Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer

Signet society

The Signet Society's Mission

In many ways, the Signet is distinct from other off-campus societies. In contrast to the Harvard Lampoon, it does not publish a regular journal, although its members are active in the various undergraduate publications, and a contemporary Signet class usually includes a large number of board members from the University's artistic and literary organizations, especially the Harvard Advocate. In contrast to the Final Clubs, its mission is artistic and not simply social, and, in addition, the Signet admits both men and women without prejudice. Membership dues are required, but are pro-rated relative to financial aid status to allow talented members of the University community to apply. In contrast to both abovementioned groups, the Signet enjoys a relatively happy relationship with the University administration. The contemporary tenor of the Signet might be described as a relaxed liberalism; open competition between members is discouraged. The mandate of the Signet has broadened from literary arts alone to include music, the visual arts and theater.

The opening remarks of the Signet's minutes state: "On Tuesday evening, November 1, 1870, a meeting was held at 10 Grays Hall preliminary to the organization of a senior society, which was to afford to a select number a pleasant means of intercourse with each other, not to be expected from the illiberal policy of the only society of reputation existing." This "illiberal policy" refers to the displeasure with which the founders of the Signet greeted the established Final Clubs. These first members formed the society's admissions criteria to transcend the social politics that they perceived as dominating in the Final Club system.

To distinguish the Signet from other exclusive organizations, the founding members stated in the original charter that members would be chosen according to "merit and accomplishment." Today, those membership criteria are still present in the club's constitution mandating that members "shall be chosen with regard to their intellectual, literary and artistic ability and achievements." While these categories weigh heavily in the put-up process (admissions process), social character is also a crucial variable.

Architecture

Signet Society, 46 Dunster Street

Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson (building) and Pierre LaRose (heraldic crest). (Early 20th c., Renovation of an 1820 Federal Style structure.) Architectural historian Douglass Shand-Tucci includes an in-depth discussion of Signet's building in his history of Harvard's campus, relating the oddity that a firm known for its preeminence in Gothic Revival was utilized to renovate an 1820s Federal Style house. Regarding its distinctive features, Shand-Tucci writes t is in feeling wildly Baroque (of all things) welcome touch of flamboyance for what would otherwise have been a rather staid clubhouse for the Signet the graphic quality of Cram & Goodhue and LaRose new frontspiece is actually rather reminiscent of book design (not to mention the Palladianism of several Tory Row mansions), and centers on a two story pedimented Ionic pavilion displaying the Signet arms. The design concept- cavalier enough, but very successfuliscloses another guise of history-making in Harvard architecture: to restore the house, not as it originally was, but in LaRose words, as it ught to have been. Thus the architectural solecism of the two orders of the porchhe Doric columns and Ionic pilastersas retained. (p.92, "The Campus Guide: Harvard University", Princeton Architectural Press ISBN 1568982801)

Traditions

The emblem of the Signet was, at one time, "a signet-ring inclosing a nettle," the signet-ring symbolizing unity and the nettle symbolizing impartiality. The current emblem, which appears over the door of the Signet, includes a beehive and bees, and a legend in Ancient Greek. Another motto, attributed to Virgil, read Sic vos non vobis Mellificatis apes -- So do you bees make honey, not for yourselves. From this comes the tradition of referring to Signet members as "drones."

Although the Signet eschews, to an extent, some initiation procedures or rituals more common to some of Harvard's Final Clubs or the Lampoon, one enduring tradition is that upon induction into the Signet Society, each new member receives a red rose. The rose is to be kept, dried, and returned to the Signet Society upon the publication of the member's first substantial literary work. Many dried roses hang on the walls of the Signet next to copies of the works that occasioned their return. Particularly noteworthy is T.S. Eliot's rose, which hangs along with his original letter of acceptance to the society.

Secrecy

The Signet is considered by its members to be a "semi-secret" society at Harvard, owing to the opaque nature of its selection process, avoidance of publicly fully listing who its members are, and discretion. Its existence is not mentioned in official University publicity, and applicants to the society usually first come by word of mouth. It has a longstanding and informal reciprocal relationship with the Elizabethan Club, or 'Lizzie' of Yale University, and the two organizations sporadically hold a lawn croquet tournament, for which a handled and engraved silver pudding cup in a mahogany case serves as the trophy. Another tradition has been that some business letters sent between the Signet and Lizzie over the decades and archived at Yale were written in Latin, not English. An alumni corporation administers the property, staff, and endowment.

Some notable members

Arts and letters

James Agee, novelist, screenwriter, poet, author

Conrad Aiken, author

John Ashbery, poet, writer

John Berendt, writer

Andy Borowitz, writer, comedian, actor

Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor

Earl Derr Biggers, novelist and playwright

T. S. Eliot, poet, author

Robert Frost, poet

Matt Haimovitz, cellist

Donald Hall, poet

Mason Hammond, Classics scholar

Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Harvard President, historian

Yo-Yo Ma, cellist

Norman Mailer, writer

Sarah Manguso, poet

Samuel Eliot Morison, author, educator, maritime historian, retired Rear Admiral

Charles Eliot Norton, scholar

George Plimpton, writer, journalist

George Santayana, philosopher, poet, novelist

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., historian

Wallace Stevens, poet

John Updike, writer

John Hall Wheelock, poet

Journalism

Frank Rich, critic, writer

Walter Isaacson

Hendrick Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker

Joseph Lelyveld, journalist, author

Reihan Salam

Alessandra Stanley, critic, writer

Richard Tofel, journalist, author

Media and entertainment

Tommy Lee Jones, actor

Rashida Jones, actress

John Lithgow, actor

Donal Logue, actor

Conan O'Brien, former talk show host

Natalie Portman, actress

James "Toofer" Spurlock, fictional character on television show 30 Rock

Whit Stillman, writer-director

Tom Werner, producer, Red Sox co-owner

Alan "Scooter" Zackheim, reality show winner Beauty and the Geek

Sciences

James B. Conant, scholar, chemist

Charles W. Eliot, Harvard President, chemist, mathematician

William James, psychologist and philosopher

Thomas Kuhn, philosopher

Andrew Weil, author, physician, established field of integrative medicine

Diplomacy, national security

Charles Joseph Bonaparte, grandson of Jrme Bonaparte (youngest brother of Emperor Napoleon I), United States Cabinet Member, and Signet Society's first president.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

President Theodore Roosevelt

Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense

Benazir Bhutto, late Prime Minister of Pakistan

Politics

Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senator from New York

Jay Rockefeller, U.S. Senator from West Virginia

William Weld, former Massachusetts Governor

Mark Penn, pollster, author

References

Signet Society Website

Documents relating to the Yale Elizabethan Club's organization and activities include correspondence, some written in Latin, with the Signet Society and are viewable through the online Yale Manuscripts and Archives Collection:

Birnbach, Lisa The Official Preppy Handbook, mentions Signet

Categories: Harvard University | 1870 establishmentsHidden categories: NPOV disputes from April 2009

About the Author

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At whose house was the party where Norman Mailer attacked Gore Vidal?

In 1977 in Los Angeles, Norman Mailer physically assaulted Gore Vidal at a party of a prominent L.A. socialite. After the assault, Vidal reportedly said "Once again, words fail Norman". Does anyone know at whose house this incident occured?

Mailer threw a drink at Vidal—and punched him—at Lally Weymouth's home.

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Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal Feud on the Dick Cavett Show