¹ Sections of Parker's article, such as that identifying the names of the first 40 members, have been omitted, and many of his quotations from newspapers have been briefed. For complete documentation of the beginnings one should consult his original piece. Other important sources, aside from those mentioned, are a collection of expositions (some now out of print) on various aspects of the Association: “Organization for Research in the MLA,” by a Committee of Seven, 1933; “Language Study in American Education,” prepared for the Commission on Trends in Education by Charles C. Fries, et al., 1940; “Literature in American Education,” for the Commission on Trends, by Howard F. Lowry, et al., 1943 (reptd. PMLA, Dec. 1950); “The English Language in American Education,” for the Commission on Trends, by Thomas C. Pollock, et al., 1945; “Serial Bibliographies in the MLA Field,” by John H. Fisher, (PMLA, April 1951); “The Aims, Methods, and Materials of Research in the Modern Languages and Literatures,” by the Committee on Research Activities (PMLA, Oct. 1952); MLA Group Projects, 1921-55,“ by John H. Fisher (PMLA, Sept. 1955); the Constitution and Bylaws, in their various changes; and the annual reports of the Commission on Trends (PMLA).

² Hamilton Hall, called by the students Anthon Hall after the famous classical scholar Charles Anthon (1797-1867), was erected in 1879. It was abandoned, as were other old sites and buildings, when the university moved to Morningside Heights in 1897.

³ The newspaper coverage of the meeting was surprisingly large and most of it was serious. Von Jagemann, 40 years later, spoke of “facetious editorials” (“a prominent New York paper among others suggested that the Modern Languages would probably include Choctaw”), but we fail to find these references and wonder if he was remembering a later year.

For our account of the meeting we have drawn upon stories in the following periodicals: Albany Argus, 28 Dec, p. 1, 29 Dec, p. 2; Baltimore Sun, 28 Dec, back page; Boston Evening Traveller, 28 Dec, p. 4; Philadelphia Inquirer, 28 Dec, 29 Dec; Providence Journal, 28 Dec, 29 Dec; Nation, 3 Jan. 1884, p. 14; and the following New York papers: Daily Graphic, 28 Dec, pp. 430, 434; Daily Tribune, 28 Dec, p. 5, 29 Dec, p. 5, 30 Dec, p. 6 (editorial); Evening Post, 28 Dec. p. 1; Evening Telegram, 27 Dec, 4th ed., p. 4, 28 Dec, 4th ed., p. 1; Star, 28 Dec, p. 2, 29 Dec, p. 2; Sun, 28 Dec, p. 1, 29 Dec, p. 2; Times, 28 Dec, p. 2, 29 Dec, p. 8. No account of the meeting was found in appropriate issues of the Atlantic, Boston Evening Transcript and Globe, Century, Chicago Tribune, Education, Harper's, or St. Louis Post Dispatch.

⁴ President Barnard's remarks were noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times and Daily Tribune. Hereafter whenever possible, information sources will be indicated parenthetically in the text; Proceedings throughout refer to Proceedings of the MLA. Barnard, earlier in his career (e.g., in 1885) had been an active defender of the classical curriculum, had even recommended that modern languages be omitted in order to allow concentration on the “eminently disciplinary and inestimably valuable study of Latin and Greek,” but eventually he changed his mind. By 1866 he was advocating substitution of modern languages for ancient languages in preparatory courses and the postponement of Latin and Greek until college.

⁵ Not surprisingly because Carey Thomas was, throughout her long, impressive life, so determined to make Bryn Mawr as good as the best men's colleges and not another “female seminary.” She had studied at Cornell (B.A., 1877), had got permission to study for the A.M. at Johns Hopkins “without class attendance,” and had gone abroad to earn a Ph.D. at Zurich summa cum laude (1882). She joined the MLA as a professor from Bryn Mawr before this college actually opened (1885). Her colleague Hermann Collitz (MLA President in 1925) did not join until 1886. She was not, surprisingly, the first woman to publish an article in PMLA; this was L. Mary McLean (California), in 1891 with “The Riming System of Alexander Pope.”

