David M. Glixon – Ardsley’s Man of Letters
Traditionally, April 15 is the last date to file federal income tax returns. Due to the pandemic, the April 15 date was extended to today, May 17, 2021. Previously “tax day” was March 15. In 1954, it was changed to April 15 so taxpayers could both enjoy an extra month to recover from the Christmas season and avoid jokes about the “ides of March.” However, our then Congress did not realize “April is the cruelest month.” [1]
In 1966, Ardsleyan David Glixon of 54 Prospect Avenue, who, over a long career in the publishing as an editor, reviewer, [2] translator, [3] historian, [4] author, [5] and poet, [6] was thinking about tax returns. In a letter published in the October 9, 1966, edition of The New York Times, Glixon wrote the following to the newspaper’s Editor concerning the Vietnam War:
Not surprisingly, given the national divisiveness over the war, in the same October 9, 1966, edition of The New York Times, directly above Glixon’s letter, another writer expressed his hawkish view that “Regrettable as it seems to many of us, only a firm military stance in Vietnam by the United States and its allies will produce the peace that all of us so ardently desire.” Tragically, Congress did not enact Glixon’s tax proposal. By the end of 1966, 6000 Americans had died in the war, with 30,000 wounded. When the war ended in 1973, over 58,000 Americans had died, and over 150,000 were seriously wounded. [7]
Glixon’s 1966 letter to The New York Times was not his first. His erudite letters graced the pages of the “Old Gray Lady” [8] and other newspapers (e.g., The New York Herald Tribune) for five decades beginning in 1946 with an appeal for the United States to take the lead in creating a world government by presciently arguing “peace is under a constant threat so long as national sovereignties are unlimited.” [9]
During World War II, Glixon was a conscientious objector. [10] Julien Davies Cornell, a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Yale Law School who defended many conscientious objectors in that era, represented Glixon. Cornell was able to secure a rare suspended prison sentence for Glixon, who subsequently worked in a hospital after his conviction of violating the Selective Training and Service Act (i.e., the draft). [11] Due to a physical condition, Glixon was likely entitled to a medical waiver from military service. However, he did not avail himself of this statutory right. Instead, he elected to oppose his induction on moral grounds. The Court seemingly understood this; hence the rare suspended sentence. In 1947, Glixon was pardoned by President Harry S. Truman. [12]
While living in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, after being hired to oversee Rodale Press’s new “Story Classics” book division, Glixon’s rich literary talents were on display in his sublime announcement of a new publication which appeared in the “Woman’s Section” of the February 25, 1952, edition of the Allentown, Pennsylvania newspaper, The Morning Call:
“Story Classics” were, as described in an email from aficionado M.L. “Duke” Biscotti to the author “literary material of considerable merit that had seldom been published in book form or English.” Today these elegantly produced limited editions of fine printing, such as Gustave Dore’s “The Fortress of Fear” (described below), which was issued during the period when Glixon was moving to Ardsley, are collectibles and can be found on eBay and Amazon. Another Story Classic entitled “Sport Royal,” published in 1952 under Glixon’s direction, was printed by Peter Beilenson of Mt. Vernon, New York. Beilenson learned the printing craft after studying with famed book and type designer Frederic W. Goudy and printer William Edwin Rudge. Rudge’s firm, also based in Mt. Vernon, was internationally renowned as the foremost printer of his time. Beilenson’s firm (begun in the basement of his parent’s home in Larchmont in 1928 and is now known as Peter Pauper Press), offers an extensive line of fine printing and gift items, and is now based in White Plains. [13] A 1964 biography entitled “Recalling Peter: The Life and Times of Peter Beilenson and his Peter Pauper Press” contained a section written by Glixon.
