Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA ) is a co-educational college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire . Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school. It educates roughly 1,100 boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12, as well as postgraduate students.
74-418: Cameo Kirby can refer to: Cameo Kirby (play) , a 1909 Broadway play written by Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson , or its three screen adaptations: Cameo Kirby (1914 film) , a 1914 silent American film Cameo Kirby (1923 film) , a 1923 silent American film Cameo Kirby (1930 film) , a talkie by Fox Film Corporation Topics referred to by
148-530: A "co-author" of his later books and dedicated three of them ( Rabble in Arms , Northwest Passage , and Oliver Wiswell ) to him. Tarkington underwent eye surgery in February 1929. In August 1930, he suffered a complete loss in his eyesight and was rushed from Maine to Baltimore for surgery on his right eye. He had an additional two operations in the latter half of 1930. In 1931, after five months of blindness, he underwent
222-447: A $ 5.6 million ($ 72 million in February 2024 dollars) fundraising drive, ending in 1948. Later that year, J. P. Morgan partner Thomas W. Lamont '88 (the former president of the board of trustees) left Exeter another $ 3.5 million in his will. Under Saltonstall, the academy maintained strong ties to elite universities, although like nearly all boarding schools, it lost ground to public schools during this period. Exeter served as one of
296-408: A Litt.D. from Princeton, and honorary doctorates from Columbia University and Purdue. He made substantial donations to Purdue for building an all-men's residence hall , which the university named Tarkington Hall in his honor. Tarkington was married to Laura Louisa Fletcher from 1902 until their divorce in 1911. Their only child, Laurel, was born in 1906 and died in 1923. Fletcher, a published poet,
370-625: A boarding school on the East Coast. He attended Purdue University for two years, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and the university's Morley Eating Club. Some of his family's wealth returned after the Panic of 1873, and his mother transferred Booth from Purdue to Princeton University . At Princeton, Tarkington is said to have been known as "Tark" among the members of the Ivy Club ,
444-478: A children's book and was one of the best-selling books of the era in that category. The Two Vanrevels and Mary's Neck appeared on the annual best-seller lists a total of nine times. Tarkington authored 25 plays, including three collaborations with Harry Leon Wilson . Some of the plays dramatized his novels. Some were eventually filmed, including Monsieur Beaucaire , Presenting Lily Mars , and The Adventures and Emotions of Edgar Pomeroy , made into
518-638: A college-preparatory school. Amen cleaned up Exeter's social image, as the student body had acquired a reputation for unruly behavior. He doubled tuition from $ 75 to $ 150 between 1895 and 1899, and claimed in 1903 that he had expelled 400 boys in eight years. He also improved the academy's residential facilities; by 1903 two-thirds of Exeter students were living on campus. Despite the expulsions, Exeter's new-look mission resonated with parents, and enrollment jumped to 390 in 1903 and 572 in 1913. From 1890 to 1894, 67% of Exeter's college-bound students went on to Harvard, Yale or Princeton. 60-odd years later, in 1953,
592-543: A fifth and final operation. The surgery resulted in a significant restoration in his eyesight. However, his physical energy was diminished for the remainder of his life. Tarkington maintained a home in his native Indiana at 4270 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis. From 1923 until his death, Tarkington spent summers and then much of his later life in Kennebunkport at his much loved home, Seawood . In Kennebunkport, he
666-544: A judge, and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington. He came from a patrician Midwestern family that had lost much of its wealth after the Panic of 1873 . Tarkington was named after his maternal uncle Newton Booth , then the governor of California . He was also related to Chicago Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth through Woodworth's wife, Almyra Booth Woodworth. Tarkington attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, and completed his secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy ,
740-487: A literary environmentalist —not just a 'conservationist,' in the [ Theodore Roosevelt ] mode, but an emerald-Green decrier of internal combustion": The automobile, whose production was centered in Indianapolis before World War I, became the snorting, belching villain that, along with soft coal, laid waste to Tarkington's Edens. His objections to the auto were aesthetic—in The Midlander (1923) automobiles sweep away
