<p>I’m glad to hear that, EngProfMom. I’m not as familiar with the younger people, and Harvard’s older people are dazzling. It hurts, however, to consider Harvard’s English department on a par with Yale’s; in the good old days (mine, at least), Harvard wasn’t even in the running. So I am happy to go back to thinking that Yale is the best place for lit.</p>
<p>(But, gosh, I really like Stephen Greenblatt, Helen Vendler, Henry Louis Gates, Dennis Donoghue, Marjorie Garber, Jorie Graham . . . And I can’t tell you how said I was to learn of Barbara Johnson’s illness and death. One of my favorite TAs ever.)</p>