THE TEACHERS

Twenty-seven contributors, having done well since, present their brief reminiscences of the teachers who meant the most to them. The ex-students dispense hat-raisings and kiss-throwings ""over the years"" to their respective mentors, who for some reason almost all had chiseled noses, though they range from Terrible Miss Dove types to distinguished professionals like Nadia Boulanger. There is an excess of homiletics about what makes a good teacher, and a tendency to pick teachers who represent what-the-world-needs-more-of. Some of the most famous contributors have written the dullest essays (Conrad Aiken, E.B. White); the most memorable are colored by the writer's idiosyncrasies (Thomas Merton, Thomas Hart Benson). A few longer pieces of the latter sort would have sufficed for a fine book. As it is, the hackneyed and mediocre ones predominate. Down the down staircase.