betty spears

one day betty spears, the wife of monroe spears, the moody professor of poetry at rice university, but at the time editor of the "sewanee review" at the university of the south in sewanee, tennessee, was walking across the sewanee campus, when she was stopped by an elderly gentleman who asked her the way to the offices of the "sewanee review". betty offered to the man that she was headed to those offices at the time, that her husband was the editor, and that she would show the gentleman the way. the elderly man then continued, " i come here every year to buy a subscription for my grandson. perhaps you have heard of him; his name is tennessee williams."

this story reminds me of the time i was walking across the princeton campus in the snow when i ran into tish taitte, then the wife of my friend lawson taitte, who was a graduate student at princeton at the time. that was very coincidental since i was there to visit the taittes and had no idea how to proceed.