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A black and white photo of a long-haired young man wearing a tie
Rock 'n' Roll Dreams

by Frederick Baron ’69

In 200 years, there’s never been another musician—or Amherst freshman—quite like Jim Steinman.


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An illustration of a man surrounded by and clutching books
Short Takes

by Katherine Duke ’05

Character Studies: Here are the three best fictional figures ever portrayed by Amherst alumni actors.


The Bicentennial Rereading Project

Very few alumni magazines run book reviews these days. We, however, consider them a hallmark of our publication, so in planning this special issue, we challenged ourselves to put a Bicentennial spin on our book reviews. Normally, we review new works by alumni and faculty. This time, we asked two reviewers: What’s one book you encountered in college that you’d want to review today? For Paul Statt ’78, it was a novel written when the College was a mere 30 years old: Moby-Dick, “the greatest work I’ve ever read.” Statt has reread it three times since freshman year. Makena Onjerika ’10 chose to reread a memoir, Aké: The Years of Childhood. As an Amherst senior in 2009, Onjerika was “biting my nails over whether I would ever amount to anything.” Aké offered comfort. What would it do for her in 2021? Read on to find out.

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An illustration of a woman riding a whale
Call Me Outcast

by Paul Statt ’78

What Melville taught a worried freshman.


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An illustration of a book opened with a tree and children playing on top of it
Made in Childhood

by Makena Onjerika ’10

Stories are exactly my problem at the moment.