1891 may be purchased at Kepler’s, Stanford Bookstore, B&N, Amazon.com or your local bookstore.

eventy nine year old, fledgling novelist, Jerry Franks, announced that the book he wrote, just published, 1891: A Novel about Stanford University, will be part of a four volume saga entitled, fittingly enough, The Stanford Saga.

Franks said, “I have finished six chapter of the second volume, 1892, and have pretty well mapped out the rest of the book which was easy because the first Stanford-Cal game took place in March of 1892 and Ernest Johnson, the only African American in the Class of 1895, enters the picture at the beginning of the second semester, so 1892 had significant historical developments with which I could work.

“The third volume, 1893, will be murkier because Senator Stanford will have died and the university will go through significant financial difficulties plus the country, in general, will suffer economic difficulties—the Pullman Strike and the Panic of 1893.

“The final volume, 1894-95, at the moment, is only a hazy concept. For those graduating in the Class of 1895, it must have been an unhappy experience, going from the frivolous pranks and an atmosphere of dreams of future success to the reality of a nation in an economic depression, without hope or jobs, facing a future back home or on bleak streets of San Francisco. Those remaining at the university also faced trying times, no money for salaries or even coal for the power station. Without benefit of prescience, the Saga will have end on a note of uncertainty for the very future of the university.

“Uncertainty will also apply to finishing a four volume saga in your eighties. In fact, taking an old joke further, if you really want to make God laugh, tell him you’re going to write a saga. Time will tell.”

This was brought home to Franks in the past year when he was diagnosed with CMML—a form of leukemia that probably won’t kill him, but may help something else do the job. Beyond that, just the realities of growing old will slow him up. His best hope is that younger writers will become interested in his project.

1891: A Novel about Stanford University is available at Kepler’s, Stanford Bookstore, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.

Stanford’s Inner Quad: Circa 1891

While reading my book, 1891: A Novel about Stanford University, I think it is important to realize that the campus of 1891 was not at all like it is today. Leslie Elliott, the first registrar and one of the main characters in the book, wrote in a descriptive pamphlet dated 1896 describing the Quad: “The first impression to visitors is usually disappointing. The plan provides for the erection of a second quadrangle entirely surrounding the first, with the building two stories in height, a connected arcade facing outward, and an imposing arch at the main entrance.” The arch was a monstrosity and by the grace of the 1906 earthquake was destroyed, but that is another matter.

Somewhere, I am not sure exactly where, a model of the proposed campus was built. I would guess in the foyer of the administrative office where prospective students and their parents could see it. I get the feeling that some of the inadequacies was caused by the imposing Gothic Halls and multi-storied buildings of University of California, across the bay.

The outer buildings and massive arch and other cheaply built buildings destroyed by the earthquake were added about 1899, some eight years after the opening of the university. All of this building took place after the financial problems of the university were solved, but I am getting way ahead of myself.

The important thing is that the years my novels portray were years of attempting to explain away their inadequacies.

Back to our tour. So after you have made your way through the Memorial Court, now dominated by statuary, I would suggest you should look for signs of where the original Quad was and where it was extended. Over the years, the signs have been pretty well masked over, but if you look at the wall just this side of the first building on the right, Building 110, with double doors, where the administrative office and president and registrar resided, you can see a jagged crack running from the ceiling, in front of the columns, to the floor. Also, if you look up at the ceiling, you will see that the new ceiling is about eighteen inches higher than the old. Also, it is constructed with lesser quality redwood. At least it doesn’t have the same sheen as the old. And, if you have read 1891 you know I am prejudiced against the Charles Lathrop, who probably controlled the new architect now assigned to the expansion.

Another interesting thing about the Inner Quad is that there are no ladies WCs. The two men’s, both of them are underground. Yes, underground. Out of sight, so that visitors would not think Stanford men and women had to go. The first underground will be on your left, between, what was then the library (#1 and 2) and math building (#10-15). On the other side of the statuary, more double doors for the library. The math building now houses the offices of the president. If you want to really go back to the 1891, walk down the steps to the urinals.  The plumbing is new, but the fixtures anc cubicles are mostly the originals. The other underground wc is across the way behind the last building at the southeast corner. I would think that the placement was to take care students who were taking shop courses at the buildings south of the Quad. This is the one, I always used and continue to use.

I have a story about this use that I thought was funny. I was downstairs, doing my duty and walking up the stairs ran into two young ladies walking down. Being the gallant, older gentlemen, I informed them that this was the men’s room. The two of them looked at me as if I were from outer space. “What was my problem?” I then realized that times have changed and so have the mores about men and women sharing toilet facilities. Oh, well.

