Famous Writers School
Encyclopedia
The Famous Writers School was an educational institution that ran a correspondence course for writers in the 1960s and 1970s. Founded in 1961 by Bennett Cerf
, Gordon Carroll and Albert Dorne
, it became the subject of a scandal after a 1970 exposé by Jessica Mitford
, who noted the school's questionable academic and business practices.
, a Random House
editor and well-known television personality, Gordon Carroll, an occasional editor for Reader's Digest
, and Albert Dorne
, an illustrator whose previous school, the Famous Artists School
, served as a model for the school. It began operations in 1961, based in Westport, Connecticut
. The ubiquitous advertising copy for the school, which was often found in the back of magazines, listed the following writers (who were also stockholders) as the school's "Guiding Faculty": Faith Baldwin
, John Caples, Bruce Catton
, Bennett Cerf
, Mignon G. Eberhart
, Paul Engle
, Bergen Evans
, Clifton Fadiman
, Rudolf Flesch
, Phyllis McGinley
, J. D. Ratcliff, Rod Serling
, Max Shulman
, Red Smith
and Mark Wiseman. Cerf is quoted in the advertisements as saying: "We approached representative writers, the best we could get in each field: fiction, advertising, sports writing, television. The idea was to give the school some prestige."
Between 1960 and 1969, revenue from tuition increased from $7 million to $48 million, and individual stock shares increased in value from $5 to $40. Radio spots featuring Guiding Faculty, including Faith Baldwin and Mignon Eberhardt, being interviewed by Bennett Cerf were aired. By 1964, they were offering four different programs: fiction, non-fiction, advertising, and business writing.
Assignments were graded by a staff of fifty, including some free-lance writers but no teachers. The comments they provided on students' papers were described as "formulaic, often identical, responses" and as "good as you'd get from a mediocre professor in a so-so creative writing program." The cost was also "about twenty times" the cost of correspondence courses offered by universities. Students who signed up for the course were provided with "four hefty 'two-toned, buckram bound' volumes with matching loose-leaf binders for the lessons."
At the time of Mitford's reporting, the school's enrollment was 65,000 students, each of whom was paying $785 to $900 for the three-year course. Mitford reported a high dropout rate (between 66 and 90%), which she concluded was partly responsible for the school's financial success. The school employed about 800 salesmen throughout the country working on a "straight commission basis." In 1970, about 2000 veterans were signed up for the program through the GI bill at the taxpayer's expense.
, a lawyer in Oakland, California
, began representing a 72-year old woman who emptied her bank account to sign up for the course and later attempted to get a refund before the course had begun. Mitford began researching the school, touring the campus in Westport, interviewing members of the Guiding Faculty including Bennett Cerf, and placing advertisements looking for students of the school who could share their experiences. Several of the Guiding Faculty attempted to defend the school's practices, with Faith Baldwin saying "Oh, that's just one of those things about advertising.... Anyone with common sense would know that the fifteen of us are much too busy to read the manuscripts the students send in." Mitford's article on the school, "Let Us Now Appraise Famous Writers", was originally commissioned by McCall's
, but they declined to print it for fear of offending Bennett Cerf. The Atlantic Monthly
later printed the piece in their July 1970 issue. (Mitford was already notorious at the time for her muckraking 1963 book on the American funeral industry, The American Way of Death
.)
and attorneys general in several states initiated lawsuits against the school. The school's stock steadily declined, and in 1972, the school filed for bankruptcy, although Mitford noted in 1974 that the school was "creeping back." According to Bill Vogelsang, the nephew of Mignon Eberhart
, Cerf had warned her, and presumably other members of the Guided faculty, to sell their stock in the school, which she allegedly refused to do.
In the early 1970s the National Lampoon published a parody of the Famous Writers School teaching material. Written by Michael O'Donohue, it was titled "How to Write Good", with a real quote at the beginning from Eliot Foster, Director of Admissions, Famous Writers School.
A novel by Steven Carter
entitled Famous Writers School was published in 2006. It dealt with a man who runs a correspondence course and consists of lessons he mails to his students and the writing samples they send back.
As of October 2009, a group in Wilton, Connecticut
, calling itself the Famous Writers School still exists, selling a course and set of books identical to those of the original Famous Writers School.
