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The Tide Is Turning (CD)
Will K. Dick ’67
Like his previous release,
Ghosts In The Cove
, Dick’s
latest musical compilation
presents original songs dealing with mat-
ters of the heart, spirit, and experience.
Classic rock, folk, and country come
together in a consistently warm presenta-
tion. Producer Brendan Burns has captured
the essence of Will Dick – the expressive-
ness of his voice, guitar, words, and music.
Will’s daughter, Alexandra Dick ’02, con-
tributes warm background vocals.
As It Was: A Memoir
Robert M. Pennoyer ’43
This irresistible memoir
by the grandson of J.P.
Morgan, traces his shel-
tered childhood on Long
Island to survival at Iwo
Jima to the ups and downs of his personal
The Brandywine:
An Intimate
Portrait
by W. Barksdale
Maynard ’84
University of
Pennsylvania Press,
276 pages, $34.95
Reviewed by Richard E. Schade ’62
The dustjacket of this book depicts a pic-
turesque pool on the storied Brandywine
River, one created by a spillway dam with
the river scene framed by forested banks.
A sluice directs water to a tidy mill, link-
ing natural beauty to utility in this painting
from the 1820s. The portrait is intimate
indeed, a word suggesting that the nar-
rative’s author, W. Barksdale Maynard ’84,
is familiar with this relatively short tribu-
tary to the Christina River in the vicinity
of Wilmington, a confluence not far from
the mighty Delaware into which it flows.
The designation harks back to the
Swedish colonial origins of the region’s
settlements (1638) to Fort Christina, named
for the young Vasa queen of Sweden, the
daughter of Gustav Adolph, who died in the
30 Years’ War. By the time William Penn
landed (1683), the Swedish presence had
largely run its course. A map of 1687
traces the Brandywine, its east and west
forks joining to form the 20-mile cultural
core, familiar to Americans by virtue of
the place names – Chadds Ford, Winter-
thur, and Wilmington. Given the intimacy
of its riverscape, Maynard’s study sets
out to compose a life on the Brandywine;
and to update
The Rivers of America series
,
volume 13
,
The Brandywine
, by H. S. Canby
and illustrated by Andrew Wyeth.
The Battle of the Brandywine, fought on
September 11, 1777, under the command
of George Washington is well told. That
the British outflanked and defeated Wash-
ington’s forces had to do with the layout
of the river’s forks and Washington’s lack
of understanding of the topographical big
picture. In a sense, the battle was akin to
a whirlpool that swept the dead away with
it. The battle made the reputation of young
Lafayette as a wounded hero and it became
the stuff of dreams for N.C. Wyeth (who
paints himself into a the battle scene as
a witness speaking to Washington, with
Lafayette riding up in the distance). That
Maynard reproduces Wyeth’s painting
significantly enriches the reader’s under-
standing of a series of heroic events.
The wistful gaze of the du Pont heirs
captured in a photo dated 1952 features
the Brandywine. Maynard tracks the
On the Shelf . . .
flow of history through nine individually
interesting chapters. The reader senses
that he is intellectually, even emotionally,
attached to the details traced by the nar-
rative. The early water-power mill culture,
the “rushing water and buzzing wheels,”
defined the ascendancy of the industrial
revolution economy, even “becoming the
first place in the country to manufacture
paper by machine.” Later on, the age of
gunpowder at the Eleutherian Mills – the
du Pont legacy – is portrayed. Through the
presence of this industry alone, Brandy-
wine overflowed its banks as a global
corporation.
Other chapters focus on the role the
river played as a laboratory for the study
of natural history. Literature receives its
due, with the Brandywine region becom-
ing a “vision of pastoral loveliness,” that
spawned a hyper-enthusiasm for an-
tiquing, while also attracting the likes of
F. Scott Fitzgerald (who started
Tender is
the Night
there).
This is not the place to attempt a re-
telling of the artistic scene – initiated
by Howard Pyle, whose illustrations for
Robin Hood
were inspired by the scenery
of the Brandywine. At the last, an anec-
dote from an historian tells of a chance
encounter in 2005 with the aged Andrew
Wyeth and his caregiver.
and professional lives, the early part of
which was spent in the service of Presi-
dent Eisenhower and the latter part in
private law practice. The book is itself a
demonstration of the values that boosted
America on its path to greatness. It be-
speaks an unshakable belief in democracy
and builds on a deep appreciation of the
institutions that enable it.
The Transformation
of Pediatrics
Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr. ’55
From a 20-bed brick
townhouse in Boston’s
South End founded in
1869, Boston Children’s
Hospital has grown to become one of the
largest and most distinguished pediatric
institutions in the world. Dr. Lovejoy is
associate physician in chief and deputy
chairman of the Department of Medicine
at Children’s. In this history, Dr. Lovejoy
relates how the hospital’s mission and
culture informed and focused the
aspirations and goals of its faculty and
trainees.
The Importance of
Being Little
Erika Christakis ’81
The author, a lecturer in
early childhood education
at Yale’s Child Study Cen-
ter, explains what it’s like
to be a young child in America today, in a
world designed by and for adults, where
we have confused schooling with learning.
Christakis offers real-life solutions to real-
life issues, with nuance and direction that
take us far beyond the usual prescrip-
tions for fewer tests, more play. Rather
than clutter their worlds with more and
more, Christakis asserts, sometimes the
wisest course for us is to learn how to get
out of their way.
