309:, California, began representing a 72-year-old woman who emptied her bank account to sign up for the course and later attempted to get a refund before the course had begun. Mitford began researching the school, touring the campus in Westport, interviewing members of the Guiding Faculty including Bennett Cerf, and placing advertisements looking for students of the school who could share their experiences. Several of the Guiding Faculty attempted to defend the school's practices, with Faith Baldwin saying "Oh, that's just one of those things about advertising.... Anyone with common sense would know that the fifteen of us are much too busy to read the manuscripts the students send in." Mitford's article on the school, "Let Us Now Appraise Famous Writers", was originally commissioned by
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was accepted, they were sent a letter filled with praise, suggesting that "you couldn't consider breaking into writing at a better time than today. Everything indicates that the demand for good prose is growing much faster than the supply of trained talent." Mitford noted that the complete opposite was true at the time, and that "the average free-lance earns just over $ 3000 a year." Students were required to sign a contract with the school. Cerf noted that "once somebody has signed a contract with Famous
Writers he can't get out of it, but that's true with every business in the country."
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To enter the program, the course required students to submit aptitude tests, which were almost uniformly accepted. The advertisements implied that the celebrity faculty would evaluate the student's tests, a statement that
Bennett Cerf, a leader of the group, admitted was false. Once a student's test
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Assignments were graded by a staff of fifty, including some well-respected free-lance writers. The comments they provided on students' papers were described as "formulaic, often identical, responses" and as "good as you'd get from a mediocre professor in a so-so creative writing program." The cost
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At the time of
Mitford's reporting, the school's enrollment was 65,000 students, each of whom was paying $ 785 to $ 900 for the three-year course. Mitford reported a high dropout rate (between 66 and 90%), which she concluded was partly responsible for the school's financial success. The school
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Between 1960 and 1969, revenue from tuition increased from $ 7 million to $ 48 million, and the stock increased in value from $ 5 to $ 40. Radio spots featuring
Guiding Faculty, including Baldwin and Eberhardt, being interviewed by Cerf were aired. By 1964, they were offering four different
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and attorneys general in several states initiated lawsuits against the school. Officials in
Indiana and Washington sent reprints of the article to every high school counselor and principal. A member of Congress entered the entire article in the
264:. Cerf is quoted in the advertisements as saying: "We approached representative writers, the best we could get in each field: fiction, advertising, sports writing, television. The idea was to give the school some prestige."
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to investigate. The school's stock steadily declined, and in 1972, the school filed for bankruptcy, although
Mitford noted in 1974 that the school was "creeping back." According to Bill Vogelsang, the nephew of
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204:, Connecticut. The ubiquitous advertising copy for the school, which was often found in the back of magazines, listed the following writers (who were also stockholders) as the school's "Guiding Faculty":
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who "felt they had been swindled and who wanted to get out of the contract." Mitford was invited onto numerous television programs, her article was read into the legislative record in
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was also "about fifteen times" the cost of correspondence courses offered by universities. Students who signed up for the course were provided with "four hefty 'two-toned,
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was published in 2006. It dealt with a man who runs a correspondence course and consists of lessons he mails to his students and the writing samples they send back.
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employed about 800 salesmen throughout the country working on a "straight commission basis." In 1970, about 2000 veterans were signed up for the program through the
364:, Connecticut, calling itself the Famous Writers School, still existed, selling a course and set of books identical to those of the original Famous Writers School.
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357:, Cerf had warned her, and presumably other members of the Guided Faculty, to sell their stock in the school, which she allegedly refused to do.
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printed the piece in its July 1970 issue. (Mitford was already well-known for her 1963 investigative book about the
American funeral industry,
382:, it was titled "How to Write Good", with a real quote at the beginning from Eliot Foster, Director of Admissions, Famous Writers School.
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Robert L. Hampel, Fast and
Curious: A History of Shortcuts in American Education (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
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published a parody of the Famous
Writers School teaching material. Written by
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Magazine
Advertisements for the Famous Writers School Featuring Rod Serling
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When the piece was published, more than 300 students sent letters to the
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Video Advertisement for the Famous Writers School featuring Rod Serling
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America's Agatha Christie: Mignon Good Eberhart, Her Life And Works.
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programs: fiction, non-fiction, advertising, and business writing.
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bound' volumes with matching loose-leaf binders for the lessons."
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538:"Let Us Now Appraise Famous Writers" by Jessica Mitford in the
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The school came to the attention of Mitford after her husband,
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Distance education institutions based in the United States
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A Complete Guide to the Accredited Correspondence Schools
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Mitford, Jessica. "Let Us Now Appraise Famous Writers".
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for writers in the 1960s and 1970s. Founded in 1961 by
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fiction, non-fiction, advertising, and business writing
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448:Pages 221-223. Susquehanna University Press, 2005.
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182:editor and well-known television personality,
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593:Educational institutions established in 1961
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146:was an educational institution that ran a
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498:A Man's Journey to Simple Abundance
196:, an illustrator whose school, the
598:1961 establishments in Connecticut
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461:, page 19. Doubleday, 1964.
293:at the taxpayer's expense.
186:, an occasional editor for
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174:The school was founded by
524:on Wayback Machine, 2015.
512:on Wayback Machine, 2002.
457:Fleming, Alice Mulcahey.
324:The American Way of Death
144:The Famous Writers School
350:Federal Trade Commission
496:Breathnach, Sarah Ban.
372:In the early 1970s the
522:Famous Writers School
510:Famous Writers School
403:Famous Artists School
391:Famous Writers School
198:Famous Artists School
148:correspondence course
17:Famous Writers School
485:The Atlantic Monthly
346:Congressional Record
318:The Atlantic Monthly
603:Wilton, Connecticut
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551:2007-08-04 at the
380:Michael O'Donoghue
368:In popular culture
348:and convinced the
222:Mignon G. Eberhart
125:, J. D. Ratcliff,
103:Mignon G. Eberhart
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67:bankruptcy (1972)
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540:Atlantic Monthly
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164:Jessica Mitford
115:Clifton Fadiman
93:, John Caples,
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487:: July 1970.
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262:Mark Wiseman
230:Bergen Evans
218:Bennett Cerf
214:Bruce Catton
194:Albert Dorne
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180:Random House
176:Bennett Cerf
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160:Albert Dorne
152:Bennett Cerf
143:
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111:Bergen Evans
99:Bennett Cerf
95:Bruce Catton
72:Headquarters
58:Albert Dorne
50:Bennett Cerf
385:A novel by
254:Max Shulman
250:Rod Serling
210:John Caples
131:Max Shulman
127:Rod Serling
577:Categories
226:Paul Engle
107:Paul Engle
86:Key people
389:entitled
331:Aftermath
272:Practices
258:Red Smith
135:Red Smith
25:Education
549:Archived
397:See also
312:McCall's
202:Westport
170:Founding
77:Westport
22:Industry
307:Oakland
297:Scandal
291:GI bill
283:buckram
46:Founder
38:Founded
362:Wilton
192:, and
158:, and
56:, and
409:Notes
30:Genre
341:Utah
260:and
178:, a
64:Fate
41:1961
327:.)
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