 |
FRESH FACE: Solomon arrived in
1993.
English Department
|
A few of us slept
outside the English department the night before registration,
autumn quarter of my junior year, to get into a class called
American Realism and Naturalism. Were we drawn by the imminent
study of Moby Dick? Compelled to investigate the inner
workings of McTeague? Well, yes, since we were all literature
nuts;
but we were also drawn by curiosity. Who was this Professor
William Solomon? We had heard he was young, a genius. We
were intrigued, and somewhat besotted, by this new and
unknown figure
on the faculty.
We were not disappointed. In 1993, William
Solomon brought to the English department a fresh spirit
of enthusiasm and
academic rigor. We found him to be a bit nervous at first,
his head cocked down toward the 18 pages of notes that
he read to us word for word. But as time went on, Professor
Solomon
realized a simple truth: we were rooting for him. His
confidence seemed to grow exponentially. We were engaged,
and we remained
engaged throughout the quarter.
I won’t deny that a
little group of us probably had a crush on him. To
me, he was a dead ringer for Howard Roark
(played by Gary Cooper) in The Fountainhead. My classmate
Katy and I would give each other “Howard” signals
whenever we saw his tall frame approaching from across
the Quad.
More important, however, he inspired us. I cast
aside
plans to write a thesis about the 18th-century epistolary
novels
as he turned me on to an entirely different world of
fiction. He is the sole reason I fell in love with
and remain fascinated
by Kate Chopin, the novelist who scandalized Victorian
society with The Awakening. In his gentle way, he both
guided and propelled
us through one literary landscape after another.
William
Solomon was affectionately known as Bill among his fans,
although many of us continue to call him
Professor Solomon when we speak with him. For me,
the choice is
born less of scholastic etiquette than of lasting
respect for this
man who came to me brand-new and left me with a brand-new
vision of myself and my work within the literary
field. I am forever
indebted to him—to Bill, to Howard, to Professor
Solomon. | 