⁶ Bendelari, Boyesen, Brandt, Cohn, von Jagemann, Lutz, Ringer, and Worman were all foreign-born (von Jagemann had come to the United States in 1881), as were Carus and Kroeh (if they may be included); and so, probably, were Huss and Stager, about whom biographical information is difficult to find. Despite the point made by the Inquirer's reporter, it is interesting to note that America has continued to employ, to a far greater extent than any other country, modern language teachers of foreign birth and training—and this also despite our emphasis upon reading rather than speaking skill. The practice has undoubtedly reflected and influenced public attitudes toward the study of foreign languages.

⁷ According to surveys published in the 1884 and 1885 Proceedings, in the 20 institutions known to have been represented at the first meeting, 39 faculty members were in English, 66 in foreign languages, in 1884; 43 in English, 71 in foreign languages, in 1885. The largest modern language departments were at Harvard (15), Columbia (10), Yale (9), St. Louis (8), Michigan, Vanderbilt, and Hopkins (7 each). By 1889 Harvard had 13 teachers of English, 10 of foreign languages.

⁸ “From 1876 to 1880 Marshall Elliott had borne the entire burden of the Romance department [at Hopkins], graduate and undergraduate. In 1879-80 he taught 16 hours per week, whereas Gildersleeve, in Greek, never taught more than five hours” (William Kurrelmeyer, Proceedings, LIX, 1944, 1352). Elliott's remarks at the first convention doubtless struck a responsive chord in Whiting Bancroft at Brown, who had been ill during 1883 from overwork; his reports show that he had had to read and correct about 125 essays and orations monthly, some of considerable length, in addition to all his classroom work in rhetoric and English literature.

⁹ The English and German departments at Hopkins had been combined during 1882-83, with Wood as head (his title changed to Associate in German, 1884).

¹⁰ Cf. the direct quotation in the Star: “We can never succeed in introducing the modern languages until they are made to take rank as a solid study, in the same spirit that the student approaches the study of Greek and Latin; but, as it is now, the modern language is considered by the student the ‘soft snap.‘ It is necessary therefore to make them more difficult.” The Dictionary of Americanisms (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1951) traces “soft snap” to Johnson J. Hooper's The Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1845).

¹¹ Taking note of the “persistent tradition” that the MLA was “created. Eve-like, by taking a rib out of the older” American Philological Association, Carleton Brown in 1933 pointed out that, of the 40 persons who signed the MLA Constitution in 1884, only 13 were APA members and 3 others actually joined the APA in 1885. The 13 were: Boyesen, Brandt, Carter, Elliott, Hewett, von Jage-mann, Lutz, O'Connor, Primer, Stengel, Wells, White, and Williams.

¹² “For more than two centuries, there was nothing ‘higher’ about American ‘higher education’… It must be recalled that the old-time professors did little research, and were viewed as advanced pedagogues in a society which accorded small respect to teachers in general. The need for real universities, with research facilities, was expressed by many from the 1790's on but with no results until after 1870… as the fame of Paris and of German universities spread after 1820, one critic after another declared that our colleges were only gymnasia…. The explanation of American delays in founding universities may be found in several circumstances: (1) conservative devotion to ‘general education’ and the values of ‘college life’; (2) the poverty of colleges which had no funds for advanced work even if they desired it; and (3) the indifference felt by ‘practical’ Americans for abstract studies of ‘pure’ science. Similar indifference or opposition flourished in England, whence this country had inherited the college ideal… [But after 1870] the achievements of German research were becoming more obvious, and, in addition, more applicable to technology, agriculture, and medicine. Such values could be appreciated by the most practical of peoples” (Richard H. Shryock, “The Academic Profession in the United States,” Bulletin of the AAUP, xxxviii (Spring 1952), 38-40).

¹³ The Germanic influence on American scholarship and on American university (and subsequently, college) teaching has been often remarked. Not so easy to assess is the influence of English thinking, at this same period, about liberal and scientific education. Two days after the first MLA meeting, the New York Daily Tribune noted editorially: “A few days ago the question of establishing

a Modern Language ‘Tripos,‘ or examination, came up in Cambridge University, England, and the proposition was defeated. The majority against it, however, was so slender that the friends of the measure are confident that they will before long gain a victory. The incident marks a great change of sentiment in England on the subject of education. Greek and Latin have long ceased to be regarded as the sole basis of a liberal education, and Cambridge University itself is the best possible witness that mathematics at least must be considered on a level with the dead languages in the scheme of modern education. Natural Science, too, has gained a firm and enduring footing both at Cambridge and Oxford.“ In 1881 Napier had been appointed Professor of English at Oxford. See C. C. Gillispie, ”English Ideas of the University in the 19th Century,“ The Modern University, ed. M. Clapp (Ithaca, N.Y., 1950), pp. 46 ff.

