SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1921
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
7 1 1
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1921 THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE 7
The Story of "Box 147"
(Continued From Page One)
doors. They were laden down with
bundles, which separated into white
paper, stencils, and a can of mimeo-
graphing ink. One sat down at
a typewriter and wrote madly. The
mimeographing machine was inked-
and half the inker as well! One fed
the paper, one turned the wheel, one
stood ready to receive the printed
sheet. And then! When the first page
of the first copy of the first number of
"Whimsies" came through there wasn't
much noise, but a mentally executed
Indian War dance. No college maga-
zine, they told each other, ever had a
moment quite like that.
There was that night, which left the
laborers as black as coal miners, and
another night much like it, and then;
after the pages had been assembled,
once clipped together, and wrapped,
and delivered surreptitiously.
The Daily came out on Jan. 25, 1921,
announcing "Whimsies" as the camp-
us' newest publication. "Bound by
clip, its dozen mimeographed pages
would hardly cause hands to stray
toward pocketbooks were Whimsies!
displayed in store windows. But it
Is not displayed: its readers are few
and carefully selected; and its editor
for the present at least, will have to
be known simply as "Box 147," Ann
Arbor. "Whimsies" had become a reali-
ty!
The second time the publication
"went to press," the mysterious five
felt themselves wealthier. Success de-
manded that they should. "Box 147"
was being spoken of as probably being
a member of the faculty; students and
faculty were sending encouraging let-
ters; manuscripts were coming in.
Sixty-five, instead of forty-five copies
were rolled off the second time! And
that was a fine, fat number, too-
thirty-three pages-the clip refused to
hold them.
After the second issue was out, and
reviewed with the now customary
sprinkling of question marks, a verse
contest was ilunched to keep things
moving. The result was quite dis-
couraging-until the last few days.
Then there was a flood of manuscripts
A surprising number of them showed
genuine promise. A special poetry
number was suggested. And it hap-
pened. Such a policy was brave at
Michigan, for that number was to see
"Whimsies" a real magazine, printer
and all. There were to be not 45-
not 65-but 1000 copies-to be sold!
For the adventurers had found their
treasure island; or to mix metaphores
in a thorough-going fashion, the poor
little Cinderella had found a fairy-god-
father. His name was Mr. George
Wahr. Anyone who has ever tried to
arouse interest in the publication of
a literary magazine will understand
just how much that meant and is still
meaning. It was from the front page
of that third number, the first printed
issue of Whimsies, that the campus
learned who "Box 147" was. He proved
to be five girls! But now, starting
out on its first real year of endeavor,
Whimsies has seen fit to make a more
rational and balanced personnel, and
so there will always be found on its
staff of five, three women and two
men, or vice versa. The editors this
year are Stella Brunt, '22; Yuki Osa-
wa, '22; Lyndon Babcock, '22, Law-
rence H. Conrad, '23, and Francis
Swain, '23. Each year will find at
least two Juniors on the staff, so that
the magazine will function continual-
ly from year to year, and not succumb
to graduation, as did the ill-fated In-
lander of several years ago.
Enough of its history. What will
be its policies, its aims, and how will
it fill this long felt campus want?
First, and according to Robert Frost,
the New England poet who is making
Ann Arbor his home this year, the
most distinctive point-"Whimsies"
will not be faculty run. - It is a. stu-
dent's magazine, with student organi-
zation and student contributors.
The staff will not write the maga-
zine. "Whimsies" expects to receive
so much good material that the staff
will not have to write-they will be
too busy sorting the best from the
good.
Since the magazine is copyrighted,
every manuscript submitted will re-
main the property of the owner, to do
with after publication as he sees fit.
"Whimsies" is wondering if in the
future, it will be able to take into its
circle all the arts-music, painting,
architecture and the like. It would
like to help draw these kindred inter-
ests closer, by and about literature,
that they may strengthen one another.
There is much to hope for from the
future. But for the present it must
confine itself to the short story, the
one act play, verse, the essay-in fact,
all of the shorter literary forms.
The University is saying very plain-
ly these days that such interests are
its interests; for now comes Robert
Frost, who in his own fine way is be-
ing a real friend to Michigan's young
literary magazine.
Thus has "Whimsies" set out upon
the second year of its adventures.
t
t
t
r
a
s
i
"Growth of The Soil" May Lead Nuisance in Literature" was one of
It may be a little early to pick "the the Francis Bergen Foundation lec-
novel of the year," but several review- tures. The Francis Bergen Lecture
ers, from a consideration of books Foundation is one of the most inter-
published up to now and of Fall books esting lectureships in America. It was
announced in the various publishers' founded at Yale in 1919 in memory of
catalogs, have indicated that Knut a, brilliant young Yale graduate and
Hamsun's "Growth of The Soil" is provided for four lectures a year, three
likely to far out-strip any possible on literature and one on science. The
competitors for that honor-unless the only stipulation is that the lecturers
same author's "Pan" should prove the shall be indisputably of the first rank.
greater. Robert Garland in the Balti- In 1919
more News, listing the outstanding
books of the summer, picks "Growth Ileneken Plays To Be Translated
of The Soil" as "the novel of the year" "Heliogabalus," by H. L. Mencken
and calls it "a novel in a thousand." and George Jean Nathan, is to be
translated into French and Italian.
Hergesheimer's Yale Lecture The play will have its first perform-
Joseph Hergesheimer's now famous ane on any stage in Germany early
lecture at Yale on "The Feminine in the new year.
.
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