Journal of Rehearsals

“[At] its deepest and most sincere level . . . [this] book is an account of a life lived for the understanding and elucidation of a literature. . . . Among American memoirs, the book has few companions.” - Larry McMurtry , Washington Post

“Fowlie’s journal is a meaningful record of the making of a humanist. . . . Fowlie gives us the portrait of a teacher in the full dimensions of the word, restoring to the image the dignity, the status, and sense of mission.” - Anna Balakian , The Nation

“This is a book for those who believe: in teachers, in literature, and in the power of the humanities to direct an individual toward a decent life.” - Serge Gavronsky , New York Times Book Review

“Wallace Fowlie gives the history of the preparation of the heart and mind which make the scholar. . . . The closest parallel I can think of to this book in America would be to say that Journal of Rehearsals combines the aims of The Education of Henry Adams with those of Mont St. Michel and Chartres.” - Jay Martin, Professor of Government and Gould Professor of Humanities, Claremont-McKenna College

“Wallace Fowlie is a humanist who gratefully affirms the role of his bilingual literary university and aesthetic experience in shaping his world, a world of high and exigent values. . . . He reminds us that art and literature can shape and satisfy a sensibility.” - Germaine Brée, Kenan Professor Emeritus of Humanities, Wake Forest University