EthicalDative

Acting! JMN, photo.

I also finished the “Teacher in America” book and loaned it to Charles last night. Herbert, Charles and I had lunch last week and I mentioned the book to them. Herbert knew of Barzun, said he had read several of his books on music and the arts. Apparently the current director of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), described by Herbert as “a Reagan goon,” is trying to cut back on funding for various programs, as well as institute “testing” of some kind to measure the results of artists’ interaction with children. Barzun has a wonderful chapter about that sort of thing: the American obsession with “facts,” as opposed to ideas, and with tangible, measurable “results.” He has plenty to abominate about the “educationists” (not his term, but I think he would approve of it) and the regimen of “testing” that they have perpetrated on the schools.

I’m thinking of picking up a book we have. It’s entitled “Mark Twain: God’s Fool” by Hamlin Hill. Have you heard of it? Here’s a pertinent quote from my little writer’s book: “On the trail of another man, the biographer must put up with finding himself at every turn: any biography uneasily shelters an autobiography within it.” (Paul Murray Kendall)

Here’s another one I like: “Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers I’d be a politician.” (Eugene Ionesco)

I’m sorry you had to postpone your play. Isn’t it sad that gymnasiums replaced auditoriums in our great rural vastnesses? How is Hubbard’s library? I remember your bitterness over the lack of one when growing up. You describe Groesbeck as progressive. I’d love to see it. Hope you tap into some of the other play groups.

[Correspondence, 1987, Copyright (c) 2018 James Mansfield Nichols. All rights reserved.]

Her Reading List, JMN, photo.

I visited with *** last night and we went over my translation, reading it against his published rendering. He was pleased to see no great errors, but saw places where he would like to change his version to match the original a little more closely. We went to Hungry Jack’s afterwards and had a bite. He likes Victoria and hopes to secure some kind of permanent position… He’s not the bohemian that you expect writers to be, except that he works a lot at night and sleeps during the day. But he’s fanatically conscientious and serious about the classes he gives to school children, and is neat almost to a fault. HIs apartment (upstairs at Daddy’s) is meticulously arranged and clean. All his papers are filed in labeled, alphabetized folders. He keeps elaborate written schedules and is always updating and rewriting them. He doesn’t dress particularly well, as far as style is concerned, but wears a tie when he lectures; drives an aging little Toyota. All the orderliness is amusing and a little touching to me. He told me last night that when his daughter would come to visit overnight, he sometimes rented a motel room for them so his apartment wouldn’t be messed up (!). Although he dates women here and there, I suspect he’s a confirmed bachelor. Don’t you? He drinks occasionally, but is generally pretty abstemious; has had coffee the last two evenings we went out.

[Correspondence, 1987, Copyright (c) 2018 James Mansfield Nichols. All rights reserved.]