The Patrons’ Post
Patrons of the Pollak Library
California State University Fullerton
4
Volume XI Number 3 Spring 2007Patrons of the Pollak Library, California State University Fullerton
P. O. Box 4150, Fullerton, CA 92834-4150
Wisdom, Inc.
Albert R. Vogeler
4
Two score and ten years ago an ambitious publisher brought forth on this continent a new magazine dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal in their capacity to become wise. And he named it Wisdom. It embodied, from the beginning, paradoxes and ironies that are much easier to see today than they were fifty yeas ago. An elitist publication (hard covers, opulent large format, semi-annual issues in limited numbers),
it nevertheless embodied a populist message (everyone can aspire to wisdom, the great minds of the past speak directly to our generation through their books, and they can make our lives better if we learn how to read to them). This glossy “class magazine for the masses” seemed briefly to prosper after its much-publicized founding in 1956, then stagnated, and staggered into financial failure in
1964. It remains to this day on
library shelves, an unread relic of a purportedly idealistic publishing venture that was deeply tainted with hubris.
On the front cover of the March 1960 issue, which encapsulated and expounded the scheme of the entire series, a trio of modern sages—Mortimer Adler, Robert Hutchins, and William Benton--nestle closely in cameo portraits among images of the supreme minds of Western civilization, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; Shakespeare, Spinoza, and Kant; Newton, Darwin, and Freud. On the back cover they are joined by Augustine, Aquinas, and Dante; Galileo, Hobbes, and Hegel; Chaucer, Cervantes, and Goethe. Our three Wise Men are certainly in good company, but they are at pains to let us know that their purpose is simply to introduce us to the others, not to join them in the heavenly fraternity. Yet, quite deliberately, they present them-selves to us as authors of articles like “The Wisdom of Mortimer J. Adler” and “The Wisdom of Robert M. Hutchens,” and, in the case of Benton, pose for the camera meditating before a lofty stack of the Great Books. Concerned to impress us with the wisdom of those in the celestial Pantheon, they are also showing us how wise they are in understanding and appreciating them, and how we would be smart to emulate their appreciation and learn the technique of acquiring wisdom through the Great Books. All three were unabashedly didactic and boldly self-assured, Adler having
written a famous book called How to Read A Book, Hutchins having defined the aims of education in The University of Utopia, and Benton having acquired the Encyclopedia Britannica by buying it from Sears Roebuck and then giving it to the University of Chicago.
Most issues of Wisdom featured a Karsch-quality cover photograph of a notable contemporary personage (along with a few old-timers like Jesus, Franklin, and Lincoln) accompanied by a dozen or more short essays or reprinted articles relating to the featured personality. Accompanying a score or more of these icons of undoubted “wisdom” in the series were quite a few less credible, less durable claimants to it: Churchill is there, but so is Walt Disney; Einstein appears along with David Sarnoff; Schweitzer nudges William Benton; Lincoln shares space with Cecil B. DeMille.
One explanation for such curious juxtapositions, which might initially appear to be mere lapses of judgment, lies in the identity of the publisher and editor of Wisdom--Leon Gutterman. His understanding of “wisdom” was clearly influenced by the mid-20th century American entertainment industry and celebrity culture. His photograph in the March 1960 issue shows him seated judiciously at his desk before a small replica of Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker, along with eight sharpened pencils, two pens, a clock, and
lots of manuscript pages. This seemingly earnest, shrewd, and vigilant proprietor is unlike his senior partners in Wisdom not only because he is twenty years their junior but because he offers no credentials, in contrast to their conspicuously-touted public and scholarly achievements that gave weight to the enterprise. The fact that he was a Hollywood press agent and movie screen writer would not be helpful to Wisdom’s image.
But Gutterman is not at all reticent about castigating a society that desperately needed the dispassionate high thinking propounded in his new business enterprise: “Modern civilization suffers intensely from the maladies of mediocrity, foolishness, triviality, superficiality, frivolity, futility, juvenility, and shallowness.” The remedy?--wisdom attained by reading the Great Books. His symmetrical aphorism-- “without the love of books the richest man is poor; but endowed with this treasure, the poorest man is rich”—sounds like an advertising slogan, the selling of a product.
