The Idol
The Idol is the Union College literary magazine which includes poetry, prose, photography, and art. When Professor Raymond Herrick's advanced composition class (English 31) launched the Idol on February 9,1928, it took the name of one of the College's icons, previously used in 1911 for a short-lived humor magazine (supra). The magazine began as a literary review, evidently modeled to a degree on the Saturday Review of Literature. It published fiction and poetry but gave prominent place to literary essays and criticism and book reviews.
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The Idol, 1992 (2)
Melissa Fabel
The Idol is Union College's bi-annual publication which offers students a place for creative expression.
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The Idol, 1991 (1)
Matthew Futterman
The Idol is a bi-annual publication accepting poetry, fiction, art work and photographs by April 20 for publication in the spring issue and by November 20 for the winter issue. This edition of the Idol was made possible through a generous grant from the Student Forum. Their support of the Arts at Union College is certainly appreciated.
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The Idol, 1991 (2)
Matthew Futterman
This edition of the Idol is dedicated to Kit Hathaway, because he forces us to imagine, helps us to know, and teaches us how to learn.
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The Idol, 1990
Dina M. Schweitzer
A new decade. A time once again for change. But what can we hope for in the 90s? We can hope that artistic expression will burst upon the scene of our college community, and the voice of the Artist will be heard. Every individual has their own form of expression unique unto him/herself. This year has been a time for many to speak out, and this year's Idol cover depicts such callings from our community...And now, The Idol presents you with the voices of writers and artists who want to say something. On behalf of the Idol, I would like to thank all of those who submitted their work for our annual issue. My mailbox was overflowing with literary work...But now, we need to carry on the tradition. So for those of you who sit scribbling at counter tops drinking black coffee, or for those of you who jot down an idea in the throes of the night - please think about submitting next year. Remember, the artist never stops creating.
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The Idol, 1989 (1)
Jose Andrade
Once again. a decade has come to an end, however the end of the last decade brings us to the last ten years of the twentieth century. In the previous decade, we saw the Me Decade of the seventies turn into a Super Me decade, lived under Republican rule, watched MTV, and witnessed the Communist Empire begin to crumble. End. is a prelude to the nineties through the literary and artistic norms of Union College in 1989. In our attempt to display the end of the eighties, we also want to remind our readers that we must begin to think about this new century only ten years ahead of us and to be prepared to venture into it without hesitation. End. is not an apocalyptic (nor an apologetic) vision of the future, but a humble resting of an intriguing decade. With this note, look forward to the Spring Idol issue.
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The Idol, 1986
Anthony Dunaif
It has been my intention this year to try something different and put out two issues of the Idol; one expressly devoted to literature, and the other to arts in general. If all goes well, there will be a spring issue of the Idol in which arts are represented in the style they deserve, that is, on high quality photographic paper. In order to accomplish this the Idol will once again be having a fund raiser, including the ever popular Idol Cafe.
The issue of Idol is the product of the caring and labour of people who understand the importance and vitality of literature. Without the likes of Harry Marten, Jordan Smith, and Adrian Frazier, this Idol might not be the article of inspiration that it is.
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The Idol, 1979
Editors
The purpose of a college literary-arts magazine is to foster intellectual growth, promote artistic creativity, and enhance student awareness and appreciation of the many modes of expression for feeling and thought. Feeling and thought are infinite and so are the possibilities for a magazine dedicated to this proposition. Such a magazine should have no set ideology or goal other than to present to the student body a wide gamut of well thought out, stimulating material as is possible. In order to fulfill these objectives, the magazine needs many contributors. Colleges have large numbers of talented individuals, and it is our hope that such talent should not be wasted, or forgotten, lying in drawers. To share our thought.s (and our scribblings) is one of the most satisfying feelings one can have and give, a,,d we sincerely hope that our readers realize the opportunity available to them through IDOL magazine, and utilize this opportunity to the fullest extent.
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The Idol, 1976
Sam Hughes
Not surprisingly, or at least not without a certain amount of reason, The Idol seems to occupy a rather hazy place in the minds of Union students. A couple of times a year a small magazine, filled with peculiar pieces of poetry, artwork and prose, mysteriously appears at strategic locations around campus. Since most of the copies eventually disappear, we assume that they are indeed taken back to the various student abodes and digested, like ant poison, therein. (How many students actually do more than glance at some of the artwork and take in the opening lines of a poem or two is another matter, but we digress). The practice of writing editorials (ahem) seems to have died out, perhaps significantly, in the late sixties. which adds a further anonymity to the magazine's origins. The magazine itself is not our only source of occupation. Readings by poets of varying degrees of obscurity take place from time to time, though the combination of a generally disinterested student body and our own chaotic attempts at publicity usually guarantees a pretty small audience which does not detract one bit from the fact that some of the readings have been fantastic. The student-run workshops have certainly had their high points as well as their low, but perhaps they wouldn't have petered out toward the end of the year as much as they did had we bothered to advertise our habit of engaging in stark-naked body massages while reciting beautiful poems of exquisite eroticism. We supply the peanut oil, too. But again we digress. The charge of elitism is often leveled against The Idol, sometimes fairly, sometimes not. It seems to us that a literary magazine run by students is bound to be perceived as elitist by the very nature of its existence-especially in this heyday of television and rampant functional illiteracy, and particularly at an educational edifice like Union which continues to relegate its handful of artists and writers to a small and dimly lit closet in the cellar. (On a positive note. however, the impending reinstatement of mandatory freshman composition should improve the general quality of writing around campus, and the long waiting lists for the creative writing courses indicate that the interest in writing at Union is far from dead).
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The Idol, 1975 (1)
Nina Sichel
Competition Issue. The content of this issue is the result of the second annual writing competition sponsored by The Idol. We were pleased with the large number of submissions for the contest this year. Over twenty pieces of fiction and nearly 65 poems were considered. In the interests of impartiality, each item was submitted under a pseudonym. Three judges reviewed every piece, and rated them individually. Those with the highest cumulative scores were awarded prized of $100 or $50. The winning fiction entry was published in our last issue, so in this issue we have printed another excellent piece by Mark Wallace. Together with the winning entries, we have included works submitted to the competition which were judged of outstanding quality. We wish to thank everyone who submitted items to the competition, and encourage them to do so again next year.
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The Idol, 1974
Jean Howard
The content of this issue is the result of a writing competition sponsored by the Idol - an idea partly stemming from a desire to include the campus in the publication and a curiosity on our parts to see what interest writing holds for the campus community. We were pleased by the overwhelming response the contest drew. Over twenty-five pieces of fiction together with nearly sixty poems were considered. Needless to say, the process of narrowing down, and finally selecting the best was a necessarily difficult one, particularly given the inevitable differences between six human judges. To reinforce our powers of objectivity we asked those entering to submit material under pseudonyms. In many cases these names were as enjoyable as the works they represented, so we are sharing them with you in the table of contents. We would like to thank each person who took the trouble to lay their work on the line in this contest.
