Word: abbots
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Harvard students could seek solace in the fact that although our social life is sometimes abysmal, at least we party harder than our predecessors did in the 1850’s. But then along comes Francis Ellingwood Abbot, Class of 1859, who died a century ago but whose newly-published journal sheds light on drinks and debauchery at the Harvard of top hats and functional fireplaces...
Many of the entries put a damper on the pride we take in our 21st century revelry. Abbot, a former resident of Hollis, writes that on the night of March 17, 1857 he returned home from the Class of 1859 Dinner at 4:00 a.m. after a night of drinks and merriment...
...Sullivan equates him with an average Harvard student of today—he stayed out late, was the victim of pranks and carried on a long-distance relationship. Abbot even belonged to a freshman society (“Anonyma”) which occasionally got drunk together...
Unlike today, Abbot didn’t go running to the proctor for a warm cup of tea and a warrant for a dean’s warning...
...This is one of the best personal journals we have,” Sullivan says. “It even has dialogue, and you normally don’t see that kind of thing.” If Ever Two Were One includes a dialogue Abbot had with Henry David Thoreau, Class of 1837, on the craft of poetry, and other entries suggest he was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Class of 1821, as well as Thoreau...