DIY History | Transcribe | World War II Diaries and Letters | Joseph E. Evans letters, 1935-1954 | 1943-12-08 Joseph Evans to Mary Evans Page 1

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Joseph E. Evans letters, 1935-1954

1943-12-08 Joseph Evans to Mary Evans Page 1

Santa Monica Del Mar Club 
Santa Monica, California
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Hernando Courtright, President
Victor Ford Collins
Earl W. Huntley
Willard W. Keith
Fred Metzler
Neil Petree
8 December 1943: midnight
Dear Mary Ellen - 
Received your letter this afternoon, forwarded to me from Miami Beach. I am indeed happy that your clear apprehension of your situation has at last forced you to a conclusion as ineluctable as it is logical. That I have not urged this decision even more strangely than I have is to be explained only by the fact that I was never sure you felt the need of an academic career to the same extent that I do, though I could not see how the various jobs your have undertaken could lead to anything but ultimate and deep dissatisfaction. Please, do not waver in this decision, and do not defer! Arrange with Foerster at once to enter the coming semester. And do not be afraid of him or his supposedly perfectionist requirements: he is a perfectionist as far as himself is concerned, but he neither expects nor gets perfection from his protegés. He used to terrify me at first with his talk of what one may reasonably expect of a graduate student, but it is indication that I, as violently unstable a person as one would care off hand to contemplate, was nevertheless able to please him. And certainly you need not be afraid of the work; why should it ever enter your head to doubt yourself in this regard? The process of getting a Ph.D. is, as you must know, largely a mechanical affair, painful at times, at times boring, but it doesn't demand superhuman abilities. Do not ever take it so seriously that you will forego the best and perhaps most profitable part of it: the association with the wonderful people you already know and the others you will meet: The Pitchers, e.g., and, please, the

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Santa Monica Del Mar Club Santa Monica, California BOARD OF DIRECTORS Hernando Courtright, President Victor Ford Collins Earl W. Huntley Willard W. Keith Fred Metzler Neil Petree 8 December 1943: midnight Dear Mary Ellen - Received your letter this afternoon, forwarded to me from Miami Beach. I am indeed happy that your clear apprehension of your situation has at last forced you to a conclusion as ineluctable as it is logical. That I have not urged this decision even more strangely than I have is to be explained only by the fact that I was never sure you felt the need of an academic career to the same extent that I do, though I could not see how the various jobs your have undertaken could lead to anything but ultimate and deep dissatisfaction. Please, do not waver in this decision, and do not defer! Arrange with Foerster at once to enter the coming semester. And do not be afraid of him or his supposedly perfectionist requirements: he is a perfectionist as far as himself is concerned, but he neither expects nor gets perfection from his protegés. He used to terrify me at first with his talk of what one may reasonably expect of a graduate student, but it is indication that I, as violently unstable a person as one would care off hand to contemplate, was nevertheless able to please him. And certainly you need not be afraid of the work; why should it ever enter your head to doubt yourself in this regard? The process of getting a Ph.D. is, as you must know, largely a mechanical affair, painful at times, at times boring, but it doesn't demand superhuman abilities. Do not ever take it so seriously that you will forego the best and perhaps most profitable part of it: the association with the wonderful people you already know and the others you will meet: The Pitchers, e.g., and, please, the