St. John's College (United States)

St. John's College is a liberal arts college with two U.S. campuses: one in Annapolis, Maryland and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Founded in 1696 as a preparatory school, King William's School, the school received a collegiate charter in 1784, making it one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States. Since 1937, it has followed a distinctive curriculum, the Great Books Program, based on discussion of works from the Western canon of philosophical, religious, historical, mathematical, scientific, and literary works; it is probably for this program that the school is best known.

The school grants only one bachelor's degree, in Liberal Arts. Two master's degrees are currently available through the college's Graduate Institute—one in Liberal Arts, which is a modified version of the undergraduate curriculum (differing mostly in that the graduate students do not take a language and are not restricted to a set sequence of courses), and a parallel course of studies in Eastern Classics, which applies most of the features of the undergraduate curriculum (seminars, preceptorials, language study and a set sequence of courses) to a list of classic works from India, China and Japan.

Despite its name and the inclusion of selections from the Bible, as well as from some major Christian theologians and philosophers in the program, St. John's College has no religious affiliation.

Great Books program

The Great Books program (often called simply "the Program" or "the New Program" at St. John's) was developed at the University of Chicago by Stringfellow Barr, Scott Buchanan, Robert Hutchins, and Mortimer Adler in the mid-1930s as an alternative form of education to the then rapidly changing undergraduate curriculum. St. John's adopted the Great Books program in 1937, when the college was facing the possibility of financial and academic ruin. The Great Books program in use today was also influenced by Jacob Klein, who was dean of the college in the 1940s and 1950s.

The four-year program of study, nearly all of which is mandatory, demands that students read and discuss the works of many of Western civilization's most prominent contributors to philosophy, theology, mathematics, science, music, poetry, and literature, such as Aristotle, Shakespeare, Descartes, and Einstein. In line with the views of the program's founders—who complained of "vocational interests" that "clutter" other colleges' curricula—"Johnnies," as St. John's students style themselves, usually value intellectual pursuits for their own sake, regardless of whether they have practical application. Tutorials (mathematics, language, and music), as well as seminar and laboratory, are discussion-based. In the mathematics tutorial students often demonstrate propositions that mathematicians throughout various ages have laid out. In the language tutorial student translations are presented (ancient Greek is studied in the first two years and French for the last two). The tutorials, with seminar and laboratory, constitute the classes. All classes, and in particular the seminar, are considered formal exercises; consequently, students address one another, as well as their teachers, by their honorific and last name during class.

Unlike mainstream U.S. colleges, St. John's avoids modern textbooks, lectures, and examinations. Instead of textbooks, in addition to primary materials, the College relies on a series of manuals. While traditional (A through F) grades are given, the culture of the school de-emphasizes their importance and grades are released only at the request of the student. Grading is based largely on class participation and papers. Tutors, as faculty members are called at the College, play a non-directive role in the classroom, compared to mainstream colleges. However, at St. John's this does vary somewhat by course and instructor.

Class size is small on both campuses, with a student to tutor ratio of 8:1. Seminar is the largest class, with around 20 students, but led by two tutors. Daytime tutorials are smaller, typically ranging between 12 to 16 students and are led by one tutor. Preceptorials are the smallest class size, ranging between 3 and 9 students.^[3]

Graduate Institute Liberal Arts program

The Graduate Institute in Liberal Education was established at St. John's College in 1967 as a summer program on the Santa Fe campus. The size and scope of the Institute have expanded so that currently both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses offer year-round graduate-level study based on the principles of the St. John's undergraduate program. Students in the Liberal Arts Program explore the persisting questions of human existence by studying classic works of the western tradition. This program is organized into five semester-long thematic segments: Philosophy and Theology, Politics and Society, Literature, Mathematics and Natural Science, and History. Students earn a Master of Arts in Liberal Arts (M.A.L.A) by completing four of these five segments. A common curriculum provides the basis for a shared intellectual community; discussion with fellow students and faculty is the mode of learning both inside and outside the classroom. Each semester, students attend a seminar, a tutorial and a preceptorial—all carried out as small-group discussions under the guidance of St. John's faculty members. These three types of classes are the framework of the distinctive St. John's educational experience.

