View source for Pictures from an Institution

{{Short description|1954 novel by Randall Jarrell}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name         = Pictures from an Institution: a Comedy
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = File:PicturesFromAInstitution.jpg
| caption       = First edition
| author       = [[Randall Jarrell]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = John Sandford
| country      = United States
| language     = English
| series        = 
| genre        = [[Satire]] 
| publisher    = [[Alfred A. Knopf]]
| pub_date      = 1954
| english_pub_date =
| media_type   = Print
| pages         = 277
| isbn          =  
| oclc             = 285285
| dewey            = 
| congress         = 
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = 
}}

'''''Pictures from an Institution: a Comedy''''' is a 1954 novel by American poet [[Randall Jarrell]].  It is an academic [[satire]], focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the relationships between the characters and their private lives. The nameless [[narrator]], a Jarrell-like figure who teaches at a women's college called Benton, makes humorous observations about his students and his fellow academics; especially the latter, and in particular the offensively tactless novelist Gertrude, modeled on [[Mary McCarthy (author)|Mary McCarthy]].{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Some{{who|date=July 2022}} believe Benton was modeled after [[Sarah Lawrence College]], where Jarrell taught but in an interview with the ''New York Times'', Jarrell stated that "Benton is supposed to be just a type ... I've taken things from real places, but mostly have made them up".<ref>Nichols, Lewis. [https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/01/specials/jarrell-talk.html "Talk With Randall Jarrell"], "The New York Times", May 2, 1954, accessed April 1, 2011.</ref>

==Characters==
* Unnamed narrator, a professor of literature
* Gertrude Johnson, a visiting novelist
* President Robbins, a former Olympic diver
* Gottfried Rosenbaum, composer in residence
* Constance, a longtime friend of the narrator, a beautiful music student

==Awards==
''Pictures from an Institution'' was a finalist for the National Book Award.<ref>National Book Foundation. [https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1955 "National Book Awards - 1955"] 2007, accessed April 1, 2011.</ref>

== References ==

{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/393759.html An excerpt] from the book at the [[University of Chicago Press]].
* [https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/01/specials/jarrell-pictures.html?scp=1&sq=pictures%20from%20an%20institution%20orville&st=cse ''New York Times'' review] by Orville Prescott (1954)

[[Category:1954 American novels]]
[[Category:Satirical books]]
[[Category:Campus novels]]
[[Category:Alfred A. Knopf books]]


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