On entering a college out in the midst of that region--the middle of the
Mississippi Valley--nearly thirty years ago I was assigned, as my first
important task in English, the reading and criticism of one of Parkman's
books. I think that "The Oregon Trail" was suggested. I read several
volumes, however, but found my interest greatest in "The Pioneers of
France in the New World" and "The Jesuits in North America." What I wrote
I do not now remember (nor do I wish to refresh my memory), but so
persistent was the grip of those graphic relations upon my imagination
that years later, when leaving the presidency of that same college, I
asked to be permitted to take from the library three books (replacing them
with fresher copies): the chapel Bible--from which I had been read to by
my president and professors and from which I in turn had read to
succeeding students--a copy of Spenser's "Faerie Queene"--which my
college's only poet, Eugene Field, had read through--and a volume of
Parkman's on the pioneers of France.
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