![]() ![]() ![]() In those days I was still getting used to the idea of addressing such an august figure by his first name. When he was a boy, he once told me, his grandmother had advised him that a correspondent should be given time to breathe and write to somebody else. Abashed, I learned one of the first rules of any correspondence with Jacques: you answer promptly, as he does - though not too promptly. One afternoon a phone call surprised me in my office at the University of Minnesota where I was a lowly French instructor: it was Barzun, his manner friendly but purposeful, inquiring whether I had received his text and was about to produce my comments. The first time Jacques Barzun asked me to read a piece of his (something relating to Berlioz, the topic of my dissertation and the occasion of our acquaintance), I did not respond quickly enough. ![]()
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