July 10, 2004

• Oxford Word

  From today’s obituary in The New York Times of R. W. Burchfield, editor of A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary:

  “Robert William Burchfield was born Jan. 27, 1923, in Wanganui, New
  Zealand. In 1949, after earning an undergraduate degree at Victoria
  University College in Wellington, he accepted a Rhodes scholarship to
  Oxford.

  There, he read Medieval English literature with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.”

  For more on literature and Wanganui, see my entry of Jan. 19. 2003, from which the following is taken.

  Literature and Geography “Literature begins with geography.” – Attributed to Robert Frost The Maori Court at the Wanganui Museum “Cullinane College is a Catholic co-educational college, set to open in Wanganui (New Zealand) on the 29th of January, 2003.” The 29th of January will be the 40th anniversary of the death of Saint Robert Frost. New Zealand, perhaps the most beautiful country on the planet, is noted for being the setting of the film version of Lord of the Rings, which was written by a devout Catholic, J. R. R. Tolkien. For other New Zealand themes, see Alfred Bester’s novels The Stars My Destination and The Deceivers. The original title of The Stars My Destination was Tyger! Tyger! after Blake’s poem.  For more on fearful symmetry, see the work of Marston Conder, professor of mathematics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

  • 3:17 pm
  • 1 Comment