Eastern Classics program

At the Santa Fe campus, there is a program offering a Master of Arts in Eastern Classics (M.A.E.C.). This program is three semesters long and is designed to be completed in one 12-month period. The impetus for the program came with the recognition that the undergraduate program simply could not do justice to the Great Books of the three main Asian traditions (India, China and Japan) by trying to squeeze in a few works among so many European masterworks. The EC program therefore provides a full set of readings in the philosophical, religious and literary traditions of the three cultures listed above. Thus, students learn Chinese culture by reading not only Confucius, Laozi and Zhuangzi, but also Mencius, Xun Zi, Han Feizi, and Mozi, as well as historical narratives by Sima Qian and the Zuo Zhuan, the later movement of Neo-Confucianism and Zhu Xi, narrative works such as Journey to the West or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the great Chinese poets, Li Bai, Wang Wei and Du Fu. This list represents only one-third of the required corpus, which also covers the major teachings and branches of Hinduism and the development of Theravada, Mahayana and Zen Buddhism, as well as such literary masterpieces as the Mahabharata, Shakuntala, The Tale of Genji, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and others. Students also take a language, either Sanskrit or Classical Chinese.

At this time, the Eastern Classics program does not include any texts from Islamic literature nor does it offer courses in the Classical Arabic, Persian or Turkish languages.

History

St. John's College was founded as King William's School in 1696. In 1784, Maryland granted a charter to St. John's College, into which the original preparatory school merged.^[4] The college took up residence in a building known as Bladen's Folly (the current McDowell Hall), which was originally built to be the Maryland governor's mansion, but was not completed. There was some association with the Freemasons early in the college's history, leading to speculation that it was named after Saint John the Evangelist, the favoured saint of Freemasons. The College's original charter, reflecting the Masonic value of religious tolerance as well as the religious diversity of the founders (which included Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and the Roman Catholic Charles Carroll of Carrollton) stated that "youth of all religious denominations shall be freely and liberally admitted."

The College curriculum has taken various forms throughout its history. Although it began with a general program of study in the liberal arts, St. John's was a military school for much of the 19th century. In contrast to Washington and Lee University, a contemporary institution, the College always maintained a small size, generally enrolling fewer than 500 men at a time.

In 1936, the College lost its accreditation.^[5] The Board of Visitors and Governors, faced with dire financial straits caused by the Great Depression, invited educational innovators Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan to make a completely fresh start. They introduced a new program of study, which remains in effect today. Buchanan became dean of the College, while Barr assumed its presidency.

In his guide Cool Colleges, Donald Asher writes that the New Program was implemented to save the college from closing: "Several benefactors convinced the college to reject a watered-down curriculum in favor of becoming a very distinctive academic community. Thus this great institution was reborn as a survival measure."^[6]

In 1938, Walter Lippman wrote a column praising liberal arts education as a bulwark against fascism, and said "in the future, men will point to St. John’s College and say that there was the seed-bed of the American renaissance."^[7]

In 1940, national attention was attracted to St. John's by a story in Life entitled "The Classics: At St. John's They Come into Their Own Once More".^[7] Classic works unavailable in English translation were translated by faculty members, typed, mimeographed, and bound. They were sold to the general public as well as to students, and by 1941 the St. John's College bookshop was famous as the only source for English translations of works such as Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, St. Augustine's De Musica, and Ptolemy's Almagest.

The wartime years were difficult for the all-male St. John's. Enlistment and the draft all but emptied the college; 15 seniors graduated in 1943, eight in 1945, and three in 1946.^[7] From 1940 to 1946, St. John's was repeatedly confronted with threats of its land being seized by the Navy for expansion of the neighboring U.S. Naval Academy, and James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, formally announced plans to do so in 1945. At the time, The New York Times, which had expected a legal battle royal comparable to the Dartmouth case, commented that "although a small college of fewer than 200 students, St. John's has, because of its experimental liberal arts program, received more publicity and been the center of a greater academic controversy than most other colleges in the land. Its best-books program has been attacked and praised by leading educators of the day."^[8]

The constant threat of eviction discouraged Stringfellow Barr. In late 1946 Forrestal withdrew the plan, in the face of public opposition and the disapproval of the House Naval Affairs Committee, but Barr and Scott Buchanan were already committed to leaving St. John's and launching Liberal Arts, Inc., a new, similar college in Stockbridge, Massachusetts; that project eventually failed—but thinking about other sites for the college eventually led to the opening of St. John's second campus, in Santa Fe, in 1964.

