I. Radical, Teacher, Technician

Nineteen forty-six was a peak year for New York and a marvelous time to be a student there. Having wandered the academic wilderness from Brigham Young University to Black Mountain College, I had thirsted for a big university in a big, exciting city, and had registered at New York University the previous year. Sidney Hook was then head of NYU’s philosophy department, and I was enchanted to be sitting at the feet of the author of the only book I ever stole from a library. Soon, he did me the first of a great many witting and unwitting favors and advised me to take James Burnham’s course in aesthetics.

I was unprepared for Burnham’s urbane classroom style. Unlike Hook, who loved playing devil’s advocate and did so with warmth and histrionic zest, Burnham in the classroom was reserved, even cool. But he also seemed kind and perhaps a trifle uncomfortable. His tone was matter-of- fact even when he said unsettling things, which he often did. Discussing the role of literary critics and criticism, for example, he said that a newspaper critic’s first priority is to sell books. Discussing stylistic eras and cycles of taste in art, he said taste evolves because elites are easily bored.

JW

About the Author

Jeanne Wacker

Nineteen forty-six was a peak year for New York and a marvelous time to be a student there. Having wandered the academic wilderness from Brigham Young University to Black Mountain College, I had thirsted for a big university in a big, exciting city, and had registered at New York University the previous year. Sidney Hook was then head of NYU’s philosophy department, and I was enchanted to be sitting at the feet of the author of the only book I ever stole from a library. Soon, he did me the first of a great many witting and unwitting favors and advised me to take James Burnham’s course in aesthetics.

I was unprepared for Burnham’s urbane classroom style. Unlike Hook, who loved playing devil’s advocate and did so with warmth and histrionic zest, Burnham in the classroom was reserved, even cool. But he also seemed kind and perhaps a trifle uncomfortable. His tone was matter-of- fact even when he said unsettling things, which he often did. Discussing the role of literary critics and criticism, for example, he said that a newspaper critic’s first priority is to sell books. Discussing stylistic eras and cycles of taste in art, he said taste evolves because elites are easily bored.