The commercial underside of Wisdom is revealed only in small type. Published by “The Wisdom Society for the Advancement of Knowledge, Learning, and Research in Education,” located at a fashionable Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, address, the magazine was protected by copyright, and reproduction of it in whole or part prohibited without prior written permission. (So much for Wisdom as humanity’s shared inheritance.) It was available by subscription only, through membership in the Wisdom Society, which issued a “Certificate of Honor” to each paid-up member. It claimed 150,000 subscribers, and 100 initial backers who together put up $1,000,000. The Society’s “Wisdom Seal of Approval,” not surprisingly, was awarded to the 54-volume Great Books of the Western World, the mammoth publishing enterprise of (among others) Adler, Hutchins, and Benton.
Wisdom magazine was far from being a solitary standard-bearer of high culture for the masses. It was only one part of an extraordinary network of formal and informal connections that under girded the mid-20th century publishing phenomenon I have called “Wisdom, Inc.” Two precocious promoters of self-education, Adler and Hutchens, associated themselves with Benton, a hard-driving advertising executive, and later with Gutterman, the publicist, in creating Wisdom magazine. Adler, having been the (self-styled) Professor of the Philosophy of Law at the University of Chicago, was simultaneously Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, Associate Editor of the Great Books of the Western World, and founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Great Ideas project, the Syntopicon. Hutchins, having been President and then Chancellor of the University of Chicago, was Editor-in-Chief of the Great Books of the Western World, co-editor of The Great Ideas Today, Chairman of the Board of Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and President of the Fund for the Republic. Benton, having been a Yale classmate of Hutchins, a co-founder of the influential advertising agency Benton and Bowles, Vice President of the University of Chicago, U.S. Senator from Connecticut, and Ambassador to UNESCO, was publisher and Chairman of the Board of Encyclopedia Britannica and publisher of the Great Books of the Western World.
This unprecedented inter-locking directorate of intellectual entrepreneurs facilitated the cerebral tsunami that washed over the publishing world just after mid-century. The confluence of educational and commercial opportunities in post-war America is its larger context. The new upward mobility of the middle class, the boom in college and adult education, the growth of self-help and positive thinking, inno-
vations in packaging and adver- tising, long-playing records and paperback books, book clubs and the Readers’ Digest, Henry Luce’s Life and Time styles of commu-nication, door-to-door encyclo- pedia sales—these were developments that made high culture available as never before. They also, inevitably, led to producing, packaging, pricing, and promoting culture as never before. We now call this the commodification of culture. Chicago, once hog-butcher for the world, became its culture-provisioner.
Wisdom magazine’s role in all this, though not central, was emblematic. Indeed, what happened a few years after its demise shows how far the concept of Wisdom had been corrupted and mixed with money. Leon Gutterman sought to salvage and recyle the contents of the defunct magazine in a new series of “Wisdom Books” and an “Encyclopedia of Wisdom.” Capitalizing on widespread cravings for recognition and prestige, he offered a “Wisdom Award of Honor” and a place in the “Wisdom Hall of Fame” for a $100 donation to his ongoing publishing enterprises. Over 20,000 people, many of their names taken from Who’s Who, were told they could join the likes of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and other “Eminent Recipients” of the honors. Multiple deceptions accompanied these solicitations. No discernible achievements were required. There was no Board of Editors making the awards, only Gutterman himself. No Hall of Fame existed. No serious work had been done on an encyclo-pedia. After protracted, complex, and humiliating hearings before an Administrative Law judge in the early 1970s, the editor of Wisdom was found guilty of mail fraud by soliciting money under false pretenses. Ordered to desist, he barely escaped civil and criminal penalties.
In their wisdom, Adler, Hutchins, and Benton remained aloof from these embarrassments.
4
MEMBERSHIP REPORT
George Pollak
During the 2006-2007 academic year, our membership has increased markedly compared to past years. I believe that this reflects both our revised dues structure and the varied and stimulating activities and events which membership in the Patrons offers.
