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A moment's thought?
Modeling “Model MIT president” and former U-M Provost and COE Dean Charles Vest (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.) There stands in front of me a carpenter’s model of a bureau—16...
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The welcome table
A very, very, very fine house My colleague, Magdalena Zaborowska, has just published a book on James Baldwin. Its title tells the story: Me and My House: James Baldwin’s Last Decade in France. A...
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The writers' workshop
One is the loneliest number Rarely is the table so clear in Angell Hall’s Room 1176 (the Hopwood Room). (Image: LSA.) The life of the professional author is in central ways a lonely one. I don’t mean...
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In defense of writing
Take note The U.S. Constitution. Writing matters. Why? This is not a rhetorical question, and the fact we need to ask it may come as a surprise. But for reasons large and small it remains a question in...
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A Hall of mirrors
Master class Donald Hall taught at Michigan from 1957-75. I’ve reached the age — something both to celebrate and mourn — where most of my masters are dead. The celebration is, of course, personal and...
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Vision and revision
Speaking in tongues Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau, in Walden, makes the following claim: “Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. It is not enough even to be...
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The road not taken
Roads and tunnels and walls and bridges John Lennon’s “Walls and Bridges.” (Apple Records, 1974.) That our roads and bridges and tunnels require repair is not news. Everywhere they crumble, everywhere...
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What goes up
Built to last? Few readers think of “Typee” when seeking out Herman Melville. I had lunch in Manhattan, recently, with two younger friends — one an investment banker, one a rare book and manuscript...
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Tongue-tied and illiterate?
What does it all mean? Tile sample from Atik Valide mosque which was built by great architect Sinan in the 16th century in Uskudar (Istanbul / Turkey ). On the tile you can see a sample of Koran...
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The accidental cartoonist grows up
“I couldn’t draw at all” Cathy Guisewite, BA ’72. (Image courtesy of Cathy Guisewite.) On the first day the award-winning comic strip Cathy ran in 66 newspapers nationwide, its 26-year-old creator hid...
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