Philo marks publication of scholar's lectures

Members of the Philomathean Society continued the group's tradition of "raising hell with your brain" at a reception held last week in Van Pelt Library. About 20 students attended the event marking the publication of Margin to Mainstream: The Broadening of the American Literary Canon. The volume consists of lectures on contemporary literature delivered at the E. Sculley Bradley Memorial Symposium, which took place at the University in 1988. Law student Darren Rosenblum, who organized the symposium while an undergraduate at the University, said E. Sculley Bradley is widely considered "the father of the study of American literature." Rosenblum said Bradley helped create "a distinct American literary canon" and included in his studies a number of writers such as Theodore Dreiser and Walt Whitman, who were then considered radicals. Bradley was a former University student, English professor and administrator, as well as a Philo member, until his death in 1987, said College senior Ethel Rackin. Bradley was also the editor of the first Norton Anthology of American Literature, she said. Margin to Mainstream is important for two reasons, said College and Wharton junior Tyler Dickovick, the society's moderator this semester. The book celebrates the life, work and "strong scholastic contributions" of Bradley, he explained, and it was entirely student produced. The book is another example of the constant "interchange of ideas" and "broadness of knowledge" characteristic of Philo members, said College senior Johnathan Goldstein. These qualities, he said, also mesh well with the two-fold mission of the Philomathean Society: to increase the learning of its members and the academic prestige of the University. The publication of Margin to Mainstream represents the culmination of five years of effort by the Philomathean Society, said co-editor Eugene Bolt.