In 1976 there appeared in bookstores Geodesic Math and How to Use It (University of California Press). The author was Hugh Kenner, whose next book would be Joyceβs Voices (1978) and whose previous book had been A Homemade World (1975), a study of βthe American Modernist Writers.β Hugh Kennerβs first book was about Chesterton, his second about Ezra Pound, his third about Wyndham Lewis, his fourth about James Joyce. Willard Goodwinβs bibliography lists thirty-two books, 856 articles, and 200 contributions to collections of essays. His last book was a series of lectures, The Elsewhere Community, spoken ex tempore for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, transcribed.
His command of any subject was such that he could lecture without notes or script. He usually had a folder of blank pages, or letters from friends, that he pretended to be reading from, to assure audiences that heβd written out what he was saying. When he gave the Alexander Lectures at Toronto and was asked for the manuscript, so that they could be printed, he had to say, βWell, there isnβt one.β
Nor did he own a comb. His hair over the years became Einsteinisch. Being very hard of hearing, he repeated carefully what interlocutors said to him, to make certain heβd heard correctly. He therefore did most of the talking in a conversation. He once talked for three days at my house, when he was planning The Stoic Comedians. Part of his discourse was a recitation of Beckettβs
