> Wilhelm

Continued from page 4

wanted to make the yearbook in
the style of a continuous photo
essay, done completely in “photo-
journalistic style."

In this way, they hoped to
convey an objective, “Cultural"
view of what Grinnell College
was like in 1966 7 a view that
would be intelligible to an out-
sider who did not know Grinnell,
and to the students themselves
when they looked back in later
years. To this end, Wilhelm and
Phillips spent most of their time
as students taking pictures 7
twenty thousand in all. They
devoted so much time to their
iobs as yearbook editors that they
were unable to keep up with their
work as students; Phillips
iiunked out almost right away,
and Wilhelm followed him some
whatlater.

Ordinarily the yearbook would
come out in October of the follow-
ing school year; however Wil»
helm did not have it completely
organized and ready to send to
the printer until April of 1967.
When Wilhelm finally sent the
manuscript to the printer, it
appeared to most people that the
long delayed 1966 yearbook would
finally come outin May of 1957.

There was, however, further
delay. The printer, the American
Yearbook Company, found the
content of “Grinnell College
1966” a “major departure from
what is usually found in college
yearbooks" and, possibly,
libelous. The printer notified

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President Leggett and asked for
a statement from him releasing
the firm from responsibility if
any libel suits were to result from
the yearbook. President Leggett
then asked for the return of the
manuscript to him, and, when it
arrived, he gave it unopened to
the college lawyer, John F,
Bierman of Grinnell to look over,

According to Dean Joseph
Wall, then Chairman of the
faculty, no one at the college
looked at the manuscript since
they wanted there to be no basis
for anyone to say that it was
censorship. Bierman, after
examining the manuscript, found
that it did contain some grounds
for libel, and he advised Leggett
not tosignarelease.

The President then notified the
Committee on Publications, and
it met and told Wilhelm, who had
not known of the return of the
manuscript to the college, of the
situation. At a second meeting,
the committee approved a pro
posal that it would go through
the material with the lawyer
present, and, at each part which
was deemed libelous material,
would either redo the part or
delete it Otherwise, the com-
mittee agreed the college would
not publish the yearbook.

Wilhelm refused this offer; he
considered it nothing else but
Censorship, Instead, he made his
own after to the College, that his
lawyer would negotiate with the
college‘s lawyer. The college,

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howeve , would not accept that
offer; president Leggett and the
Board of Publications though:
that Wilhelm had no preorgative
to have his own lawyer. In their
View, the Board of Publications
was the publisher of the yearbook
and Wilhelm, as editor, was an
employee ofthe Board.

Leggett told the site that he
did not think “censorship" was
the essential problem with the
yearbook. He said that, although
he realizes some people think the
college reiuscd to publish the
yearbook because it presented an
unfavorable view of the school,
this was not the case. Leggett
said that he “tried to keep the
thing on the ground of libel rather
than censorship," He said that
the committee’s offer to Wilhelm
did not involve censorship since
the committee was publisher,
and “a publisher cannot censor

his own material. 7' _
When the college finally

decided it would not publish the
yearbook, it handed the manu
script over to Wilhelm and paid
back the people who had bought
subscriptions at $6 apiece. After
this, Wilhelm said he would pubs
lish the yearbook independently
of the college, and he sold a new
set of subscriptions at $10 per
book The book has not as yet
been published, although all the
type has been set and photo-
graphic negatives for the offset
plates are made. Wilhelm was
not satisfied with the quality of
the first offset plates made, and
is planning to have them partially
made over when he gets enough
money, The work already done
on the yearbook represents an
investment of $9,000; all that
really remains to be done alter
new ofiset negatives are made
of the pictures is the actual print-
ing.

The refusal by the college to
publish the yearbook in the form

Friday, April 3 1970

in which Wilhelm and Ph ips
had prepared it was seen by
many as the crucial turning point
in the relations of Henry Wilhelm
and Krystyna Neuman with
crime“ College. To Wilhelm, it
was ”the grossest thing the,
college has ever done, in terms
of basic freedom of speech.” To
krystyna Neuman, then back at
Grinnell as a second semester
luniol‘ and editor of the Grinnell
Reporter (eventually her new
name for the see, which was
meant to emphasize its nature
as a journal focusing on in-depth
coverage of major national and
school issues rather than just
school news), the college’s refus-
al to publish the yearbook un-
edited was a clear case of censor-
ship and cause for her to cease
publication of her newspaper, in
protest. To some faculty mem-
bers, the non-publication of the
WILHELM—

Continued on page 7

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