to Mahoney (a very effete artist on our staff), about getting in. He said he’d heard them discussing my stories—and in quite a favorable light too! The point is one must have 4 pages of material accepted—they have taken my stuff, but it’s not really accepted until they really decide to put it in. I may get some credit working on the business board—just to get me on—but you know the literary board is really the right and top side of the ’Poon to be on—so I don’t know how long it will be.
And say at your first opportunity could you send me that dirty bedraggled copy of the Johnson Smith catalog which is probably on the hayloft bookcase. I want to try a story from those old fashioned amusement books they advertise—a Rediscover the American Home affair. I did write one and Mac told me to take that part and build it up. [...]
Things are coming along well—so far. I have been giving a good deal of time to the Lampoon, and am beginning to realize what this psychology course is! No kidding—the reading is incredible! Trying to explain and form theories for personality—which I have decided is quite futile. I don’t known why the devil I ever got involved with it.
But otherwise things are quite grand, tho the heat does discourage sitting down to study for very long at a time. On the whole tho I am afraid I am quite exuberant—the room is fine (tho I can hear it every time someone dives down in the pool, and some fool is learning to play ‘As Time Goes By’ across the court on a trumpet.)
If it weren’t for the $ end, I was thinking it would be nice if you could come up some weekend—after all I was a green freshman last time you saw the place. The Coop bill may be sizeable this month—books, a pair of pants and shirt etc.—and I don’t know when the $65 from the ‘Poon will be due—
Well I have 30 lines of Romeo and Juliet to learn for tomorrow.
Love
Bill
story of mine: perhaps “Suffer the Little Children,” which didn’t appear in the next issue (1 April) but the one after that (15 May). Or WG could be referring to one of the short fables he was publishing at the time.
‘As Time Goes By’: 1931 song by Herman Hupfeld (1931) popularized in the movie Casablanca (1942).
To Edith Gaddis
The Harvard Lampoon, Inc.
Cambridge 28, Massachusetts
[27 February 1944]
Dear Mother—
Sunday—and the first chance I have had to write—really it has been quite a week!
Exams all last week of course—only two—but they lasted all week—and after being up for four nights it was quite a feeling Thursday with the ‘press’ lifted and really nothing to worry about.
The Poon had its final tremendous affair for the season—and really for all time, since so many are leaving. A very pleasant dinner at the Pudding and then the dance—of course I got mixed up and went to a punch and forgot to get my black shoes from the shoemaker whom I’d taken them to be shined—so I ended with tuxedo and those dirty white buckskins.
Peter Jenks—don’t know whether I’ve mentioned him—he did the drawings for my poem—has left, and everything looks sort of blue—and then that woman being in Florida—if only she might have been up for the Poon dance—because it was the last of the neat ones. [...]
Everyone it seems is going to New York—all I hear is ‘See you in Larue’ (a 58th St. spot!) and I’ll probably get pretty fed up with this. I would like to get home before it goes(!)—and if it will be easier for you I certainly think it’s the only thing to do. Perhaps next weekend? I don’t know. I do want to get a pair of shoes—and the ballet is so important—as she is. Don’t know about scholarship—but I might as well get the beneficiary business—and perhaps borrow something from them. Will write again when I get a little further with $ matters. [...]
Love
Bill
Peter Jenks [...] my poem: Jenks illustrated WG’s poem beginning “Once came upon a quiet college town” in the 11 February issue of the Lampoon.
this job: WG had just picked up a part-time job “taking attendance.”
Larue: one of the most fashionable restaurants of the time.
To Edith Gaddis
Cambridge, Massachusetts
[5 April 1944]
dear Mother
well it never seems to end. it is just like being seasick. after one bit of running excitement you don’t see how it can keep on, but it does. [...] this elementary spanish is insidious; the abnormal psyc is good but a great amount of reading which as yet remains only touched, and an exam imminent; the social psyc is terrible—can you imagine, it seems to be a never ending discussion on politics, for which i see no reason and am beginning to dislike cordially. the short story course is the only thing that seems to be going evenly, but the fool wants the long (5000 word) story in about two weeks, right when hour exams come and the Lampoon deadline, which is really going to be bad and take time, since i seem to be the only one that holds it together and gets it moving. and must go down and read proofs for this issue very soon. [...] well such are things now, if any of it has been clear. the only thing i am sure about at the moment is the way i am getting along with Her, which is singularly well.
Love
Bill
To Edith Gaddis
Cambridge, Massachusetts
[20 April 1944]
dear Mother
am slowly getting there—though i am not sure of the destination. i spent most of last week and up for two nights studying for a spanish and then a psychology hour exam, and up until after 5 this a m writing my long story for english a 4.
and over it hangs this Lampoon—supposedly a deadline this week but hardly any one is coming around or doing anything, and so tonight i plan to spend trying to put it partially together and filling in prose, though i hardly feel like writing anything clever and witty. [...]
affairs with the Campbell girl are coming along very well. that is all i am certain of.
Love
WG at Harvard, sitting center of the first row, 1944. (Photo by Chester T. Holbrook)
