EXPLORE BY YEAR
—
— 1930s —
1932
Extract from letter of Dr. Hussey to Dr. Barton of April 10, 1932.
I shall probably not have time in the near future to write any well considered suggestions about the Jerusalem School. May I dash off a few suggestions now?
- There is too little archaeology. Professor Burrows’ course was largely a course in topography, which is needed, but why can the School not have the benefit of cooperating with Dr. Fisher and the excavations at Jerash? Dr. Fisher is an ideal teacher for a small group. Professor Burrows drove over to Jerash many times, but the School was there for only part of one day. I would like to see the School spend three weeks at Jerash in the fall, and I believe it could be worked out so that the excavations would not be held up by the presence of the School and the members of the School would gain enormously.
- I had understood that there was real cooperation between the Jerusalem School and other institutions in Jerusalem, but there seems to be none. I thought that members of the Jerusalem School could take courses, e.g., at the Ecole Biblique or at the Hebrew University and vice versa. A young Jewish man from the University began attending my course on the history of the countries surrounding Palestine, but I think he was told he would have to pay tuition. We could gain enormously by attending some classes conducted in Hebrew, and they have some eminent men. I should never have met Pere Vincent, Professor Klausner, and a number of others had not the students invited them to tea. As a woman I did not feel like taking the initiative, which the Annual Professor might well do, without waiting for the Director, if he were a man.
- Four courses do not contribute to the real work of either the teachers or the students. All students were advised to take the four courses, two had Arabic in addition, and these same two were reading the Jerash inscriptions. Two other students were doing serious work on their own. Ermine Huntress wrote a book and Mr. Johnson (a man who has an excellent mind) did some good pieces of work. It was almost impossible to get any work out of the two men who were taking beginning Arabic and working over the Jerash inscriptions. Professor Burrows said to me in the beginning of the year that he expected my courses to be “graduate work in method as well as in content”. In his course on the history of Palestine he covered the period from “Adam to Allenby” by lectures, making no assignments of work at all. I attended most of the lectures on Topography but would not call it a difficult course. The students were young people of good mental calibre, but they were all more or less disappointed in being obliged to take so many courses. I suggested to Professor Burrows that I would not be offended if any students wished to drop my courses but nothing was done about it. If the School could really cooperate with the other schools in Jerusalem, every one would benefit by it. It was impossible for me to find any time for anything more than the two new courses and the field work. As far as I know no one had any opportunity to do any research, although the students wished to do it and had the requisite initiative ability.
- The position of the Annual Professor is not quite what it seems to me it should be. The fact that there are only two members of the faculty and that where an official invitation is extended to the School it is to the Director, creates an awkward situation which has in the past made some of the Annual Professors rather unhappy, e. g., J. M. P. Smith. For example, at the first granting of degrees at the Hebrew University Mrs. Burrows and a student represented the School. I mention not because it made any difference to me personally, but I can understand that it might do so in some cases.
I did my work in the “British Library”. There was no heat there and when I first mentioned it I was told that I “could not expect to have conditions as they were in the U. S.” I worked on until I had to go to bed with a temperature, then I said that since there was a chimney in that room, I could not see the need of working in a room where the temperature was below 60°. At a cost of $2.50 a stove was put in.
The Director pays no rent, he expects his meals and his laundry at a lower rate than is charged the Annual Professor or the students. The living expenses at the School are very reasonable, but I cannot see why the Director should expect to pay only 6 piasters per meal while the Annual Professor pays half a pound per day, and if he is out for a meal he expects to have the 6 piasters deducted.
- The library is quite inadequate. At the Chicago House in Karnak they have an excellent library which is well ordered. The General Education Board gave them an appropriation for this. The Jerusalem School library is just the reverse of this. A library policy would need to be formulated in view of the fact that the Antiquities Department is setting out to build up a good library, but one cannot run to the other end of the city every day.
The School has a good future in store, as well as honorable past. I am sure you know from my previous letters how thoroughly I appreciate Professor Burrows and the School, and it is because I appreciate its worth that I wish it to be better.
—
August 20, 1932
Professor George A. Barton
4243 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, Pa.
