Class Note 1944
Issue
Nov - Dec 2016
On the Sunday before I started this column, I read an essay by Bruce Weber, retiring obituary writer for The New York Times. In talking about obituary writing, he commented that the news was, basically, “the same news every time.” That may be true in a strict sense, but the obituary is all about the life. Each passing takes with it a lifetime of experiences, loves, accomplishments and knowledge, an entire world in microcosm. We have been notified of the deaths of the following classmates. Charles McLaury Farley died May 27, William Beacom Hirons died June 25, David Tysen Nutt died May 22 and Gregory Luis Rabassa died June 13. We extend our condolences to their families. Additional obituaries can be found at dartmouthalumnimagazine.com.
Gregory Rabassa, whose masterly English language translations of the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and other international authors helped promote a boom in Latin American literature worldwide, was one of the publicly acclaimed members of the class. The family moved to a farm near Hanover when Greg was a young boy, and operated a country inn. Greg went to Hanover High School and began “collecting languages” at Dartmouth: Portuguese, Spanish, Russian and German. During World War II he was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services as a cryptographer and added Italian to his collection. After graduating Dartmouth he received a master’s in Spanish and a doctorate in Portuguese from Columbia University. Greg taught at Columbia from 1948 to 1969, then at Queens College and the graduate school of City University of New York. He was teaching Latin American literature until late in his 80s. He received a National Book Award for his translation of Hopscotch by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar in 1967, an honorary degree from Dartmouth in 1982 and the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony in 2006. García Márquez, whose One Hundred Years of Solitude was translated by Greg and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982, called Greg “the best Latin American writer in the English language.” In his career he translated about 60 literary works from Spanish and Portuguese. His 2005 memoir was If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents.
—Betty Munson, 23 Linscott Road No., York, ME; elizmunson1944@gmail.com
Gregory Rabassa, whose masterly English language translations of the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and other international authors helped promote a boom in Latin American literature worldwide, was one of the publicly acclaimed members of the class. The family moved to a farm near Hanover when Greg was a young boy, and operated a country inn. Greg went to Hanover High School and began “collecting languages” at Dartmouth: Portuguese, Spanish, Russian and German. During World War II he was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services as a cryptographer and added Italian to his collection. After graduating Dartmouth he received a master’s in Spanish and a doctorate in Portuguese from Columbia University. Greg taught at Columbia from 1948 to 1969, then at Queens College and the graduate school of City University of New York. He was teaching Latin American literature until late in his 80s. He received a National Book Award for his translation of Hopscotch by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar in 1967, an honorary degree from Dartmouth in 1982 and the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony in 2006. García Márquez, whose One Hundred Years of Solitude was translated by Greg and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982, called Greg “the best Latin American writer in the English language.” In his career he translated about 60 literary works from Spanish and Portuguese. His 2005 memoir was If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents.
—Betty Munson, 23 Linscott Road No., York, ME; elizmunson1944@gmail.com