Wells Lewis Made Editor of Journal In Southern State

Wells Lewis '39 is taking over the editorship next month of the Greenville, Miss., Delta Democrat-Times, replacing the present editor, Hodding Carter who is coming here as a Nieman Fellow in Journalism.

Author of a novel "They Still Say No," which was published last Spring while he was still in College, Lewis said at that time that he intended to go into politics after preparation in other fields. "I think first that I'll get a job on a newspaper, if I can," he said in an interview. "I'd like to move around the country from one newspaper to another and to work at a number of things. I think it would be good preparation."

Greenville has a population of 25,000. Lewis has been working on the paper for several months, and before that he had had no newspaper experience.

His novel concerned young love, and was set in a Harvard background. It described the attempt of a student here to achieve normal relations with the female sex. "The amatory relation still remains a matter of personal adjustment and personal wisdom," was Lewis' conclusion.

Favorably Reviewed

It was favorably reviewed in many papers, and got considerable publicity, partly because its author is the son of novelist Sinclair Lewis. Burton Rascoe hailed it as the literary discovery of the year, but "Time" concluded its review of the hero's attempts to get him self seduced as follows: "Finally, much to everybody's relief, a rich Rympho maniac from Mauhattan takes him in hand, and Crane goes back to college with a mighty superior attitude toward freshmen."

Carter, whose position Lewis will occupy while the former is studying here, will hold the fellowship from February, until the same time next year. During the summer he will return to Greenville.

He is to study racial sociology and agricultural economics in relation to the delta country of Mississippi. While in Cambridge he will live in the house of Walter E. Houghton, associate professor of History and Literature, who is absent on leave.