YOUR FIRST YEAR ATCOLLEGE: Letters to a College Freshman

by Joseph E. McCabe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 1967

Dear J. B....a literate educator discusses the big and burning issues with his college freshman son, keeping on top of the scene with the college newspaper and his own position as president of Coe College, Iowa. On idealism and protest: ""What is needed is just a set of the character towards justice and concern, with the clear understanding that success and frustration are both permanent aspects of reality; on god is dead: ""Keep the faith. And when that's difficult, keep the body where the action is on politics: ""World order versus annihilation""; on sex: ""like the starter on the car. It's a great device for getting things under way, but you can't go across the country on the starter."" With a thoroughly modern and intellectual religious bias that the most determined agnostic wouldn't fault, with a refreshing urbane wit, Dr. McCabe faces the questions of grades, required courses, drugs and unwanted pregnancy, freshman transferitis, existential despair, the draft and class standing, summer employment, the girl left behind and the need to play the field. Quotations from Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, G. B. Shaw, etc. corroborate or illuminate his own opinions. A totally alive and persistently youthful mind, love for a son and joy in life create these natural, timely, enlightening, entertaining letters.

Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Westminster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION