Of Farming & Classics

by Grene, David

• ISBN13: 9780226308012
• ISBN10: 0226308014
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

A fiercely independent thinker, colorful storyteller, and spirited teacher, David Grene devoted his life to two things: farming, which he began as a boy in Ireland and continued into old age; and classics, which he taught for several decades that culminated in his translating and editing, with Richmond Lattimore, of The Complete Greek Tragedies. In this charming memoir, which he wrote during the years leading up to his death in 2002 at the age of eighty-nine, Grene weaves together these interests to tell a quirky and absorbing story of the sometimes turbulent and always interesting life he split between the University of Chicagowhere he helped found the Committee on Social Thoughtand the farm he kept back in Ireland. Charting the path that took him from Europe to Chicago in 1937, and encompassing his sixty-five-year career at the university, Grene's book draws readers into the heady and invigorating climate of his time there. And it is elegantly balanced with reflections stemming from his work on the farm where he hunted, plowed and regularly traveled on horseback to bring his cows home for milking. Grene's form and humor are quite his own, and his brilliant storytelling will enthrall anyone interested in the classics, rural Ireland, or twentieth-century intellectual history, especially as it pertains to the University of Chicago.

Author Biography

David Grene (1913–2002) taught classics for many years at the University of Chicago. He was a founding member of the Committee on Social Thought and coedited the University of Chicago Press’s prestigious series The Complete Greek Tragedies.

Table of Contents

``In a Drizzly Light''	vii
Brendan Kennelly
Foreword	ix
The Beginning	1	(4)
Origins	5	(8)
Family	13	(18)
Dublin (With Animals)	31	(10)
The Theater	41	(6)
Tipperary	47	(8)
Schools	55	(10)
Trinity College	65	(22)
Vienna	87	(10)
Return to Dublin: Ria Mooney	97	(6)
America	103	(8)
University of Chicago	111	(16)
Farming	127	(22)
Riding to Hounds	149	(10)
Epilogue	159	(6)
Recording from Othello	165	(2)
Select Bibliography: Works by David Grene	167