In 1948, St. John's became the first previously all-white college south of the Mason-Dixon line to voluntarily admit African American students.^[9] The movement to desegregate the College was wholly internal, beginning with students who, with the support of the faculty and administration, persuaded a reluctant Board of Visitors and Governors to go along. The first African American student was Martin A. Dyer, from Baltimore, who graduated in 1952.

In 1949, Richard D. Weigle became president of St. John's. Following the chaotic and difficult period from 1940 to 1949, Weigle's presidency continued for 31 years,^[10] during which the New Program and the college itself became well established.

In 1951, St. John's became coeducational, admitting women for the first time in its then-254-year history. There was some objection from students because they had not been involved in—nor even aware of—the decision before it was announced to the media, and from some who believed that the college could not remain a serious institution were it to admit women. But Martin Dyer reports that the women who were admitted were an extraordinary group, quickly proving that they were the academic and intellectual equals of their male counterparts.

As enrollment grew during the 1950s, and facing the coming larger baby-boom generation, thoughts turned again towards opening another campus—but this time in addition to, not instead of, the one in Annapolis. Serious talk of expansion began in 1959 when the father of a student from Monterey, California, suggested to President Weigle that he establish a new campus there. Time (magazine) ran an article on the college's possible expansion plans,^[11] and, in addition to California, 32 offers came in to the college, from New Hampshire, Oregon, Georgia, Alaska, Florida, Connecticut, and more.

A group from the Monterey Peninsula told Weigle that they were definitely interested, though funding was a problem, and suitable land was a big question. There was also an offer of land in Claremont, California, but competition with the other colleges there for students and financial contributions was a negative. The Riverside Mission Inn (in Riverside, California) was another possibility, but with only 5 acres (20,000 m²) of land and lots of renovations needed to the inn, funding was again a major question. A negative factor for California in general was the cost of living for faculty.

Nevertheless all three of these locations were major contenders, when Robert McKinney (publisher of The Santa Fe New Mexican and a former SJC board member) called and told Weigle that a group of city leaders had long been looking for another college for Santa Fe. At a lunch Weigle attended at John Gaw Meem's house on the outskirts of Santa Fe in late January 1961, Meem volunteered that he had a little piece of land (214 acres (0.87 km²)) that he would gladly donate to the college. Upon looking at it after lunch, Weigle instantly fell in love with it. A committee of four faculty members (Robert Bart, Barbara Leonard, Douglas Allanbrook, and William Darkey) went to visit all four sites (the three in California, and Santa Fe) and, after much deliberation, also recommended Santa Fe.^[12]

Western mystery writer Tony Hillerman tells a slightly different story: The site selection committee, having originally expected to locate in Claremont, California, reluctantly accepted an invitation to inspect the site in Santa Fe. Hillerman spins a tale of the committeemen:

made pale from the weak sun of the coastal climate and their scholarly profession, generally urban, generally Eastern, solidly W.A.S.P. They came from a world which was old Anglo-Saxon family, old books, Greek and Latin literacy, prep schools and Blue Point oysters and Ivy League; a world bounded on the north by Boston... and on the south by Virginia. According to Hillerman, the Eastern scholars became captivated by the Sangre de Cristo range and the presence of mule deer tracks.^[13]

In 1961, the governing board of St. John's thus approved plans to establish a second college at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Groundbreaking occurred on April 22, 1963, and the first classes began in 1964.

As it turned out, land was also donated to the college on the Monterey Peninsula in California shortly after this, on condition that a campus also be developed there by a certain date. It eventually became apparent that opening yet a third campus in close succession to the second would stretch the college's resources too far, however.

Ptolemy Stone

Both campuses have a Ptolemy Stone, an astronomical instrument invented by the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy to measure the altitude of celestial bodies, in this case, the sun. The St. John's Ptolemy Stones are outdoor, rectangular, prismical concrete columns with a movable metal dial affixed; this device was the precursor to the sextant. Freshman and sophomore math classes learn to use this stone to calculate the apparent movement of the sun along the ecliptic. The students' use of the Ptolemy Stones underscores the mathematics and laboratory programs' connection to the practical experimentation and hands-on experience of the natural world.

