“写《十大菠菜台子》的教授辞职:伯洛伊特学院院长否认审查”- 芝加哥论坛报1920年3月21日.

这位教授就是玛丽昂·H. 篱笆, a young man of diminutive stature and outsized personality. 他的小说, 铁的城市, damaged relationships between the college and city powerbrokers, provoked the resignation of a beloved professor, 这激怒了或取悦了蜂拥到城里书店买书的巴黎人. 最后, 篱笆, voted by students the college’s most popular professor, would leave Beloit in disgrace and never teach again.

铁城绿金色书皮

马里昂对冲, a DePauw University graduate from Winamac, 印第安纳州, 1913年，年仅25岁的他开始在伯洛伊特大学教授英语和新闻. He quickly immersed himself in college activities, 陪同学生聚会, bowling and playing tennis with fellow faculty, founding a new campus literary society, and organizing a local chapter of the journalistic fraternity Sigma Delta Chi. 他为学院写宣传小册子，并为当地报纸写专栏. But he began to gain notoriety with his co-founding of the “William Morris Club,” a branch of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, 当他似乎很自在地与学生讨论校园问题时，他并没有受到大学建制派的喜爱.

马里昂对冲

虽然赫奇斯经常在文学杂志上发表文章，但他有更大的抱负. While a keen observer of day-to-day life at the college, he also studied Beloit history and society, especially the struggles of working-class people, 其中很多是移民, 在当地工厂辛苦工作. 他想写一部小说，描写一所思想保守的大学的封闭，描写工厂老板和工人之间的紧张关系，导致罢工和工会的瓦解, 同时也描述了一个年轻大学教师的成长和幻灭. He employed Beloit and himself as fodder for 铁的城市. 十大菠菜台子 became Crandon Hill College. Beloit Iron Works became Crandon Hill Iron Works. Fairbanks-Morse and Company became R. 斯蒂尔和儿子. And 马里昂对冲 became the novel’s hero, John Cosmus.

1910年左右的费尔班克斯·莫尔斯明信片

Literary critic Randolph Bourne wrote to Boni & Liveright, 勇于冒险的出版商, later famous for being the first to publish Faulkner, 海明威, 弗洛伊德, 和E. E. 卡明斯，还有其他人. “铁的城市 is the strongest first novel I have ever read,伯恩说, “and I consider it to be one of the few really great American novels.“博尼 & 利弗莱特接受了这部小说，并于1919年9月出版了它，得到了普遍好评，人们经常吹捧作者在文学上的美好未来.

两年前, Melvin Brannon had become the third president of 十大菠菜台子, 接替爱德华·德怀特·伊顿. Unlike his two clergyman predecessors, 布兰农是一位科学家和行政人员，他创立了“渐进式”课程改革, including semi-professional and pre-vocational programs. To a young radical like 马里昂对冲, Brannon’s statement that “a reasonable liberalism, 正确地引导, is essential for the world’s progress” was a welcome change.

篱笆 gave the president an advance copy of 铁的城市，布兰农称赞道 贝洛伊特每日新闻: “[铁的城市 这是一次勇敢而直接的攻击，针对大学教育无法对世界产生动态影响的问题吗. 除非我们能采取一种开放的政策来密切讨论这些存在于所有人的思想和心灵中的事情, we may as well write failure on the door of the entrance of civilization.”

在标题下，“教授. 篱笆 is Author of Strong Novel,” the paper announced 铁的 出版之前，书到达了当地的商店，并提供了作者的评论. “In 铁的城市,赫奇斯宣称, “I have embodied the results of ten years’ study of American life, and it is this background of national culture against which the story moves.”

He left unsaid that he had used Beloit as his model. Once Beloiters began to read the novel, 他们认得人, 的地方, 和事件, 有时讽刺, 更常见的是串起来吃. 例如, 克兰登希尔学院校长, 休·克兰, was a dead ringer for former 十大菠菜台子 president, Eaton: “He was the dominating figure in Crandon Hill life. 他长得高高的，方方正正，机警，灰白的头发和小胡子，举止文雅. 他的脸已经失去了, 如果它曾经占有过它, anything of ministerial look; it wore an expression of calculating shrewdness…” 篱笆 didn’t leave it at that, 添加, “克兰登总统似乎完全怀疑一个想法……头脑一定是一个向内开放的仓库。, 因为从来没有什么想法出来过. 科斯摩斯常想, 如果一个想法可以被正确地性别化, 穿着洁净的细麻衣, 并在下午茶上展示, or at a meeting of the board of trustees, 那么克兰登可能会接受, especially if it appeared with proper references… The old, the tried, the well-bred—these must be the custom of the college…”

