Seventy years ago, I entered Cornell as a foreign student\u2014a member of the first class of Fulbrighters from Germany\u2014for a year of graduate study in American literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also participating in challenging classes, a research seminar, and survey courses taught by Robert Elias (who eventually was to become our thesis advisor) was a Black student named Chloe \u201cToni\u201d Wofford\u2014a scholarship student like myself\u2014from Lorain, OH. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both of us were living off campus, so we would regularly go for breakfast in Willard Straight Hall after morning classes during our second semester and talk about what had been discussed that day and also about the papers we were preparing\u2014such as on William Faulkner, in her case, and Henry James, in mine.<\/p>\n<\/div> We also openly shared our disappointments, and I recall Toni telling me that in her dismay over a poor grade that she had received she went to see Elias in his office hours and there actually broke into tears. But then they went over her paper together, and in the end Elias concluded that she might well revise what she had written and then try to publish it\u2014a suggestion that made her proud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our conversations over breakfast extended to the news as provided in the Daily Sun<\/em>, often touching on current matters such as the civil rights movement and the McCarthy hearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toni also shared her joy at having had a letter from her father, in one instance, and she took delight in telling me of an episode she had observed in her downtown Ithaca neighborhood: a wedding being celebrated, while through a nearby open window was heard a loud recording of Eartha Kitt singing \u201cI Want to Be Evil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n All in all, my conversations with Toni were the kind of interactions that can help turn study abroad into a truly unforgettable experience\u2014an invaluable experience, in my case, coming, as it did, from someone remembered for her charm, intelligence, good-humor, and gentleness.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n We exchanged addresses at the end of the academic year, and I still keep the slip of paper on which she noted her downtown Ithaca address. But, as it turned out, we were too intent on following our busy careers to stay in touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying to reconnect with her in the late 1980s, I consulted a Cornell directory and gasped in surprise when I found a cross-reference to Toni Morrison, the famous writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All in all, my conversations with Toni were the kind of interactions that can help turn study abroad into a truly unforgettable experience.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n We did not get to see each other again in person until the end of 1999, at a reception in the American Consulate General in Hamburg, prior to her reading from Paradise<\/em> to a capacity audience at the Thalia Theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We talked about our times at Cornell and about what had happened to us since. More importantly\u2014in terms of my present account as a story of Cornell\u2014we also got to talk about Elias (an emeritus professor by then) with whom I had begun to exchange an occasional mail, and whose address she had lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It gratifies me that I was able subsequently to put them in touch again. And it is equally a part of this story of Cornell that the reception was being held in the very room (the historic ballroom) in which, in 1953, I had obtained my student visa for the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toni also signed my copy of Song of Solomon<\/em>, and I treasure her inscription: For Horst \/ from Toni Morrison \/ Fond Memories<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fond memories, indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n P.S.: There is a pack of dogs in Chapter 10 of Song of Solomon<\/em>, Weimaraners all, which explains why two are called by a German name: Helmut and\u2014Horst. Toni assured me that the latter does not hearken back to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Horst Kruse, MA \u201954<\/em><\/strong>, is professor emeritus of English and American Literature and former head of American Studies at Germany\u2019s University of M\u00fcnster. His books include <\/em>Mark Twain and \u201cLife on the Mississippi\u201d and<\/em> F. Scott Fitzgerald at Work: The Making of \u201cThe Great Gatsby.\u201d He has been an active member of the Cornell Club of Germany since its founding.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n All photos provided, unless otherwise indicated. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Published November 7, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newly arrived from Germany, I formed a friendship with a classmate who became a legendary author: Toni Morrison, MA \u201955<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":30050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[13099,4037,26380],"footnotes":""},"categories":[639],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-28794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Horst](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/KRUSE-FOTO-XX-B-819x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Horst](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/11\/crop-out-empty-sky-CORNELL-1954020-A-819x1024.jpg\")
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