Quarterly Quiz

The Quarterly Quiz of Brown University appeared for the first time in May 1931. It was edited by George F. Troy ’31, Winfield T. Scott ’31, and Frank E. Merchant ’31. The faculty advisors were Benjamin W. Brown and Sharon O. Brown. The first and only issue contained stories by the three editors and also by R. Wade Vliet ’33, J. E. Professor S. Foster Damon wrote of the circumstances of the magazine,

“The Manuscript Club ... planned to issue a magazine called the New Brunonian. The business manager, a fraternity man, changed the title to the Quarterly Quiz, and raised a row about the morality of one of the stories, besides running up very heavy bills.... In the fall of 1931, the business manager of the Quarterly Quiz surprised the editors (the new body, who claimed that they were elected at the end of the previous college year, and had sent a notice of said election to the Herald, but which was not printed) by announcing his appointment of a Cammarian Club member as editor, and a wholly new board, all chosen from the fraternities and none from the Manuscript Club. The Manuscript Club was in no position to insist on retaining their magazine, which had been renamed and run so heavily into debt; but it was decided in the Dean’s Office that there was no reason why the fraternities should not have a wholly new magazine of their own, provided the business manager would not be running into debt with another printer. The new organ of the fraternities was named The Brown Bedel, and published claims that it was replacing the Quarterly Quiz, now dead. All undergraduates known as writers refused to contribute.”