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Winter 1931

Winter 1931

Volume 7, Number 1

  • Dumas Malone’s “Polly Jefferson and Her Father”
  • Aldous Huxley’s “Boundaries of Utopia”
  • Thomas H. Dickinson’s “Bernard Shaw and Woodrow Wilson”
  • Sherwood Anderson’s “J.J. Lankes and His Woodcuts”
  • Stories by Dumas Malone, Aldous Huxley, Thomas H. Dickinson, and Sherwood Anderson
  • Poetry by Geoffrey Johnson, Frances M. Frost, Frederic Prokosch, and Henry Bellamann
[toc] Table of Contents
Winter 1931

Table of Contents

Boundaries of Utopia

“Mediaeval liberty,” said Lord Acton, “differs from modern in this, that it depended on property.” But the difference is surely a difference oniy in degree, not in kind. Money may have less influence in a modern than in a mediaeval court of law. But outside the court of law? Outside, it is true, I am legally free to work or not to work, as I choose; for I am not a serf. I am legally free to live here rather than there; for I am not bound to the land. I am free, within reasonable limits, to amuse myself as I like; archdeacons do not fine me for indulging in what they consider unseemly diversions. I am legally free to marry anyone (with the possible exception of a member of the royal family,) from my first cousin to the daughter of a duke; no lord compels me to marry a girl or widow from the manor, no priest forbids the banns within the seventh degree of consanguinity. The list of all my legal freedoms would run to pages of type. Nobody in all history has been so free as I am now.

Essays

Profiles

Author Profiles

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was one of the major intellectuals of the twentieth century and author of numerous works, including the classics Brave New World and The Doors of Perception.

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) is best known for his 1919 work Winesburg, Ohio. His later books include Poor WhiteHorses and Men, and Dark Laughter. An influential writer in his day, he helped William Faulkner