814-412: A member of their class. Exeter's Principal at the time, Gideon Lane Soule , is said to have told them "You may do as you please — your classmate will stay." After a brief interlude in the 1880s when Exeter's focus partially shifted from college preparation to general education and only 18% of Exeter students went on to college, Charles Everett Fish (p. 1890–95) restored academic standards by adopting
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#1732880243648888-419: A new way of teaching and learning, for which Harkness would donate funds to foot the bill: What I have in mind is a classroom where students could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where each student would feel encouraged to speak up. This would be a real revolution in methods. The result was "The Harkness Method," in which
962-558: A policy of expelling students who could not attain a C average. A student in the Class of 1892 recalled that "[t]here was no real discipline ... the only measure of a boy's quality was his scholarship. If that was satisfactory, little else mattered." The percentages of students going on to college recovered rapidly to 1870s levels, although the student body shrank significantly, dropping from 355 in 1890 to 123 in 1895. Fish's successor Harlan Page Amen (p. 1895–1913) solidified Exeter's mission as
1036-494: A serialized film in 1920 and 1921. In 1928, he published a book of reminiscences, The World Does Move . He illustrated the books of others, including a 1933 reprint of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , as well as his own. Tarkington was an unabashed Midwestern regionalist and set much of his fiction in his native Indiana . His style has been compared to that of Mark Twain and William Dean Howells . Much of Tarkington's work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of
1110-401: A teacher and a group of students work together, exchanging ideas and information in a seminar setting. In November 1930, Harkness gave Exeter $ 5.8 million (approximately $ 110 million in February 2024 dollars) to support this initiative. To support the more intensive teaching style, Exeter's faculty grew from 32 teachers in 1914 to 82 in 1946. In addition, through Harkness' largesse, the academy
1184-497: A top-ten spot at the National High School Mock Trial Championship. Close to 80% of students live in the dormitories, with the other 20% commuting from homes within a 30-mile (48 km) radius. Each residence hall has several faculty members and senior student proctors. There are check-in hours of 8:00 pm (for first- and second-year students), 9:00pm (for third years), and 10:00 pm (for seniors) during
1258-627: A total enrollment of 1,078 students. Exeter enrolls a racially and ethnically diverse student body; in the 2023–2024 school year, 56.0% of Exeter students identified as students of color . Of the 314 incoming students for the 2019–2020 school year, 52% previously attended U.S. public schools. In September 2023, the Exeter student body included students from 43 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and 38 countries. 8.0% of students are international students, and another 6.5% are U.S. citizens residing outside
1332-507: A variety of New England private schools such as Belmont Hill School , Berwick Academy , Deerfield Academy , Northfield Mount Hermon , Brewster Academy , Choate Rosemary Hall , Groton School , The Governor's Academy , Loomis Chaffee , Tabor Academy , Milton Academy , Avon Old Farms , Worcester Academy , Cushing Academy , and various other northeastern prep and boarding schools. The academy has over 100 clubs listed. The number of functioning and reputable clubs fluctuates; several of
1406-792: A whiff of social criticism—he or she is not going to please later readers of inevitably different values and concerns. In 2004, author and critic Thomas Mallon noted: "Entirely absent from most current histories of American writing, Tarkington was generally scorned by those published just before or after his death." In 2019, Robert Gottlieb wrote that Tarkington "dwindled into America's most distinguished hack." Gottlieb criticized Tarkington's anti-modernist perspective, "his deeply rooted, unappeasable need to look longingly backward, an impulse that goes beyond nostalgia," for preventing him from "producing so little of real substance." Mallon wrote of Tarkington that "only general ignorance of his work has kept him from being pressed into contemporary service as
1480-536: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Booth Tarkington Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner , John Updike , and Colson Whitehead . In
1554-430: Is worth 11 points and an E is worth 0 points. The academy's student-teacher ratio is 6:1, and 93% of Exeter faculty have postgraduate degrees. Students who attend Exeter for four years are required to take courses in the arts, classical or modern languages, computer science, English, health & human development, history, mathematics, religion, and science. Most students receive an English diploma, but students who take
