The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield [Paperback]

John McPhee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1992

Starting in 1902 at a country school that had an enrollment of fourteen, Frank Boyden built an academy that has long since taken its place on a level with Andover and Exeter. Boyden, who died in 1972, was the school’s headmaster for sixty-six years. John McPhee portrays a remarkable man “at the near end of a skein of magnanimous despots who...created enduring schools through their own individual energies, maintained them under their own absolute rule, and left them forever imprinted with their own personalities.” More than simply a portrait of the Headmaster of Deerfield Academy, it is a revealing look at the nature of private school education in America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One always has the sense with McPhee of a man at a pitch of pleasure in his work, a natural at it, finding out on behalf of the rest of us how some portion of the world works.”—Edward Hoagland, The New York Times

“A fine portrait of an individualist's individualist.” --J. G. Herzberg, The New York Times
“McPhee has produced an engaging portrait of an exceedingly engaging man.” --Alvin Beam, Cleveland Plain Dealer

“The Headmaster is a record of a lifetime's striving to create perfection--a striving conducted with zest, vision, humor and an unbelievable capacity for work.” --John McKey, The Boston Globe

About the Author

John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. Also in 1965, he published his first book, A Sense of Where You Are, with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and in the years since, he has written nearly 30 books, including Oranges (1967), Coming into the Country (1977), The Control of Nature (1989), The Founding Fish (2002), Uncommon Carriers (2007), and Silk Parachute (2011). Encounters with the Archdruid (1972) and The Curve of Binding Energy (1974) were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science. McPhee received the Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977.  In 1999, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Annals of the Former World.  He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374514968
• ISBN-13: 978-0374514969
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. The same year he published his first book, A Sense of Where You Are, with FSG, and soon followed with The Headmaster (1966), Oranges (1967), The Pine Barrens (1968), A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles (collection, 1969), The Crofter and the Laird (1969), Levels of the Game (1970), Encounters with the Archdruid (1972), The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed (1973), The Curve of Binding Energy (1974), Pieces of the Frame (collection, 1975), and The Survival of the Bark Canoe (1975). Both Encounters with the Archdruid and The Curve of Binding Energy were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Teacher for the generations, January 8, 2002

By 

Sven Allenbach-Schmidt (Greenbelt, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield (Paperback)

From 1902 to 1968, Frank Boyden was the Headmaster of Deerfield, a private boy's school in the countryside of Massachusetts. When Boyden arrived, the school had 14 students, transportation was by foot or horse drawn wagon, and he intended to stay only long enough to get enough money. 66 years later, Deerfield was one of the leading prep schools in America, the equal to Exeter and Andover. Best of all, the school wasn't an imitation of British schools, as so many prep schools of the first half of the 20th century were. Boyden had turned Deerfield into an outstanding educational institution while keeping it uniquely American. Demanding, even a bit of a despot, Boyden shaped the school and its students into something special, a school where the students come first, then the faculty.

Only John McPhee could tell the story as it deserves. Boyden and all the other residents of Deerfield come alive under McPhee's pen. The little touches, like the Headmaster's rejuvenating midday naps, followed by letter writing and inspections tours, make it seem as if the reader is there.

I doubt you'll be able to read this book, and not wish you could have been a student under Boyden. For several generations, Deerfield under his leadership was what a school should be.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Special Person...a Special Place, July 1, 2005

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield (Paperback)

I read this book when it was first published in 1966. Not long afterward, I had the privilege as well as pleasure of visiting Deerfield Academy and was given a tour of it by its headmaster, Frank Boyden. At that time, I was a Master of English at Kent School (Kent, CT). I recently re-read this book and another of John McPhee's, A Sense of Where You Are. The title of the latter work correctly describes Boyden's total understanding of his relationship with a once tiny school (founded in 1797) located in what remains a rustic village. Throughout his years as headmaster (1902-1968), he knew exactly where he was as well as where exactly he wanted Deerfield to be (and remain) under his leadership. Just as Mr. Boyden gave me a tour of Deerfield Academy during my visit so many years ago, McPhee enables his reader to take a comprehensive "tour" of the unique and compelling relationship between a remarkable educator and the school community he headed for 66 years.

Of special interest to me is what McPhee reveals about Boyden's style of leadership (autocratic but compassionate) and his obsession with maintaining "proper" appearances (e.g. manicured grounds, only the very best athletic equipment, the most impressive-looking athletes first off the bus). With regard to his relationships with faculty members, "The more you cooperate with the headmaster, the more he imposes on you," according to a teacher who had been at Deerfield for 25 years. "He expects a fantastic commitment. If you give it, he expects more. If you don't give it, he carries you, but you don't exist."

As a father of four and a grandfather of seven, I also found many valuable lessons to be learned from Boyden's relationships with Deerfield's students. For example, his emphasis on courtesy in athletics. "No matter how able a Deerfield player was or how close a game had become, if he showed anger he was benched." For Boyden, athletic competition must demonstrate "a moral force." He played on Deerfield teams until he was about 35, and was head coach of football, basketball, and baseball until he was nearly 80. He loved sports. He often observed that "it's better to lose in a sportsmanlike way than to win and gloat over it." Point made, he would then add, "Now, boys, let's not let up on [the given opponent] for a minute. Let's win this one, if possible, by forty points." Frank Boyden had a sense of where he was as well as of where everyone else associated with Deerfield Academy should always be. The values to which he dedicated his life often require personal sacrifices which -- apparently -- many parents, educators, and young people today are unwilling and/or unable to make.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Insightful into Deerfield's school culture, January 19, 2003

By 

Courtney L. Lewis "Sassy Librarian" (Kingston, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Headmaster: Frank L. Boyden of Deerfield (Paperback)

McPhee has written a highly readable account of the impact of a single individual on one of New England's important boarding schools. This work is particularly interesting when juxtaposed against similar works on the history of Groton School, St. Paul's School, or Exeter/Andover when viewing how one person can cause an entire school culture to take root. Found most often in schools where strong headmasters have either founded the school or contributed a life of service, Deerfield Academy comes across in McPhee's work as the true child of Boyden whose various quirks in no way detracted from his personal mission of making a difference in boys' lives. While by no means a critical work, "Headmaster" is nevertheless an important document in understanding the history of an important boarding school.