Enough about the inner quad. I am sure I have gone into too much detail. Next will be Encina Hall.

Fledgling Novelist Takes on Daunting Subject: Stanford University  Jerry Franks, the novelist, seventy-nine years old, Stanford class of ’50, resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, is old enough that he should know better. When asked why he had decided to make the behemoth institution the setting for his first novel, Mr. Franks replied, “I saw a picture of the Memorial Church with a spire that fell during the 1906 earthquake and realized how little I knew about Stanford. Trips to the Green and Palo Alto Libraries convinced me there was material for a series of novels. I was hooked.”

Just published last month, 1891: A Novel about Stanford University is an ambitious retelling of the trials and tribulations faced in the early months by pioneering students, faculty, and administration.  Points of view are shared by Stanford’s first registrar, Orrin Leslie Elliott, and his wife, Ellen; a Jewish student; an ex-Army Captain who fought in the Indian Wars; and a young woman whose father was killed by agents of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

As to the potential popularity of the book, Mr. Franks was equivocal.  “Of course, I like it and love the characters. Friends and relatives tell me they enjoyed it. One Stanford fellow, a fact checker, said he could hardly wait for the sequel and the movie. He might have been kidding. The closest thing to an objective, critical evaluation was that the iUniverse evaluator, a Stanford alumna, thought it was fascinating. That’s not a word I would use, but I’ll take it.” Neither success nor failure will diminish Mr. Franks’ determination to complete the writing of his saga.  “I can’t let my characters down,” Mr. Franks said. “Their stories deserve to be told, particularly when I found out an African-American, Ernest Johnson, was a member of the Class of 1895. Can you imagine Ernest Johnson and President Herbert Hoover were members of the same class? I wonder if they knew one another. Even the thought of it, excites me.”

1891: A Novel about Stanford University is available at your local bookstore, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.com.

For more information you may contact Jerry Franks at jerryfranks@earthlink.net,  More information about 1891 and the author is available at http://home.earthlink.net/~jerryfranks or http://anovelaboutstanforduniversity.blog.com

I was putting the final touches to the first version of the novel I was writing about Stanford University (There would be countless more.) when I read the article about Ernest Johnson in the Stanford Magazine article for November/December of 2004. Ernest was the first and only African American to graduate from Stanford for the next fifty years. He got his AB in economics in 1895 and then studied law for the next two years without getting his degree. He contracted tuberculosis and died in February of 1898. Thus ended the life of an individual whom might have made significant contributions to the status of his fellow African Americans.

By the time I found out all this, it was too late to have him as a significant character in my first book, 1891: A Novel about Stanford University. The best I could do, during the novel, was to have David Starr Jordan refuse to acknowledge several letters from Beverly Johnson, Ernest’s father, which mentioned Mrs. Stanford recommendation. Dr. Jordan was justified to do this because no Negroes were being admitted. To my knowledge, this same policy referred to Jewish people. Although, several Japanese and later some Chinese were admitted. At the end of my novel, Mrs. Stanford insists, and Dr. Jordan demurs and tells his registrar, Orrin (Leslie) Elliott (One of my main characters) to send a letter of acceptance to Ernest for the second semester, beginning in February, and that is when Ernest will appear in my second novel, 1892.

This period of time was life threatening for African Americans. The number of lynchings reached its zenith. Any movement towards eliminating black crow laws was curtailed. Luckily, Ernest was raised in Sacramento and his persistent father was able to have him schooled in Anglo-Saxon schools. It is even more remarkable that Mrs. Stanford took that much of an interest in his education.

The article in the Stanford Magazine indicates that UC-Berkeley accepted Ernest after he graduated from high school, but I doubt it. I did some research after finding out about Ernest and I thought Cal might have been more liberal, but the first African American to graduate from there was in the twenties. It would be fifty more years before an African American would get his degree from Stanford.

In getting his degree, Ernest would have needed an infrastructure to support his journey through those four years. I created a fictional one, which had as its primary foundation, Leslie Elliott and his wife, Ellen. I know for a fact from a directory published during that period that Ernest lived in the Elliott’s residence. Ellen refers in her book to a student living in the attic, and it must have been Ernest. Additionally, I have a group of students from the 1891 who were perfect to support him. One is a Jew, another is a student with two wooden legs, the third is Chinese, and last two are two footballers. I am also working on a fictional theory about why Mrs. Stanford was interested.

Ernest Johnson graduated in the Class of 1895 and my books will honor him for that.