Thursday, July 26, 2012

Letters of Note

If you haven't bookmarked "Letters of Note" yet, get on it. Here's a letter Ted Turner received from his father after he learned that Ted wanted to major in Classics at Brown. I've read a lot of boring, inarticulate rants against ivory tower elitism, so it was fun to read an intelligent one. Ted Turner's dad sounds like a real Hemingway type:
There is no question but this type of useless information will distinguish you, set you apart from the doers of the world. If I leave you enough money, you can retire to an ivory tower, and contemplate for the rest of your days the influence that the hieroglyphics of prehistoric man had upon the writings of William Faulkner. Incidentally, he was a contemporary of mine in Mississippi. We speak the same language—whores, sluts, strong words, and strong deeds. 

1 comment:

James R said...

It's now bookmarked.

It is quite the trove for learning about things and people. Years from now, will it become the "Tweet of Note"?

The Turner letter speaks for itself, especially for those of us who knew my grandfather on my mother's side.