Sara Cleghorn

Pacifist, Socialist, Antivivisectionist

Coming back to town from the quiet of Vermont hills is trial enough, without writing about town authors. Therefore, I am choosing one of the Vermont group with which to reopen my column after an ever-so-slight vacation. Sara Cleghorn has been lecturing at the School of English, Bread Loaf Inn, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt. She is poet, novelist, essayist. Those of you who read The Atlantic Monthly know her work well. I had always heard of her as one of the group of writers who live near or in Manchester, Vt.—a friend of Dorothy Canfield Fisher and of Robert Frost. In Who's Who you will find that she was born in Virginia—a mere accident of birth, for she is a Vermonter through and through. Her family happened to be wintering in Virginia in 1876. She was born, as a matter of fact, in a hotel. Who's Who further carries information that she is "pacifist, socialist, antivivisectionist." Who's Who can be most misleading; for, although she earnestly believes and carries out certain doctrines (she is, for example, a vegetarian), she has none of the formidable qualities which a statement of her creed implies.

Slight, with light, sandy hair, blue eyes, quiet, intense ways, she gives an immediate impression of great friendliness. She believes thoroughly in people and in life. She wants happiness for people and she is willing to make real sacrifices to create it for them. Her great ambition now is to be a fine teacher, and, if need be, she intends to give up writing in order to become one, and has accepted a position as a teacher for next year. I sat in some of her classes and they were unusual for their discussions. She seems peculiarly fitted to draw out the opinions and idealistic conceptions of those sitting under her. She has derived, perhaps, something of her method from Robert Frost, whose teaching methods are well known to be radical.

My admiration for my native state is well known. It now includes a great admiration for Miss Cleghorn, although many of her opinions are far from my own. Here is a liberal, almost a radical mind, finely tempered by New England sanity and balance. It is a combination, rare in literature, perhaps rarer still in teaching. Her passion for humanity, tinged with mysticism, makes her verse memorable, and I imagine that as her work as a teacher develops, she will add not a few disciples to her already large list of friends.

J. F.