A mind that found itself : an autobiography / by Clifford Whittingham Beers.

  • Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876-1943.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A mind that found itself : an autobiography / by Clifford Whittingham Beers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    II I was born shortly after sunset about thirty years ago. My ancestors, natives of England, settled in this country not long after the Mayflower first sailed into Plymouth Harbor. And the blood of these ancestors, by time and the happy union of a northern man and a southern woman — my parents — has perforce been blended into blood truly Amer¬ ican. The first years of my life were not unlike those of thousands of other American boys. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred. At the usual age, I entered a public Grammar School in New Haven, Connecticut, and was graduated in 1891. In the fall of that year I entered the Hillhouse High School of the same city. My school courses were completed with as little trouble as scholastic distinction. I always man¬ aged to gain promotion, however, when it was due; and, though few of my teachers credited me with real ability, they were always able to detect a certain latent capacity, which they evidently believed would one day develop sufficiently to prevent me from disgracing them. Upon entering the High School I had such ambitions as any schoolboy is apt to have. I wished to secure an election to a certain secret society; that gained, I wished to become business manager of a monthly magazine, published by that society. In these ambitions I succeeded. For one of my age I had more than an average love of business. Indeed, I deliberately set about learning to play the guitar well enough to become eligible for membership in the Banjo-