Annapolis campus

St. John's is located in the Historic Annapolis district, one block away from the Maryland State Capitol building. Its proximity to the United States Naval Academy has inspired many a comparison to Athens and Sparta. The schools carry on a spirited rivalry seen in the annual croquet match between the two schools on the front lawn of St. John's, which has been called by GQ "the purest intercollegiate athletic event in America." St. John's has won 23 out of the last 28 matches.^[14]

Construction of McDowell Hall at the center of campus, was begun in 1742 by Provincial Governor of Maryland Thomas Bladen, but was not completed until after the end of the Colonial period.^[15] Its Great Hall has seen many college events, from balls feting Generals Lafayette and Washington to the unique St. John's institutions called waltz parties.^[16] Despite their name, waltz parties have gradually evolved to consist mostly of swing dancing, though waltz, polka, and even some tango are still played. Champagne and strawberries have been known to be served, and it is not uncommon for students, especially the women, to dress in formal evening ballroom attire.

The Annapolis campus is home to The Epoch Journal, a news magazine which employs the St. John's approach to critical thought to explore world events. The magazine was named a finalist for the 2008 ACP Magazine Pacemaker Award. Ray Cave, former editor of Time Magazine and a St. John's alumnus, has described The Epoch as "A valuable publication and a most worthwhile endeavor."

Fight song

A parody of The Navy Hymn has been adopted as the St. John's fight song. It is sung by the college's Freshman Chorus at the croquet match against the Naval Academy. The lyrics contain references to some of the texts read in the school's Great Books program, including The Iliad, and Plato's theory of forms:^[14][17]

O Johnnies as you play croquet,

Defend our honor on this day,

Your battle cry: Let middies kneel!

To them the form of Good reveal.

O hear us when we boldly say,

Defeat the middies at croquet.

O ye who books do seldom read,

Your unexamined lives concede.

Beware each middie girl and boy,

We are the Danaans to your Troy!

O hear us when we boldly say,

Defeat the middies at croquet!

Amen

The lyrics of the parody were written by Tanya Hadlock-Piltz (Annapolis class of 2005).^[18]

Santa Fe campus

St. John's Santa Fe campus is located at the foot of Monte Sol, on the eastern edge of Santa Fe. It was opened in 1964 due to the increase in qualified applicants at the Annapolis campus. The College chose to open a second campus rather than increase the size of the Annapolis campus. The second campus was part of a larger project, championed by then-college president Richard Weigle, which called for six campuses to be built across the country. St. John's abandoned the concept when it later sold a tract of land it owned in Monterey, California.

The Santa Fe campus offers students a more secluded atmosphere than the Annapolis campus, with the vast Pecos Wilderness and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The campus also boasts an expansive view of Santa Fe that extends to Los Alamos to the west.

The college maintains gear to facilitate student use of the outdoors, such as kayaks, rafts, hiking equipment, and sports equipment. In addition, the college partners with Atalaya Search and Rescue to offer students training in search and rescue.^[19]

Curriculum overview

The program involves:

• Four years of literature, philosophy, and political science in seminar
• Four years of mathematics
• Three years of laboratory science
• Four years of language (Ancient Greek, Middle/Early English, and French)
• Freshman year chorus followed by sophomore year music

The Great Books are not the only texts used at St. John's. Greek and French classes make use of supplemental materials that are more like traditional textbooks. Science laboratory courses and mathematics courses use manuals prepared by faculty members that combine source materials with workbook exercises. For example, the mathematics tutorial combines a 1905 paper by Albert Einstein with exercises that require the student to work through the mathematics used in the paper.^[20]

Nevertheless, the emphasis on source materials is strong; all seminar readings are from the book list, and music is studied from scores that are primary sources.

The only elective courses are brief "preceptorials" offered in the winter of the junior and senior years. The options for these classes change each year, and often include courses on topics not covered in the Great Books program, including works by authors beyond the Great Books list, such as Gabriel García Márquez and Wallace Stevens.

No written tests are given, apart from occasional quizzes in language tutorials, an algebra test to be passed by the middle of sophomore year, and a music quiz to be passed by second semester of freshman year. Students are evaluated based on class participation and papers. In the seminar, an oral "examination" is also given each semester. The oral is a discussion with the tutor or tutors intended to show that the student has read and understood the material covered; it also allows the student to clarify aspects of the seminar essay and, it is hoped, to continue developing the essay's ideas. In-term written assignments for the tutorials consist of occasional short (usually fewer than 10 pages) papers. Longer papers are required for seminars. On the Santa Fe campus students must write a seminar paper every semester. The essay for the spring semester is a longer paper (although comparable in length to normal semester papers at other colleges), and is awarded a separate grade on the transcript. Students in Annapolis write a single longer (20–30 pages) essay at the end of each year. Papers for tutorials and seminars are not research papers, but instead emphasize a student's ability to address a significant question related to a work, idea or theory from that course. The required papers are not comparable to typical research papers required at other colleges. Of particular importance is the sophomore annual essay, which plays a prominent role in the college's enabling process, i.e., the formal decision to allow a student to continue into the final two years. In their senior year, students must also write and defend a full-length thesis (Senior Essay), which is an extended critical piece on any topic from the four-year curriculum; as with all other papers throughout the program, the use of secondary texts is neither required nor even expected. Defense of this Senior Essay is open to the public, with the student engaging in discussion of his or her essay with a panel of three tutors.

