About Saving Webster
This semester, we draw our theme from a Laurels relic: a 1940
edition of the Webster’s Dictionary. For countless years, it has served
and inspired many past editors and
creative geniuses on our staff. The
binding is worn and frayed; the tabs
are smoothed and discolored; the pages
have curiously curled into a scrolled
artwork all their own. While perusing
the dated entries and retro illustrations,
we had an epiphany—could age be art?
While we sought out the
mysteries of this shaggy yet majestic
tome, we delved into our investigation,
inadvertently resurfacing lost gems from
English Department history.
According to Professor Krohn,
the dictionary was part of a set that
was purchased by his late friend,
Louis Swilley. Originally, it belonged
to a Patricia C. Lamb, whose name is
script. Krohn and Swilley knew each
other from a student group called “The
English Club,” which would meet in
The English Club:
Louis Swilley (left), Charles Krohn (center),
Department (right)
meal and drinks. After eating, they would gather around to discuss works
of literature not often found in the standard curriculum of the time, such
Heart of Darkness and the poetry of Alley Theatre
resident writer, Richard Wilber.
Sometimes in order to move forward, we must take note of
where we have been. Our increasingly post-traditional society has
forgotten the beauty of experience and the value of waiting. Why thumb
through an obsolete brick when you can simply hit a few strokes on a
keyboard and complete your search in a few nanoseconds? Language,
like technology, will always continue to change, and treasures like
our Webster serve as testaments to this progress, pointing us forward
[III]