Dear Dr. Barton,
It is hardly possible for me to realize that I have already been in Palestine over two months. The excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim the first month, and the Summer School the second month kept me occupied. Both were very interesting and pleasant experiences. My wife arrived a few days before the advent of the Summer School, and we are very comfortably settled in the grand Director’s house. Since Dr. Albright’s return from the excavations, he has been staying with us in the Director’s house, and having his meals with us also. Naturally we are delighted with his company, and then the house is so big, that it is a pleasure to have another person living there with us. Mr. Detweiler, who is staying at the School now, and at the present time is doing some work for Dr. Albright, is also taking his meals with us. The food is brought over from the kitchen of the School.
Before leaving, Dr. Burrows had engaged a new housekeeper, on a half time basis, and had agreed to pay her ten pounds month, the same amount as the previous housekeeper, Miss Einsler had received for full time work. In addition, Mrs. Beaumont, who also runs a Pension of her own, and is a very excellent woman, had stipulated that she was not to keep the hostel accounts. I took over here and continued, naturally, the arrangement, which Dr. Burrows had made just a few weeks before his departure. I have found the arrangement to be an unsatisfactory one, and considering the time Mrs. Beaumont spent here, and what she did for the School an unduly expensive arrangement. She has averaged about an hour a day here, and has done little more than see that the meals were served, and often times not even that. In addition, she made an inventory of the linens when she first came. I wrote Dr. Montgomery a few weeks ago that I intended reducing her salary. However, I have decided now to dispense with her services altogether. She did not keep the accounts, nor arrange the menus, and she was not here to answer the telephone and to supervise the laundry and to argue with the baker, and to see that the School got its water supply, and to do the half a dozen other things that a housekeeper should do. The secretary keeps the hostel accounts now, which is, I think, a more satisfactory arrangement anyway. In as much as I found that I had to argue with the baker and the grocer and the water supply department myself, anyway, I felt that we might as well save the ten pound a month, which the housekeeper was receiving. The kitchen staff is really excellent, and I have impressed my wife into service. She is to oversee the kitchen, arrange menus, and check linens, – all of which can be done in a half an hour a day on the average. The secretary is to keep all accounts, to check the kitchen purchases, in addition to his usual tasks. This really gives him a full time job, and makes him earn his salary. May I say that I have discussed all these steps very fully with Dr. Albright, and that he has agreed fully to all the measures taken.
I have changed bakers recently. The secretary came in recently, and said that he considered the bread bill much too large. Somehow or other in the past months no account had been kept of the amount of goods delivered from the bakery. For a month the secretary kept a detailed account of the number of loaves of bread delivered daily. He then asked for a detailed statement for the month from the bakery, instead of the usual statement, containing only the total figure. He found that we were being charged for about 100 loaves a month too many. And the bill last month was not as large as the bill the previous month, when there were not a third as many people resident in the School. I was naturally furiously, and had Mr. Fauser come and see me.
He blamed his delivery boy, but despite the fact that I told him I didn’t care to deal with him any more, he kept sending the same delivery boy around the next couple of days. His bills for the last couple of months, which I have looked at, are similarly dishonest. Mr. Fauser came around again the other day, and I told him that if there any way to get the money back from him, I would certainly do so. There is no way, however. Now the kitchen has been ordered to receive and to give a receipt for every loaf of bread to receive and to give a receipt for every loaf of bread accepted. Similar arrangements have been made for everything else brought to the kitchen.
The letter of credit is proving useful. I deposit at one time only as much as is absolutely necessary. The dollar is worth a piaster more now than it was two months ago.
I have written Dr. Montgomery about the desirability of the School’s excavating at El Hamme, the site of the marvelous hot springs next to the Yarmuk, a few miles above where it empties into the Jordan. We have been asked to supervise the excavations there for hotel foundations. The owner of the site would give us every possible assistance. The whole tell could be excavated for about two thousand dollars. Dr. Albright has found quantities of Bronze Age pottery there, and he feels too that it would be a fine thing if the American School could excavate it. I spoke about the possibilities of our excavating the site of Tell el Hamme to Pere Vincent, and he was enthusiastic about it. Dr. Albright might be able to make the necessary amount of money available.
There are a number items pending, such as the construction of additions to the septic tank, etc., which I shall write about in my next letter.
