Francis W. Sweeney

virtual exhibit fall 2004 - burns library

Prior to the inauguration of the Humanities Series, Sweeney invited speakers to give talks under the auspices of the Stylus. However, the direct forerunner of the Humanities Series was the David B. Steinman Visiting Poets Series. This was a year-long lecture series that ran in the 1957-1958 academic year and was administered by Sweeney. It was made possible by a sizeable financial gift by engineer David Steinman. The lecturers that year included T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost and Ogden Nash. Admission to the lectures was free of charge. Steinman was only able to finance the lecture series for a single year. Sweeney had to seek funds to continue the lecture series from Boston College, alumni, friends and from a modest admissions fee. The series was renamed the "Humanities Series," reflecting a broadening of speakers to include writers from disciplines in addition to poetry. Speakers have included poets, novelists, dramatists, theologians, historians, classicists, and actors. The Humanities Series was inaugurated on October 2, 1958, when the Pulitzer-prize winning poet and historian Peter Viereck gave a lecture entitled the "The Unadjusted Man."

Here Sweeney is pictured at a post-lecture reception with Irish writer Sir Shane Leslie and Stylus editor Joseph Appleyard (Class of 1953). The lecture was held on January 8, 1953 in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the magazine.