Sherwood Admits He Failed English A in Winthrop Talk

Robert E. Sherwood '18, three times Pulitzer Prize winner, once flunked English A, the playwright revealed last night in a talk at Winthrop House.

After failing the freshman course, Sherwood was forced to take a course called English D, which he described as the "venereal ward" course of the pre-War era. When he flunked English D, his connections with Harvard were severed.

But Sherwood soon came back because of "certain pressure that was exerted on University officials." This time he stayed here long enough to write two Pudding shows and to direct the destinies of the Lampoon, he said; he was about to have his connections severed again when he joined the Canadian Army. (He was too tall to join the A.E.F.)

On the subject of Franklin D. Roosevelt '04, Sherwood said that the late President was "the most complex character" he had even known or read about. The playwright described Roosevelt's relationship to Stalin as a close, personal one upon which the President pinned many of his hopes. It is regrettable that our relations with Russia never achieved a firmer basis, Sherwood concluded.