Happy Belated Birthday!

Procrastinator that I am, I certainly am not surprised to find myself behind-hand on this, but I am sad that in my flurry of non-blogging, I missed something that I always meant to write about.

On November 30th, Jacques Barzun turned 100 years old, and I add my voice to the chorus wishing him well and applauding his accomplishments, integrity, and longevity. I'm still in the middle of Dawn to Decadence, and The House of Intellect is on the shelves with my other to-be-read books, so the only one of his books I've read in entirety is Teacher in America, but if I never read anything else, that would be enough to earn him my everlasting respect.

I'm still chagrined that I have lived all my life, almost, without knowing who he is, and only learned in the end because I picked up a book by chance at a flea market.

Should you, like me, need to know a little more about this remarkable man, here are a few links.

A blog dedicated to Dr. Barzun's 100th year
A tribute and brief biography
Columbia College's tribute
Another brief biography

One of those tributes says that no era can be completely decadent when it can produce such a man. I would like to this so.