Jarvis of Harvard

Boston, Massachusetts: L. C. Page & Company, 1901. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good. Robert Edwards. x, [2], 403, [13] pages. Some page soiling and staining. Cover has some wear and soiling. Gift inscription ("Sincerely, the Doctor") on the front free endpaper. Includes six full page black and white illustrations. The author states that his purpose in writing this book was simply to tell a story. In the course of that endeavor he has tried merely to show--what should, at any rate, be generally understood--that American college life, not only at Harvard but at all the larger places of learning, is in no great respect different from life outside of those institutions. It is governed by the same laws and offers corresponding rewards. Upon graduating from Harvard in 1900, Reginald moved to Philadelphia with his first wife, Ellen, and one child. In 1911, in his introduction to The Girl That Goes Wrong, Reginald refers to having lived in a great many places both in the US and Europe. He and his wife barely supported themselves by writing sporadically for periodicals and newspapers. Always willing to move where the work was, Reginald held the post of Editor of the Bangor Maine Daily News. And, only recently, it was discovered that he was an accredited correspondent with the United States Navy, and a member of La Société Académique d'Histoire. Reginald Wright Kauffman went on to write numerous books, some of which were made into movie screenplays. And, although difficult to pin down, it's said that some of his books, although fiction, refer to locations in and around Harvard, Boston, Columbia and New York City. Turn-of-century novel of life at Harvard. "He created a literary panic, divided a university, shocked one public and delighted another. ... It is a sorry thing to hurt one's college, and I should be sorry had I hurt that which was, however briefly, mine. No hurt was intended; none, I think, occurred." - from the Preface by author to the St Botolph Edition. This is the debut novel by noted Pennsylvania author and socialist journalist, perhaps best known for the anti-prostitution novel House Of Bondage.

Robert Edwards (October 4, 1879 - November 2, 1948) was an American artist, musician, and writer, and a prominent figure among New York City's Greenwich Village in the 1920s and '30s. He was editor and publisher of the Greenwich Village Quill, and was known as the "Bard of Bohemia" and the "Village Troubadour" for his many songs he wrote and sang publicly. Edwards was born in Buffalo, New York in 1879, and in 1901 graduated from Harvard University, where he was editor of the Harvard Lampoon. He studied at the Art Students' League in Buffalo and New York City, the Chase School, and the Eric Pape and Cowles Art Schools in Boston. He became a member of the Society of Illustrators in 1910, and his illustrations appeared in books by Mary Stewart Cutting, Alice MacGowan, and Corra Harris, as well as magazines such as Putnam's Monthly and the Quill, of which he became editor in 1921.