Philolexian Society

The Philolexian Society of Columbia University in the City of New York is one of the oldest collegiate literary societies in the United States, and the oldest student group at Columbia. The successor to the King's College Literary Society, whose advisers included John Jay and whose members included Alexander Hamilton, the modern name was adopted when the society was reorganized in 1802. The Society aims to "improve its members in Oratory, Composition and Forensic Discussion." The name Philolexian means "lovers of discourse," and the society's motto is the Latin word Surgam, meaning "I shall rise."

Philolexian (known to members as "Philo") has been called the "oldest thing at Columbia except the College itself," and it has been an integral part of Columbia from the beginning, providing the institution with everything from its colors, Philolexian Blue (along with White, from the long-dispatched rival Peithologian Society), to some of its most solemn traditions and many of its finest (as well a few of its most notorious and most dissipated) graduates.

Although the Society's initial foci were literature and debate, it broadened its range of activities in the 20th century. The Society was a training ground for essayist Randolph Bourne, poet A. Joyce Kilmer, and statesman V. K. Wellington Koo, all prize winners in their time at Philo. In 1910 the society took a decidedly dramatic turn into the dramatic arts, beginning a 20-year stretch of annual theatre productions ranging from Elizabethan comedies, to contemporary works. Many of the older productions, by the likes of Ben Jonson, Nicholas Udall, and Robert Greene, were North American debuts. Oscar-winning screen writer Sidney Buchman (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Cleopatra) got a start as Shakespeare's Richard II.

In 1952, after 150 years of continuous existence, the society entered into the first of two successive interregnums, thanks to waning interest and the infamous presidency of poet Allen Ginsberg. A short-lived revival in 1962 was followed by the second, longer period of inactivity.

In 1985, under the guidance of Thomas J. Vinciguerra, the society was reborn in its current incarnation. Mr. Vinciguerra was subsequently recognized as the society's "avatar" in honor of this and other critical and successful efforts for Philo. The society engages in weekly debates and various other literary-minded activities. Its best known event is the Annual Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest, which has received coverage in the New York Times.

Prominent Philolexians have included journalist John L. O'Sullivan, coiner of the term "manifest destiny"; military theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan; cultural historian Jacques Barzun; noted author and Trappist monk Thomas Merton; publisher Bob Giroux; international spy Michael Marubio; East Asian scholar William Theodore de Bary; Oscar-winning screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond; novelist Walter Wager; and actor Ben Stein.

Philolexians have:


The Philolexian Society of Columbia University

See also: Philolexian Society, Alexander Hamilton, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Allen Ginsberg, Ben Jonson, Ben Stein, Cleopatra (movie), Columbia University, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, I.A.L. Diamond