Mary Cassatt at Work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Years ago, I was at a faculty meeting at Phillips Academy in ye olde Andover meant to coach us on the new, 21st-century art of letters of recommendation. Much of it targeted letters for college admissions, but I’d written lots of letters on behalf of job seekers and thought I knew how to be effective. “Never use ‘hard worker’ or any variation of it,” the school’s college counselor told us. Brilliance and achievement go together, like chain reactions, and “hard worker” fatally implies a shortage of talent, or a shortage of sprezzatura, at least. That’s the art of making something difficult look easy and is more about sparkle than substance.

Channeling Calvin Coolidge, as I often do, I thought college admissions officers must be crazy, and decadent and dumb. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence,” Coolidge said. “Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb,” he explained, adding that “nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent,” and don’t get him — or me — started on the curse of educated derelicts. There’s no substitute for persistence and determination.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Years ago, I was at a faculty meeting at Phillips Academy in ye olde Andover meant to coach us on the new, 21st-century art of letters of recommendation. Much of it targeted letters for college admissions, but I’d written lots of letters on behalf of job seekers and thought I knew how to be effective. “Never use ‘hard worker’ or any variation of it,” the school’s college counselor told us. Brilliance and achievement go together, like chain reactions, and “hard worker” fatally implies a shortage of talent, or a shortage of sprezzatura, at least. That’s the art of making something difficult look easy and is more about sparkle than substance.

Channeling Calvin Coolidge, as I often do, I thought college admissions officers must be crazy, and decadent and dumb. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence,” Coolidge said. “Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb,” he explained, adding that “nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent,” and don’t get him — or me — started on the curse of educated derelicts. There’s no substitute for persistence and determination.