Widener Room Exhibits College Magazines Edited by Famous Authors as Undergraduates

An exhibition of undergraduate magazines of the nineteenth century in England, edited by men later to become famous as authors, is being held in the Widener Room of the Widener Library for the next two weeks. Among the men who contribute to these magazines are Robert Louis Stevenson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Rudyard Kipling, Andrew Lang, Lewis Carroll, and William Makepeace Thackeray.

One of these is "The Edinburgh University Magazine" which brought out four issues in the early months of 1871 under the guiding hand of Robert Louis Stevenson. In the first issue he writes the conventional preface telling why he is sure his magazine will succeed where others have failed, and includes a notice concerning the University Conservative Club, of which he was one of the secretaries. Later in this issue we find: "Lady Students, we hear, intend to do all they can to 'carry their point'... All we shall say at present is, that we cannot imagine any man who would not blush to see his wife, or mother, or sister, listening to what must be listened to by all who attend some of the classes to which the lady medicals are auxious to gain admittance."

The other issues contain Stevenson's "The Philosophy of Umbrellas," which he used intact in a later book of essays, an editorial on Debating Societies, "An Old Scotch Gardener," and his "Philosophy of Nomenclature."

Then there is the "United Services College Chronicle," edited by Rudyard Kipling while he was a student there. He did all the work, including writing most of the articles, poems, letters, and notices, and he often did the type-setting. One of the choice bits is a poem by Kipling and "Stalky."

Oxford's "The Dark Blue," published in 1871, with its ornate cover featuring three Greek ladies, presumably Muses, next catches the eye. The five issues on exhibition proudly display the fact that they were once the property of Lewis Carroll, and contain articles by Andrew Lang and Thomas Hughes, Cambridge's parody on "The Dark Blue," "The Light Green" is next. Its attitude is evident from the names of its "authora": "Alfred Pennysong, Bred Hard, Edward Leary. Algerman Charles Sin-Burn. Thomas Carr Lisle, the late Edgar Allan Toe, Rosina Christetti, and Louisa Caroline."

Next comes four volumes of "College Rhymes," contributed to by members of Oxford and Cambridge. The first volume is edited by Lewis Carroll, and the others contain many of his poems. There are also two etchings, done by Thackeray while he was a student at Cambridge, depicting college life.