¹⁴ The period between Christmas and New Year's Day was already, in 1883, a favored time for conventions. While the MLA was in the process of being founded, the Ohio Liquor Dealers were perfecting a state organization (to protest taxes), the Freethinkers (about 300 delegates) were convening at Salamanca in upstate New York, and the American Society of Professors of Dancing was thinking conservative thoughts in Philadelphia. Elsewhere in New York City, representatives of 8 eastern colleges were holding a conference on intercollegiate sports, purposing to keep future games “within the bounds of manly exercises rather than professional encounters.”

¹⁵ In colleges and universities the fickle friend of modern language study has been the elective system, which gained general acceptance after Eliot's reforms at Harvard in the 1870's. When it was introduced very early —and with little influence elsewhere—at William and Mary (1779) and the University of Virginia (1825) modern languages immediately achieved recognition at these institutions. When the elective system was accepted more or less generally, modern languages first crowded out the classics, and then encountered competition from an ever-increasing number of new subjects and courses. How to justify the expenditure of such a disproportionate amount of time on only one subject in a besieged curriculum— when we must so often say of the subject's product that he has not had enough time?

¹⁶ The abbreviation “M.L.A.” for the Modern Language Association is recognized in the 1909 edition of Webster's (New) International Dictionary (for which Percy W. Long did the editorial work), and it has appeared in all subsequent editions, as well as in the “Collegiate.”

¹⁷ High school teachers of English and of foreign languages have never been denied MLA membership, but the major concerns of the Association, and the nature of PMLA, have encouraged only a few to join. The “AAT” organizations, on the other hand, campaign for members in secondary education, and their membership figures reflect this broader interest. The American Association of

Teachers of Spanish currently has over 5,000 individual members (2,058 fifteen years ago); the French AAT, about 5,000; the German AAT, 1,675; the Italian AAT, 650; the Slavic and East European AAT, more than 500—total 12,825. Membership in the National Council of Teachers of English, which (unlike the College English Association, 1,500) recruits members from elementary and secondary education, totals 43,000.

¹⁸ J. F. Wellemeyer, ACLS staff expert on personnel resources, noted in June 1953 that by 1960 we shall need in American colleges and universities approximately 2,400 additional (i.e., not including replacements) English teachers and 1,900 additional foreign language teachers. Between now and 1970, the informed guess is: 10,500 additional English teachers, 8,500 foreign language teachers. This last figure is, of course, subject to revision upward if the demand for foreign language instruction increases, as the FL Program trusts it will. In any case, the recruitment and adequate training of these additional people, to say nothing of normal replacements, constitute one of the major problems facing the profession. The reader should keep it in mind as he reads the paragraphs that follow.

¹⁹ He was president in 1913. In 1904 he said: “Notwithstanding certain suggestions in our present constitution, our Association is an organization not only of investigators, but, I might say, primarily of teachers. As a matter of fact, semi-official regret has been repeatedly expressed that not more of our secondary teachers are among our active members and I, for one, certainly share this feeling. To maintain, however, that every secondary teacher, yea even every college instructor could or should be an original investigator is either a naïve delusion concerning the actual status of our educational system or, what is more dangerous, it is based on a mechanical and superficial interpretation of the terms ‘original scholarship’ or ‘research work.‘… We can easily imagine how much, in the early history of the Association, the repression of narrowly methodological interests was needed. We feel deeply grateful to those who, in this struggle for supremacy, held high the banner of learning and ultimately won the day. The legitimate question now, however, seems to be whether the swing of the pendulum has not carried us too far. With our present strength as a strictly scholarly body assured, can and should we not give some more attention than we now do, to the broader educational and practical interests of our profession? Has the ideal of productive scholarship as yet taken root so little that we fear it will suffer and die unless surrounded by the walls of a high protective tariff? We know that this is not the case. The exclusiveness which once, no doubt, was the part of wisdom and has helped to make us strong, is now the part of timidity or of superciliousness and deprives us of the fulness of the influence which we could wield” (Proceedings, xix, xxxi-xxxvii). Hohlfeld was president of the Central Division when he made the plea; Kittredge was president of the parent organization.

