GEORGE WILSON [ AND BOTTICELLI...]

                                                                               

    Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 8:25 PM

  Hello, Dr. Waite.  Hope you're feeling well, today.  Last

  night, I managed to acquire a photocopy of the article

  by Christopher Moore.

  ____________________________________________

  I see that he already asked you about your 1947 self,

  and your recollections about R.B.'s passing.  I find it

  intriguing that your path to academia was not as direct

  as I thought.:)

 ______________

 "He turned to university.  Dissatisfied at the University

 of Toronto, he switched to the University of

 British Columbia ('Well, I knew a girl out West')..."

 Ah yes...thank goodness for girls out West.  :)

_______________

GEORGE WILSON.  How did he know that "summers 

walking in Europe" would be so nourishing for mind &

spirit?  The advice reminds me of something you said

to us students, so long ago.

"If you ever get the chance to learn a traditional craft,

from an old barrel maker, or old anything...don't pass

it up - you won't be sorry."

                                  Daniel:)

____________________________________________

Sat, Aug 17, 2013 at 8:40 PM

Dear Dan,

In re walking in Europe:  Wilson would spend those long

Dalhousie summers, in effect from 30 April to 25 Sept.

walking Europe with his colleague Adshead

Professor of Mathematics.  He would say you cannot 

understand mediaeval Europe without having seen it, or

least what's left of it.  Mutatis mutandis, Greek, Roman

history.  So walking the Roman wall in the north of

England matters; you have to see, and feel, the 

Parthenon in Athens; you have to be knocked off your

feet when you enter the 13th century Cathedral of

Chartres; you have to feel like tears in front of 

Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" or Michelangelos'  "David".

Trudge the battlefield of Waterloo, of Culloden; see

where the Turks broke the walls of Constantinople in

May 1453; or here in North America, Gettysburg,

Quebec, Louisburg.  seeing Tolstoy's grave at 

Yasnaya Polyana, or his proof sheets for 

"War and Peace"; history was alive once.  So Wilson

said in effect, "Forget for the moment publishing your

PhD thesis, however publishable your professors at

Toronto may think it is.  It can doubtless stand some

maturing."

So off I went for 4 summers 1954-1957, and again for 

another two 1959-60.

That's enough of a lecture!

          Best wishes,

                  Peter Waite