Entries Open for Boylston Contest

The English Department opened its annual Boylston Prize Competition for Public Speaking yesterday when it announced that it would begin receiving applications.

Candidates must file their entries with Archibald MacLeish, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, in Warren House 3 by February 28. Declamations may be taken from English, Latin, or Greek prose or poetry.

MacLeish and Frederick C. Packard '20, assistant professor of Public Speaking, will pick eight or ten finalists at a try-out in New Lecture Hall on March 15. The finals will be held on Wednesday, March 29.

Last year's two $50 first prizes went to Nicholas Verden '51 and J. David Baumann '51. The former recited the Allocution by Pope Pius XII on the arrest of Cardinal Josef Mindszenty, and the latter chose Ulysses' speech on order from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.

The awards of the Boylston contest are relatively small--$50 first prize and $25 second--but the prestige of winning the traditional competition is considered high.