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#17328802436481628-625: The COVID-19 pandemic . Exeter has admitted students on a need-blind basis since 2021. It previously adopted a need-blind admissions policy from 2006 to 2009, but was forced to abandon the policy due to the 2007–2008 financial crisis . In the 2023–2024 school year, 13% of the students were legacy students . In the 2023–2024 school year, Exeter enrolled 206 freshmen (in academy jargon, "juniors" or "preps"), 264 sophomores ("lower middlers" or "lowers"), 285 juniors ("upper middlers" or "uppers"), and 323 seniors and postgraduates ("seniors" and "PGs"), for
1702-483: The Ivy Club . Wilson returned to Princeton as a member of the political science faculty shortly before Tarkington departed; they maintained contact throughout Wilson's life. Tarkington failed to earn his undergraduate A.B. because of missing a single course in the classics. Nevertheless, his place within campus society was already determined, and he was voted "most popular" by the class of 1893. Many aspects of Tarkington's Princeton years and adult life were paralleled by
1776-468: The Nobel Prize . Phillips Exeter Academy was established in 1781 by John and Elizabeth Phillips , prominent citizens of Exeter, New Hampshire. It is the nation's sixth-oldest boarding school. John Phillips had earned degrees from Harvard College and came to Exeter as a young man in 1741, initially as a teacher. He made his fortune as a merchant and banker, and gained influence over time as an advisor to
1850-835: The Penrod series, On Moonlight Bay (1951) and its sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1954), with Doris Day and Gordon MacRae . Phillips Exeter Academy Exeter is one of the nation's wealthiest boarding schools, with a financial endowment of $ 1.5 billion as of June 2023 and the world's largest high school library . The academy admits students on a need-blind basis and offers free tuition to students with family incomes under $ 125,000. Its list of notable alumni includes U.S. President Franklin Pierce , U.S. Senator Daniel Webster , Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg , and three winners of
1924-498: The U.S. Constitution , left $ 1,000 to Exeter to teach sacred music . The academy's first schoolhouse, the First Academy Building, was built on a site on Tan Lane in 1783, and today stands not far from its original location. The building was dedicated on February 20, 1783, the same day that the school's first Preceptor, William Woodbridge , was chosen by John Phillips. Exeter's Deed of Gift, written by John Phillips at
1998-463: The 15-year period from 1914 to 1928, seven of his novels ranked among the top ten best-selling books of the year: Penrod (1914), The Turmoil (#1 best seller of 1915), Seventeen (#1 best seller of 1916), Gentle Julia (1922), The Midlander (1924), The Plutocrat (1927) and Claire Ambler (1928). He produced both of his Pulitzer Prize -winning novels during the same period. Two of his novels achieved longer-term commercial success. Penrod
2072-573: The 1910s and 1920s he was considered the United States' greatest living author. Several of his stories were adapted to film. During the first quarter of the 20th century, Tarkington, along with Meredith Nicholson , George Ade , and James Whitcomb Riley helped to create a Golden Age of literature in Indiana . Booth Tarkington served one term in the Indiana House of Representatives , was critical of
2146-716: The 2021-22 school year, Exeter reported total assets of $ 1.91 billion, net assets of $ 1.71 billion, investment holdings of $ 1.22 billion, and cash holdings of $ 242.6 million. Exeter also reported $ 124.0 million in program service expenses and $ 25.3 million in grants (primarily student financial aid ). Exeter offers 65 interscholastic sports teams at the varsity and junior varsity level, 27 intramural sports teams, and various fitness classes. All students are required to participate in athletics. Basketball, water polo, wrestling, swimming, cycling, soccer, squash, cross country, crew , and ice hockey teams have won recent New England championships. Exeter has graduated multiple elite athletes in
2220-520: The 20th century, criteria for U.S. college and university admissions evolved to include more meritocratic considerations and an emphasis on wider demographic factors. Exeter reports that while 10 or more students attended seven of the eight Ivy League colleges (ex. Dartmouth) and MIT between the years 2022-24, 10 or more students also attended Boston College , Bowdoin , GWU , Georgetown , NYU , Northeastern , Tufts , UChicago , USC , and Wesleyan . Exeter uses an 11-point grading system, in which an A
2294-548: The American class system and its foibles. Themes of the nouveau riche and upward social mobility appear frequently in his books. While Tarkington never earned a college degree, he was accorded many awards recognizing and honoring his skills and accomplishments as an author. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice, in 1919 and 1922, for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams . Other achievements include: Tarkington's honorary degrees included an A.M. and
