Doug Loudenback
05-30-2012, 10:30 PM
Just up is Part 4 of Jim Kyle's Memoirs - Learning Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2012/05/jim-kyle-memoirs-part-4-learning.html). That's my title for the blog post. Jim's title for his piece is far more intriguing, "Unless He Be A Blockhead."
My brief intro to the piece reads,
Editor's Introduction. In the last installment of Jim Kyle's Memoirs, "We Didn't Use Billy Clubs", he left us with images and stories a war which wasn't — the Korean Conflict, Police Action, or whatever other euphemism it was called by some. Shown here as a First Lieutenant in November 1953 [not shown here], I'm thinking that Jim just might be smiling because it was nearing his time to come home.
In this memoir installment, Jim has a new story to tell, a story about which most of us are probably unfamiliar — the connection between those who wrote "The Hallelujah Trail," "Onionhead," "Hondo," and "Bend of the River" (to name a few), and Oklahoma ... more particularly, the University of Oklahoma. Jim tells about those who taught the authors, particularly Walter Stanley Campbell aka Stanley Vestal and his assistant William Foster Harris aka Foster-Harris. Additionally, Jim describes his experience with them at the University of Oklahoma and describes his own professional writings during his long career.
In this article, Jim takes as his title part of a famous quotation by the stuffy-looking Englishman Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) shown at left [not shown here] — I'll leave it to Jim to say why, below. Although Jim Kyle may or may not take issue Johnson's definition of a "blockhead" and whether he is one, you will certainly conclude just as I have that it just ain't so. Samuel Johnson, as skilled and wise a writer and critic as he may have been, knew nothing of the Internet.
Jim has written a fascinating essay about the people and history of the Professional Writing element at OU ... it wasn't even a department and didn't even lead to a degree ... but the program has produced some of the most notable writers in the United States and continues to do so, says Jim.
This piece isn't about Oklahoma City, its about Oklahoma and the part of our state that Jim's article describes so very well.
Links to Jim's earlier 3 articles are present immediately following my introduction. If you've not read them all, I heartily recommend that you do, if you enjoy history.
My brief intro to the piece reads,
Editor's Introduction. In the last installment of Jim Kyle's Memoirs, "We Didn't Use Billy Clubs", he left us with images and stories a war which wasn't — the Korean Conflict, Police Action, or whatever other euphemism it was called by some. Shown here as a First Lieutenant in November 1953 [not shown here], I'm thinking that Jim just might be smiling because it was nearing his time to come home.
In this memoir installment, Jim has a new story to tell, a story about which most of us are probably unfamiliar — the connection between those who wrote "The Hallelujah Trail," "Onionhead," "Hondo," and "Bend of the River" (to name a few), and Oklahoma ... more particularly, the University of Oklahoma. Jim tells about those who taught the authors, particularly Walter Stanley Campbell aka Stanley Vestal and his assistant William Foster Harris aka Foster-Harris. Additionally, Jim describes his experience with them at the University of Oklahoma and describes his own professional writings during his long career.
In this article, Jim takes as his title part of a famous quotation by the stuffy-looking Englishman Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) shown at left [not shown here] — I'll leave it to Jim to say why, below. Although Jim Kyle may or may not take issue Johnson's definition of a "blockhead" and whether he is one, you will certainly conclude just as I have that it just ain't so. Samuel Johnson, as skilled and wise a writer and critic as he may have been, knew nothing of the Internet.
Jim has written a fascinating essay about the people and history of the Professional Writing element at OU ... it wasn't even a department and didn't even lead to a degree ... but the program has produced some of the most notable writers in the United States and continues to do so, says Jim.
This piece isn't about Oklahoma City, its about Oklahoma and the part of our state that Jim's article describes so very well.
Links to Jim's earlier 3 articles are present immediately following my introduction. If you've not read them all, I heartily recommend that you do, if you enjoy history.