JAMES WEBB AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL FAIRIES: HERSHEL PARKER AS TEXUAL EDITOR

 

James Webb and the Philosophical Fairies; Hershel Parker as Textual Editor

Now, I have special loving feelings toward James Webb. I elected him to the U. S. Senate by my $100, the only time I have sent money out of state to a political candidate for anything but the highest office. I read and re-read BORN FIGHTING understanding, sympathizing, and a few times envying. (What I envy is his hearing stories from older kinfolks.) I know how risky he was in describing Reconstruction, and I sympathize, because I have lived through the fierce self-righteousness of fanatical Political Correctness in the academy. But something seemed wrong on 244--the same page in the hardback and the paperback. Something was nasty, cheap. Something did not seem to jibe with the Jim Webb I admire:
THE OCCUPIERS, THE POLITICAL REEDUCATORS WHO THIS TIME CALLED THEMSELVES RADICAL RECONSTRUCTIONISTS, THE PHILOSOPHICAL FAIRIES, THE CARPETBAGGER BUSINESSPEOPLE WITH THEIR GRAND PLANS AND SPECIAL DEALS . . . .

Now, my James Webb would never have said "the philosophical fairies."

What James Webb must have written or meant to write or what he dictated was "the philosophical Pharisees." I know exactly what he meant, and he did not mean fairies, folks. He meant Pharisees. He did not run for re-election because there were so many of them in the Senate.