Retiring in 2023 and relocating from New Jersey, Alphonso Croom lives in Orford, New Hampshire, near Hanover. Having sung with Dartmouth Gospel Choir as an undergrad, he states, “The biggest difference now, as opposed to in the seventies, is that it’s no longer student-based but incorporates members of the community, providing a unique experience of interacting with people of different ages and backgrounds while strengthening Dartmouth ties. A great experience for my wife and me, it is run by Knoelle Higginson, well-known Harlem vocalist and teacher commuting weekly from Harlem for us. Concerts have been well received; we’ll be part of a Dartmouth-sponsored N.Y.C. Lincoln Center event this summer.” Following up on the last DAM’s literature theme, Alphonso attended a spring lecture sponsored by the recently formed Dartmouth Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life. Author Lynnee Denise introduced Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters, “a unique biography detailing the life of the original singer of ‘Hound Dog’ later made famous by Elvis Presley—fascinating, highly recommended.”

Peter Slovenski recalls from Professor Hart’s class, Literature of the 1920s, “America’s literary genius often came from writers whose education, perspective, and traditions were formed in agricultural regions. The writers then moved to cities to ‘make it new.’ Hooking Up, by Tom Wolfe, is a collection of essays that reminds me of my favorite Dartmouth English classes with their range of history, insight, criticism, connections, and humor. ‘Two Young Men Who Went West’ is a beautiful essay that traces the invention of the microchip back through universities, families, dissenting Protestantism and the Presbyterian church, ‘where godliness mingled good works, worldly success, and nonhierarchical institutions.’ In ‘Sorry Your Soul Just Died,’ Wolfe writes about advances in neuroscience. He contemplates the roots of human nature and behavior, observing that the notion of ‘a self who exercises self-discipline, postpones gratification, curbs the sexual appetite, stops short of aggression and criminal behavior is already slipping away.’ Wolfe grew up in the South, became a journalist, and then ‘made it new.’ ”

At Dartmouth Pat Pannell was an English major focusing on 19th-century literature, history, and culture. So it’s no surprise that Steven Johnson’s nonfiction bestseller, The Ghost Map, particularly interested her. She writes, “This medical ‘detective story’ details the cholera epidemic in 1850s London and how a local doctor and a neighborhood clergyman solve the mystery of how that disease spread. Their discovery greatly impacted how the world developed—not only in epidemiology but also in unforeseen areas such as urban planning, mapping, and (old school) social networking. I read this book years ago but revisited it during the Covid pandemic while wondering how we might ultimately advance due to confronting an unknown disease. In 2020 my husband, an ER doctor, was working in one of N.Y.C.’s hardest-hit hospitals and in a New Jersey prison treating dying patients and colleagues while getting sick himself. Thus, this reminder that from devastation might arise completely new ways of fighting global illnesses—and navigating everyday life—was welcome. Fascinating read!”

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com