Don Rag

While the school does not release grades to students (except upon direct request), there is an evaluation and feedback system. At the end of every semester at St. John's, each student comes together with his or her tutors to be evaluated on his or her academic performance. This exercise is called a Don Rag.

Don Rags begin with each tutor discussing the present student's performance in the third person to the other tutors. The discussion takes place as if the student were not there. After this, the student is asked if he or she has anything to add, at which point the student may discuss his or her own performance in light of the tutors' comments, although he or she is not required to do so.

For the second semester of junior year, students have a Conference (instead of a Don Rag), in which the students first report on their progress and then hear responses from their tutors.

The regular Don Rag format continues for the student's last Don Rag, which is at the end of the first semester of junior year.

The term Don Rag comes from Oxford, where professors ("dons") would "rag" on their students.

Sophomore enabling and committee

At the end of the sophomore year, tutors give a higher level of scrutiny to the student in the Don Rag. The tutors formally ask themselves and each other whether the student should remain at the college in light of current performance. This question is largely independent of the student's grades, and is more subjective than other Don Rags. Any of the tutors present at the final Sophomore Don Rag may object to the student remaining at St. John's. Any objection begins the process of an evaluation by the faculty disciplinary committee ("the Committee") as to whether the student should be allowed to remain at St. John's.

The Committee is closed to all but faculty—even to the student whose matriculation is in jeopardy. The Committee consists of a panel of Tutors and the administration who are appointed for the year to handle disciplinary matters. At the end of the year the Committee is convened to evaluate each student presented, hearing testimony from Tutors who have taught that student over the past two years. The Committee makes a decision either to "enable" the student, allowing him or her to continue into the junior year, or not to do so, ejecting them from the student body. Appeals are allowed to students who have not been enabled, and if successful, the student in question is allowed to continue without interruption at St. John's.

While specific numbers are not available, generally between 5% and 10% of the sophomore class are referred to the Committee, with some smaller portion not attaining enablement. These students are allowed to reapply to the school to continue into their junior year after a period of one year, but readmission is not guaranteed.

Curriculum details

The Great Books

Although it varies from year to year and differs slightly between campuses, the Great Books reading list is the basis of the school's curriculum. The 2007 Annapolis list is as follows:

Freshman year

Sophomore year

Junior year

Senior year

Student body

As of the 2005 class, 35 U.S. states are represented in Annapolis and 32 in Santa Fe; there are also several students from foreign countries. Approximately 65% of students receive financial aid. The student body is relatively small compared to other liberal arts colleges, with a population historically below 500 students on each campus during a year. The college is making efforts to increase awareness of its unique program of study, and offers many community seminars and lectures that are available to the public.^[21]

Student feelings about the college run the gamut from reverent partisanship to the other extreme, although the latter is rare. The majority seem to be acutely aware of the college's uniqueness in American education, and are profoundly affected by it.

Ranking and reputation

In 1975, a St. John's graduate gave this description of how a St. John's degree was received by other institutions:

Bernard M. Davidoff, M. D., a graduate of St. John's in 1969 and of Columbia Medical School... said the medical schools to which he applied reacted to his unconventional preparation in two ways. "Those who had not heard of St. John's were not impressed. Those who knew of the college generally waived requirements." Like most St. John's alumni who enter medical school, he took an undergraduate course in organic chemistry at another college. Dr. Davidoff... cited only one difficulty in adapting to medical school. "I didn't have any interesting people to talk to," he recalled.^[22]

Motivational business speaker Zig Ziglar included a chapter entitled "St. John's: A College That Works" in a 1997 book.^[23] He said St. John's holds fast to the "medieval" notion that all knowledge is one and states that "the books they use are terribly hard." He notes that the school "ranks fifth nationally in the number of graduates earning doctorates in the humanities" and is impressed by the 81% of graduates entering education, engineering, law, medicine, and other professions. He concludes "Sounds like St. John's is onto something. Maybe more schools should take that approach."

