The writings of Mary MacKall Gwinn Hodder can be found in the archives of two college libraries—at Bryn Mawr, where she taught around the turn of the last century, and in Princeton, where she lived during her final years.
Although these papers may only rarely see the light of day, the words of her last will and testament endure outside the libraries’ walls: Each January, a selection committee of the Council of the Humanities listens attentively to Hodder’s wishes, read aloud from her will, to award fellowships for “the promotion of self-directed work… [for humanists] with more than ordinary intellectual and literary gifts.”
Through her estate, Hodder created the Charles John Morris Gwinn and Alfred Hodder Fund in memory of her father and husband with a very clear purpose, which was discussed at length with two Princeton presidents. Her legacy was designed to help humanists who demonstrated exceptional “promise rather than performance” through grants that were not coupled with the requirements of an academic program.
Since the fellowship was established in 1944, growth of the endowed fund has allowed the program to expand: when it was established, it appointed one fellow every other year; by 2005, it appointed three fellows annually. And in 2006, teaching responsibilities were added to the program, so that current fellows each teach an undergraduate course.
Doug Wright was the sole Hodder fellow in 1993-4 and spent his time at Princeton working on two plays—I Am My Own Wife and Quills. The two have garnered top prizes and awards, including a Pulitzer, Tony, and an Obie. (The screen adaptation of Quills, which starred Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Michael Caine, Joaquin Phoenix, and Billy Whitelaw, received three Academy Award® nominations.)
His year at Princeton was a life-changing experience for Wright. “I’m profoundly grateful to this day,” he says. Before receiving the fellowship, he recounts managing “a piecemeal existence as an erstwhile writer, occasional teacher, sitcom hack, and script reader. Ever since I completed my year on that remarkable fellowship, I have earned a full-time living as an author. What a wonderful transition!”
The expansion of the program since Wright’s experience has made it even more valuable to the fellows as well as to students. “As well as being integrated into the larger community, they create their own community,” says Carol Rigolot, executive director of the Council of the Humanities. “Teaching a course helps the fellows become a part of the fabric of the University. They develop relationships with students that they wouldn’t otherwise have, and the students in turn benefit from working with extraordinarily promising young writers,” she says.
In 2007-08, the Lewis Center for the Arts took the program under its wing. Paul B. Muldoon, the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 University Professor in the Humanities and founding chair of the center, considers the Hodder Fellowships to be something of a model for expanding fellowships in the arts. “The Society of Fellows in the Creative and Performing Arts will bring not only young poets and playwrights, but choreographers, composers, ceramicists, and costume designers to Princeton. It will be a vital time in their lives, and in the lives of our students,” he says.