罗伯特·K教授. 理查森, 他从1901年开始在伯洛伊特教授历史，深受几代学生的喜爱, considered himself a member of the “old guard,” which 篱笆 believed was stodgy and out of touch. While on leave that semester, 理查森 read 铁的城市 and noted: “Some of my own private conversation [with 篱笆] is repeated.他还透露，小说中的一个场景非常像一个真实的地方:“就连挂在房间里的画也被准确地描述了出来。.最激怒理查森的肯定是赫奇斯对克兰登·希尔学院历史教授的描述, Charles Henry Clarke: “Of all his colleagues, Clarke stuck Cosmus as the strangest specimen of the academic mind; he always 虽然t of him as a medieval Tory, if there were Tories in the middle ages. The psychology of Clarke was beyond his comprehension. How he could daily interpret the radicals of the past, and daily reject the radicals of the present, Cosmus看不见. 在科斯摩斯看来，克拉克似乎认为中世纪是一种乌托邦，人类像螃蟹一样向前迈进.”

理查森对小说和布兰农对小说的赞扬的反应是递交辞呈. Many of his longtime colleagues sympathized. 宗教教授约翰·皮特·迪恩写道:“……我不必说我对此深感失望. You know that I have always found 篱笆 stimulating and have believed in him. 尽管我知道他对教会和大多数社会机构都不耐烦. 我把这归因于他对穷人和弱势群体的热切关注……我知道这可能是有目的的, 可能是为了弄松什么东西, 强迫思考. 但是，他对当地情况和与他有专业关系的人的拙劣模仿和讽刺又有什么借口呢?”

德高望重的教授阿尔蒙. 伯尔代表他的“保守派”同胞说:“我们正在经受住铁城带来的风暴. 它深深地影响了伯洛伊特，疏远了学院的一些最好的朋友. 我至今仍对此深感愤慨. I call it crude, cruel, crass and carnal. I would not have this author teach another day in Beloit.”

布兰农和董事会拒绝了理查森的辞呈，他在伯洛伊特大学又教了30年书.

后 铁的 出版, President Brannon felt heat from Beloit citizens, including powerful men from the city’s major industries, 其中包括阿朗佐·奥尔德里奇, 伯洛伊特铁厂的总裁, a manufacturer of paper making machinery. 奥尔德里奇反映了商界对学院窝藏马里恩·赫奇斯(马里昂对冲)等激进分子的失望:“大多数学院现在都与教师员工建立了联系, agitators that are as dangerous as any Bolsheviki or I.W.W. in the country; in fact, I think, more so, because they are genteel and therefore more insidious. I feel that every college should sever their connection with all such men as Mr. 对冲……我认为这是所有学院的基本和特殊业务，也是课程的一部分，应该得到强调, 是美国主义的教学吗, 爱国主义, 和忠诚……”

布兰农回答说, 提到作者对学院的价值，以及学生们把他选为最受欢迎的教授. 他后来形容赫奇斯是“伯洛伊特学院最鼓舞人心的老师之一”, 不仅如此, 在美国几乎没有对手.奥尔德里奇对此不屑一顾:“‘最受欢迎的人’的投票并没有打动我。, 也许只是作为一个警告. You know some of our most noted rascals were models in gentility and suavity.”

马里恩·赫奇斯一定意识到，他的小说主人公约翰·科斯莫斯的命运，可能就是他自己的命运. 而约翰·科斯莫斯的社会排斥和随后的“解雇”预示了赫奇斯的下场, the author clearly believed he had something vital and worthwhile to say in 铁的城市. 当他写到约翰·科斯谟时, 对他来说，正义的胜利似乎比自己身体的舒适更重要,” 篱笆 likely provided a clue to his own character. The Board of Trustees accepted his resignation at their April 1920 meeting. 布兰农告诉 圆桌 他有多后悔失去了赫奇斯，报纸称赞他是“少有的人之一”, 最好称之为实践理想主义者.” Brannon also denied to the press that the resignation had anything to do with 铁的城市.

然而, 在后来的岁月里, 马里昂·赫奇斯坚持认为他被赶了出去，并被列入了黑名单，再也不能教书了. He left Beloit for a position as special editorial writer for the 明尼苏达每日星报是一份激进的自由劳工报纸. 根据1940年的一篇文章 贝洛伊特每日新闻, 赫奇斯离开时, 当了7年的教师，只有一个坚定的朋友在车站为他和他的家人送行.”

篱笆 pursued a varied and intriguing career after leaving the classroom. For a time, he continued his literary work, even publishing a second novel, 丹自助餐厅, in 1928. 他的激情, 虽然, 继续进行劳动改革, and from 1924 until his retirement 30 years later, he was an active trade unionist and labor lobbyist. 23年来，他一直担任《真人国际菠菜》的监督编辑。 电工杂志, and was the IBEW director of research. 他于1959年去世.

1919年版的 铁的城市 is available to read online at the Internet Archive, Hathi信托数字图书馆, 在谷歌图书. In 1994, 十大菠菜台子 Press republished 铁的城市 and included two introductions about 篱笆, the literary and historical value of his work, 以及围绕它的争议.