
a private organization
called Heifer, Inc. which
specializes in these areas.
According to Bowman,
Ghana has asked for 50-75
teachers and they anticipate
a call from Burma for over
100 workers.
Qualifications
In his interviews with stu
dents on this campus, Bow
man, who is a special as
sistant to the Peace Corps
director of recruitment,
said some qualifications for
a Peace Corps volunteer
are:
. . . Minimum age of 18;
no maximum age.
. . . Must stay with the
Corps at least two years.
. . . Salary of $75 a month
and expenses
Dean Colbert said that the
Peace Corps hopes to send
a representative back to
this campus in early Octo
ber to recruit.
He noted that not all
these attending the convo
cation last week were young
college-age people. Many
were older teachers; others
were probably even retired
he said.
Broad Interest
According to Colbert,
this indicates the broad
interest in the Peace Corps
activities. He said Bow
man had hoped to speak to
the older adults, attending
the Summer Session, p a r
ticularly, so that they might
. 1 1 11 . t . 1 il -
into me siaie wnen uiey
returned home.
Married couples with, no
children under 18 years of
age are particularly encour
aged to join the Corps. .
I 'mi'''' '
Index to Inside Pages
WHAT TO DO Lincoln's 22 parks offer a variety of sum
mertime recreation facilities, zoos, pools and tennis courts.
For a detailed list of where to go for recreation see . , .
Page 4 " ; " f' ! V
TRAVEL EXPERIENCE Retarded children got some ac
tual experience in bus and train communication on a spe
cial field trip. For their itinery and its purpose see ...
.... Page 2
BARBED PEN Karl Shapiro, noted modern poet and
member of the University staff, criticizes youth, the
"scientific' mind" and the Midwest on . . .
.';.-'. ' Page '3
LACQUERED PLYWOOD A new form of Latin American
art on display at the University Art Galleries is pictured
on . . .
Page 2
BISON EDITION Bruce Nicoll discusses University
Press's new paperback series of Bison Books now being
used as texts and reference materials in many classrooms.
For a history of these books see . . .
Page 3
TELEVIEWING KUON-TV special this week is another
program in the Interel series. For a complete listing of edu
cational and entertaining programs on Channel 12 this
week see . . .
Page 4