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Alumni/ae
1943-Gore Vidal. The Golden Age. (Vintage International, 2001)
1943-John G. King. "Observation, Experiment, and the Future of Physics." [Acceptance speech for the 2000 Oersted Medal, presented by the American Association of Physics Teachers, January 18, 2000.] In American Journal of Physics (v. 69, no. 1, January 2001)
Faculty/Emeriti/Former Faculty
Dolores Kendrick. Why the Woman Is Singing on the Corner. (University Press of New England/Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2001)
Katherine Towler. Snow Island: A Novel. (MacAdam/Cage of San Francisco, 2002) |
Balliett on Jazz; Gambee on Nantucket; and Vidal at Exeer
Whitney Balliett '45 first wrote about jazz while a student at Phillips Exeter. After graduating from Cornell, he began writing articles for the Saturday Review, then became the New Yorker's jazz critic in 1957, a position he still holds. It has been said Balliett "made his reputation writing about jazz much as the best players played it: lyrically, individually, ecstatically, in prose that could sound like the music." Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz, 1954-2000 (St. Martin's Press, 2000; available in paperback spring 2002) is the most recent volume in a trilogy Balliett hopes will eventually be seen as his "true collected works"-the other two volumes being American Singers (1988) and American Musicians II (1996). Not limited to jazz reviews, his insightful work has also illuminated parallel areas of art, literature and film. From one of his numerous earlier books, Dinosaurs in the Morning, in which some of the Collected Works pieces were first published, we glean some insight from Balliett about jazz criticism. He writes in the preface, "Critics are biased, and so are readers. Indeed, a critic is a bundle of biases held loosely together by a sense of taste." Nonetheless, he has a gift, well developed after decades of listening to and observing the best jazz musicians in this country, of capturing the psychological essence of a jam session, concert or club date and distilling it into an arresting portrayal of the music at the moment of its creation. Collected Works is, at one and the same time, a history of jazz in this century; a compendium of biographies and profiles of significant jazz vocalists and instrumentalists; and a smorgasbord of performance critiques, interviews and record reviews. A quick glance at the index reveals mention of well over 1,000 artists, including such well-known players and vocalists as Count Basie, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hartman and Dizzy Gillespie, and lesser-known musicians like Harold Ashby, Ray Bauduc, Ernie Cace, Walter Davis and Booker Ervin. Each piece reads like a miniature short story. There is mystery, romance, suspense and plenty of action, not to mention astute documentation of detail significant enough to please any researcher. It may take you a while to peruse the nearly 860 pages, covering the decades from the 1950s to the present, and representing a cross-section of jazz styles from Dixieland to swing to bebop to cool, but it will be time well spent with one of the acknowledged masters of the genre. —Charlie Jennison, PEA Stage Band Director NANTUCKET IMPRESSIONS
It is a remarkably clear and unusually warm Indian summer day as I write; one of those opportunities to let my mind sail to far-off places-Exeter in the autumn, perhaps, or better yet, Nantucket. And Nantucket Impressions (W.W. Norton & Co., 2001), the latest photo book from Robert Gambee '60, is the perfect ship on which to take the journey. In this age of instant communications, Gambee's book is a welcome reminder that Nantucket is a place apart, and that the best way to approach and truly appreciate the island is to go by boat, and let the rocking motion, the smells and sounds of the sea, transport you from the frantic pace of the mainland to the gentle rhythms of island life, and the sense of community that is so important to the history of this special place. Gambee's photographs capture the deep, rich colors of an afternoon on the water, and the long, glancing light that illuminates the weathered textures and emotions of Nantucket. The images evoke the delicate beauty and stubborn substance of the island, and make it simultaneously distant, and very real, in both time and space. From bright, golden skies and Rainbow Fleets to the evocative grays of the fog-shrouded shore, this is a visual delight. The informative text complements the photographs with insights and information that make for fascinating reading, facts about the island's history that bring the images into rich focus. There are wonderful glimpses into some of the private spaces and hidden treasures of the island, and stories of the people, past and present, who make Nantucket come alive as a real community, one populated with ordinary characters and extraordinary individuals. Nantucket Impressions is filled with wonderful moments; taken together, the words and images weave a rich tapestry of the history of this remarkable island. —J. Scott Finn '73 GORE VIDAL
At 850 pages, Fred Kaplan's Gore Vidal (Anchor Books, 2000) is a big, heavy book, one that thoroughly documents Vidal's life and career. The book's early chapters include material about PEA; young Eugene Luther Gore Vidal Jr., then known as "Gene," enrolled as a lower middler in September 1940, and graduated with the class of 1943. Older Exonians may be intrigued by the portrait of the Exeter of 60 years ago as a difficult, rather provincial school, one that didn't know quite how to deal with a difficult, unconventional student. "Quick, alert, sometimes condescending in class," writes Kaplan, Vidal "made it all too easy for teachers to recognize they had someone bright on their hands," if one inclined to "neglect the classroom and scrape by academically." Vidal came within a whisker of being kicked out, but something made the faculty hold their hand. He went on to become, with the possible exception of George Plimpton '44, the best-known graduate of the Academy from that era. —Joseph Merriam '41 |
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