Daniel Aaron’s century
There are about 500,000 centenarians worldwide, but only one is a Harvard professor who first arrived on campus in 1933, who used to correct undergraduate John F. Kennedy’s English papers, and who earned the University’s first Ph.D. in American Civilization. Daniel Aaron, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American Literature Emeritus, celebrates his 100th birthday tomorrow (Aug. 4). When he was born in Chicago in 1912, bubbles had barely stopped rising from the sunken Titanic. A first-class airplane managed a top speed of 70 mph and cruised on fabric wings. Cars had names like Metz, Flanders, Acme, Speedwell, and Mighty Michigan. When Aaron arrived at Harvard for graduate school, armed with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, the paint was still fresh on Memorial Church, polo was a varsity sport, and one professor, Samuel Eliot Morison, still rode to school on horseback. The old Harvard was still evident,...