Five miles away : the story of the Lawrenceville School

When Head Master Bruce McClellan proposed to Samuel R. Slaymaker II that he undertake the writing of a new history of the Lawrenceville School, he wanted, writes the author, "a story, rather than a pure and simple history; one that emphasizes Lawrenceville's role in social history." Accepting Dr. McClellan's commission, Mr. Slaymaker has departed from the common chronological documentation of facts and figures and has written a wholly absorbing story of one of this nation's great secondary schools. Five Miles Away marks the 175th Anniversary of The Lawrenceville School and spans almost the whole of our national history. From the School's roots that were laid down in 1810 in the village then known as Maidenhead, Lawrenceville has grown with the country, evoking the rich strains of its history that have always affected the School itself. Five Miles Away is the first history of Lawrenceville to be published since Roland J. Mulford's History of The Lawrenceville School appeared in 1935. In writing it Mr. Slaymaker has drawn on his own sense of history, on the experiences of many alumni and members of the faculty, both past and present, and on the experiences of six Fifth Formers in school at the time the story was being written. The six schoolboys, of quite diverse backgrounds, not only present a contemporary view of Lawrenceville through their own individual experiences, but they also, as the author states, "enliven the historical narrative by giving it meaning and direction." "Read these pages for pleasure then," writes Frederick Buechner in his Introduction. "Read them for profit. Read them for auld lang syne. But read them also with the clear understanding that if you're not careful (or maybe if you are), not the least of what you may find among them is yourself-as-you-used-to-be staring with goggle-eyed fascination at yourself-as-you-are."