Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Wayles Brown seeks to locate a story about a boy of English and Hindu parentage who encounters the word “Eurasian” and asks his teachers what it means. They say evasively that he will understand when he is older, but he should never forget that Jesus loves him.

Joe Walsh hopes that someone can identify the poem in which a gentian is described as being “a deep and hurtful blue.” D.H. Lawrence may be the poet, he notes, “but neither ‘Bavarian Gentians’ nor anything else I can find contains that phrase.”

“British whodunit [and] Bradshaw” (July-August). Bettina Arnold was the first of several readers to suggest The Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy Sayers; although Bradshaw is not specifically mentioned, Nicholas Puner confirms that novel as the one he was seeking. He thanks Ruth Mandalian and those who suggested Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, Mike Halpern and others who suggested Sir John Magill’s Last Journey and additional works by Freeman Wills Croft, and James Durham, who suggested The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers.

Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138.

You might also like

Historic Humor

University Archives to preserve Harvard Lampoon materials

Academia’s Absence from Homelessness

“The lack of dedicated research funding in this area is a major, major problem.”

The Enterprise Research Campus, Part Two

Tishman Speyer signals readiness to pursue approval for second phase of commercial development.  

Most popular

Claudine Gay in First Post-Presidency Appearance

At Morning Prayers, speaks of resilience and the unknown

Harvard Committee Recommends Banning Clubs

Membership in any and all unrecognized student social organizations would be prohibited.

Writing Crime into Race

Historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad studies one of the most powerful ideas in the American imagination.

More to explore

Exploring Political Tribalism and American Politics

Mina Cikara explores how political tribalism feeds the American bipartisan divide.

Private Equity in Medicine and the Quality of Care

Hundreds of U.S. hospitals are owned by private equity firms—does monetizing medicine affect the quality of care?

Construction on Commercial Enterprise Research Campus in Allston

Construction on Harvard’s commercial enterprise research campus and new theater in Allston