²⁰ As the profession (and the MLA with it) expanded numerically, along with steadily rising college enrollments, the old “systems” of making either major or minor staff appointments (based largely on personal acquaintance, however limited, or on traditional ties between institutions) began to break down. Most chairmen of English or foreign language departments were reluctant, however, to turn to “teachers' agencies,” and almost none could bring themselves to advertise vacancies in the British way; so the MLA meetings, despite all pretensions to the contrary, became more and more (in the phrase of the unhappy younger participants) a “slave market.” See amelioration of this noted on p. 42.

²¹ The Association's debt of gratitude to New York University is very great. Probably no other learned society can boast so generous a host institution. The headquarters offices (including light, heat, janitor service, etc.) have been supplied rent-free since 1928. At present the executive secretary and treasurer are full-time faculty members, on full-time salaries, with “half” of their time formally released to the Association. At a conservative estimate NYU thus supports the MLA each year to the extent of d $15,000. The Association's present offices (since 26 March 1952) are as commodious, attractive, and conveniently located as those of any other learned organization. Not incidentally, LeRoy E. Kimball, NYU Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, was managing trustee of the MLA 1922-1955.

²² The information concerning Manly's reforms is excerpted from John H. Fisher's article, “MLA Group Projects, 1921-55.”

²³ For a survey of “American Linguistics, 1925-1950,” see the article so entitled by Robert A. Hall, Jr., Archivum Linguisticum, iii (1951), 101-125, iv, 1-16.

²⁴ For brief summary of his accomplishment in halving footnotes over a 10-year period, see the FMO note “Doctor Parker,” PMLA, LXXII (March 1957), i.

²⁵ (1) Journal of the History of Ideas, (2) American Literature and American Quarterly, (3) Kenyon Review, (4) Journal of Comparative Literature.

²⁶ (1) One recalls Lovejoy's Great Chain of Being, and the works of Marjorie Nicolson, Perry Miller, Douglas Bush; (2) The Literary History of the United States, by Spiller, et. al.; (3) The Theory of Literature, by Wellek and Warren; Understanding Poetry, by Brooks and Warren; (4) Mimesis, by Eric Auerbach, the works of Gilbert Chi-nard, Fernand Baldensperger, Mario Praz, et al.

²⁷ The three functions of the MLA central office are managerial, editorial, and financial. All policy matters, by stipulation of the Constitution and Bylaws, emanate from the elected executive council, which employs the secretary to carry them out, and the treasurer to handle all aspects of the financing of them. Permanent funds are placed in the hands of a group of managing trustees for investment. To aid in his managerial and editorial functions, the secretary has three assistants, each with definite responsibilities for three nerve centers of Association activity: operational, Mrs. Macmillan (program for annual meeting, MSS flow for PMLA, preparations for executive council meetings, scheduling for book contests, secretarial work, etc.); editorial, Mrs. Lindemann (copy-editing of all PMLA articles, compilation of “Research in Progress,” preparation of editorial aids, the operational features of the Faculty Exchange, secretarial work, etc.); special projects, Mrs. Decker (liaison with the Cooperative English Program, coordination of research for special aspects of the FL Program, for the PMLA anniversary issue, and other projects as they arise, secretarial work, etc.). The treasurer, Dr. Allan F. Hubbell, has three assistants: financial, Miss Olson (deposits, bookkeeping, advertising, purchasing, etc.); membership records, Mrs. Sperling (posting, listing, correspondence, maintenance); correspondence and general assistance, Miss Jalbert. Three Special Programs are integrated in the secretary's office: FL Program, the director of which, Dr. Kenneth W. Mildenberger, is assisted by Mrs. Martin (correspondence, records, files), and Mrs. Chao (secretarial work, mailings, special areas), and Mrs. Decker (liaison with special projects); Annual Bibliography, Bibliographer, Paul A. Brown: operational center, Temple University; Cooperative English Program (as yet incompletely financed), the director of which, Professor A. H. Marckwardt, is assisted by Mrs. Marilyn Seward. The last operation is part of a decentralization of MLA activity located as it is at the University of Michigan, but with close liaison with the New York office.