Of Farming and Classics

David Grene devoted his life to two things: farming, which he began as a boy in Ireland and continued into old age; and classics, which he taught for several decades that culminated in his translating and editing the "Complete Greek Tragedies". This memoir which he wrote before his death weaves together these interests to tell a quirky story. A fiercely independent thinker, colorful storyteller, and spirited teacher, David Grene devoted his life to two things: farming, which he began as a boy in Ireland and continued into old age; and classics, which he taught for several decades that culminated in his translating and editing, with Richmond Lattimore, the "Complete Greek Tragedies".In this charming memoir, which he wrote before his death in 2002 at the age of eighty-nine, Grene weaves together these interests to tell a quirky and absorbing story of the sometimes turbulent and always interesting life he split between the University of Chicago - where he helped found the Committee on Social Thought - and the farm he kept back in Ireland.Grene's form and humor are quite his own, and his brilliant story-telling will enthrall anyone interested in the classics, rural Ireland, or twentieth-century intellectual history, especially as it pertains to the University of Chicago.