Many thanks to David for passing on the photograph. It will be my screen saver for the next while. I had not known Marshall was ill, so his death comes as a terrible shock and sadness. I met him for the first time last year, at the Folger, and we became new friends. He talked brilliantly, intensely, hilariously about everything, inspiring passion and indignation as required. What most struck me was his generosity, personal and intellectual, both in sharing his own enthusiasms and in giving himself over to others’. With Marshall, thought was viral. I join his friends and colleagues in remembering this wonderful man.
Bradin
----
Bradin Cormack
Associate Professor, Department of English
Director, Nicholson Center for British Studies
University of Chicago
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:56:36 -0400
>From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> (on behalf of David Miller <[log in to unmask]>)
>Subject: Re: Marshall Grossman
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
> I hope this image comes through on the list. It's
> the last picture I took of Marshall, during a visit
> in January. He was already sick, but hopeful then
> about treatment. His companion, Karen Imler, had
> bought him a Panama hat, which he wore with panache.
>
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 7:36 PM, Judith H. Anderson
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> David, I’m crushed to hear this sad news.
> Marshall was, exactly as you say, brilliant,
> witty, deeply and intensely thoughtful. He could
> be fun, too. A year ago at just this time, he was
> raising a martini glass in company with some of us
> at the SAA. I can hardly imagine his passing.
> I’ll miss him very much, and I join you in
> sorrow and reflection.
>
>
>
> Judith
>
>
>
>
>
> Judith H. Anderson
>
> Chancellor's Professor
>
> Department of English
>
> Indiana University
>
> 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave.
>
> Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
>
>
>
> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> Of David Miller
> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 3:50 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Marshall Grossman
>
>
>
> Friends,
>
> Marshall Grossman died this afternoon after losing
> a four-month battle with cancer.
>
> If you knew him only by his work, and by the wit
> of his occasional contributions to this list, then
> you knew a lot. He was a brilliant critic. But
> those of us who knew him personally saw how the
> wit and brilliant mind were always in play.
> Marshall could talk to you about
> anything--politics, history, jazz, the more
> abstruse reaches of theory. He could make you
> laugh hard and think harder. His table talk at
> the Folger lives in legend.
>
> To know him well enough was to see an underlying
> sweetness to his disposition that expressed itself
> mostly by indirection. He was an incredibly kind
> man beneath the sometimes sardonic, wise-guy
> persona. He was as good a friend as I have
> known.
>
> Marshall was beloved by many who read this list,
> and will be deeply missed.
>
> Sadly,
>
> David
>
> --
> David Lee Miller
> Carolina Distinguished Professor of English
> and Comparative Literature
> Director, Center for Digital Humanities
> University of South Carolina
> Columbia, SC 29208
> (803) 777-4256
> FAX 777-9064
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/people/pages/miller.html
>
> --
> David Lee Miller
> Carolina Distinguished Professor of English
> and Comparative Literature
> Director, Center for Digital Humanities
> University of South Carolina
> Columbia, SC 29208
> (803) 777-4256
> FAX 777-9064
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/people/pages/miller.html
>________________
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