Dear John,
Thanks for the Closs form. I am xeroxing it and sending it to Estelle
Morgan, who is by far the most knowledgeable, and am making enquiries in
the Personnel Dept. They may know something. I can only say three things
at the moment: (1) His name was originally Kloss, but he changed it to
Closs to look more English! (A strange idea, considering that nobody ever
looked, sounded and behaved more like the Englishman's conception of the
nutty foreign prof. than August Closs did.) (2) Though originally RC, he
converted to some form of Protestantism when he married Hannah Priebsch.
(He told me this himself.) (3) He wasn't, as you say on the form,
appointed to the chair of German on arrival in Bristol. He was simply
lecturer in charge, that in itself being (I believe) a newly instituted
post - there was no chair. When one was instituted, he was installed in
it. Personnel should be able to give me the dates.
Such a pity Margaret Goodbody is dead. She would have been a real mine of
information.
You will hear from me.
Frank
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