[NU Sports] Bergen Evans

[Mike Nolan]

> I also took Bergen's class--something like "Introduction to Literature".  I
>  am embarassed to admit I took it "Pass/Fail".:-)

As did I.  I think I would have gotten a B+.  

Officially, the course was in the catalog as B10 - Introduction to Literature,
but everybody just called it 'Bergen Evans'.

I only took one quarter of it, the engineering school curriculum didn't 
include many non-technical electives.  I was there on the day when he 
referred to King Lear in the first person singular, though.

I also sat in on the lectures a few times up in the balcony of Tech Auditorium.  
Bergen would address occasional comments to us.

Back in the late 70's, I remember a story in the Northwestern alumni 
magazine where they said that something like 75% of the living alumni
of Northwestern had taken his class.  

Bergen died in 1978, so there is well over a generation of NU alums who
missed out on that experience.

I did have the opportunity to meet with him a few times informally,
not nearly enough!

That quarter course was one of the two or three courses I remember most 
from my five years at Northwestern.  Another was the course in Cultural and
Social Anthropology that I took from Dr. Edward T. Hall, whose books,
like 'The Silent Language', I still occasionally read through.  
--
Mike Nolan