Manhart editing

[shokooh Ingham]

Dear Wallace,
Thank you for the correction to my schoolboy Latin.  No derogatory implication was intended, in fact quite the opposite i.e. I was defending him.  Sincerity not sarcasm was the tone.  Maybe it's the old problem of England and America being separated by the same language.  I also met Manhart sometime in the late 90s or early 2000s on a visit to the (Red Cloud?) school and monastery in Pine Ridge where I stayed a few days and had many conversations with him.  He was at the time fairly frail I thought and I thought it was  rather heroic of him to have undertaken the job again, which is why I mentioned the 'advanced age'.
Bruce

--- On Sat, 24/9/11, Wallace Chafe <chafe at LINGUISTICS.UCSB.EDU> wrote:

> From: Wallace Chafe <chafe at LINGUISTICS.UCSB.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Manhart editing
> To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
> Date: Saturday, 24 September, 2011, 21:03
> I met Paul Manhart at the BAE in the
> early 1960s, and I feel that his reputation needs a little
> polishing at this point. He was a serious individual who
> realized, much to his credit, that the huge amount of
> material left behind by Buechel should be made generally
> available. He knew he was not a linguist, but he went ahead
> and worked hard on doing what he could. I'm not sure why he
> didn't receive more help with the second edition, but I
> wouldn't blame him or his "advanced age" for its
> deficiencies. Rather, he should be celebrated for passing on
> to us Buechel's remarkable heritage. Saying "De mortuis nil
> nisi bonum" (I believe the word is "nil") suggests a
> repressed desire to be derogatory, which I think is uncalled
> for.
> 
> That's my two cents worth.
> Wally
>