Activities of The Friends
"Date with a Book"
 

K" If ^HE series of readings "Date with a Book," arranged by
I      Dr. Russell Potter representing the Institute of Arts and

Jl Sciences, with the aid of Mrs. Albert Baer acting for the
Friends, was opened on Wednesday evening, October 22, in
McMillin Theater by CKfton Fadiman. Mr. Fadiman, one of the
foremost champions of reawakening an interest in oral reading,
was at his best. He was in good voice, and seemed to enjoy the
evident rapprochement between him and his hsteners.

He opened with Wordsworth's sonnet "The World Is Too
Much With Us," and followed with Ogden Nash's "I Will Rise
and Go Now" to illustrate the same theme in the current ver¬
nacular. He read several short stories from the New Yorker, in¬
cluding Gerald McMilhn's "The Television Helps, but Not Very
Much." He did W. F. Harvey's "August Heat" in full spotlight
in the darkened auditorium, with most spooky effect. He read
several other ghost stories, added some aphorisms from Abe
Martin, and closed with the opening address to the jury of
Serjeant Buzfuz in the celebrated case of Bardell v. Pickwick
from the Pickwick Papers. Mr. Fadiman said that there were two
geniuses currently practicing the art of reading aloud—Emlyn
Williams and Charles Laughton. After hearing Mr. Fadiman,
many of his listeners felt that there were three.

The succeeding evenings are: Nov. 5, C. L. R. James, "The
Reader's Herman Melville" and, on Nov. 19, "The Reader's
Shakespeare"; Dec. 3, John Carradine, "The Reader's Defoe and
Stevenson"; Dec. 17, Max Eastman, "The Enjoyment of Poetry";
Jan. 7, Carl Carmer, "Our Heritage of Ballad and Folk Tale";
Feb. 4, Maurice Valency, "The Reader's Housman and T. S.
Eliot"; Mar. 4, Henry Morton Robinson, "An Evening with

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