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2368-848: The Chinese government that the students were becoming Americanized. Lewis Perry was appointed principal in 1914 and ran the academy until 1946. Although his early years were marked by grave financial difficulties, including a $ 200,000 bill to rebuild the Academy Building (destroyed by fire five months into Perry's administration) and the disruption of World War I , he had a "talent for getting wealthy men to part with their money." A professional fundraiser, he did not teach classes; instead, he "spen[t] much time away from school spreading Exeter's fame and obtaining endowments." Exeter's endowment increased ninefold during his tenure. In 1936, Exeter boasted an $ 8 million endowment for roughly 700 students, making it
2442-1262: The Foreign Studies Program began. Exeter offers the Washington Intern Program, where students intern in the office of a senator or congressional representative. Exeter also participates in the Milton Academy Mountain School program, which allows students to study in a small rural setting in Vershire, Vermont . The academy currently sponsors trimester-long foreign study programs in Grenoble , Tema , Tokyo , Saint Petersburg , Stratford-upon-Avon , Eleuthera , Taichung , Göttingen , Rome , Cuenca , and Callan ; as well as school-year abroad programs in Beijing, Rennes , Viterbo , and Zaragoza . The academy also offers foreign language summer programs in France, Japan, Spain, and Taiwan. Exeter typically accepts from 14-16% of applicants annually, including 16% in 2023. The admission rate briefly dropped to 10% during
2516-556: The General Manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2020. Exeter's main athletic rival is Phillips Academy, Andover. The two schools have been competing against each other in both baseball and football since 1878 (in those first games, Exeter defeated Andover 12–0 in baseball, while Andover won the football game, 22-0). Today, Exeter-Andover weekend is still a large tradition in both schools. Other athletic opponents include
2590-540: The Harkness Method, including the Harkness Table, are now used in many independent schools around the world. The Class of 2023's average combined SAT score was 1434 (713 reading, 721 math). Although Exeter does not offer AP courses, its students may take AP exams if they wish; the Class of 2023's pass rate was 94%. During the tenure of Exeter's tenth principal, Richard W. Day , the Washington Intern Program and
2664-776: The PEAN, which is the academy's yearbook. Exeter also has the oldest surviving secondary school society, the Golden Branch (founded in 1818), a society for public speaking, inspired by PEA's Rhetorical Society of 1807–1820. Now known as the Daniel Webster Debate Society, these groups served as America's first secondary school organization for oratory . The Model UN club has won the "Best Small Delegation" award at HMUN . Exeter's Mock Trial Association, founded by attorney and historian Walter Stahr, has since 2011 claimed seventeen individual titles, five all-around state titles, and
2738-437: The United States. Most Exeter students (79%) live on campus. The remaining 21% are day students who commute to Exeter from nearby communities. In the 2023–2024 school year, Exeter charged boarding students $ 64,789 and day students $ 50,604, plus other mandatory and optional fees. 44% of Exeter students are on financial aid , which covers, on average, $ 56,251 for boarders and $ 36,353 for day students. Exeter and Andover are
2812-484: The academy's coeducational status, a new gender-inclusive Latin inscription Hic Quaerite Pueri Puellaeque Virtutem et Scientiam ("Here, boys and girls, seek goodness and knowledge") was added over the main entrance to the Academy Building. This new inscription augments the original one— Huc Venite, Pueri, ut Viri Sitis ("Come hither boys so that ye may become men"). In 1999, 55% of incoming Exeter students came from public schools. On January 25, 2019, William K. Rawson
2886-526: The advent of automobiles, and set many of his stories in the Midwest. He eventually moved to Kennebunkport, Maine , where he continued his life work even as he suffered a loss of vision. He is often cited as an example of an author a great success when alive, whose reputation and influence did not survive his death. Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, Indiana , on July 29, 1869, the son of John S. Tarkington,
2960-491: The basement of Phillips Church in late 2015 brought criticism to the Academy. An in-depth investigation uncovered sexual misconduct that had occurred at Exeter since the 1970s and involved at least 11 members of the faculty and staff. The report harshly criticized the school for not supporting victims when they reported incidents and for a pattern of not including these allegations in faculty members' files. In April 2016, Exeter hired
3034-604: The club's Shakespearean spoof Katherine , one of the first three productions in the Triangle's history written and produced by students. Tarkington established the Triangle tradition, still alive today, of producing students' plays. Tarkington returned to the Triangle stage as Cassius in the 1893 production of a play he co-authored, The Honorable Julius Caesar . He edited Princeton's Nassau Literary Magazine , known more recently as The Nassau Lit . While an undergraduate, he socialized with Woodrow Wilson , an associate graduate member of
