English Journal - Volume 48, Issue 8, 1959

As in past years, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer will be displayed prominently in Book Week exhibits throughout the nation this week. In this article, Mr. Marks traces meaning and structure in the novel, which affirms “that life at its best is an amalgam of the independent and the dependent, play and work, the life of adventure and the life of commonplace obligation.” Mr. Marks is an assistant professor of English at Brown University.

The title of this article suggests its double purpose. Steinbeck’s “The Leader of the People” is found fairly commonly in school anthologies. Mr. Grommon discusses it as a kind of case study in directing students’ reading of the short story. Mr. Grommon, an asssociate director of the NCTE’s Commission on the English Curriculm, is an associate professor of English and education at Stanford University.

Both teachers and students, in English and journalism, will be interested in this analysis of good and poor writing in material written for the Associated Press. Mr. Keavy is Chief of the Los Angeles Bureau of the Associated Press and chairman of the AP’s Writing Committee. (See the footnote on page 461).

Journal readers welcome a certain number of articles on concrete approaches to immediate classroom problems. Naturally, readers may not agree with all of the many details in this article, but the most ardent searcher after specificity should be pleased. Mrs. Carroll teaches junior and senior high school English at Indian Lake, New York.

Most high school teachers of English are aware of the problem identified here. The article outlines a “middle road” approach to the novel which includes sex experience. The author, a first lieutenant in the Air Force, is an assistant professor of English at the U. S. Air Force Academy.