Thomas J. Farrell's Most Memorable Year, and Walter J. Ong's Thought

Abstract

In my wide-ranging 8,850-word review essay "Thomas J. Farrell's Most Memorable Year, and Walter J. Ong's Thought," I highlight my memorable year of living in Manhattan and teaching English at the City College of the City University of New York in 1975-1976, during CUNY's expensive experiment with open admissions. In part, I focus on four fine people I knew when I was there: (1) Mina P. Shaughnessy (1924-1978); (2) Theodore L. Gross (1931-2022); (3) Edward Quinn (1932-2012); and (4) Sarah D'Eloia (1943-1990). In addition, I highlight how my own publications about open admissions drew on the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955).