Dr. Kyle and Mrs. Kyle and Dr. Kelso left last Friday for home via Constantinople. Dr. Kyle is a wonderful man. With his marvelous optimism, he is already planning for another campaign at Tell Beit Mirsim two years from now. The only person staying at the School now is Mr. Detweiler. He is an awfully nice chap, and is interested in archaeology. He wants to spend the year in Palestine, but has no money. I have made the following suggestion to him. Dr. Burrows told me that it is essential that someone be in the dormitory in the night time, who can answer the night bell occasionally, and answer the telephone occasionally after the servants have gone. I suggested to Mr. Detwiler that if he were willing to do that, I would give him his room free of charge, and that he would have to pay only for his board, which he could pay out of the salary he is to receive at Jerash next spring. He is also to be general handyman. He knows how to fix bells, pipes, etc., and I think he will be a valuable person to have around. He is going to have the night bell fixed to his room. Furthermore, if we are able to undertake the excavation at El Hamme, he can help us there. I think that when a young man such as Mr. Detweiler is as interested as he is in the architectural side of archaeology, that he should be given every possible encouragement. I was with him for a month at Tell Beit Mirsim, and I think highly of him.
My wife and I are very happy here, and are looking forward to a most enjoyable and profitable year. Dr. and Mrs. Burrows, as well as our other predecessors have set us a high standard to live up to, and we shall do our best not to fall too far short of it.
With very best greetings to you and Mrs. Barton,
I am,
Sincerely yours,
Nelson Glueck
—
AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
October 26th, 1932
Dear Dr. Glueck:
Not until today did I see your interesting letter of September 28th to Dr. Montgomery. I have read it with great interest and am glad that you are taking hold of all phases of the work and especially of Jerash in so efficient a manner.
I think I wrote you from Weston that, when I got back to Philadelphia where all the files are, I would see whether it is possible to squeeze out of our treasury anything for El-Hamme. I find that an item of $2000 reserved in the budget of 1931-32 for a certain purpose was not used. By vote of the Executive Committee this could be diverted to El-Hamme. Two weeks ago or more I conveyed all this information to Dr. Albright, asking him how much would be needed for El-Hammeh and whether anything could be done there now before the end of the rainy season next spring, but he has not replied. In view of the remarks in your letter of Sept 28th about it, I now pass the information on to you.
The Executive Committee will not normally meet until the end of December, and this matter could be brought to their attention then.
Will you meantime let me know whether you could do anything worth while with $2000, and also whether, if you have to act as the virtual head of the Jerash expedition, you could also do the work at El-Hamme?
If you wish the matter brought before the Committee, please give me full data about it.
With kindest personal regards, I am, in haste,
Very sincerely yours,
George A. Barton
—
Nov. 27, 1932.
Dear Dr. Barton:
I have purposely delayed answering your letter of October 26, until I had completed some soundings at El-Hammeh. Accompanied by Dr. Fisher and Mr. Detweiler, I spent two days there recently, and made a number of soundings. We employed about fifteen men for a day a half. We found a rich pocket of very interesting Early Bronze and early Middle Bronze pottery, which is very similar to pottery collected by Dr. Albright at Beth-yerah. Dr. Albright had already pointed out this similarity in several places. We were astonished, however, to find out that the entire Bronze Age level had either been completely destroyed and dumped into the Yarmuk during probably the Byzantine period, or that it was limited to a fortress on the northeastern slope of the mound. The only settlement which is left on the mound is a small Byzantine one, there being no trace of a Roman settlement on the mound, although there are very extensive Roman ruins adjacent to the baths in the valley below, in addition to the Roman theatre. The Byzantine statum is also a very small one, and what with the exposure of the synagogue and some of the adjacent buildings, which has already been accomplished by Dr. Sukenik, there is very little more work to do on the mound itself, and it would be a huge task attempt the excavation of the Roman ruins below, and on the smaller mound, back of the theatre.
There are a number of other important small sites, with which a great deal could be done with two thousand dollars, and I trust that the money can be secured for such a task, whenever another site is chosen. I shall be able to oversee the work in Jerash, and will not let anything else interfere with that.
If there were enough money, the place that should be excavated is Ai. And it is important that it be excavated quickly, before some one else does it, and spoils it in the same way Jericho was spoiled.
All is well here at the School. With the continual fall of the pound, I am increasingly glad that the School money is in dollars in the letter of credit, which you gave me. I cash as little ass possible on any one occasion.
Dr. Cumming is taking most of the members of the School to Egypt during the Christmas vacation, and I am going with a few of the students on an extended trip through northern Transjordan with Mrs. Horsfield.
With heartiest greetings, and best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy New Year,
I am,
Very sincerely yours,
Nelson Glueck
—
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
NEW YORK
DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN ART
2 December 1932
Dear Dr. Glueck,
I have received a copy of your letter of Nov. 10th to Prof. Montgomery, and I want to send you [?] a line of congratulation and appreciation of the way in which you are [?] things at Jerusalem. That Shilo [?] are pretty disagreeable.
