June 7, 1962
I remember asking for $4,000 because I had been living 3 years on $1,800 or so a year. The chairman, Hagstrum, was afraid they would think me demanding. They decided NOT to go as high as $4,000. They offered $3,990. My recollection is that the furious chairman offered me another 10 dollars. I was always humble, but had lived too long on very little and wanted to be flush.
That was a very lucky period of months, because as I explain in MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE I had not intended to take the prelims in the Spring of 1962 but went out to Libertyville to help a friend prep all weekend for them and on the Saturday called Hayford and asked him if I could take the prelims Monday rather than studying all Fall for them while teaching on an Instructorship (a big honor, that). Then the next week, as I remember it, the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships were started and the chairman was asked if they had any Woodrow Wilson Fellows who had taken the language exams and the prelims in 3 years. Yes, as it happened, and he let me give up the Instructorship, which would have paid $5,000, I think--riches running wild.
I remember asking for $4,000 because I had been living 3 years on $1,800 or so a year. The chairman, Hagstrum, was afraid they would think me demanding. They decided NOT to go as high as $4,000. They offered $3,990. My recollection is that the furious chairman offered me another 10 dollars. I was always humble, but had lived too long on very little and wanted to be flush.
That was a very lucky period of months, because as I explain in MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE I had not intended to take the prelims in the Spring of 1962 but went out to Libertyville to help a friend prep all weekend for them and on the Saturday called Hayford and asked him if I could take the prelims Monday rather than studying all Fall for them while teaching on an Instructorship (a big honor, that). Then the next week, as I remember it, the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships were started and the chairman was asked if they had any Woodrow Wilson Fellows who had taken the language exams and the prelims in 3 years. Yes, as it happened, and he let me give up the Instructorship, which would have paid $5,000, I think--riches running wild.
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