LEWIS AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 30, 4 August 1931, Page 10

LEWIS AGAIN

NOBEL PRIZE MEDAL

QUARREL WITH YALE

A cheque for 46,350 dollars is one thing, but a huge gold medal that gathers dust and is apt to be lost or stolen, unless worn about the neck, is another. -.Or so Sinclair Lewis, winner of last year's Nobel Prize for literature, .decided as he motored from "Westport, Conn., to his . summer home at Bethel, Vermont, says the "New York Times." .... These were the thoughts he was mulling over in his mind last' Saturday as he drove along the Boston Post road with Harrison Smith, a member of the publishing house of. Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, Inc., and a classmate of Mj\ Lewis at Yale.- Suddenly, he said last night over the long-distance telephone .from Vermont, an idea struck him. He would give the medal to Yale. The new 7,000,000 dollar Sterling Library he thought, would be an admirable setting for the medal, which he' described as "about the size and shape' of an extraordinarily large and old-fashioned gold watch." . The longer .he '.thought' about it, the better Mr. Lewis liked the idea. In, New Haven, the two old classmates, their faces, glowing at the idea of doing something fine for. their alma mater, marched up the library steps with Selden Rozman, a senior who knew them, in their'wake.' All'three seated themselves in the main reading room and sent word to Dr. Andrew Keigh, .the librarian, that.they were, there. TWO VERSIONS. From this point on the story of Mr. Lewis's intended benefaction becomes divergent. Mr. Lewis asserts that he offered to present the medal to Yale to add to its permanent loan exhibit, but that the "university authorities were very uncordial about it." ' Dr. Charles Rush, r a_ssociate librarian, •is equally positive that Mr. Lewis failed to make his generous, impulses known. ■ The' following day, which .was Sunday,' Mr. Lewis and Mr.'Harrison arrived' at. the country home of' Winchell'Smith, the playwright,' at JTarming"ton,- Conn.,' where Mr. Lewis's account of the incident caused ntf end of merriment about the tea table. Mr. .Smith said that" Mr. Lewis told him he was going to. stop off.: at Harvard .on his way to Vermont to see whether that university would accept .the medal.' '. Apparently the author, who accepted,- the Nobel award after giving the Pulitzer P.rize the cold shoulder in 1926 changed his mind, for he. said over the telephone; it was his intention to keep the medal ia the parlour .'of his j farmhouse in Vermont, "a more humble but a more homelike place." ■ Dr. Bush described the. incident differently. Formerly the' librarian of Teachers.' College of .Columbia ' University," ' ho" "went to 'Yale only six weeks ago. ' Had the author, whoso doings have provided topics of conversation for- the folks back home on' Main street, Sauk Centre, ever since he left there some years ngo offered to present the medal to Yale, Yale'would have considered it an honour to accept it, Dr. Bush asserted. THE MEETING. "I was in my, office Saturday afternoon," he explained, "when I was notified that Mr. Lewis was in the main reading room and would like to see the librarian.. .In the absence of Dr. Keogh, I was in charge, so I went down to see him." ' Dr. Euslr described'the meeting as follows*— Mr. Lewis: "Have you a permanent loan?" .. ■ ■ Dr. Rush: "What do you mean by that, Mr,-. Lewis?" , . Mr. Lewis: "I mean "just what I say. Have you a permanent loan or have you not?" Dr. Bush: .''.'We have a., permanent exhibit which I would be glad to show to you.!' . Mr. Lewis: "No, no, no. I mean a place where you show coins and medals and things. I was thinking about a. medal." ' ■Dr. Bush: "I'd be glad to have you see our coin exhibit and talk to.Mr. Keogh about it." ... Mr. Smith: "Couldn't we see that1?" Dr. Bush: "Yes, I'd be glad to show it." • .Mr.'Lewis: "No, I don't want to see it." ' •' ■ . ' After that according to the associate librarian, :Mr. Lewis: swung about on his heel and stalked .toward the main' entrance followed by his two companions and Dr. Bush, somewhat mystified walking briskly after them,, repeating his offer to show them' about; But Mr. -Lewis would not come-back, and left, according to Dr.' Bush, without ever once mentioning his desire.to entrust his medal to' the uniyersitv. "He made no offer, no overture", nor any suggestion even that he wanted to I present a medal or lend a medal to the university," said Dr. Bush, adding that i one of the author's companions apolo-1 gised for his abrupt' departure.