Bennett Cerf
Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...
, Gordon Carroll and Albert Dorne
Albert Dorne
Albert Dorne was an American Illustrator.He was born in the slums of New York City's East Side, and had a troubled childhood plagued with tuberculosis and heart problems. He would cut classes to study art in the museums, eventually quitting school altogether to support his family...
, it became the subject of a scandal after a 1970 exposé by Jessica Mitford
Jessica Mitford
Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford was an English author, journalist and political campaigner, who was one of the Mitford sisters...
, who noted the school's questionable academic and business practices.
Founding
The school was founded by Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...
, a Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
editor and well-known television personality, Gordon Carroll, an occasional editor for Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
, and Albert Dorne
Albert Dorne
Albert Dorne was an American Illustrator.He was born in the slums of New York City's East Side, and had a troubled childhood plagued with tuberculosis and heart problems. He would cut classes to study art in the museums, eventually quitting school altogether to support his family...
, an illustrator whose previous school, the Famous Artists School
Famous Artists School
Famous Artists School has offered correspondence courses in art since it was founded in 1948 in Westport, Connecticut, U.S.A. The idea was conceived by Albert Dorne as a result of a conversation with Norman Rockwell...
, served as a model for the school. It began operations in 1961, based in Westport, Connecticut
Westport, Connecticut
-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....
. The ubiquitous advertising copy for the school, which was often found in the back of magazines, listed the following writers (who were also stockholders) as the school's "Guiding Faculty": Faith Baldwin
Faith Baldwin
Faith Baldwin was a very successful U.S. author of romance and fiction, publishing some 100 novels, often concentrating on women juggling career and family...
, John Caples, Bruce Catton
Bruce Catton
Charles Bruce Catton was an American historian and journalist, best known for his books on the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular histories that emphasized colorful characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the basic facts, dates, and analyses...
, Bennett Cerf
Bennett Cerf
Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...
, Mignon G. Eberhart
Mignon G. Eberhart
Mignon Good Eberhart was an American author of mystery novels. She had one of the longest careers among major American mystery writers.-Biography:...
, Paul Engle
Paul Engle
Paul Engle , noted American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is perhaps best remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as founder of the International Writing Program , both at the University of Iowa.-Life:Engle is often mistakenly...
, Bergen Evans
Bergen Evans
Bergen Baldwin Evans was an American lexicographer, a Rhodes Scholar, a Harvard College graduate, a Northwestern University professor of English, and a television host...
, Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton P. "Kip" Fadiman was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality.-Literary career:...
, Rudolf Flesch
Rudolf Flesch
Rudolf Flesch was an author , and also a readability expert and writing consultant who was a vigorous proponent of plain English in the United States. He created the Flesch Reading Ease test and was co-creator of the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test...
, Phyllis McGinley
Phyllis McGinley
Phyllis McGinley was an American writer of children's books and poet about the positive aspects of suburban life.McGinley was born in Ontario, Oregon...
, J. D. Ratcliff, Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
, Max Shulman
Max Shulman
Max Shulman was an American writer and humorist best known for his television and short story character Dobie Gillis, as well as for best-selling novels.-Early life and career:...
, Red Smith
Red Smith
Red Smith may refer to:* Red Smith , 1910s baseball third baseman* Red Smith , Pittsburgh Pirates catcher, 1917–1918* Red Smith , MLB shortstop in the 1925 season...
and Mark Wiseman. Cerf is quoted in the advertisements as saying: "We approached representative writers, the best we could get in each field: fiction, advertising, sports writing, television. The idea was to give the school some prestige."
Between 1960 and 1969, revenue from tuition increased from $7 million to $48 million, and individual stock shares increased in value from $5 to $40. Radio spots featuring Guiding Faculty, including Faith Baldwin and Mignon Eberhardt, being interviewed by Bennett Cerf were aired. By 1964, they were offering four different programs: fiction, non-fiction, advertising, and business writing.
