Well House Reader

What did generations of Indiana University students think about their years on campus—the faculty, courses, administration, pressing social issues, and each other? Through student writings and art featured in The Well House Reader, the Bloomington campus across the years vividly and sometimes whimsically comes to life.Featuring selections from more than 150 years of student writing, The Well House Reader, edited Donald J. Gray, demonstrates how students voiced their views and opinions through their contributions to campus magazines and yearbooks. From the use of satiric couplets to ridicule university president Cyrus Nutt in 1872, parody and caricature to mock the Ku Klux Klan in 1924, and long form essays to complain about the university administration in the 1960s, IU students always made their opinions clear. They wrote burlesques to mock their teachers, essays to honor them, and short stories about the satisfaction and sadness of graduation and departure from their beloved alma mater. Poignant and revealing, The Well House Reader offers unforgettable glimpses of Indiana University through the eyes and experiences of its students across the decades.

"The heart of every university is its students, and yet too often their voices are lost when a school's history is told. Don Gray's The Well House Reader corrects this silence by offering reflections on IU by famous and little-known alumni.  In it, Gray offers a rich diversity of student voices from 1895 to the present day, giving the reader a glimpse of Indiana University's story as told by over a century of its students."—Paul Gutjahr, Ruth N. Halls Professor of English, Indiana University"Here is a fascinating, students'-eye-view of life, love, and learning at Indiana University Bloomington over the past century and a half. By turns comic and romantic, lyrical and satirical, these student writings carry us through the tree-shaded campus, to Dunn Meadow for protests, to the Well House for courtship, to the Book Nook for music, to a limestone quarry for skinny dipping, and to other favorite haunts—even, occasionally, to classrooms for enlightenment. The selections also register the impact of greater social upheavals, such as the two world wars and the struggle for racial and gender equality. Meticulously edited by renowned English professor Donald Gray, this anthology will come as a gift to anyone who has spent memorable time in this place."—Scott Russell Sanders, author of Small Marvels"Culbertson Professor of English Donald J. Gray is the perfect IU Historian to collect, edit, and present student essays, both humorous and serious, from the 1800's to today. This book provides the reader with a unique understanding of events and traditions that make Indiana University the special place it is.  A must read for anyone with a connection to IU."—J. Terry Clapacs, Vice President Emeritus, Indiana University"The Well House Reader gathers an eclectic mix of collegiate writing, providing unique perspectives on the evolving culture of Indiana's flagship campus. Selected by English professor and literary scholar Donald Gray, a sensitive observer of IU student behavior since the 1950s, the book engages themes such as student identities, friendship and romance, faculty stereotypes, politics and protests, and meditations on time's passing. A singular contribution to IU history, The Well House Reader furnishes a treasury of student lore as well as a survey of university heritage."—James H. Capshew, University Historian, Indiana University

Donald J. Gray is Culbertson Professor of English Emeritus at Indiana University. He has served as editor of College English and Victorian Studies. At Indiana University, Professor Gray received the university's Distinguished Teaching Award, its Distinguished Service Award, the President's Medal of Excellence, and the Bicentennial Medal for his distinguished service to the university.