Eugene McCarthy, the former Democratic Senator from Minnesota who made three unsuccessful bids for the presidency, will be at Harvard March 22 and 23 to lecture, meet with classes and student political groups, and give a reading of his own poetry.

In 1968 McCarthy campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination to offer voters an alternative to the Johnson administration's prosecution of the Vietnam war, but lost to Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.), Johnson's vice president. He ran briefly in Democratic primaries in 1972, and as an Independent candidate in the 1976 presidential race, in which he received over a million votes.

McCarthy, who is receiving $500 as a visiting fellow of the Institute of Politics, will speak on "American Politics" at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Science Center.

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That afternoon he will give a reading from his own poetry in the Leverett Junior Common Room at 4:30.

Joy Kahlenberg '78, chairman of the Fellows subcommittee of the Institute's student advisory committee, said yesterday that a student on the subcommittee had heard that McCarthy wrote poetry and had received a prize. The subcommittee suggested a poetry reading to McCarthy, who was surprised, but agreed to the idea.

"It's a way of reaching a new audience," she added.

A major focus of the Fellows subcommittee is to select fellows for the Institute who will attract a large number of people, especially those only "marginally interested in politics."

On Wednesday McCarthy will meet with students in two government courses.

H. Douglas Price, professor of Government who teaches Government 135b, "Political Parties and Congress," said yesterday that McCarthy will talk with the class about his earlier work in the Senate and House of Representatives.

At 4 p.m. that afternoon in Burr A McCarthy will speak to the Institute of Politics study group "Political Campaigns of the 1980s," led by John Deardourff and Tain Tompkins, two Fellows of the Institute.

McCarthy will give a 45-minute press conference on Tuesday, 15 minutes of which will be limited to student media. He will also attend an invitation-only reception of student political groups Tuesday morning.