Dear Orange Friends:
I am finishing up 10 days in the woods in a cabin near the Straits of Mackinac. It has been a time for kayaking and family and especially for reading.
I am experiencing one of the great joys of any serious reader. I have discovered a previously unknown sequel to two books that have been beloved friends: Patrick Leigh Fermor’s “A Time of Gifts” (1977) and “Between the Woods and the Water” (1986).
In 1933, as a young man just out of school—the same age as most Syracuse freshmen—Fermor set out to walk across Europe from west to east, from the Netherlands to Istanbul. His account of that walk in the first two volumes is one of the great travel stories of all time. It is a combination of youthful wonder (so inspiring in Syracuse students, too) and wisdom, all occurring in the world that would vanish so shortly thereafter in the war.
But the second volume ends at the border of Bulgaria, hundreds of miles short of the journey’s end. I always thought the rest of the trip was lost, and I mourned it. Well, last year, posthumously, Fermor’s account of the last leg of the journey was published in “The Broken Road.” It is not as polished as the first volumes, but it is nevertheless like discovering an old friend in a new country.
Good writing can revive the most tired spirits. Mine have been so high anyway because of Syracuse and so many people here who remind me of Fermor. This July, I hope all of you find joy, old friends, and good reading, too.
Chancellor Kent Syverud