研讨会:教授. & 奥利维蒂的

那年我学了高级作文 — known as the journal course — was one of upheaval in Barnard’s English Department. 1956年9月下旬, our professor and chairman of the department, 约翰Kouwenhoven, 因为私事突然离开, and our class was suddenly without an instructor. 

学者Cabell Greet说, who had retired as head of the department the year before, took over the class and informed us that he would “babysit” us until he was able to find a suitable replacement. 我们等了. And within a few weeks he introduced us to a very tall, very young man who looked dazed at the sight of a dozen intensely focused young women. 他刚刚成为 的 巴黎评论》但他以前从未教过书. 他显然吓坏了. At first, nobody had caught his name, and so we referred to him out of class as “Mr. Applebottom.”

的 dazed man was the writer George Plimpton. His teaching style was uninspired, to say the least. Whenever one of us read a journal entry, he would say, “That’s pretty good.” 的 words “good” or “nice” would predictably be found in the margins of the pages he returned to us. Members of the group were afraid to tell Professor Greet how disengaged Plimpton was, and we pretty much carried on the weekly seminar on our own, taking turns reading excerpts from our journal entries and trying to provide helpful comments to each other. 

卡贝尔·格瑞尔一定是流行起来了. He informed our class that after Christmas break, he would be bringing us none other than John Cheever, the current darling of the literary world, 他的短篇小说 《十大电竞游戏综合排名》 我们都狼吞虎咽.

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Cheever had never taught before either, but he was just what we wanted and needed. On the first day of class, he arrived with his Olivetti typewriter in one hand and the most recent 《十大电竞游戏综合排名》 另一方面.

的 course was challenging from the start. It required us to write 500 words every day, seven days a week, including Christmas. Cheever listened with careful attention and respect to our journal entries, giving each of us tiny pointers on how we might improve and always encouraging our efforts. He also wrote thoughtful comments in the margins of the pages we turned in. I learned the true art of writing in that class, how to reach for the perfect word that gives the reader a visual image or a gut reaction. I learned how to let your first draft spill onto the page unrestrained until you had all the raw material there to work with. 

Cheever only taught 12 would-be writers for one semester at Barnard, before moving to Vassar and eventually making it clear that he much preferred writing to teaching. 

Years later, when I was in Caracas on a press tour, Cheever happened to be on the lecture circuit. When I raised my hand to ask a question, he remembered me and moved forward to give me a hug. I asked him about 奥利维蒂的 and why he brought it to our class. He admitted that he had been so nervous that when he left his apartment, he took it along as a sort of security blanket.

In 1981, 在我们第25次聚会上, several of us who were members of that class were sitting together and reminiscing about Cheever. I told them about meeting him in Caracas the previous year. Someone took a Polaroid photo of our little group, and I sent it to his publisher with a warm letter, mentioning how many of us had become professional writers. 

我没有收到回复. 一年后, I learned that he had died after a battle with cancer, 我明白了他为什么没有回复. But I hope he knew how much we treasured him.  

Barbara Florio Graham has won awards for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She has written three books and contributed to more than 40 anthologies as well as hundreds of publications. 她的网站是 SimonTeakettle.com.