ROGER SALE

"Professor Sale, people aren´t as complicated as they are in this novel. (By Henry James). " Yes, Mr. Neill (me his student at Amherst College circa 1957), but wouldn´t be wonderful if they were!"

While pursuing the doctorate in Comparative Lit at the UW in the 80s, I needed grad-level courses in my other primary, required literature (after French)--English--and was relieved to find immediate refuge in Roger's 500-level seminar on Alexander Pope--as one of three participants! We became collaborators and thereafter I would take any course he offered because nary a moment was wasted: each meeting worth a can of orange-juice concentrate, compared to the thin, overly watered-down versions...

Like many others I suspect, I regret having missed the opportunity to tell Roger face to face how much he meant to me. I feel deeply in debt to him. Returning to school as an undergraduate in my mid-thirties, Roger appreciated my enthusiasm and led me beyond my initial academic goals to a deeper appreciation for literature, language, conversation, and the thing he referred to as "something like Love" that was never far from him.
In a memorable graduate seminar called "Johnson and his...

Of course there were those Socratic method classes (which actually prepared me for law school) where each and every student felt that they were the center of Dr. Sale's attention and that our not rising to each specify occasion would bring great disappointment to him.

But the only time I ever felt he was really disappointed in me was when I turned down the opportunity to work as a tutor on summer program for high school students that he co-directed. I had just inherited enough money...

News of Roger's death created a storm of wonderful memories of the times I enjoyed being his student in Freshman English at Amherst, and his friend. His influence on my teaching never left; though there could only be one Roger, there was enough of him to share with a new teacher such as I was. He was one of a kind. He taught me and befriended me at the same time, and I have never stopped loving him. Without his guidance and friendship, I doubt I would have survived Amherst, but Roger...

Roger Sale's range and energies, teaching style and substance were incomparable. A genuine citizen, with literature but one of his powerful tools. Made me a better writer, made me want to read close and read everything.

I occasionally glance at the obituaries in the NY Times, and did so today, and was shocked to read of the passing of Roger Sale. I read him all the time in the 1970s especially. He was one of our best critics. I was sorry he stopped being quite so visible as a writer. My memory tells me that a friend at the time, James Rames I think, an editor at Oxford University Press, asked me for a professional opinion on a collection of Sale's essays. I urged Oxford to go ahead with it and...