You may remember we met at Prof. G.M.P. Smith’s in Chicago last April, [?] near his genial [?].
With all [?] wishes for a successful year,
Very sincerely yours
Ludlow Bull
1933
AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
JERUSALEM, PALESTINE
July 8, 1933
Professor George A. Barton
4243 Spruce St.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Dear Professor Barton:
Dr. Albright arrived on the 29th of June, and we were all delighted to see him back again. On July 6 my wife and I gave a tea for him, and represented him officially to the Jerusalem community. It has been a busy and fascinatingly interesting year, which has passed by all to quickly.
I have been engaged for some time now on the archaeological survey of Transjordan, for which the Board of Trustees so kindly appropriated the sum of $500. The money has not yet arrived, but I have been busily spending it, drawing from the School funds for the purpose. I hope to be able to stop off in Philadelphia, about the middle of September on my way home, to see you and Professor Montgomery. If you can give me a check for the $500 when I see you in Philadelphia, I shall be able to reimburse the School treasury, and devote whatever money is left to preparing the large amount of material gathered during the course of the survey for publication. I am off tomorrow on another ten day trip. This time I am going to study the territory south of the Wadi-el-Mojib. I am sending in a preliminary note to the Bulletin about some of the results of the work done on the survey thus far, which is to appear in the September Bulletin. I shall therefore spare you another account of my doings in this work.
The Jerash campaign ended last week, and as soon as a few outstanding bills are paid, I shall render an accounting of the Jerash money. I am happy to say that we accomplished most of the work planned for the season.
I am enclosing the financial statement for the School financial year ending June 15, 1933. From the $3500 of the 1932-3 budget placed at my disposal, there is left an unexpended balance of L.P. 303.150. This together with the balance which I found in the School funds when I took over last year, leaves a total unexpended balance of L.P. 638.787. I have spent L.P. 162.132 on the library, mostly for new books. The Hostel accounts for the financial year closing June 15, 1933, show a profit of L.P. 336.511. Added to the balance which Dr. Burrows left me, the Hostel funds, apart from the School funds, show a total unexpended balance of L.P. 588.166.
Looking forward to seeing you in Philadelphia, and with cordial greetings,
Sincerely yours,
Nelson Glueck
—
AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
131 Newton Street
Weston, Massachusetts
10th July, 1933
Professor Nelson Glueck
American School of Oriental Research
Jerusalem, Palestine
My dear Dr. Glueck:-
Professor Montgomery has just forwarded me your letter of June 14th, which I find most interesting. I congratulate you upon the amount of important work you have been able to do.
As I had received from you no request for the $500 and had until today no idea of what you expected to do with it, it has not heretofore been forwarded to you. I am, however, by this same mail requesting the Provident Trust Company to send you a draft for the amount and trust it will reach you in time to straighten out matters with the Jerusalem School accounts before you start for home.
With kindest regards, I am,
Very sincerely yours,
George A. Barton
—
AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
131 Newton Street
Weston, Massachusetts
11th September, 1933
Dear Professor Glueck:-
Your final report, together with your interesting letter reached me some weeks ago, and I want to thank you for them. The financial report was entirely satisfactory.
I regret that we shall not return to Philadelphia in time for me to meet you on your way from the streamer to your home in Cincinnati, and I am therefore sending this letter of greeting and regret.
I wish I could have the opportunity of congratulating you in person upon the very successful and satisfactory year of important work at the School in Jerusalem. I trust that you will be coming to the meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in December and that we may meet then.
With kindest regard and all good wishes to you. I am,
Very sincerely yours,
George A. Barton
—
AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESESARCH
October 19th, 1933
Dear Dr. Glueck:
As the subject of your letter of October 11th to Dr. Montgomery concerns the work of the Baghdad School, he has handed the correspondence to me, with the request that I continue its discussion with you.
I ought, I think, at the beginning to make it quite clear that it is not yet absolutely certain that the work of the Baghdad School will not go forward this winter as previously planned. While conditions in Iraq are very unpromising and while it seems now improbable that our expedition can go out, it has been agreed that we shall wait until early December for a final decision. In the words of the old proverb, the Baghdad School must “be off with the old love before we can be on with the new.” Any plans which we make now must accordingly be purely tentative, and their execution must be contingent upon a final negative decision with reference to our working at Billa and Gawra this winter.
