Black Sheep Books
Five and Ten Press
3814 Livingston Street N.W.
Washington, D.C.
20015-2803
(202/244-9163)
3. "The File: A Princeton Memoir." 96 pages. Published in May 1996. $10.
A frankly nostalgic, anecdotal account of my undergraduate years (1947-1951) at Princeton University. The anecdotes range over collegiate pranks, reform efforts, campus politics, undergraduate journalistic efforts, non-curricular escapades, disciplinary conflicts with the Dean of the College, professorial mentors, imitations of F. Scott Fitzgerald, somewhat jejune literary endeavors, academic failures and near triumphs, and love affairs discreetly described. Most of this story is true, all of it is as remembered, and some is documented.
Table of Contents
The End of the Dink
Painting Pennsylvania
The John Hite Case
Admitting Blacks to Princeton
Ed McInerney '52
The Republican Club
The 100 Per Cent Bicker Campaign
Philo's Gossip Column
The Black Lock Society
The Indonesia Caper
The Oriental Bazaar
Philo's Last Column
"Spook" McClintock's Joke
A Farewell to Princeton, Almost
Correspondence with Damascus
Notoriety Worldwide
More Damascus Correspondence
Changing a Lifestyle
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Edwards Hall
Jose Donoso
A Novel as Senior Thesis
Campus Club Politics
MSS Literary Magazine
Martha's Vineyard
Keeping MSS Alive
Recalling Cecil Rhodes
Skipping Bert Friend's Exam
Prefacing the Novel Saturday
Stanley Seeger
The Manners Prize
Epilogue
A Footnote
*************************************************************
This twice-told tale is dedicated to Henry West Suydam, Jr.
(1926-1966) in memoriam and in flagrante delicto. Hank could
not abide a dull moment and he died too young. Like Jack
London, he believed it was preferable to flame out or at least
to burn out than to rust out. In the end he died while sleeping.
RIP.
I am deeply indebted to my daughter, Michal Keeley (Princeton
'76), for her expert editing of this booklet as well as other Five
and Ten Press publications. And to my son, Chris Keeley
(Corcoran School of Art '88), who has taught me a lot about
tolerance, and confirmed my optimism about his and her
generation, the one after my own.
