WHERE HAS ALL THE IVY GONE?

by Muriel Beadle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 11, 1972

What behavior was expected from the wife of the President of the University? There were no guidelines."" But Muriel Beadle (These Ruins are Inhabited, 1961) -- wife of George who began a ten-year tenure as President of the University of Chicago in 1961 -- soon found out. An endless round of receptions, dinner parties for faculty and trustees, and welcome-to-the-campus greetings to Tyrone Guthrie, Edgard Varese, Karl Berth and Prince Philip stimulated her spirits but wore out her feet. The '60's rising tide of social activism and the racial tensions of Chicago's South Side prompted her to work with neighborhood improvement associations upgrading dilapidated housing and resettling local merchants displaced by urban renewal. The decline of fun-loving Joe College and the advent of bearded undergrads who ""looked as if they seldom bathed"" brought sit-ins and demonstrations sponsored by CORE and SDS which she found misguided and ""emotionally shattering."" To top it all off she served shrimp to some Orthodox Jewish guests and ""Our cat attacked the wife of the Chairman of the Board. Oh, God."" And so it went from freshman orientation to the rites-of-spring and graduation for ten dedicated, energetic, vapid years. For sentimental alumni -- between the sherry and the petits fours.

Pub Date: Aug. 11, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION