Beaucoup de Benfey Turn a page in any thoughtful periodical these days and you may see the name of Weissman Center codirector Christopher Benfey. Recent reviews and articles by the Mount Holyoke literary and cultural critic include a piece in the December 3 “Holiday Books” issue of the New York Times Book Review on best art-book buys for the holidays; a November 5 review in that same publication of a new biography of the legendary nineteenth-century American actress Charlotte Cushman; an exuberant piece in the December issue of Travel & Leisure, “Searching for Nirvana”—retracing the footsteps of Henry Adams through nineteenth-century Japan; and an appraisal of the short stories and novels of J. F. Powers in the Times Literary Supplement in October.

Mary Lyon Meets the Internet United States Trek, an American history, culture, and current-event Web site geared toward kindergarten through twelfth-graders, features a piece on “Mary Lyon's Fight for Women's Education.” Included are images from Mount Holyoke's archives and links to College Web sites. It is noted in the article that “Mount Holyoke broke the barrier that had prevented women from studying in universities, and by the end of the century, many more women's colleges had popped up … Other schools incorporated Mount Holyoke's progressive views into their own systems.” Peter Carini, director of archives and special collections, was interviewed by site representatives for the piece. Read all about it at http://www.ustrek.org/odyssey/semester1/111800/111800tedholyoke.html.

Smith's President Not the Only Women's College Leader Popular at Brown The November-December issue of Brown University's alumni magazine features a profile of former MHC president Mary Woolley, whom the publication describes as a “social, political, and academic reformer.”

Busy Biographer “God's Guerrilla,” an essay about the Quaker and early abolitionist Benjamin Lay, by Elizabeth Lloyd Kimbrell, assistant to the vice president for enrollment and College relations, is part of the Southern Poverty Law Center's middle/high school education program, “A Place at the Table.” In addition, her biographical “miniatures”—on Alcuin, Bede, Chaucer, Ion [John] Gardner, Margery Kempe, and Queen Anne of Bohemia—appear in volume 2 of Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery (published by the Gale Group).