Perhaps the most cut-rate but least advertised wine sale of the decade occurred last year when three cases of Burgundy went for a song in Eliot House. Fifty bottles of fine imported wine were sold at 50 cents a bottle by the Society of Fellows to its members.

Liquor-dealing is not the principal activity of the group, however, for the Society is a unique organization of young scholars chosen for their promise of original thought and given three years to do any kind of study or research at the University.

"The main purpose is to give young men who show promise economic security," says Professor C. Crane Brinton '19, chairman of the Society "so that they are not required to be section men or bluebook readers to earn the money for their research."

The stipends given to the Junior Fellows are only for essentials and not to provide "affluence," Brinton adds.

The Society, which announced the names of the new Junior Fellows last night, is made up of eight permanent Senior Fellows, and 20 to 24 Junior Fellows. Formed in 1933, it combines the two most characteristic Harvard qualities--complete academic freedom and a somewhat notorious reputation for plush conditions and gracious living.

No Cocktails Allowed

The Society's reputation for gracious living emanates from its paneled quarters in M-entry of Eliot House, its weekly Monday night formal dinners, and the wine served at these dinners. Brinton points out that no cocktails or hard liquors are allowed, but that the wine is "extremely good."

Opportunity for the previously-mentioned wine sale came up in the manner, Brinton explains. Before the war the Society bought 2,000 bottles of the best Burgundy from a French schoolteacher. This supply was stored in an improvised wine cellar in the basement. Unfortunately, the basement room was next to a steam tunnel, and by 1950 the heat had slightly turned at least one of the remaining bottles of wine. So the Society sold all of them to its members.

While the wine loosens the tongues of the assembled scholars and guests at the Monday evening affairs, the overstuffed chairs and special food also contribute to the interchange of ideas. An old-world aura pervades the Society's two downstairs rooms with their oil portraits and busts lining the walls.

One room is to sit in before and after dinner, and the other--the dining room--holds a big horseshoe-shaped table. Upstairs there are bedrooms and a library, and a small pantry is attached to the dining room to supply the special food.

These social functions are only subordinate and contributry to the real purpose however. Scholarship is the goal, and the record of former members is evidence of the success of the venture.

In 1948, at the Society's 15th anniversary, 49 former Junior Fellows were teaching in colleges or universities across the continent, with 32 of them already ranked as associate professor or higher in spite of their youth.

Hundreds of papers and over 50 books have been produced by "graduates" of the Society. Many other former Fellows are on research staffs of large corporations.

The Senior Fellows every spring pick eight new Junior Fellows, for their potentialities rather than for their achievements in their particular field. After being chosen a Junior Fellow, a man has complete freedom to do anything he wants for his three year appointment, which may be renewed.

No Requirements