The sister of the Governor of Alaska went dutifully from class to class with an armful of books. Schoolmarms hovered in little knots around visiting male professors. Undergraduates sported and snorted in Mills College's big outdoor pool, or strolled in summery clothes under the giant eucalyptus trees. To a languid class in Mills's gleaming white music building, André Maurois read passages from his autobiography-in-preparation.
"California," he glowed, "is the land of happiness. The ascent to 12,000 feet to cross the Rocky Mountains made us gasp for breath, but the descent at Reno,...