Chapter & Verse

Wayles Brown seeks to locate a story about a boy of English and Hindu parentage who encounters the word “Eurasian” and asks his...

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.

Most popular

The Harvard Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Why Men Are Falling Behind in Education, Employment, and Health

Can new approaches to education address a growing gender gap?

Mark Carney on the Limits of Soft Power

At the 2026 Davos summit, the Canadian prime minister echoes Harvard’s Joseph Nye.

Explore More From Current Issue

An axolotl with a pale body and pink frilly gills, looking directly at the viewer.

Regenerative Biology’s Baby Steps

What axolotl salamanders could teach us about limb regrowth

Evolutionary progression from primates to humans in a colorful illustration.

Why Humans Walk on Two Legs

Research highlights our evolutionary ancestors’ unique pelvis.

A silhouette of a person stands before glowing domes in a red, rocky landscape at sunset.

Getting to Mars (for Real)

Humans have been dreaming of living on the Red Planet for decades. Harvard researchers are on the case.