Practices
To enter the program, the course required students to submit aptitude tests, which were almost uniformly accepted. The advertisements reported that the celebrity faculty would evaluate the student's tests, a statement that Bennett Cerf, a leader of the group, admitted was false. Once a student's test was accepted, they were sent a letter filled with praise, suggesting that "you couldn't consider breaking into writing at a better time than today. Everything indicates that the demand for good prose is growing much faster than the supply of trained talent." Mitford noted that the complete opposite was true at the time, and that "the average free-lance earns just over $3000 a year." Students were required to sign a contract with the school. Cerf noted that "once somebody has signed a contract with Famous Writers he can't get out of it, but that's true with every business in the country."Assignments were graded by a staff of fifty, including some free-lance writers but no teachers. The comments they provided on students' papers were described as "formulaic, often identical, responses" and as "good as you'd get from a mediocre professor in a so-so creative writing program." The cost was also "about twenty times" the cost of correspondence courses offered by universities. Students who signed up for the course were provided with "four hefty 'two-toned, buckram bound' volumes with matching loose-leaf binders for the lessons."
At the time of Mitford's reporting, the school's enrollment was 65,000 students, each of whom was paying $785 to $900 for the three-year course. Mitford reported a high dropout rate (between 66 and 90%), which she concluded was partly responsible for the school's financial success. The school employed about 800 salesmen throughout the country working on a "straight commission basis." In 1970, about 2000 veterans were signed up for the program through the GI bill at the taxpayer's expense.
Scandal
The school came to the attention of Mitford after her husband, Robert TreuhaftRobert Treuhaft
Robert Edward Treuhaft was an American lawyer and the second husband of Jessica Mitford.The son of Hungarian immigrants, he worked for labor union and radical left causes much of his life...
, a lawyer in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, began representing a 72-year old woman who emptied her bank account to sign up for the course and later attempted to get a refund before the course had begun. Mitford began researching the school, touring the campus in Westport, interviewing members of the Guiding Faculty including Bennett Cerf, and placing advertisements looking for students of the school who could share their experiences. Several of the Guiding Faculty attempted to defend the school's practices, with Faith Baldwin saying "Oh, that's just one of those things about advertising.... Anyone with common sense would know that the fifteen of us are much too busy to read the manuscripts the students send in." Mitford's article on the school, "Let Us Now Appraise Famous Writers", was originally commissioned by McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...
, but they declined to print it for fear of offending Bennett Cerf. The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
later printed the piece in their July 1970 issue. (Mitford was already notorious at the time for her muckraking 1963 book on the American funeral industry, The American Way of Death
The American Way of Death
The American Way of Death was an exposé of abuses in the funeral home industry in the United States, written by Jessica Mitford and published in 1963...
.)
Aftermath
When the piece was published, the Atlantic Monthly was sent more than 300 letters by students who "felt they had been swindled and who wanted to get out of the contract." Mitford was invited onto numerous television programs, her article was read into the legislative record in UtahUtah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and attorneys general in several states initiated lawsuits against the school. The school's stock steadily declined, and in 1972, the school filed for bankruptcy, although Mitford noted in 1974 that the school was "creeping back." According to Bill Vogelsang, the nephew of Mignon Eberhart
Mignon G. Eberhart
Mignon Good Eberhart was an American author of mystery novels. She had one of the longest careers among major American mystery writers.-Biography:...
, Cerf had warned her, and presumably other members of the Guided faculty, to sell their stock in the school, which she allegedly refused to do.
In the early 1970s the National Lampoon published a parody of the Famous Writers School teaching material. Written by Michael O'Donohue, it was titled "How to Write Good", with a real quote at the beginning from Eliot Foster, Director of Admissions, Famous Writers School.
A novel by Steven Carter
Steven Carter (novelist)
Steven Carter is an American author of short stories and two novels.-Writing career:Carter's short stories have appeared in Antioch Review, Tin House, Northwest Review, and Mississippi Review, among others. His first novel, I Was Howard Hughes, was published in 2003 by Bloomsbury Press...
entitled Famous Writers School was published in 2006. It dealt with a man who runs a correspondence course and consists of lessons he mails to his students and the writing samples they send back.
As of October 2009, a group in Wilton, Connecticut
Wilton, Connecticut
Wilton is a town nestled in the Norwalk River Valley in southwestern Connecticut in the United States. It is located in Fairfield County. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 18,062. In 2007, it was voted as one of CNN Money's "Best Places to Live" in the United States.Located along...
, calling itself the Famous Writers School still exists, selling a course and set of books identical to those of the original Famous Writers School.