According to a study published by the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium, based on data from 1992 through 2001, St. John's ranked first nationally in percentage of graduates attaining doctorates in both Humanities and English literature.^[24] In addition, the college ranked among the top ten institutions in political science, linguistics, foreign languages, area and ethnic studies, and math and computer sciences.

St. John's runs counter to the usual emphasis on rankings and selectivity. As of 2005, St. John's college has chosen not to participate in any collegiate rankings surveys, and has not sent them their requested survey information. However, the school is still included in the U.S. News college ranking guide. President Christopher B. Nelson states that "In principle, St. John's is opposed to rankings." He notes:

Over the years, St. John's College has been ranked everywhere from third, second, and first tier, to one of the "Top 25" liberal arts colleges. Yet, the curious thing is: We haven't changed. Our mission and our methods have been virtually constant for almost 60 years. So when it comes to the U.S. News and World Report rankings, we would rather be ourselves and have our college speak for itself, than be subjected to fluctuating outside analysis.^[25]

An educational reporter wrote:

Unlike many top-flight liberal arts colleges, St. John's isn't all that hard to get into: The school accepts 75 to 80 percent of applicants, primarily based on three written essays and, to a certain extent, grades. There is no application fee, and standardized tests, like the Scholastic Assessment Test, are optional. About three-quarters of the enrolled students ranked in the top half of their high school class, but only one fifth graduated in the top tenth. School officials said that's because they're less concerned that the applicant show a body of accumulated knowledge than a true desire for attaining it.^[5]

Princeton Review's list of the twenty colleges with the "happiest students" includes both St. John's campuses, the Santa Fe campus ranking seventh and the Annapolis campus ranking seventeenth. In the 2005 edition of the Princeton Review Guide entitled "The Best 357 Colleges", St. John's College (Santa Fe) received the following rankings:

• No. 1 in the nation for "accessibility of teachers".
• No. 1 in the nation for "best class discussion".
• No. 4 in the nation for "best overall quality of life".
• No. 4 in the nation for "best overall academic experience".
• No. 6 in the nation for "best teachers".
• No. 6 in the nation for "best dorms".

St. John's College is listed in Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives. In 2009, Forbes ranked it 89th of America's Best Colleges.^[26] In 2011, Newsweek magazine rated St. John's the "most rigorous" college or university in the U.S. ^[27]

