Christmas Premonitions

This coming Saturday would have been the 105th birthday of Theodor Geisel '25, known the world over as children's author Dr. Seuss. While looking for some way to note this day via blog post, we stumbled upon a shocking discovery that derailed our search and instead led us to another momentous anniversary of a completely different kind. This year, 2019, marks the 80th year since the Third Reich invaded Poland and triggered the formal beginning of World War II. How did we get from Seuss to the Sudetenland, you ask? Through a Christmas card sent by one of Geisel's college buddies, Prof. Alexander Laing '25, in December of 1938.

While in school with Geisel, Laing had written a poem that humorously explained the proper pronunciation of "Seuss" (more like "zoice" than "soose"). Hoping to find an original version of this poem in Laing's alumni file, we instead stumbled upon the card. It contains numerous racist images and statements that were culturally acceptable at the time and emphasizes that the Laings are boycotting Japanese, German, and Italian wares, ostensibly because of the political stances and actions of those three countries. To put the card in context, without being an apologist for its content, it's worth noting that Laing was a major social activist for positive change on campus and beyond. In particular, we've blogged before about his strong efforts to eliminate a longstanding Dartmouth policy that limited the number of Jewish students on campus.

What's also fascinating about the card, aside from its casual racism, is the way that it accurately predicts the formation of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis more than nine months before World War II formally began with the invasion of Poland. Although the writing was likely very clearly on the wall by then, given the anti-communist agreement that the three countries (and Spain) had all recently entered, it's still fascinating to see evidence of it. It also makes one wonder about whether or not people had any inkling that this ideological alliance would eventually become a global military power.

Between dropping out of college before graduation and the mailing of that card, Laing had experienced a fascinating and winding life journey. He was a trade journal editor and a seaman for a while before returning to Dartmouth to be a tutorial advisor and then eventually finish his undergraduate degree in 1933. By 1938, Laing had become an assistant librarian at the college and he eventually went on to be a lecturer in English before being named professor of belles lettres in 1966. He died in 1976 in a bicycle accident in Norwich near the Ledyard Bridge.

To see the Christmas card, or several other ones that were drawn much later by his third wife, Veronica Ruzicka, come to Rauner and ask to see the alumni file for Alexander Laing '25.