[Diary excerpt.]
This entry -- Free Library of Philadelphia, Saturday, January 11th, 1992.
I'm writing from the grand Free Library, which has the look & feel of a cavernous Carnegie structure, like a Duke East Campus library made bigger. I will be able to check books out as soon as I get a Temple ID, which will be when the checks I ordered come from the bank . . .
So far much time has been spent taking care of business, connecting phone line, electricity, rent, signing up for classes, building up food supplies, etc.
I like it here so far. Except for right around Center City's heart, Philadelphia is not a bustling city. It has been cold, but what's struck me most are the number of people living on the street. There are the ubiquitous mentally ill roaming around & muttering, but there are also a lot of apparently otherwise healthy people, strung along every block. It is depressing because it is cold and often wet. I am faced with a moral dilemma every time I walk by someone asking for change. I have to make a quick judgment based on intuition & my own disposition, whether to give a few spare coins. It's not a sweeping moral philosophy at work, but a one at a time provisional choice, a little moral choice to be made constantly. Whet impresses me also is the steam rising from the gutter grills at night, the shadows reflected by buildings & people & colored lights. Many people sleep right on top of the grills to warm up by steam/ It is a Dickensian, even medieval or Biblical sight, the number of poor beggars.
I am quickly getting to know Center City simply by walking a lot. I found an organic store with the Velvet Underground in the background, much smaller than one such as Well Spring in North Carolina; and a corner grocery run by Cambodians, very friendly people, on Carmac and Spruce, right across the street.
The Temple Center City Campus has nightly movies, $1.50 for Temple students, at the very long-running "Cinematheque." I saw two excellent films, She Must Be Seeing Things (1987, Director Sheila McLaughlin) and Lina Wertmüller's All Screwed Up (1974-1976). The McLaughlin film [is] about two women lovers & their relationship through jealous times, balancing having & being (in a Frommian lens); low budget but imaginative. All Screwed Up is, not surpisingly, akin to Fellini, touching on many bases without clearly resolving the main plot lines.
I have no TV now, so will be seeing a lot of films at the Cinematheque.
So far I am slowly recovering from the New Year flu or whatever it was. My only mishap since has been to burn my hand on a hot pot handle.
Notes: Spring Recess will be March 6th through 15th.
Book reading: Roadside America, with a promise for a "powerful novena of childlike confidence," whatever that means. . .
Letter from Wallace Fowlie (1908-1998) at Chapel Hill to Erik France at Powelton Village, Philadelphia, Thanksgiving (November 25), 1993.
Dear Erik,
Never would I think of judging you harshly on what has happened. As you present them, . . . and your . . . make you appear a lucky man. 1992 must have been a hard year for you. You deserve your present happiness which will continue. I congratulate you and send you and . . . my love and blessings.
After all those sections of writing and research skills at Temple, your present T.A. teaching in U.S. history, and grading exams in an American Studies class must be more to your liking.
The Doors Complete was never published. Thanks to that, Frank Lisciandro has helped us get some pictures of J.M. for the book.
Since I did not teach this present semester, I have done a bit more work with my other profession which I may never have mentioned to you. I am a "lay psychiatrist" from Mass. General Hospital in Boston. Worked there 3 years (when I taught at Bennington). Then for two winters in Paris. I worked with Otto Rank. He began giving me a few Catholic patients (Since he makes nothing out of "that stuff"[)]. And here in N.C., it has continued. I work for 3 doctors, 2 in Durham and 1 in Chapel Hill, who send me (when I have time) Catholic patients. I have right now 2 hard cases: a student (boy) from Duke and a girl from UNC . . . (Rank gave me one similar case in Paris) . . .
My health is good -- and if it continues, I will give my Dante course in January: both sections are filled (130 students.) I look forward to it.
Your letter was dated a few days after my 85th birthday (Nov. 8)-- a big day in my life. Brenda Brodie had me for lunch with 3 good friends of hers and mine. The evening was a meeting (banquet) of the Duke Catholic Community: 250 students, faculty, and administrators. Coach K was to be the after-dinner speaker. I had always wanted to meet him and tell him the good work two of his players did in my classes (Mark Crow and Mark Alarie.) I saw him at the entrance of the dining room. I shook hands with him, as he said, "Wallace, I know all about you from my players." We had a good chat. At dessert time,a waiter carried to my table a huge cake: "To Wallace on his 85th" -- and they all sang "Happy Birthday." I had to cut 150 small pieces of cake for the other tables. Mike K's speech was the best I have heard at Duke: witty, highly spirited -- at the end he spoke of a few professors who were present, and then, pointing at me, said "And that man publishes a new book every year!" (not accurate!) Erik, excuse this egoism. Let's keep in better touch.
love,
Wallace
Letter from Wallace Fowlie (1908-1998) at Chapel Hill, to Erik France at Philadelphia, July 10, 1992.
Dear Erik,
It is so good to hear from you! I had wondered how the first semester in the Ph.D. program had gone. I take it that you are pleased with the situation in Philadelphia -- and writing one more paper this summer.
Already you are helping to edit a new magazine: Quo Moto [Modo] Quarterly. "Ephrata Cloister" is a striking name. What is it exactly? Are you also working on a short story?
And Liz too is working on her master's paper. Spruce Street will remain your address through December.
My spring semester (Proust) went well. I do have less stamina and resigned at the end of the semester. Dean White replied saying my Dante course for the fall is advertised and they have enrolled 120 students for it . . . So, I said I would try it again. The 2 weeks before Commencement and the 2 weeks after it were heavy for me, It is easier to teach than to say goodby[e] to seniors and talk with their parents.
I am working on a long paper (40 pages) to be part of a big book to be published next year by the French teachers at U.Va. It's to be called: The Unfinished Revolution. (I am still not sure which revolution the editors have in mind!)
I finished the Morrison book. It's being considered by The Duke Press.
The main event for me was, in early December, a trip to U.Va. to give the newest version of my talk on Rimbaud and Jim Morrison. Five hundred students and faculty turned up! You see, Erik, Jim still brings them in!
. . . this is a poor substitute for a visit with you and Liz who have helped me and always cheered me up. I do miss you.
Yesterday, a returning old student took me to Pyewacket and then to Howard's End at the Varsity. A very beautiful film. Vanessa Redgrave is radiant -- and the young actress (from Room with a View) is fine. I fell in love with her all over again.
Stay well, Erik. love to you and Liz --
Wallace
Luckily, my parents, who were about to see the Waterloo battlefield in Belgium during a visit to Europe in 1992, kept this letter that I sent to them from Philadelphia.
The letter, dated August 30, 1992, includes observations about the Waterloo campaign of June 1815, including a comparison with the Second Battle of Bull Run aka Manassas in 1862.
Front of the letter, which is really a writing-card.
Paper artifact from Brussels.
The original Café Diva was at 12th and Spruce, Center City Philadelphia -- right across from my garret apartment. Talk, chess, readings, musings and occasional fillings-in found me here. I loved the area, and urban living. Nga (Nga like "National Golf Association," as she put it) Mai, way cool proprietor and "serial entrepreneur," moved Diva over to 140 S. 20th Street, Rittenhouse Square, across the park from the Free Library branch where I saw Queimada / Burn (1969) and La battaglia di Algeri / The Battle of Algiers (1966), two great films that have stuck with me over the years.
