Remembering Irving Howe
Heilbroner, Robert
It is very difficult to write about someone much celebrated, much admired, much mourned. I will content myself with this small anecdote. A good friend was visiting one day when the mail came,...
...A good friend was visiting one day when the mail came, bringing a letter from Irving in which he praised in lovely words a book manuscript I had shown him...
...Oh, I don't know," I said...
...Knowing Irving, I doubt if I'll read this letter more than two or three hundred times...
...I passed the letter over to my friend...
...My God...
...From Irving Howe...
...he said...
...The bad ones you shrug off, the good ones you apply a knowing discount to...
...You must be ecstatic...
...When you get to be my age, you have read enough comments not to take them too seriously...
Vol. 40 • September 1993 • No. 4
