The Official Preppy Handbook, 1980 (Archival Information)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey OP:

The author of the Handbook went to Brown.

Yes. Lisa Birnbach graduated from Brown University. She wrote a satirical guide to Prepdom that took off.

And she wasn't preppy at all herself. She also took the assignment very seriously, not realizing at first that it was humor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still have my original copy. This thread inspires me to re-read it, now that my kids are nearing college age.

The book was published before the Internet took off and before college rankings became so important. It was a time when people went to the schools their grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles attended and not where USN&WR said was “best”. Legacy status was huge.
Being preppy is also about working smart, not hard. No Prep wants to be considered a grind.

The book was satire, you realize?

The writer was given this book on assignment, and did not realize it was humor. For context you need to know this if you are going to be so condescending in this way. Yes, the book is humor. But the writer took it as seriously as if she were sociologist or something.

[Anonymous]

Has a anybody noticed that it is sort of like a parody—not to be taken seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has a anybody noticed that it is sort of like a parody—not to be taken seriously?

Yes. I don’t what others are talking about. The author says it was satirical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has a anybody noticed that it is sort of like a parody—not to be taken seriously?

Yes, I think we've noticed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, this book was humor.

Those rankings were supposedly of the “preppiest” schools, not the best schools. It was meant to be funny! I was in college at the time and we all thought it was a very funny book- almost as funny as the movie “Animal House,” which is also comedy.

We know this. Not sure why you are feeling such a need to point it out.

A lot of people posting here seem to think it was an actual handbook on how to be preppy. The OP appears to think that the colleges listed were for some kind of a “ranking” of good colleges- an exercise that no one was engaged in at that time, except for the Barron’s Guide which only provided rough ideas of how “selective” various schools were, but did not attempt to rank schools from #1 to #whatever.

It was just a funny book that we read excerpts from out loud in our dorms and laughed uproariously. It seems that a lot of people who post about the relative ranks of various schools are so caught up with knowing scores and grades that they have lost any sense of humor about life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey OP:

The author of the Handbook went to Brown.

Yes. Lisa Birnbach graduated from Brown University. She wrote a satirical guide to Prepdom that took off.

And she wasn't preppy at all herself. She also took the assignment very seriously, not realizing at first that it was humor.

The book was very similar to National Lampoon and was from the start a satire.

[Anonymous]

It’s on the same level as Caddyshack. Some how the book has become a field guide for wannabes and posers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised Dartmouth isn't on the original list.

Beyond the 20 schools included in "The College of Your Choice," other colleges were mentioned in the book. In the case of Dartmouth, it was mentioned a few times.

Yes Animal House was released in 1978. One of the schools that inspired the movies was Chis Miller’s experience at Alpha Delta Phi at Dartmouth. Snobs versus slobs. The PHB was the beginnings of Yuppies, Reagan and greed is good 1980’s. Though it was satirical many people believed it was a guide. Think the book was most read/bought by women going off or in college??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The College of Your Choice"

The Top Ten

Princeton
Hamilton
U of Virginia
St. Lawrence
Babson
Hampden-Sydney
Lake Forest
Sweet Briar
Hollins
Pine Manor (SATs N.A.)

The Runners Up

Amherst
Reed
Williams
Georgetown
Colorado College
Trinity (CT)
Colby
Vassar
Connecticut College
Wheaton (MA)

Note: While these schools appeared alphabetically in the original, they’re listed above in order of the included SAT profiles for an indication of how these colleges may have changed across time.

Hamilton, St. Lawrence, and Trinity are definitely very preppy and beautiful people schools. I have relatives and friends at all of them.

[Anonymous]

PP. I was in middle school when I read it. But it was a bit eye opening. I have a partly WASP family and the book explained a lot. Another book that was similarly educational about WASPs but not a parody was "The Big House" by George Howe Colt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I surprised that Reed was ever on the list. I do know preppies who went there but they were the serious druggies who dropped out to follow the Dead and are now carpenters in Oregon.

It’s been a long time since I read it, but as I recall, there was a comment about how philosophy was allowed as a major, but only if you become a carpenter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I surprised that Reed was ever on the list. I do know preppies who went there but they were the serious druggies who dropped out to follow the Dead and are now carpenters in Oregon.

It’s been a long time since I read it, but as I recall, there was a comment about how philosophy was allowed as a major, but only if you become a carpenter.

Under Preppy careers, the book states this: "Carpenter. Ph.D. is a must, preferably in Philosophy [sic]." With respect to Reed specifically, part of its characterization was as a "School for rich carpenters-to-be."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey OP:

The author of the Handbook went to Brown.

Yes. Lisa Birnbach graduated from Brown University. She wrote a satirical guide to Prepdom that took off.

She is also not a born and bred WASP so she didn’t get everything right. Still, a lot of it is pretty close.

The book was a joke that people like you took seriously.

NP. It's hard to imagine that you read or understood the book. For example, in "A Sampling of Suburbs" Chevy Chase and McLean were included. This simply represents the editor's honest opinion that these were preppy communities. How "seriously" the reader took this is irrelevant, but it's clear a joke was not involved.

DP. You have zero sense of humor, clearly. Yes, there was an element of truth in the book, but it was satirical. You know: FUNNY.

NP what in the PP’s post indicated to you that PP doesn’t understand the humor of the book? Most good humor does have elements of truth to it and this book is no exception.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...and somehow, against all odds, hampden-Sydney survives! Churning out well behaved chubby boys for the past 200 years!

Conservative white boys. Rarely chubby.

Umm…what world do you live in? Conservative white boys are usually chubby.