Notable people associated with St. John's

• Douglas Allanbrook, tutor, musician and composer.
• Wye Jamison Allanbrook, tutor, musicologist
• Eva Brann, tutor, dean; 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal.^[28]
• Christian Burks, President and CEO of Ontario Genomics Institute.^[29]
• John Bremer, British born educator, philosopher, author; After graduating from Oxford University he came to St. John's College in 1951 on a Fulbright Fellowship.
• James M. Cain, novelist; was professor of journalism at St. John's from 1923 to 1924.^[30][31] Later famous for hard-boiled noir novels such as The Postman Always Rings Twice.
• Elliott Carter, composer; tutor from 1939 to 1941.
• Joshua J. Cohen, Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland.
• Charles Van Doren alumnus of Annapolis, infamous for involvement in the rigged game show Twenty-One.^[32]
• Clement Dorsey, Congressman for Maryland's 1st congressional district, 1825–1831.^[33]
• Ahmet Ertegün; alumnus, founded Atlantic Records in 1947, 1923–2006.^[34]
• Hillary Fields, alumna; romance novelist; received a nomination for the 1998 Pushcart Prize for a short story.^[35]
• Erik Fisher, Daniel Littleton, and Colin Meeder, musicians; members of seminal emo band The Hated.
• Robert A George, alumnus and newspaper columnist.
• Jac Holzman founded Elektra Records in 1950 while a student at St. John's.^[36]
• Alexander Contee Hanson (Class of 1802), Congressman for Maryland's 3rd District, 1813–1816.^[37]
• Emerson Harrington, former Governor of Maryland
• Eilen Jewell, alumna; singer/songwriter (blues, Americana), five albums (as of 2011)
• Leon Kass, tutor at the college 1972–1976, chair of the President's Council on Bioethics 2002–2006
• John Leeds Kerr, Congressman for Maryland's 7th District^[38]
• Francis Scott Key, alumnus; lyricist of the United States national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.^[39][40]
• Jacob Klein, tutor, dean; author of Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra and Commentary on Plato's Meno; leading 20th-century Platonist.
• William Kowalski, alumnus, author of four novels: Eddie’s Bastard (1999); Somewhere South of Here (2001); The Adventures of Flash Jackson (2003); and The Good Neighbor (2004), all published in the U.S. by HarperCollins and in the U.K. by Transworld/Doubleday/Black Swan.
• Kenneth Kronberg, 1968, printing company owner, former LaRouche movement member.^[41]
• Tony Lagouranis, activist and author of Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq
• L. Jagi Lamplighter, alumna and author
• Sara Larkin, Artist, Artist-in-Residence 1992.
• Jeremy Leven, alumnus, author, screenwriter and director whose works include Don Juan DeMarco
• Daniel Martin, Governor of Maryland, 1829–1830, 1831.
• Paul Mellon, KBE (1907–1999), honorary alumnus, philanthropist, patron of the arts, thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder
• Katy Moffatt, alumna; singer/songwriter, 17 albums (as of 2010)
• Buddy Mondlock, alumnus; singer-songwriter; collaborated with Art Garfunkel, Janis Ian and many others.^[42]
• Duncan North, alumnus, screenwriter (The Tao of Steve).
• Jide Nzelibe, alumnus, law professor at Northwestern University^[43]
• Tom G. Palmer, alumnus; Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.
• Gerald Peters, real-estate developer and owner of galleries in Santa Fe, NM. Twenty-fifth–richest man in New Mexico in October 1996.^[44]
• William Pinkney (1764–1822), alumnus; 7th Attorney General of the United States
• Lydia Polgreen, alumnae, South Asia correspondent for The New York Times,^[45] 2006 winner of the George Polk Award
• Joe Sachs, tutor, translator of many of the works of Plato, Aristotle and others.
• Salvatore Scibona, alumnus and author, 2008 National Book Award finalist for his first novel The End (Graywolf Press (HB); Riverhead Books(PB)) and whose fiction has appeared in many literary journals. He was named one of "20 under 40" notable authors by The New Yorker in 2010 and published an essay about his experience at the college in the June 13, 2011 issue. [2]
• Lisa Simeone, host, National Public Radio.^[46]
• Daniel, Matthew and Paul Speck, Co-owners and developers of Henry of Pelham Winery.^[47]
• Warren Spector, former Co-COO of Bear Stearns.
• Louis Leo Snyder, German scholar and historian, alumnus, 1907–1993.
• Leo Strauss, political philosopher; lectured at St. John's and was the Scott Buchanan Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Annapolis campus.
• Jeremy Tarcher, alumnus and publisher.
• Francis Thomas, Governor of Maryland, 1842–1844; member of House of Representatives, 1861–1869.^[48]
• Arthur C. Tuttle, Korean War veteran.
• Thomas J.J. Altizer, alumnus and theologian, author of "The Gospel of Christian Atheism"
• N. D. Wilson, alumnus and author
• Warren Winiarski, founder of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars.
• Margaret Winter, humanitarian lawyer.
• John C. Wright, alumnus and author ^[49]
• Glenn Yarbrough, original lead tenor of The Limeliters.^[50]
• Lee David Zlotoff, alumnus, creator of MacGyver.,^[51] also associated with Hill Street Blues and Remington Steele; director of The Spitfire Grill (1996), which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
• Austin Ligon, Co-Founder and Retired CEO, CarMax, Inc.; Member, Board of Governors and Visitors.
• Victor Zuckerkandl, tutor and music theorist.
• Elliott Zuckerman, tutor, poet, painter, pianist, and author of The First Hundred Years of Wagner's Tristan.

See also

• Allan Bloom
• Harold Bloom
• Colonial Colleges: Details on St. John's antiquity vis-a-vis other old U.S. colleges
• Educational perennialism
• Harrison Middleton University
• Narrative evaluation
• Shimer College: another Great Books College, with a slightly different approach
• Western canon

References

Further reading

• Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again ISBN9780520265875 A former college president attended St. John's College and wrote a memoir about his experience reading Homer, rowing Crew, and examining the importance of a liberal arts education in today’s society.
• Where I learned to Read Salvatore Scibona, The New Yorker, 2011-06-13

External links

• St. John's College official website
• Graduate Institute Tutorial and Seminar Reading Lists
• St. John's College on everything2