Personally, hwoever, I regard it as very probable that that expedition will not go out this year. In case it does not, the plan which Dr. Speiser and I have discussed is the possibility of the Baghdad School adopting your survey as its work for this winter. I have thought that we might devote $2000 to it. Dr. Morgenstern has suggested that you might get a grant of $500 or $1000 from the American Council of Learned Societies to help finance the undertaking. I hoep you will make application for such a grant at once. You may use the names of Dr. Montgomery and me as references and I am sure Dr. Albright would also be glad to back you. Dr. Morgenstern intimates that he would do so.
If events turn so that the Baghdad School can do this, it is our thought to make you an Annual Professor in the Baghdad School and take the publication of the results under its aegis. If it is the work of that School, Dr. Gordon, Fellow in that School, ought, I think, to be made a member of your staff. I have a letter from him conveying a suggestion of Dr. Albright, that, if our dig does not proceed, that we send him (Gordon) to make a survey of a part of northern Meospotamia that is in French territory, but it seem unwise to Dr. Speiser and me for us to send out two surveying expeditions this year. If we take on yours, we think Gordon should go with you.
While, therefore, we cannot reach a definite decision at the moment, it should be possible for us to do so early in December, in good time, in case the decision is in your favor, for you to leave at the end of your first term.
Please let me know how this plan appeals to you. I am sending a copy of this letter to Dr. Morgenstern.
With kindest personal regards, I am
Very sincerely yours
George A. Barton
—
AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
October 28th, 1933
Dear Dr. Glueck:
In order to keep you fully abreast of the developments in which you are interested, I enclose a copy of the principal part of a letter I am sending President Morgenstern in this mail.
With kindest personal regards, I am
Very sincerely yours,
George A. Barton
—
THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
November 14, 1933
Dr. Nelson Glueck
Hebrew Union College,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dear Dr. Glueck:
Replying to your inquiry of November 11 let me say that the article on Megiddo pottery about which you have inquired has not yet been published. I understand that it is being elaborated upon by two of the younger men and is down on our lists of coming publications as due later on during the present season. We will make a memorandum and see to it that a copy is sent you whenever it is published.
Very sincerely yours,
James Breasted
Director
1940
GEORGE A. BARTON
131 NEWTON STREET
WESTON, MASSACHUSETTS
SEPT. 11, 1940
Dear Dr. Glueck:
Yesterday I received from the ASOR your last Newsletter, beginning at Jerusalem, June 18th and ending with your arrival in New York, Aug. 24th. The narrative was to me one of the thrilling interest. In fact your whole conduct during the last four years of one of the most difficult tasks an American scholar was ever called upon to perform fills me with admiration. I not only congratulate you, which I do most heartily but I give you my unmeasured admiration and gratitude. I regret that advancing years and diminished strength compel me to sit on the side-lines and look on from a distance, but I am glad that I participated in your going out to Palestine and so feel a keen personal interest in all that you have accomplished there. I marvel that you have been able to steer our barque so successfully through the troubled waters of these past years.
I hope that you and Mrs. Glueck and the little one are all well. I am just ordering your THE OTHER SIDE OF THE JORDAN and look forward to reading it.
With sincere personal regards, I am
Faithfully yours
George A. Barton
—
Baltimore, Sept. 12th, 1940
Dear Nelson,
The Kheleifeh report is great stuff. Your latest chronology is shell-proof so far as I can see. The Jotham of the seal can scarcely be anyone but Jotham of the Bible, since no patronymic is given and the seal must date from the eighth century or the early seventh. Jotham may then have been regent for his father. This number also contains an article by Torrey on a new seal of a servant of King Ahaz, so two new reference to kings of Judah will appear in the same BASOR!
Very sincerely yours,
W.F. Albright
—
YALE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS
Sept. 28, 1940
Dear Glueck,
Many thanks for the copy of “The Other Side of the Jordan.” It is splendid to have a [?] account of your work drawn together in a single volume.
I followed through Karl Kraeling your exciting journey home. Wish you had been able to spend some time here on your way through. I am anxious to hear the latest on Khirbet Tanner. Hope we shall meet again soon.
Sincerely,
Brown
—
21st December 1940
Professor Nelson Glueck
Hebrew Union College
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Sir,
I should be greatly obliged if you would be good enough to let me have a short report (not exceeding 500 words) on your excavations at Tell Kleleifeh in the spring of 1940, for publication in the Quarterly of this Department.