Few letters to the Editor of The New York Times are published. The standards are exacting. In a few succinct sentences, the writer must convey something either novel, clever, pithy, informative, humorous, or scholarly, which also appeals to the editorial board that day. Here is an example from 1955 that embraces all of these criteria: [14]
In 1957, Glixon’s analytical prowess was demonstrated in his assessment of Adrian Wilson’s “Printing For Theater,” a landmark in American bookmaking. As observed in a 1989 talk by W. Thomas Taylor when “Printing For Theater” became the three millionth volume acquired by the University of Iowa Libraries:
“I have never been able to improve upon David Glixon's remarks when he selected it as the outstanding book among the Fifty Books of the Year Exhibition chosen by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for 1957: "In both design and production, Printing For Theater is a work of art. While its great size is functional, permitting the inclusion of a score of tipped-in theater programs, this volume would retain most of its beauty even if you cut the format by a third, printed its 64 pages in just two colors on less costly stock than handmade Tovil, and bound it in standard cloth instead of in handwoven Belgian linen.... His brilliant use of Stempel's Tajanus display type with Caslon Old Style text, his unconventional spacing, his impish yet purposeful disposition of illustrations—they all help to add an authentic and exciting masterpiece to the roster of American books." [15]
Almost twenty years earlier, Glixon’s review of the 1939 Rutgers University yearbook, which illuminated his expertise in the art of bookmaking, was reported in New Brunswick’s The Daily Home News:
“The 1939 issue of the Scarlet Letter, yearbook of Rutgers University, has received national recognition as “perhaps the sincerest, most beautiful college annual that has been published” by virtue of an article in the current October issue of “Bookbinding and Book Production.” The opinion was expressed by David M. Glixon, editor of the yearbook section of the magazine in an article entitled “Report Card for School Annuals.” He comments that “the 1939 Scarlet Letter achieved distinction as a book because—unlike the usual annual—it was designed to be read. And for a book to attain maximum readability its text should be printed on uncoated paper (as this was), its pictures (as here) should be printed on dull-coated stock and not interfere with the reading material, the format must be such that it invites rather than staggers, and of a size that can easily be carried and conveniently placed on or removed from a bookshelf. Its cover, finally, should be attractive, but not garish.”[16]
In the early to middle 1960s, Glixon, and his wife Helen, were members of Ardsley’s Fair-Housing Committee. The Committee (which had approximately 50 families as members), was an outgrowth of action inspired by Ardsley Mayor Daniel Reidy's 1960 endorsement of Equal Opportunity Day.[17] Glixon also chaired a citizen’s foreign-language committee to assist the Ardsley School District. [18] Mrs. Glixon was active in the Concord Road PTA [19], worked at the High School’s library, and volunteered at the Ardsley Community Nursery School on American Legion Drive, where her daughter Judith attended. [20]
In 1973, when his employer relocated from Manhattan to Avon, Connecticut (and coincidentally when their daughter Judith was a senior at Ardsley High School), the Glixons moved to West Hartford, Connecticut. [21] In an article about the efforts of local peace activists favoring a freeze on then-President Reagan’s planned increase in the production of nuclear weapons, the July 6, 1984, edition of the Hartford Courant contained a picture of Glixon (shown below) among the protestors holding an American flag while clenching a sign containing the words “Peace is Patriotic.”
Glixon’s last published letter in The New York Times, written in 1987, called on Connecticut’s General Assembly “to require that the power lines in all of Connecticut's high-population centers be placed underground,” noting that “The present situation is disgraceful and intolerable.” Over three decades later, this same complaint is often heard in Ardsley in light of the growing number of devastating storms leading to power outages due in part to climate change when trees and branches fall on exposed power lines.
Glixon died in 2007 at age 98 in Lexington, Kentucky, where his son Dr. Jonathan Glixon (Ardsley High School Class of 1969) is a Professor of Musicology at the University of Kentucky.
Publication by or mention of a Glixon in The New York Times is a family tradition. [24] Not only did Glixon’s brother Niel (also an editor with a long career in publishing) pen several letters over five decades, Glixon’s son Jonathan had at least one published, and his daughter-in-law, musicologist Beth Glixon, Ph.D. [25] (who, with her husband, Jonathan, co-authored “Inventing the Business of Opera: The Impresario and His World in Seventeenth-Century Venice''), [26] was quoted in a December 19, 2019, New York Times article about 17th-century musician Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) who has a Facebook page with thousands of followers. Facebook, of course, is another Ardsley story for another time (piece).
While not as prestigious as The New York Times, The Timepiece is delighted to re-publish this sampling of the literary works of David M. Glixon, Ardsley’s “Man of Letters,” [27] for a new generation’s delectation. [28]
Gary S. Rappaport [29]
[1] Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965. The Waste Land and Other Poems. London: Faber and Faber, 1999.
[2] Many of Glixon’s book reviews were of reference works including dictionaries such as Webster's Third New International Dictionary which, when published in September 1961, set off a national controversy about dictionaries and language. Glixon’s disparaging review is referenced in the Wikipedia entry about “the Third.” Webster's Third International He was a frequent book reviewer for the Saturday Review, a weekly literary magazine. The Saturday Review In 1972, he wrote in a review of Webster’s New World Dictionary Second College Edition that “definitions of even the most abstruse concepts are admirably lucid.” A visit to today’s Ardsley School District classrooms will reveal printed dictionaries (and globes) are largely relics.
