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Kronenberger to Teach Two Courses in Spring

Modern Comedies from Wilde to T. S. Eliot Critic to Discuss 'Worldliness in Literature;

Louis Kronenberger, drama critic for Time Magazine, will teach two English courses and will live in Eliot House during the Spring term, Walter A. Bate '46, chairman of the Department of English, disclosed yesterday. Kronenberger was named the first Abbot Lawrence Lowell Professor of English in September.

One of the courses will deal with modern stage comedy, covering major play-wrights from Oscar Wilde to T. S. Eliot, Kronenberger said yesterday. He listed Shaw, Chekhov, Pirandello, Synge, and O'Casey as among other authors he intends to discuss.

He added that it will be a large lecture course open to undergraduate and graduate students. "I won't decide on paper topics or hour exams until I get to the University and talk with members of the English Department," he said.

"Literature of Worldliness" will be the title of Kronenberger's other course. "It will review works which deal with motives and morality of the social scene," he explained.

"Worldliness" Reading List

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The reading list will start with the French aphorists and include Congreve, Pope, Walpole, Sheridan, Stendahl, Henry Adams, and Edith Wharton, he noted.

Kronenberger commented that he expects this course to be "smaller than the other one." He intends to admit juniors and seniors "with high marks," and a few graduate students.

John H. Finley, Jr. '25, Master of Eliot House, said that he hadn't yet made any plans for Kronenberger's stay there. "In fact, I haven't received his acceptance to my letter inviting him to live in Eliot," Finley said.

Leave of Absence from Brandeis

Kronenberger is on a year's leave of absence from Brandeis University, where he is Sophie Tucker Professor of Theatre Arts. He has been an editor of Time since 1938 and is the author of the recently published Marlborough's Duchess.

The Lowell chair is supported by the same Ford Foundation grant which supported the Henry Ford II Professorship, now occupied by David Riesman. Both posts were established in 1956.

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