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3108-477: The colleges of their choice. From 1953 to 1963, the percentage of Exeter graduates admitted to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton declined by a third, from 67% to 42%. Faced with a decline in applicants, the academy responded by broadening its student body. In 1969, Exeter stopped requiring students to attend a weekly religious service. In 1970, it became coeducational; it later appointed its first female principal ( Kendra Stearns O'Donnell ) in 1987. In 1996, to reflect
3182-791: The colonial governor, circuit court judge, elected representative, and senior militia officer in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. In 1778, he supported his nephew, Samuel Phillips Jr. , financially when the latter founded Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts , about 40 miles distant. As result of this original family relationship, the two schools share a friendly and historic rivalry . John Phillips stipulated in Exeter's founding charter that it would "ever be equally open to youth of requisite qualifications from every quarter." The new academy benefited from donors besides John Phillips. Phillips had previously been married to Sarah Gilman,
3256-489: The corresponding number was 67% for the entire academy. From 1879 to 1881, Exeter (and several other schools) participated in the Chinese Educational Mission , hosting students from Qing China who were sent to the United States to learn about Western technology. However, all students were recalled after just 2 years due to mounting tensions between the United States and China, as well as growing concern within
3330-487: The early 2000s. Most classes at Exeter are taught seminar-style around Harkness Tables with no more than 10-12 students per class period. No classrooms have rows of desks or chairs, and lectures are uncommon. The completion of the Phelps Science Center in 2001 enabled all science classes, which previously had been taught in more conventional classrooms, to be conducted around the same Harkness Tables. Elements of
3404-467: The first of Princeton's historic eating clubs . He had also been in a short-lived eating club called "Ye Plug and Ulster," which became Colonial Club . He was active as an actor and served as president of Princeton's Dramatic Association, which later became the Triangle Club , of which he was a founding member according to Triangle's official history. Tarkington made his first acting appearance in
3478-430: The founding of the school, states that Exeter's mission is to instill in its students both goodness and knowledge: "Above all, it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care; well considering that though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form
3552-523: The full series of Latin and Ancient Greek classes receive a Classical diploma. Although Exeter administrators helped originate the Advanced Placement program, Exeter no longer offers AP courses, asserting that some of its courses "go well beyond the AP curriculum" and often reach "the pace and level of college courses." Exeter was one of the first private schools to begin phasing out AP classes, starting in
3626-418: The later life of another writer, fellow Princetonian F. Scott Fitzgerald . Tarkington's first successful novel was The Gentleman from Indiana (1899). In 1902–1903, he served one term as a Republican member of the Indiana House of Representatives , an experience reflected in his 1905 short story collection, In The Arena. As a novelist, Tarkington was both prolific and commercially successful. During
3700-516: The later twentieth century, however, he was ignored in academia: no congresses, no society, no journal of Tarkington Studies. In 1981, The Avenue (Penguin) Companion to English and American Literature described him as "the epitome of the middle-brow American novelist." In 1985, he was cited as an example of the great discrepancy possible between an author's fame when alive and oblivion later. According to this view, if an author succeeds at pleasing his or her contemporaries—and Tarkington's works have not
3774-472: The listed clubs on the website do not hold tables on Club Night. The Exonian is the school's weekly newspaper. It is the oldest continuously running preparatory school newspaper in the United States, having begun publishing in 1878. Recently, The Exonian began online publication. The Exonian has been a finalist for a National Pacemaker Award several times, winning in 2007. Other long-established clubs include ESSO, which focuses on social service outreach, and
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#17328802436483848-548: The more beautifully named " phaetons " and "surreys"—but also something far beyond that. Dreiser , his exact Indiana contemporary, might look at the Model T and see wage slaves in need of unions and sit-down strikes; Tarkington saw pollution, and a filthy tampering with human nature itself. "No one could have dreamed that our town was to be utterly destroyed," he wrote in The World Does Move . His important novels are all marked by
