Adler at St John's (feb 19, 1990 – feb 19, 2001)

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Dates uncertain (esp. end date)

The only official lecturer at the St. John's College, "entitled" to lecture once a year, and he would just call and announce when he was coming and expect the college to work around it.

His lectures were "great occasions" and also attended by Adler "pranksters": they'd release marbles in a sloping auditorium to make trickling sounds, etc. All good-natured teasing. In his final lecture, they made a living replica of the school of Athens painting behind him on stage, and then pulled the curtain up and drew him into the position of Aristotle (Eva, "Higher Gossip"). An act of sweet love and tease. When he took questions, he'd revise them to be ones he could answer. "What you're really asking is..." Eva: "He was absolutely terminally irritating and terminally charming"

"'How to Read a Book" grew out of his teaching of the great books while a visiting lecturer at St. John's College

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