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It is my recollection that Barzun's last book, that very odd production, was praised as much as it was in part because it was published posthumously - I don't have it in front of me at the moment, however. Thank you for putting Darwin, Marx and Wagner where it belongs, however. Septentrionalis 01:24, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
Barzun is still alive as of this writing (Sept. 23, 2005). He was not only invited to the White House to receive the Medal of Freedom, but actually drove from San Antonio to D.C. in order to accept it personally. As of about a year ago, he was working on at least one new book as well as a new edition of "The Modern Researcher". I have not heard any news of him since then and do not know whether he is still writing or how healthy he is, but I know his assistant and, had he died, I would have received the news within hours.
Barzun is not dead. I am removing the death date. This is absurd, and with Wikipedia being on the news today for getting facts all wrong, this is absolutely unacceptable. Durtal December 12, 2005
Agreed. I'm editing an article on Barzun for Columbia's website; he's alive and living in San An. 128.59.100.63 18:44, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
Above I read that in his 96th year, Barzun drove from San Antonio to Washington DC to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That from a lifelong New Yorker who rarely drove? Barzun's health and vitality is utterly incomprehensible. I very much look forward to reading his biography.
Rewriting this entry is the least I could do to honor the man I deem the greatest American humanist of the 20th century. I agree with Schneider, by the way, that Barzun cannot be trusted when he (rarely) mentions science.
It is supremely ironic that Barzun, born to bohemian and avant-guarde parents, grew up to become a great American conservative. He represents the best of that conservatism: hard working, good humored, unsentimental about human nature, and respectful of baseball.
I suspect that the decadence Barzun complains of is fading, although I dare not speculate as to what will take its place. If there is anything exciting going on somewhere on the planet, my radar can't detect it. No one seems to care any more about recent novels, art openings, and new musical works. I hear that the fall of the Berlin Wall has led to a New Dawn in German letters, but not in eastern Europe. 202.36.179.65 11:47, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
Barzun is very much still alive. I spoke to him last summer.
Also, I deleted the link to Dan Schneider's "review" of From Dawn to Decadence, not because it was critical of the book, but because it was a poorly-considered, poorly-written screed, mean-spirited and offensive. It does not deserve the publicity.
I'm a relative of JB's and a science fiction writer. I can state with certainty that JB has little to no interest in science fiction. I've changed the sentence about his pop culture interests to reflect this. 69.226.211.81 02:57, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
Just for additional corroboration, we just received a letter from Barzun today (3/20/06), so he was alive, at least when he sent it (postmarked 3/15/06) from San Antonio TX.
It is a pleasure to note. Profhum ( talk) 10:47, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
Much of this article appears lifted from Roger Kimball's review in the New Criterion, which appears here: [newcriterion.com/archive/18/jun00/barzun.htm]. I've flagged it for copyright inspection, but not changed it (though the violation seems pretty clear). Christopher M 20:42, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
Two reviews of From Dawn to Decadence added. Hodgson 19:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
There was crap and nonsense here, and now there is not.
According to Who's Who in America, Barzun was born in Créteil, a suburb of Paris. He did frequent Grenoble in his youth. LeoWong 19:43, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
The introduction to the article seems bizarre to me...as though "exposing the truth" about Barzun. It certainly needs an NPOVing, and I think some fleshing out...if we're going to buck conventional wisdom, let's cite upfront the CW, and then be more clear about precisely what an NPOV on Barzun is and cite that. If anyone wants to chime in, please do, but very soon I'm just going to wade in and see what can be done. As a Barzun fan, though, I'm not a great neutral choice and I'd like some other eyes here. Jwrosenzweig 10:39, 3 July 2007 (UTC)
Can anyone tell me where I might find Barzun's argument that academic degrees should not be awarded in the performing arts? I remember reading that in a book by Barzun some years ago but don't have a clue which book it might be. John Link 03:33, 3 September 2007 (UTC).
Perhaps it was The American University, 1968, pp. 236-238, though it perhaps does not go so far as "should not". Leo Wong 01:23, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
Thank you, Leo. I'll take a look at that. John Link 22:14, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
John, please tell me after you look at it if it is the book you remember. Leo Wong 00:53, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
I finally looked at pages 235-228 of The American University, and while the discussion is related to what I recall, it is not that. John Link ( talk) 07:01, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 04:09, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
I have nominated the article for the Recent Deaths ticker on ITN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:In_the_news/Candidates#Intellectual_Jacques_Barzun_dies_at_104 There are a lot of updaters, and I do not want to sort out so many judgment calls as to who did the most--so if you feel you are qualified, feel free to add yourself to the nom, first come first serve. μηδείς ( talk) 16:26, 26 October 2012 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Jacques Barzun article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
It is my recollection that Barzun's last book, that very odd production, was praised as much as it was in part because it was published posthumously - I don't have it in front of me at the moment, however. Thank you for putting Darwin, Marx and Wagner where it belongs, however. Septentrionalis 01:24, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
Barzun is still alive as of this writing (Sept. 23, 2005). He was not only invited to the White House to receive the Medal of Freedom, but actually drove from San Antonio to D.C. in order to accept it personally. As of about a year ago, he was working on at least one new book as well as a new edition of "The Modern Researcher". I have not heard any news of him since then and do not know whether he is still writing or how healthy he is, but I know his assistant and, had he died, I would have received the news within hours.
