Apprenti
Every summer, along about August, our umbratile digs are infiltrated by eager young scholars known as editorial apprentices. Culled from the applicants from around the world to the graduate program of the Department of History here at the College of William and Mary, these virtual toddlers arrive at the Institute to undertake training in scholarly editing and editorial procedures. We editors conspire and confab for weeks, yea months, before this event, as if it were the appearance of the Great Pumpkin. And they come, crying, “That which is dark in me, illumine!” So what did we end up with? Ben Abel comes from San Diego State University and is working with the Richard Nixon Papers on Nixon and religion. Seth Archer graduated from William and Mary, bounced around at a few other colleges, dwelt in seven or eight towns, and taught and did a few other things for a spell before landing here. Myra Houser graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Ouachita, Arkansas, acquiring in her young life some Spanish, Russian, and German with a Namibian accent. Jade Leszkowicz graduated from Binghamton University, once known as SUNY Binghamton, in Binghamton, New York. She claims nothing remarkable unto herself except drum circle solos and has more power per cubic inch than anyone else in these quarters. We were joined the first semester by Ainslie Heather McLees Frazier and a few other names—a graduate of Bryn Mawr College who morphed into an atypical Richmond mother–political activist. For the second semester we had an encore performance from Scott Ebhardt, whom we wrote up here some time back. His major achievement since then has been a visit to us from the FBI, who questioned us about his female acquaintances. Clean bill of health! Let’s see whether he can keep that record up!
Every year in this column, we look for variations on an old theme: How the Apprentices Are Invaluable to the Quarterly and the Book Program. Well, it’s true. Various funds came around last summer so that we could keep last years’ folk on and let them earn rent money, and they did a super job giving us a little bit of a head start on a number of projects and extirpating some of that summer torpor. How good a job do these folks do? Well, read about the prizes our books have won! For this last benison, we are indebted to the Colonial Dames of America, the Christopher Wren Association of the College of William and Mary, the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry, and the Lyon G. Tyler Department of History of the College of William and Mary for the generous funds they made available to us.
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