Literary clubs, in a sense, have
been around since Socrates and Plato convened their many
intellectual discussion sessions. The British coffeehouses of the
18th century, where men met to discuss all aspects of politics and
religion, continued the tradition. In the 1830s, Margaret Fuller, a
friend of Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David
Thoreau, created her weekly women’s conversations, considered
the first women’s clubs in America. And we shouldn’t
forget the French salons of the 19th century or the writers such as
Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway who met at outdoor cafés
in 20th-century Paris to discuss literature and life.
In Chicago, literary clubs sprang up during
the 1800s to discuss politics and labor issues. Some of the early
Chicago clubs included the Chicago Lyceum (1841) and the Chicago
Literary Club (1874).
Festivals called Chautauquas, named for the
site of the first summer event at Chautauqua Lake, N.Y., in 1874,
promoted the arts, literary readings, oratories, debates, and
scholarly pursuits. Chautauquas soon were popping up around the
country. Several central-Illinois towns, such as Petersburg,
Decatur, and Danville, hosted these gatherings.
So literary clubs have been around for
centuries, and here in central Illinois — in both the capital
city and nearby Jacksonville — the tradition continues today
with serious pursuits of intellectual dialogue and scholarship.
The clubs are proof that reading and research
are alive and well and that many of our citizens still seek
intellectual stimulation in scholarly pursuits and discussion.
Education in Jacksonville is
paramount, no doubt in part because of the presence of Illinois
College and MacMurray College, and the community, as a whole, has
embraced learning and self-improvement.
At IC, students do not join fraternities and sororities but, rather, Greek-named literary
societies that promote community involvement, debate, oration, essay
writing, readings, speeches, and social activities. On campus there are
seven in all, three for women and four for men; throughout the town,
there are two men’s and five women’s literary clubs. All
have existed since the mid-1800s.
The male professors connected with IC and
MacMurray also formed literary clubs that still are active,
although today members now come from all walks of life, not just
the academic world of higher education. One, the Club, has been in
existence since 1861 and the other, the Literary Union, since 1864.
Rand Burnette, a retired MacMurray history
professor, has been a member of the Literary Union since 1968.
Another prominent member is former U.S. Rep. Paul Findley. Both the
Literary Union and the Club limit membership to 25 people and meet
the second and fourth Mondays of each month.
Members of both clubs choose the topics of
their presentations to the rest of the group.
“This can be a scholarly research on
any topic of one’s choosing, a book review, or even a book
critique,” Burnette says. “Usually the presentation
lasts 30 to 40 minutes. Then each person is given time to comment,
ending with additional comments by the presenter.”
Some recent Literary Union presentations have
covered stem-cell research, investing, animation, the U.S.
Constitution, Martin Luther, the Jesuits, and PalmPilots.
“One member prepared a 45-minute
first-person narrative based on a 70-page memoir of a Union Army
soldier who had been in Andersonville prison, where he became
paralyzed,” Burnette says. “The presentation was
powerful.”
Illinois College professor W.D. Sanders
founded the Club; the college’s founder and president, Julian M. Sturtevant, was among the
first members.
Early discussion topics delved into issues
that were pertinent to people of the Civil War era; for example,
one of the Club’s earliest presentations, by Sturtevant, was
titled “What Should be the Immediate Policy of the Government
with Regard to the Slave Problem?” In 1865, the educational
system became a topic of concern, with one paper titled
“Common School Education, and What Modification of Our
Present System is Desirable?” — a topic still debated
today.
Food was plentiful, and the secretaries
carefully documented what was served. One especially artful
secretary from 1957 wrote about the food prepared by home-economics
teacher Mrs. Arthyr Hellerberg: “Food came to man tonight,
and kept on coming. Rolls and sweet rolls, chocolate and hot
chocolate, and other good things beggar description of either their
variety or their savoriness. Chaucer would have said, ‘Weel
weren essed atte beste,’ and Mark Twain would have said,
‘It’s an elegant feed,’ and Dr. Johnson would
have said, ‘It was a dinner to ask a man to.’”