Barzun is not dead. I am removing the death date. This is absurd, and with Wikipedia being on the news today for getting facts all wrong, this is absolutely unacceptable. Durtal December 12, 2005
Agreed. I'm editing an article on Barzun for Columbia's website; he's alive and living in San An. 128.59.100.63 18:44, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
Above I read that in his 96th year, Barzun drove from San Antonio to Washington DC to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That from a lifelong New Yorker who rarely drove? Barzun's health and vitality is utterly incomprehensible. I very much look forward to reading his biography.
Rewriting this entry is the least I could do to honor the man I deem the greatest American humanist of the 20th century. I agree with Schneider, by the way, that Barzun cannot be trusted when he (rarely) mentions science.
It is supremely ironic that Barzun, born to bohemian and avant-guarde parents, grew up to become a great American conservative. He represents the best of that conservatism: hard working, good humored, unsentimental about human nature, and respectful of baseball.
I suspect that the decadence Barzun complains of is fading, although I dare not speculate as to what will take its place. If there is anything exciting going on somewhere on the planet, my radar can't detect it. No one seems to care any more about recent novels, art openings, and new musical works. I hear that the fall of the Berlin Wall has led to a New Dawn in German letters, but not in eastern Europe. 202.36.179.65 11:47, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
Barzun is very much still alive. I spoke to him last summer.
Also, I deleted the link to Dan Schneider's "review" of From Dawn to Decadence, not because it was critical of the book, but because it was a poorly-considered, poorly-written screed, mean-spirited and offensive. It does not deserve the publicity.
I'm a relative of JB's and a science fiction writer. I can state with certainty that JB has little to no interest in science fiction. I've changed the sentence about his pop culture interests to reflect this. 69.226.211.81 02:57, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
Just for additional corroboration, we just received a letter from Barzun today (3/20/06), so he was alive, at least when he sent it (postmarked 3/15/06) from San Antonio TX.
It is a pleasure to note. Profhum ( talk) 10:47, 28 June 2012 (UTC)
Much of this article appears lifted from Roger Kimball's review in the New Criterion, which appears here: [newcriterion.com/archive/18/jun00/barzun.htm]. I've flagged it for copyright inspection, but not changed it (though the violation seems pretty clear). Christopher M 20:42, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
Two reviews of From Dawn to Decadence added. Hodgson 19:55, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
There was crap and nonsense here, and now there is not.
According to Who's Who in America, Barzun was born in Créteil, a suburb of Paris. He did frequent Grenoble in his youth. LeoWong 19:43, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
The introduction to the article seems bizarre to me...as though "exposing the truth" about Barzun. It certainly needs an NPOVing, and I think some fleshing out...if we're going to buck conventional wisdom, let's cite upfront the CW, and then be more clear about precisely what an NPOV on Barzun is and cite that. If anyone wants to chime in, please do, but very soon I'm just going to wade in and see what can be done. As a Barzun fan, though, I'm not a great neutral choice and I'd like some other eyes here. Jwrosenzweig 10:39, 3 July 2007 (UTC)
Can anyone tell me where I might find Barzun's argument that academic degrees should not be awarded in the performing arts? I remember reading that in a book by Barzun some years ago but don't have a clue which book it might be. John Link 03:33, 3 September 2007 (UTC).
Perhaps it was The American University, 1968, pp. 236-238, though it perhaps does not go so far as "should not". Leo Wong 01:23, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
Thank you, Leo. I'll take a look at that. John Link 22:14, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
John, please tell me after you look at it if it is the book you remember. Leo Wong 00:53, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
I finally looked at pages 235-228 of The American University, and while the discussion is related to what I recall, it is not that. John Link ( talk) 07:01, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 04:09, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
I have nominated the article for the Recent Deaths ticker on ITN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:In_the_news/Candidates#Intellectual_Jacques_Barzun_dies_at_104 There are a lot of updaters, and I do not want to sort out so many judgment calls as to who did the most--so if you feel you are qualified, feel free to add yourself to the nom, first come first serve. μηδείς ( talk) 16:26, 26 October 2012 (UTC)