On writing the Biography of a Modest Man
Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1935. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Frontis photograph of LeBaron Russell Briggs. Inscription by the author on the half-title page. Inscription reads Inscribed for Arthur Brown via Virginia and Philip. With ever good wish Rollo Walker Brown Cambridge, 1935. Handwritten note from Phil laid in. This is the publication of An Address Delivered before the Radcliffe club of New York City on November 25, 1934, and before the Harvard Club of New York City on December 11, 1934, at meetings held in Happy Remembrance of Dean Briggs. Rollo Walter Brown was a prominent American author. Brown was born in Crooksville, Ohio, in 1880. Brown graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1903, and he received a Masters degree from Harvard University in 1905. He taught English at several institutions including Wabash College and Carleton College. Brown's life formed the basis for some of his books. The Firemakers, Toward Romance, The Hillikin, and As of the Gods were novels centering on a man named Luke Dabney of fictional Wiggam's Glory, Ohio, a mining town. Dabney hoped to leave the mines but he was unable to do so. He placed his hopes in his son, Giles, who attended Harvard University and escaped southeastern Ohio. Brown also became known for his non-fiction., His other books included a touching remembrance of Dean LeBaron Russell Briggs of Harvard, a biographical collection entitled Lonely Americans and The Creative Spirit -- An Inquiry into American Life. The author wrote: Through fifteen years immediately after I left Cambridge, he remained my greatest friend, ... he came to be for me a kind of beloved phenomenon. LeBaron Russell Briggs (December 11, 1855 – April 24, 1934) was an American educator. He was appointed the first Dean of Men at Harvard College, and subsequently served as dean of the faculty until he retired. He was concurrently president of Radcliffe College and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. After graduating from Harvard, he began teaching there; he began as a Greek tutor before moving to English, eventually becoming the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric from 1904 until 1925. Briggs was appointed dean of Harvard College in 1891 (to 1902) and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1902 until his retirement in 1925. His appointment as Dean of Men was the first "student personnel" appointment, which later became the catalyst for the Student Affairs field in higher education. Briggs was responsible for advising students academically, and on personal issues. In 1903, Briggs succeeded co-founder Elizabeth Cary Agassiz as the second president of Radcliffe College, which had been founded as the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in 1882 before becoming Radcliffe College in 1894. During his presidency (which was then a part-time position), the College purchased the Greenleaf estate and built five new dormitories. Also during his tenure, the student body grew from less than 500 in 1903 to more than 700 in 1923. The geographical diversity of students also increased, with the number of students matriculating from outside of Massachusetts rising from 19 percent in 1903 to 33 percent in 1923. He served as president for twenty years until 1923, when he was succeeded by Ada Louise Comstock who also served as president for twenty years from 1923 to 1943. Before Briggs left office, the administration of Radcliffe requested that Radcliffe become a college for women within Harvard, but were again refused. In his last presidential report, Briggs wrote: “I believe that ultimately Radcliffe will become a women’s college in Harvard, but that neither institution is as yet prepared for such a union.” After his retirement from Radcliffe, he wrote the novel, Men, Women And Colleges, which was published in 1925 by the Houghton Mifflin Company. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Dean of Students, Harvard, LeBaron Russell Briggs, Educator, Student Affairs, Academia, Arthur Brown
[Book #83084]
Price: $175.00