Elvine Journal
AUTUMN/WINTER 2011 IS FINALLY HERE!
Safety Last!
Picture yourself a bunch of posh 1930s students at Cambridge, beautifully illuminated by the moon, many in blazers and ties, about to climb their campus’ buildings. Doing it as part of one of the university’s oldest secret societies, they would follow instructions found in the cult book “The Night Climbers of Cambridge,” first published in 1937.
As with today’s graffiti culture, their identities were obscured in pseudonyms. But unlike the graffiti world, getting caught was the least of their worries, as the following excerpt from the book reveals:
“As you pass round each pillar, the whole of your body except your hands and feet are over black emptiness […] and the ground is precisely one hundred feet directly below you. If you slip, you will still have three seconds to live.”
Their adventures, forever eternalized in prose, are still to this day inspiring students at Cambridge to join the nameless club of night climbers (probably best described as a cross between the Alpine Adventure Club and the Dead Poets Society), all embodying the spirit of Elvine – sophisticated clothes for unsophisticated behavior.
Date of Issue
9 Aug
2011
