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,^^gg      COLUMNS
 

On Being Put Under Glass

HERMAN WOUK

On the evening of January 24, ii^yS, Herman Wouk presented the
manuscripts of his books and plays to Cohmibia University, at the
annual meeting of the Friends of the Cohmibia IJbraries. He delivered
the following address in the Rotunda of the Seth Low .Memorial Li¬
brary at Columbia, where a glass-cased exhibition of the manuscripts
had been prepared.
 

I HAVE been growing increasingly uncomfortable in this
room as the moments go by. For the first time in my life I
see my work under glass. This is not precisely a pleasant
feeling. I have half a notion that in one of these empty cases I
should be under glass, that I should be horizontal, with my arms
folded and with a well-worn-down pen in my hand. Requiescat
in pace'.

I am grateful to Columbia, for thinking that the manuscripts of
these novels are worthy of preservation. It is a generous compli¬
ment, and rather unexpected; because, for one thing, my work so
far has been so frankly designed to entertain. Now, according to
some thinkers on the subject of modern literature, that would ex¬
clude my work from the category of serious writing, (^ne is told