3922-455: The noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind." In the early 1800s, a deep religious divide opened up between Unitarian Harvard and Calvinist Yale. As a result, Unitarian-friendly Exeter developed a closer relationship with Harvard and Calvinist-friendly Andover with Yale. Although originally, most Exeter graduates did not go on to further formal education (as with most 18th and 19th Century secondary schools),
3996-470: The ones that did placed at Harvard in substantial numbers. From 1846 to 1870, Exeter supplanted Boston Latin School as Harvard's largest feeder school, supplying 16% of all Harvard students during that period. In the latter half of the 19th century, graduates of Exeter and the now-defunct Adams Academy of Quincy, Massachusetts were "dominant socially" on Harvard Yard. Exeter's first recorded minority student
4070-521: The only two co-educational prep schools in the United States that both admit students on a need-blind basis and offer financial aid that covers 100% of demonstrated financial need for every admitted student. Since 2008, Exeter has also guaranteed free tuition for families with incomes under a certain threshold, initially set at $ 75,000. In 2024, Exeter raised the threshold to $ 125,000. Exeter's financial endowment stands at $ 1.5 billion as of June 30, 2023. In its Internal Revenue Service filings for
4144-739: The past few decades. For example, crew Olympians include Anne Marden '76, Rajanya Shah '92, Sabrina Kolker '98, and Andréanne Morin '02. Georgia Gould is an Olympic medalist in mountain biking, while Joy Fahrenkrog is a member of the United States Archery Team. Duncan Robinson plays for the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association . Tom Cavanagh played in the National Hockey League . Sam Fuld played 8 years of Major League Baseball , and became
4218-477: The religious service of their choice was required of students until 1969, after which religion at Exeter stagnated until it was revived by a new approach "as concerned with the religious dimension of all of our lives as it is with the particular religious needs of any one of us." A renovation of Phillips Church, completed in 2002, provided spaces for worship and meditation for students of diverse religious persuasions. An incident of student misconduct that occurred in
4292-485: The richest boarding school in New England in both absolute and per capita terms. Perry used the money to improve student quality of life, expand access for the underrepresented, and build a more cohesive and higher-achieving student body. Under Perry's leadership, Exeter was able to provide housing for all its students for the first time. Perry also adopted a policy that scholarship students should comprise at least 20% of
4366-418: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Cameo Kirby . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cameo_Kirby&oldid=842392259 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
4440-450: The school educated 725 boys. Despite Perry's reforms, Exeter retained a certain informality, which was reflected in the school's "unwritten code that there were no rules at the academy until you broke one." Expelled alumni include the journalist David Lamb and the writer and editor George Plimpton . Perry's largest financial windfall came on April 9, 1930, when philanthropist and oil magnate Edward Harkness wrote to Perry to propose
4514-602: The soul-killing effects of smoke and asphalt and speed, and even in Seventeen , Willie Baxter fantasizes about winning Miss Pratt by the rescue of precious little Flopit from an automobile's rushing wheels. In June 2019, the Library of America published Booth Tarkington: Novels & Stories , collecting The Magnificent Ambersons , Alice Adams , and In the Arena: Stories of Political Life . Two film musicals were loosely based on
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#17328802436484588-411: The student body. He imposed greater restrictions on students' after-class activities, culminating in the abolition of fraternities in 1940. Perhaps counterintuitively, these restrictions limited the number of disciplinary cases and helped students improve their academics. From 1922 to 1931, the number of students expelled or asked to leave for academic reasons declined from 136 to 40. When Perry retired,
4662-425: The testing grounds for the Advanced Placement program, and in 1957, it produced 11 of the 30 incoming Harvard students with enough AP credit to enter as sophomores. In addition, in 1963 Exeter produced 73 National Merit Scholarship finalists, the most in the nation. However, elite universities relentlessly pushed Exeter to tighten academic standards even further, as Harvard's appetite for Exeter graduates meant that
