Evanston: an old friend
Evanston: an old friend
The drawings in the edition of Dante’s INFERNO were reminiscent of those in the edition of Homer’s ILIAD I bought in December of 1962. I had just been married for the first time. We were both seniors in college and drove to Chicago for a two-day honeymoon. We stayed at a Sheridan Hotel near the lakefront; went to the Art Institute and a Chicago Symphony performance conducted by Fritz Reiner. And one afternoon while wandering through Marshall Field’s I bought a newly issued ILIAD.
To be filed under the “how was this ever possible?” heading, our total monthly budget was $150, of which we paid $37.50 rent for the second floor of a house a block from campus and $30 for food. What we squandered the remaining $82.50 on I don’t know.
I had read THE ILIAD before, but never enjoyed it so much. My poem, “Iphidamas,” was one result of that experience.
So a week ago I decided to try to locate that edition again.
I found that my early judgement is shared by many. Several online booksellers list: “ THE ILIAD. 1962. University of Chicago Press. With the famous illustrations by Leonard Baskin.” All I had to do was decide which used copy I wanted.
It arrived yesterday. The dust jacket is torn. The pages cream with age rather than white. And the illustrations are as great as I had remembered.
The book is oversized and was published for the Christmas gift season. This copy carries the inscription, “To Mary with love. Mom and Pop. 12/25/62.” I wonder what happened to Mary and why and when she sold the book. Perhaps her heirs did. Curiously the woman whom I married in 1962 and who was with me when I bought my first copy was also named Mary.
I believe that I disposed of that copy in 1982 when, after my grandmother died, I sold her house and flew to England to buy a boat. I no longer had any place ashore to store anything and couldn’t carry much with me.
Two more details. The original price shown on the dust cover is $13.50. We were splurging on our honeymoon, but that was 9% of our normal monthly expenses, making it a damn expensive book.
More than forty years later I just paid $30 for it used, which fortunately does not represent 9% of our monthly expenses.
Also on the dust cover is a quote from the Kenyon Review. Speaking of Lattimore’s translation it says, “The feat is so decisive that it is reasonable to foresee a century or so in which nobody will try again to put THE ILIAD in English verse.”
Well not quite. My other copy of THE ILIAD is Robert Fagles’ fine translation that came out in 1990.
I’m looking forward to reading Lattimore again and comparing the two.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007