| Formation | 1910; 115 years ago (1910) |
|---|---|
| Founder | John Erskine |
| Founded at | Columbia University |
| Dissolved | 1970s |
| Type | Student |
| Purpose | Poetry |
| Headquarters | Columbia University |
| Location | |
Key people | Lewis Mumford,Kenneth Burke,Alfred A. Knopf Sr.,Randolph Bourne,Irwin Edman,Whittaker Chambers,Louis Zukofsky,Lionel Trilling,John Berryman,Daniel Hoffman,John Hollander,Allen Ginsberg,Terrence McNally |
| Affiliations | Columbia Review |
TheBoar's Head Society (1910[1][2] – 1970s) was a studentconversazione society devoted to poetry atColumbia University. It was an "adjunct to Columbia College'sPhilolexian Society... The purpose of their new society was entirely creative: reading and commenting on each other's works."[3]
Boar's Head Well On Way:
Club Hears Noted Critic
Tuesday night in the Commons, Boar's Head, a new literary club formed among the university students interested in literature, listened to a talk given byClayton Hamilton, dramatic critic onThe Bookman. This was the third meeting of the new club and about forty students were present. It is the idea of ProfessorErskine, of the English Department and other professors, that Boar's Head will develop into an active literary club. Membership will not be restricted, and any man in the University who is interested in writing or any form of literature may become a member by handing his name to L. Frank '12. At every meeting of the club prominent literary men in New York City will discuss questions of importance. Mr Hamilton last night, spoke on the poetry ofAlfred Noyes interpolating many readings. The gathering was strictly informal, the members afterward conversing with the speaker and asking him questions. The name of the club, Boar's Head, will be recalled as the old-time inn whenFalstaff made merry over his glass of ale. So, it is the desire of the professors that the club members may gather around a table at the meeting and comfort the inner man while at the same time entering into literary and social discussion.[4]
John Erskine, English professor, formed the society. This connected the society through him to Columbia's student literary magazine,The Morningside Review (founded first as theLiterary Monthly in 1815, renamed by Erskine in 1898, and renamed theColumbia Review in 1932).[5] In 1931, it claimed to be the only organization on campus "devoted exclusively to poetry."[6]
The society seems to have started during the 1909–1910 academic schoolyear, as in November 1909 it sponsored theatrical productions ofShakespeare'sComedy of Errors andOscar Wilde'sAn Ideal Husband.[7]
The society also held annual literary competitions and then published winners in the magazine. Competition judges includedWilliam Carlos Williams (andLionel Trilling[8]). Winners includedJohn Berryman,Terrence McNally,John Hollander, andAllen Ginsberg.[5]
At some point, the magazine took over the competition from the society.[9]
Student members included:
The April 1935 issue of theColumbia Review,Lionel Trilling wrote "Boar's Heart: 25 Years" andMark Van Doren wrote a "Note on Poetry".[2]
In 2006, Hoffman reminisced, "When I returned to Columbia after the Second World War, I joined the Boar's Head Society, which was a little group of poets. In those days, colleges didn't like poets to do anything, so we ponied up the hundred bucks and invited him" (W. H. Auden).[19]
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