Jane Austen apparently works at my college

[naomikritzer]

She's the Associate Director of Stewardship. Who knew?

I wonder if she was hired before or after the death of Professor Owen Jenkins?

For the non-Carls who read this: Professor Jenkins was a deeply curmudgeonly English professor who had a lifelong unrequited love affair with Jane Austen. (The author, not the lady by the same name who works as an Associate Director of Stewardship.) He started working at Carleton in 1954, immediately after getting his PhD, and theoretically retired sometime in the late 1990s, though I'm not sure he ever gave up teaching. In the fall of 2002, I sent him an invitation to my book release party for Fires of the Faithful. He promptly replied to say that he wouldn't be able to make it, as he was bedridden at the moment. He died a few days later.

pameladean said once that whenever she went back to visit Professor Jenkins, he harrassed her about wasting her time writing silly fantasy novels instead of trying to become the next Jane Austen, and refused to admit that he'd read her books. However, when I asked him if he knew he was one of the characters in Tam Lin, his eyes lit up and he said, "Oh, yes. But she liked me so I got to be one of the good guys. Did you see what she did with (name of particular unpopular professor)?"

Anyway, I have to think Jane Austen would be wasting her talents as a fundraiser.

And the poor lady who works at my college probably gets that a lot.

Comments

[marikochan.livejournal.com]

Which character in Tam Lin was he? Not that I know him, but if I know who he was in the book, I'm that much closer to knowing him.

[naomikritzer]

I can't remember, and don't own the book. I read it my freshman year at college (not surprisingly, that book gets passed around a heck of a lot at Carleton -- "Blackstock" is Carleton with a few relatively minor changes.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, to be fair, she spells her last name Austin. She's extremely nice, and if nothing else, it makes it much easy to remember her name.

-Ann Z

[naomikritzer]

Ha. I should have noticed that when I got the e-mail, I suppose.

I imagine it is easy to remember. Did she come by the name through marriage, or did her parents give it to her?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure it's her given name, since I don't believe she's married, though I have to admit I haven't asked her about that.