In order to save time, I suggest that you send the report by air-mail directly to Mr. John Johnson, Printer to the University, Oxford University Press, Oxford (England).
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Beusor
Librarian,
For director
1941
October 30, 1941
Professor Floyd B. Tilson
857 Chalmers Place
Chicago, Illinois
Dear Professor Tilson:
Our mutual friend, May, has handed me your postcard. I will take this opportunity of sketching the plans ready. As the best train from Chicago arrives in Elyria at 6 a.m. and it is possible to be in Oberlin by 7:10 or 7:20, there is no reason why an early start should not be made. My own feeling is 9 o’clock, or at the latest 9:30.
I will give you this as the scheme:
9 (or 9:30) to 10: Joint session of the S.P.L. and A.O.S.
Report of the local committee and notices. Welcome by the Dean of the Graduate School of Theology, Dr. T. W. Graham.
10 to 12: Morning session (Separate)
Luncheon period
2 to 4 (or 5) Afternoon session (Separate)
Annual banquet (Joint) Will you please consult with Dubberstein at the Oriental Institute on your choice of the chairmain or toastmaster.
Evening – After dinner: Presidential address of A.O.S., followed by one or two papers with lantern illustrations.
Saturday morning
9:30 to 11: Separate meetings
11: Presidential address, S.P.L.
Joint business and other meetings of the Societies.
12 or 12:30: Luncheon given by Oberlin College and the Graduate School of Theology. Dr. E. H. Wilkins, presiding.
2 to 4 (or as late as you want): Available for any other meetings
The best train from Chicago leaves at 11:40 p.m. and stops at Elyria on signal at 6 or around 6 a.m. There is a bus out of Elyria about 7 o’clock to Oberlin. For those driving, Route #6 from Chicago to Fremont; then Route #20. The general arrangements are to have as much of the meeting as possible, including eating, in the Graduate School of Theology. I will send you the full details of hotel and other accommodations as soon as we have got them together. I hope there will be a fair number of rooms available for bachelors or “grass bachelors” of both Societies in the Graduate School of Theology.
Sincerely yours,
W. Buckler
—
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
OBERLIN COLLEGE
OBERLIN, OHIO
October 31, 1941
Professor Nelson Glueck
Hebrew Union College
Cincinnati, Ohio
Dear Glueck:
I enclose for you a copy of the letter I have sent to Dr. Tilson, Secretary of the Biblical Society, and to Dubberstein, our Acting Secretary.
May I suggest that we ask you to make your presidential address, as President of American Oriental Society, Middle West, a [?] lecture if you can do it without inconveniencing or checking the inspiration which is nearest unto your heart.
Any points you have to suggest or criticisms, will be welcome.
Ever yours,
W. Buckler
P.S. Would you tell me confidentially if your Professor Hebrew Music, Dr. Werner, is a good lecturer? I want this information in connection with the Haskell Lectures.
1945
Baltimore, Oct. 10th, 1945
Dear Nelson,
After spending nearly eight hours at the Sinai Hospital I was sent home for two weeks, since a joint neurological-orthopedic operation is now planned for the 22nd of this month. I may be out of circulation longer, but the chance of a cure of real permanence is said to be greater. Can you by any chance get your annual report to me by the 18th, so I can turn the copy for the December number over to Furst before I leave for the hospital? Otherwise the number may be delayed a long time. This is rushing you a bit, but printing takes three times as long as it did four years ago.
I am revising the latest printing (to be replaced this winter by a photo-offset reproduction) of my FSAO for the German edition being planned by Baumgartner and Stamm who have a Bern publisher and a first-class translator ready.
Best regards to Helen.
Cordially,
W.F. Albright
—
Baltimore, Oct. 15th, 1945
Dear Nelson,
I am just beginning to edit your paper for the December BASOR, copy for which I want to turn over to Furst the morning of the 19th, before leaving for my operation. The hospitalization of a month (if it works out according to theory) will just cover the period of composition and engraving, so I can send you the galley proofs immediately on my recovery. In mentioning Jericho you accidentally overlooked Watzinger’s Spakanaanitisch, so I am rewriting the first paragraph accordingly, with some additional references.
More contacts with European scholarship have been established of late. I heard from Johannes Pedersen and George Dossin this last week; both are well, and this morning I received Pedersen’s Israel I-II (English translation) from the Danish Legation.
Cordially,
W.F. Albright=