With the publication of his first contribution in the current issue, Bernard DeVoto '20, lecturer in English and prominent authority on American letters, becomes the editor of "The Easy Chair" of Harper's Magazine.

As successor to Edward Sanford Martin '77 who retires after fifteen years in "The Chair," Do Voto steps into the oldest editorial post in America, begun in 1853 under the editorship of George William Curtis and continued from 1900 to 1920 by William Dean Howells.

Lecturer DeVoto, who has become widely known through his articles in Harper's on subjects ranging from the Mormon frontier, through New England and its spirit, to the philosophy of Pareto, is the author of "Mark Twain's America" and several works of fiction.

His courses at Harvard in composition and in contemporary American literature are among the most frequently "vagabonded" by undergraduates. Bluff, energetic and armed with a whiplash tongue his favorite amusement is exploding the pet theories and foibles of his fellow authors and instructors.

After teaching English for several years at Northwestern, where they are still talking about the excitement occasioned by the incidents of his departure, he took up his post as instructor and lecturer here. During a brief period of editing the "Harvard Graduates' Magazine" he stirred up animated controversy which resulted in his resignation.