wishes of most of his church members, on the ground that another man could better meet the desires and creeds of the minority. His greatest passion, next to reading and preaching, was that of angling, and no vacation went by that did not find him on some northern lake or river speculating on the outcome of a day's fishing or luxuriating in the beauty of nature all about him. Not long before Mr. Fiske's death, after forty years in the Congregational ministry, his son, who was commonly his fishing companion, published the following sonnet in his first book as a tribute to the sportsman's spirit and the generous lifepurposes of his father and comrade: A FISHERMAN "And I will make you fishers of men" The quiet lake 'neath evening's level light And thy true preacher's work has come again, Thou searchest for the good in every breast, Horace Spencer Fiske, who established this prize in memory of his father, came to the University of Chicago as a lecturer on English Literature in the Extension Division in the year 1894. In 1903 he became Assistant Recorder of the University and so served until 1912, when he entered the Publication Department of the University of Chicago Press. He was editor of the University Record from 1903 until 1914, and associate editor of the University of Chicago Magazine from 1908 to 1914. Mr. Fiske's interest in art and literature is well known to all members of the University. He is a trustee of the Eagle's Nest Camp Association at Oregon, Illinois, an association of artists and authors. He is the author of The Ballad of Manila Bay and Other Verses, Provincial Types in American Fiction, Chicago in Picture and Poetry, Poems on the University of Chicago, In Stratford and the Plays, and Ballads of Peace and War, as well as a contributor to numerous anthologies. The establishment of the John Billings Fiske Prize in Poetry was announced in the April, 1919, number of the University Record. The conditions of the contest are generous. The donor desires that contributions be received from a member of any school or college of the University. There is no limitation as to length, subject, or form. Each contestant is required to submit a typewritten contribution signed with a pseudonym. Sealed within an accompanying envelope is a card bearing the pseudonym, the name of the contribution, and the name and address of the contributor. These envelopes are not opened until after the judges have reached their decision. In the future it is proposed that the poems submitted in the contest shall not have been published and the prize poem shall be first printed in the Report of the Committee of Award in the official publication of the University of Chicago, the University Record. The Report of the Committee of Award, submitted through the chairman, Professor John M. Manly, Head of the Department of English, is as follows: As chairman ex officio of the Committee for awarding the John Billings Fiske Prize for the best poem submitted by a member of the University, I have the honor to report as follows: First of all, the committee wishes to express its pleasure in finding that the contest has produced so large a number of poems of fine quality. Not more than seven of the fifty submitted were found seriously lacking in technical competence or genuine poetic thought. On the other hand, there were at least half a dozen, to any one of which the committee would gladly have awarded even so important a prize as this; and there were as many more which barely failed to reach the high quality of the first half-dozen. Approximately fifty poems or groups of poems were submitted for the competition. The poems were read separately by the members of the committee-Mr. Henry B. Fuller, Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, and myself—and a meeting was then held to compare conclusions and award the prize. On the suggestion of Mr. Masters, each member of the committee, without consultation with the others, wrote on a slip of paper the title of the poem which in his opinion best deserved the prize. When these slips were read, it was found that all contained the same title. The poem chosen is entitled "Li Sien," submitted with the pseudonym "Anne Mary Lyman." Today, March 10, I have for the first time opened the envelope accompanying the poem to ascertain the true name of the writer. It is both amusing and a trifle embarrassing to find that this is Marian E. Manly. Had I known that any person named Manly was among the contestants, I should have requested to be relieved from serving on the committee, but until the present moment, when I opened the envelope, I was not aware that such a person existed here or elsewhere in the world as Marian E. Manly. Although only one prize can be awarded, the committee feels that the following poems are of so high a quality as to deserve especial mention: 1. A poem entitled "A Man Walks in the Wind," by Maurice Leseman. 2. A group of poems entitled "Of Certain Days," by Janet Loxley Lewis. 3. Four poems entitled "The Cripple," "Defiance," "Captivity," and "Hunger Inn," by Jessica North. 4. A poem entitled "The Mute Singer," by Carroll Y. Belknap. 5. Three poems entitled "My Fellow-Student," "Commencement," and "To James Frank Burke," by Ruth R. Pearson. 6. A group of poems entitled "The Little Country," by Elizabeth Eleanor Madox Roberts. 7. A poem entitled "Ambition," by Karl Kroeck. 8. A poem entitled “April,” by Mary E. Quayle. Respectfully submitted on behalf of the committee, JOHN M. MANLY Chairman ex officio Anne Mary Lyman is the pen name of the winner of the prize in 1920Miss Marian Esther Manly, of Delaware, Ohio. Miss Manly was born in Chung King, Western China, where her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Manly, were and still are missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Board. Miss Manly lived in Chung King until she was thirteen years of age, when her parents returned to the United States on furlough and placed their daughter in the schools of Delaware, Ohio. After graduation from high school she remained in that city as a student of the Ohio Wesleyan University. In college she majored in biology but actually took more courses in English than in any other field. Twice she won the annual poetry prize of the Ohio Wesleyan University and once received the first award in the short-story contest. She received her degree of B.A. in 1919. In October of the same year she came to the University of Chicago as a graduate student, pursuing the regular course leading to the degree of M.D. She is a member of the Poetry Club of the University of Chicago. The prize poem Miss Manly began to write the day after Christmas and finished on the train when she was returning to the University for the Winter Quarter, 1920, the date for the receipt of poems in the competition. LI SIEN THE JOHN BILLINGS FISKE PRIZE POEM BY ANNE MARY LYMAN The story of Li Sien, a legend from the classics of China, I have tried to tell in rhythm approaching or suggesting the cadence of Chinese speech, when the old men recount many tales, bai-lung-mun-dzen, in the sleepy afternoons; a rhythm not so much made up of accent as of rise and fall of tone. A rather free blank verse is our nearest approach to its measure.-A. M. L. Li Sien, the courtesan (she whom men had named She clenched her hands, and unassuaging tears And Ching Yuen-ho a fortnight's journey gone! Its gilded tower; and where the Imperial City Gone with the sound of bells-her heart missed time When bells upon a bridle jingled past. Even in such wise he had come-and then The old reiterated tale unwound Pitilessly. His bridle rang with bells, With bells of silver. Out of the South he rode. In deep plum-purple satin, and brocade Of saffron. And as he came that way, men spoke |