Re: On the Myth of Milman Parry
Owen Cramer <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.education.classics |
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| Message-ID | <DM5PR06MB24583F33AF60573B0116827CB9800@DM5PR06MB2458.namprd06.prod.outlook.com> |
Yes, Dan -- we carpooled to the Lab School with Norman's kids; also at Lab were children of Harold Urey, Leo Strauss, Sol Tax. . . . And in the Faculty Apartments where we moved in 1949 was Andre Weil of Bourbaki fame (and the brother of the late Simone), also Ralph Tyler and Konrad Bloch and Frank Walton. OC -----Original Message----- From: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group <[email protected]> On Behalf Of DANIEL P. Tompkins Sent: Monday, January 14, 2019 10:40 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: On the Myth of Milman Parry This email originated outside Colorado College. Do not click links or attachments unless you know the content is safe. Terrific. Did Dad know Norman Maclean (“River Runs Through It”?) Everyplace was worried about $ in the ‘30s. The president of Columbia, after promising otherwise, halved the pay of Dewey and Boas. Allen Nevins wrote a friend that the History Dept was relieved when Merle Curti left for Wisconsin, adding that the university depended on undergraduate tuition. Holyoke was never wealthy.... A different world. Explains the concern of Bell, Finley, Merton et al for ... money. This astounded (some) Brits at a Cambridge conference in 2012. Dan Sent from my iPhone > On Jan 14, 2019, at 8:19 AM, Owen Cramer <[email protected]> wrote: > > Fascinating! I've been wondering about Parry's death nearly all my life, but not constructively enough to undertake what Steve Reece has now done, a comprehensive look at what evidence there is. Harvard has been protective of its own in often commendable ways, and I had assumed that there might be truth in the suicide rumors and that pious cover-up had made it unlikely we would ever know the whole story. Carelessness with firearms is a national issue, more even today than in 1935, and in that sense I suppose Parry's death is tragic and not simply "pointless." I do think that insecurity in academic appointments, in that depression period, might have loomed large in Parry's mind. I don't suppose that there's definitive evidence that he had been assured that, after the next three-year appointment and assuming publication of something like The Singer of Tales, he would get the tenured spot he must have wanted. My father, a younger and less-adventurous scholar with a Princeton Ph.D. (1935), languished at Mt. Holyoke with annual pay-cuts after marrying one of their star students (also in 1935)--he thought they might be discriminating against him, but maybe they were just poor. He left there for the sketchy University of Tampa and a dead-end visiting appointment back at Princeton before catching on at the University of Chicago in the undergraduate college in 1945. Tenure was a problem even back then. > Thanks for sharing this. > Owen Cramer > > -----Original Message----- > From: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group > <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Steve T Reece > Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2019 6:07 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: On the Myth of Milman Parry > > This email originated outside Colorado College. Do not click links or attachments unless you know the content is safe. > > > Thanks for the heads-up! > > I believe this link will take you to my piece on Parry. > > Again, I'd appreciate any feedback. There has been so much misinformation circulating about the life and death of Milman Parry that I am fearful of adding further to it. > > https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs. > google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1ApjYRuK8-o7wfrmr9tDqJIvo_C37Cw0SfQfdPbilo > hE%2Fedit%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=02%7C01%7COCramer%40COLORADOCOLLEGE > .EDU%7C771af1da087e47999cdb08d67a474add%7Ccfc7b13c12964387b3085de08fd1 > 3c99%7C1%7C0%7C636830843958848595&sdata=cJ4IGey5fQIOx0lDk82sfjd8lU > mcZf%2BfcaOH2hxz4F4%3D&reserved=0 > > > Steve Reece > > > On Sun, Jan 13, 2019 at 4:51 PM Patrick T. Rourke <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Attachments are stripped by the listserv (this is to protect >> subscribers from viruses). Could you provide a link to a download? >> >> Thanks! >> Patrick Rourke >> >> >> ____________ >> P. T. Rourke >> >>> On Jan 13, 2019, at 5:37 PM, Steve T Reece < >> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Dear Classics Colleagues, >>> >>> >>> >>> A few years ago – well, I see now that it was way back in 1993 - >>> there occurred a sustained and wide-ranging discussion on this list >>> about the untimely and tragic deaths of scholars who had worked in >>> the field of Homeric Studies: Milman Parry, Adam Parry, Anne Amory >>> Parry, Michael Ventris, and Colin MacLeod. There was particular >>> interest in Milman Parry’s life, death, and status at Harvard >>> University. In that >> discussion, >>> and since then, I’ve observed that there has been a lot of >>> “fluidity” in the details of both the “oral tradition” and the >>> written accounts about Milman Parry. A fairly rich myth has >>> developed about the man, his life, and his early death. I’ve >>> collected details from the police report, coroner’s report, death >>> certificate, and contemporary newspaper accounts, with some >>> background details drawn from national censuses, city records, >>> passport applications, ship manifests, etc. and from other >>> contemporary accounts by people who knew the Parry’s, and I’ve >>> discovered that while these details paint an interesting human >>> portrait of Parry in his final days, they lack the sensational >>> features of the “mythic” accounts. I’m happy to share this in the attached document and request additions, subtractions, and corrections from those inclined to read it. >>> >>> >>> >>> Best regards, >>> >>> >>> >>> Steve Reece >>> >>> Professor of Classics >>> >>> St. Olaf College >>> >>> >>> >>> [email protected] >>> >>> -- >>> >>> Steve Reece, Professor of Classical Languages Saint Olaf College, >>> Northfield, Minnesota (U.S.A.) 55057 >>> >>> Tomson Hall 347 (Office: 786-3378; Home: 663-7035) >>> >>> [email protected] >>> >>> >> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwp.st >> o >> laf.edu%2Fclassics%2Fpeople%2Fsteve-reece%2F&data=02%7C01%7COCram >> e >> r%40COLORADOCOLLEGE.EDU%7C7fc347ee51b44666d5e108d679bc9b92%7Ccfc7b13c >> 1 >> 2964387b3085de08fd13c99%7C1%7C0%7C636830248308124792&sdata=mdruEo >> j >> sFvI3Qrd%2FbU8IgdWyKW70ZdnBqAP%2Fw%2B8%2BKgA%3D&reserved=0 >>> >>> >> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwp.st >> o >> laf.edu%2Fclassics%2F&data=02%7C01%7COCramer%40COLORADOCOLLEGE.ED >> U >> %7C7fc347ee51b44666d5e108d679bc9b92%7Ccfc7b13c12964387b3085de08fd13c9 >> 9 >> %7C1%7C0%7C636830248308124792&sdata=n4nW95keH8xaDCAVmfoeuMY9W9H2Z >> J >> h1%2BK26tb%2BO2Z4%3D&reserved=0 >>> [image: St. Olaf College] >> > > > -- > > Steve Reece, Professor of Classical Languages Saint Olaf College, > Northfield, Minnesota (U.S.A.) 55057 > > Tomson Hall 347 (Office: 786-3378; Home: 663-7035) > > [email protected] > > https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwp.sto > laf.edu%2Fclassics%2Fpeople%2Fsteve-reece%2F&data=02%7C01%7COCrame > r%40COLORADOCOLLEGE.EDU%7C771af1da087e47999cdb08d67a474add%7Ccfc7b13c1 > 2964387b3085de08fd13c99%7C1%7C0%7C636830843958858599&sdata=KoFNReh > uGDqjSLNAPzgbAehYkmk8MWQCSc5upOGLGJs%3D&reserved=0 > > https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwp.sto > laf.edu%2Fclassics%2F&data=02%7C01%7COCramer%40COLORADOCOLLEGE.EDU > %7C771af1da087e47999cdb08d67a474add%7Ccfc7b13c12964387b3085de08fd13c99 > %7C1%7C0%7C636830843958858599&sdata=BXH3Vce9iZrYyaXhBTkvOjSLo0DQYv > 2JPn5VpzGYrdU%3D&reserved=0 > [image: St. Olaf College]