4736-644: The theatre, and his contributions as a Midwesterner and "son of Indiana" in its Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre. Tarkington died on May 19, 1946, aged 76, in his home in Indianapolis. He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery . In the 1910s and 1920s, Tarkington was regarded as "the most important and lasting writer of his generation", perhaps as important as Mark Twain . His works were reprinted many times, were often on best-seller lists, won many prizes, and were adapted into other media. Penrod and its two sequels were regular birthday presents for bookish boys. By
4810-421: The top cut of Exeter students did not reflect the full breadth of the academy's contingent at Harvard. (In 1955, Harvard admitted 79% of applicants from Exeter and Andover; by contrast, in 1957, 30% of recent Exeter graduates made the dean's list at Harvard, compared to 40% for the entire freshman class. ) Due to a surge of applicants from public schools, Exeter students no longer enjoyed near-automatic admission to
4884-487: The wealthy widow of Phillips' cousin, Nathaniel Gilman, whose large fortune, bequeathed to Phillips, enabled him to endow the academy. The Gilman family also donated to the academy much of the land on which it stands, including the initial 1793 grant by New Hampshire Governor John Taylor Gilman of the Yard, the oldest part of campus; the academy's first class in 1783 included seven Gilmans. In 1814, Nicholas Gilman , signer of
4958-557: The weekdays and 11:00 pm on Saturday night. Religious life on campus is supported by the Religious Services Department, which provides a vintage stone chapel and a full-service ministry for the spiritual needs of students. The chapel was originally built in 1895 and has been updated. It accommodates worship for "twelve religious traditions including Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Quaker, Buddhist, Catholic among others" as well as Secular Humanism. Weekly attendance at
5032-518: Was Moses Uriah Hall, a young Black man, who entered the Academy in 1858, served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and was known for many years as a skilled stonemason and businessman in nearby Epping, New Hampshire . Exeter's official records indicate that six years later, five White students from a border state, Kentucky, threatened to leave the Academy because another young Black man had enrolled as
5106-472: Was a trustee of the John Herron Art Institute . He made a gift of some his papers to Princeton, his alma mater, and his wife Susannah, who survived him by over 20 years, made a separate gift of his remaining papers to Colby College after his death. Purdue University's library holds many of his works in its Special Collection's Indiana Collection. Indianapolis commemorates his impact on literature and
5180-614: Was able to avoid cutting faculty salaries during the Great Depression , making it a rarity among boarding schools. Since 1930, Exeter's principal mode of instruction has been by discussion, "seminar style," around an oval table known as the Harkness Table . Today, all classes are taught using this method, with no more than 12 students per class. William Saltonstall '24 (p. 1946-63) succeeded Perry and continued Perry's successful fundraising record. He began his tenure by completing
5254-416: Was appointed by the academy's trustees as the 16th Principal Instructor. He is the fourth alumnus of Exeter to serve as Principal, after Gideon Lane Soule (1838–1873), Harlan Amen (1895–1913), and William Saltonstall (1946–1963). In 2021, Rawson announced that Exeter would adopt a need-blind admissions policy, following a $ 90 million fundraising campaign to support financial aid. In the later half of
5328-628: Was involved in adapting his fiction for the stage. Her prosperous Indiana banking family is thought to be the model for certain characters in Tarkington's writing. Tarkington's second marriage was to Susanah Keifer Robinson in 1912. They had no children. Tarkington began losing his eyesight in the 1920s. He continued producing his works by dictating to his secretary Elizabeth Trotter . Despite his failing eyesight, between 1928 and 1940 he edited several historical novels by his Kennebunkport , Maine , neighbor Kenneth Roberts , who described Tarkington as
5402-422: Was one of a select group of novels that sold more than 750,000 copies during the period 1895–1975, according to Publishers Weekly book sales data from that period. At one time, his Penrod series was as well known as Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain . Seventeen , a coming-of-age story, sold some 1.7 million copies during the 1895–1975 period. Although written for an adult audience, it came to be regarded as
5476-603: Was well known as a sailor, and his schooner, the Regina , survived him. Regina was moored next to Tarkington's boathouse, The Floats , which he also used as his studio. His extensively renovated studio is now the Kennebunkport Maritime Museum. It was from his home in Maine that he and his wife Susannah established their relation with nearby Colby College . Tarkington took a close interest in fine art and collectibles and
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