Friday, April 22, 2011

Being Well-Read

I've written before about the mentor of my undergraduate years, Daniel Curley, he of the corduroy pants, Sears boots and rucksack. In English 101 he assigned us Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, James, Forster, Cather, Wharton, Joyce, Hemingway. I still read all of them. In 1960, he told us, 'What will last of Hemingway's work are the short stories and The Sun Also Rises.' Half a century later, I would say he was correct.

Read the rest of
Roger Ebert here.

2 comments:

Wally Bock said...

Loved the post, Michael. You reminded me of my high school freshman English teacher, Irwin Hoffman. We called his class the "book a week" class because we read a book every week, except that we got two weeks each for David Copperfield and Moby Dick. It was easily the best literature class I ever took, introduced me to a range of books I might never have discovered otherwise, and set reading patters for a lifetime. Bravo Mr. Hoffman! Bravo Mr. Curley.

Michael Wade said...

Wally,

I like your response. Many of us were blessed with teachers who opened the covers of fine books for us. I say Bravo Mrs. Beluzzi!

Michael