Asked what has changed over his years in the
literary society, Burnette says, “We meet less often in homes
— a good-sized room is needed, and people live in smaller
homes these days. Also, we used to smoke cigars. And, more men miss
meetings for various reasons; in the past, one just did not miss a
meeting.”
Jacksonville’s five women’s
literary clubs include Sorosis (founded in 1868), whose name is
derived from “soro,” Latin for “sister”;
Wednesday Class (1887), named for the afternoon of the week on
which the group meets for a program and tea; College Hill (1888),
named for the hill on which Illinois College sits; Monday
Conversation (1888), again named for the night of the week on which
the group meets; and History Class (1896), named for the founding
group’s main focus on history.
Each club each has a membership of 20 to 25;
members choose a theme for the year, and each person prepares a
presentation around that theme.
Sorosis was at first an extension of a New
York club; History Class was an extension of the University of
Chicago’s literary club, which distributed study guides
during the early years.
Some of the themes in recent years have
included “Understanding Other Cultures and Our Own Through
the Arts” (Sorosis); “Banned, Burned, and Challenged
Books” and “The Armchair Traveler” (Wednesday
Class); “Women of Words” and “Power Women”
(History Class); “Women in Art” and “I Come to
the Garden” (College Hill).
Although not a literary club, another group
in Jacksonville should be recognized. The Ladies Education Society,
founded in 1833, is the oldest ladies’ society in the United
States, according to member Emily Osburn; its goal is to give
scholarship money to women pursuing college educations. Strictly
funded through an endowment, the group meets two times a year to
“give away money,” Osburn says.
“We are proud of being the oldest group
in the U.S., and it is nice to be able to help worthy women in
their education.”
In Springfield, women’s
literary clubs started in 1878 with a group called the Shakespeare
Club, founded by Mrs. John C. Lanphier, a member of one of the
city’s leading families. This group studied just one topic
— Shakespeare — for its first 10 years, then branched
out into others.
Two other still-active Springfield
women’s literary clubs each have a rich history, and the
early membership rolls include some of the city’s most
prominent names, including Herndon, Logan, Oxtoby, Bunn, Dickerman,
Matheny, Lindsay, and Crook.
Sunnyside was founded in November 1887, when
Mrs. H.S. Dickerman convened a group of women at her home to
discuss American literature. They spent the first year studying
Washington Irving, author of such classics as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
and Rip Van Winkle. Mrs. Vachel Lindsay was once a member of Sunnyside.
Today, as then, Sunnyside meets twice a
month, September-May. Each year, the group chooses a topic and then
each member prepares a well-researched, well-written paper and
makes an hour-long presentation.
Choosing the topic for the year is serious
work. Two people prepare a list of a broad range of topics and
then, over the course of several meetings, the group narrows its
focus and selects the topic. Last year, the group studied
mythology. This year, the theme is “Coming of Age”
through the eyes of great American authors.
Sunnyside gets its name from Washington
Irving’s home in Tarrytown, N.Y., a sprawling, turreted
mansion next to the Hudson River. In celebration of the
group’s 100th anniversary, the members took a trip to the
home in 1997.
The Anti-Rust Club, the other still-active
Springfield literary club, meets October-April on a total of 25
Thursdays. It takes its name from a line of a Robert Browning poem:
“Just so much work as keeps the brain from rust/Just so much
play as lets the heart expand.”
The Anti-Rust Club was started by Katherine
Dresser White in 1894. According to member Nancy Chapin, members
were often daughters and daughters-in-law of the founding members.
Chapin says the club went through attendance problems in the 1920s,
resulting in new rules that allowed any member who would be absent
for more than six meetings to designate a guest to fill in. That
way, the members who had prepared lengthy, scholarly papers would
be ensured of an audience to hear the research they had so
painstakingly produced.
Just like Sunnyside, the Anti-Rust Club picks
a topic for the year, and then each member prepares a paper. Last
year’s topic was the culture of the 1940s, and presentations
covered World War II photography, big bands, architecture, radio,
film, Broadway musicials, and regional fiction.
Both Anti-Rust and Sunnyside have kept
program booklets going back to their inception; these are housed as
part of the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library.
This article appears in Jul 21-27, 2005.