[3] Adonis, La Fontaine, Jeane De; Glixon, David M. (Translator) London: Rodale Press 1957
[4] A Pennsylvania Yankee in King George’s Court
[5] The Muse of Gold: Art Patronage Through the Ages
[6] Long for the Stars: Poems, 1929-1991 (Asheville, North Carolina : HJJ Publishing, 1991) Glixon’s affinity for poetry was long standing. In 1932, he provided the answer to a question posed in The New York Times Book Review, to wit, “ which poem does the line ‘sleep and his brother death’ come from?” (“Queries and Answers” June 19, 1932, p BR19). The answer is Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 1813 long philosophical poem “Queen Mab,” Canta I, Verse 1. Queen Mab This same poem contains this line often found among quotes about history: “Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.”
[7] Vietnam Timeline
[8] Old Gray Lady
[9] “World Government as Goal” (November 9, 1946, p 11)
[10] According to Webster’s online dictionary, the term was first used in 1916 and means a person who refuses to serve in the armed forces or bear arms on moral or religious grounds.
[11] http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/ The 1940 Act was the first peacetime draft in United States history.
[13] https://www.peterpauper.com Peter Pauper’s mid-20th century publications have earned scholarly attention. See Chapter 4 of Consuming Books
[14] The New York Times, May 15, 1955. The Times published numerous letters written by Glixon on a variety of topics over the next four decades. Longfellow is one of the poets inscribed on an exterior plaque on the Ashford Avenue School (the Ardsley School District’s first high school) which was built in 1912. The building is now a condominium.
[15] Adrian Wilson's Printing For Theater
[16] October 22, 1940, p 19
[17] (Herald Statesman, February 14, 1962, 16). Fortunately, the Glixons retained the documents produced by the Committee (now archived in Judith Glixon’s home) which will be featured in a future edition of The Timepiece.
[18] Glixon (b. 1908) graduated in 1924 from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn where he earned the highest grade in French and was a member of ARISTA, the Honor Society for New York City high school students. He received his B.A. from New York University in 1934 (majoring in English) and from the early 1950s until his retirement he served as Editor and Art Director of the Limited Editions Club and Heritage Press, and continued to work as a free-lance editor until 2005.
[19] “Ardsley PTA Views School Curriculum” (Dobbs Ferry Register (January 21, 1960, p 3)) (Mrs. Glixon chaired the publications committee which maintained a resource center of books for parents).
[20] Judith Glixon (Ardsley High School Class of 1974), is an accomplished concert cellist, climate change activist and psychotherapist. http://onecello.org In her first year at Ardsley High School, she befriended Senior and Class President Ira Resnick, one of the “The Ardsley Four” who, along with three Ardsley sophomores, sued the Ardsley School Board in federal court over its refusal to allow them to pass out a flyer soliciting funds for the legal defense of the Chicago 7. The history of the litigation is being recounted in a four part series in The Beacon which is available to members of the Ardsley Historical Society on this website. For her father’s 81st birthday, she edited and designed “Long for the Stars” which she chose as the title from the last verse of this short 1933 gem:
—
“ONLY THE GODS”
Ache to the Stars that cooly gaze
Through the domed blue mask of space,
Yearn to the sun-disc’s blinding blaze,–
And conceal your mortal face.
Shrink from the moon’s mute questioning,
From the cold white “why?” of her stare,–
Run from the sea-waves rest-shunning:
Only the gods may dare.
Only the gods may tempt the chasms,
Soar to the realms beyond peace,–
Ours is to grope in puppet-like spasms,
Long for the stars, and cease.
(© David M. Glixon) Published courtesy of Judith Glixon.
[21] Fortuitously, the family’s move to Avon synchronized with Judith deciding to attend Hartt College (now school) of Music in nearby West Hartford.
[22] November 8, 1987
[23] https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/glixon-jonathan-1952
[24] David Glixon’s upcoming September 17, 1921 Bar Mitzvah was announced in the September 11, 1921 (p.21) edition of The New York Times.
[25] Dr. Beth Glixon received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1985, with a dissertation on recitative in seventeenth-century Venetian opera. Since 1990 she has been conducting archival research on the history of opera in seventeenth-century Venice, as well as on the social history of musicians there, especially women. Beth Glixon CV
[26] American Musicological Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Fittingly, this well received work of musical and cultural scholarship was dedicated to David Glixon.
[27] The first known use of “Man of Letters” was in 1645. https://www.merriam-webster.com/Man of Letters
[28] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/delectation.
[29] The author expresses his deep appreciation to Jonathan and Judith Glixon for their cooperation in the writing of this article. Ironically, both not only live in Lexington (Jonathan in Kentucky and Judith in Massachusetts), but, Lexington is likely the only place name which contains the letters needed to form the word “Glixon.”