"St. Paul's School 1855-1934" PIER, Arthur Stanwood
$500
PIER, Arthur Stanwood
[385] pp.
Charles Scribner's Sons
1934
9 1/4" x 6"
VG
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In writing the eighty-year-long history of the oldest of America's "church" boarding-schools, St. Paul's at Concord, New Hampshire, Mr. Arthur Stanwood Pier set himself a difficult task. If the history were to be of general interest, it must avoid the "these are the happiest days of your life" sentimentality of the New York banker-baron addressing the graduating sixth form on Last Night. At the same time, it could not go so far in the direction of debunking as to hurt such local feelings and alienate its natural audience. The job was a ticklish one, but Mr. Pier has carried it through with admirable ease and balance. On the one hand, he has drawn a picture of the past life of the school which will seem realistic to those who have known its present life. He has, for instance, neither made light of, nor preached about, the waves of petty vice which always show up from time to time in spite of, and partly because of, the discipline of a boarding-school. Nor in writing of legendary figures among masters of the past, has he failed to indicate the lack of sense of proportion which often marks a man who lives almost entirely among boys and must always dominate them- the eccentricities that go with living "in a rut." On the other hand, being himself a lover of the school and deep in its traditions, Mr. Pier has given its proper expression to that feeling of corporate loyalty to particular scenes and ways and people which gives St. Paul's, and any other such group, its character and color. Without this feeling the history would lose all its charm.
The history deals thoroughly with sports, famous characters, growth and development, and formal activities. It has almost nothing to say, however, of the intimate social life of the boys. What was there in the nineties, for instance, comparable to the closed corporation of Philadelphia boys destined for Princeton or to the sons of newly rich Long Islanders destined to become polo-players? Both of these groups are cells in the school life to-day, or were a few years ago. They were cliques, and they and the rest of the boys were conscious of it.