When UD was growing up, there were a few books in her parents’ library that always caught her attention. Even before she could read.
The Uprooted, by Oscar Handlin,
was one of them.
Its cover was rather strange
which may be why it caught little UD‘s eye.
She read it a little, over the years… took it down
from the shelf now and then… She came to realize
that it was a very important book, a definitive account
of the experience of immigration.
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This morning, looking for the Center for European Studies at Harvard, where the conference on The Closing of the American Mind was taking place, I saw a woman holding the same piece of paper I was, and she too was looking about. We began to chat. She had some sort of accent.
We found the place and went on chatting in the lobby. Lilian, she said was her name. Lilian Handlin. Handlin? said old UD. Any relation to Oscar? My husband, she said.
And I don’t know. I don’t know quite how to say it, but to meet the wife of the man who wrote that book, the book my parents so admired and cherished… My parents wrote their names on a little brown book plate they pasted onto its first page… And to see how happy Lilian was for me to evoke how much the book meant… Too wonderful.
September 21st, 2012 at 8:36PM
UD: is your panel going to be taped? I would love to see it. Send me a link if so.
And I too read Oscar Handlin in high school: it was the first time I really “got” history as more than fun stuff that happened in the past.
September 21st, 2012 at 8:39PM
Hi Tenured: It was filmed. Don’t know if the plan is to put it on YouTube or what — I’ll ask the organizers.
I’ve been reading about Handlin since talking with Lilian. Inspiring life story.
September 22nd, 2012 at 7:52AM
The last half-decade I’ve commented on maybe two or three institutional blogs and a handful of hobbyists’ blogs. One of the nice things about them is that you sometimes learn something genuinely fresh and startling. I’d never heard of Oscar Handlin. Thanks for the mention, UD.
September 22nd, 2012 at 11:04AM
Lilian Handlin was an accomplished historian herself.
September 22nd, 2012 at 11:17AM
Phil: Yes – so I’ve discovered.