Your membership not only benefits you but also the entire community, enabling us to continue purchasing significant additions to the library’s collection.
Please note that your annual membership now is not for each academic year as before, but expires one year from the month of last joining. If you have not yet renewed your Patrons membership when it was due, I hope you will do so in one of the membership categories which I’ve outlined - or establish a Life membership, which confers permanent enrollment. A membership application can be printed from our website, easily reached from the CSUF Library’s homepage under “Information”.
Current statistics include a total of 146 Annual Members and 78 Permanent members, making a total of 224. Membership category distribution includes 1 Student, 44 Alumni, 91 Basic, 4 Family, 5 Enhanced, 1 Benefactor, and 78 Life members.
Patrons of the Library Book Discussion Group
Suzanne Serbin
We’ve had a busy and exciting year capturing the many literary interests of our members. We began in September with what we call a “wild card,” whereby each of the members takes a few minutes to discuss a book he or she has read in recent months. These books covered a variety of topics such as The Human Genome War; a biography entitled Anna Freud; Land Walk to Freedom, a biography of Mandela; How Art Saved the World; The Earth Knows My Name, a study of gardens from around the world; the novel History of Love; The Best of James Herriot; The Complete New Yorker; and a biography of George Washington entitled His Excellency. Clearly, biographies and history were the most popular topics this year.
In October, George Pollak took the helm for a heated discussion of the Dominion of War, followed by Ed Sowell in November who selected Soul Circus as his group pick for the month. Lee Bellott chose Karl Fleming’s autobiography Son of the Rough South for January which created a fervid discussion of the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s and 1970s. February brought us to another “wild card” month. Many guests turned out for the March pick, American Prometheus, the biography of J.Robert Oppenheimer. At the time of this writing, the group is looking forward to learning more about Genome, the science book selected by Marv Rosenberg for discussion in April. And, finally, we end the year with another “wild card” in May.
By way of information, we meet the fourth Thursday of each month, September through November and January through May, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the second floor conference room of Library South. We welcome guests and newcomers to this group, either as participants or as avid listeners. If parking permits are a problem, please call Suzanne Serbin at 714-870-4349.
Books with Staying Power
Gordon J. Van De Water
4
Why do some books become classics and have staying power over the centuries or maybe even over the millennia? This is a daunting question since there are many possible answers, all explored by great literary critics; but for me four ideas are paramount. These are universality, originality, style, and an overall quality of greatness. They can be found in different proportions and combinations, but they are essential for books that will live beyond the momentary celebrity of best-seller lists and book club selections.
Universality is vital to the long term existence of any title. While a work of fiction can hardly avoid been rooted in the particulars of time, place, and circumstance, it must be able to appeal to large numbers of readers whose circumstances are quite different from those it deals with. Somehow the work should be able to be both particular and universal, reaching the collective understanding of a wide diversity
of readers. We must find that the writer’s words, sentiments, and characters attract and hold us at a basic and elemental human level. Yes, we say, that’s the way it is with human beings!
Originality is an indispensable quality. Most writers follow given pathways that others have created (and there is nothing bad about this), but the writer who does something that hasn’t been done quite that way before, and does it with assurance and conviction, will most likely be able to attract and hold an audience over a long period of time. Although subsequent writers will develop or even improve on what they learned from a truly original predecessor, the creative individual who pointed the way will remain the one we particularly honor. True originality, of course, must go along with imagination, substance, and universality. Newness only for the sake of newness soon seems very old and tired indeed.
A power or rightness of style is integral to any book that becomes a classic and is probably essential in any enduring work of imaginative writing. Style—the exact words on the page, not the approximate
or careless words—is the vehicle for connecting with the reader’s psychological make-up, intellect, and aesthetic sense, but in the deepest sense with his or her personality. A style that is pedantic, hairsplitting, or overly convoluted will short circuit whatever messages it intended to convey and is probably destined for dusty and forgotten shelves. On the other hand, a writer who can take material that might seem dull and mind-numbing and, through the power and grace of language, make it exciting, stimulating, and moving has the potential to create a classic.