"Teach Us Our Recollections"

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As W. H. Auden once implored our patient muse: Teach us our recollections (in Homage to Clio). And quite a few historians have answered this call. Autobiographies written by historians are now sufficiently abundant that they nearly constitute a sub-genre; like the automobiles produced by diversified companies, they come in many different models that vary by size, style, and the degree of comfort as well as safety provided for the operator.' A fourcylinder model customarily treats only the author's youth and early manhood. One thinks of Louis B. Wright, Barefoot in Arcadia: Memories of a More Innocent Era (1974), Bruce Catton, Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Boyhood (1972), Myself: The Autobiography of John R. Commons (1963), Samuel Eliot Morison, One Boy's Boston, 1887-1901 (1962), and Marquis James, The Cherokee Strip A Tale of an Oklahoma Boyhood (1945). Although these are not high-powered, they tend to have a lyrical, literary touch, frequently infused with infectious nostalgia. The six-cylinder model carries the reader through far more of the author's lifetime, and therefore the odometer has a special space for marking the appearance of publications and the receipt of professional honors. One thinks of Roy F. Nichols, A Historian's Progress (1968), John D. Hicks, My Life with History: An Autobiography (1968), and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., In Retrospect: The History of a Historian (1963). Less lyrical and less evocative, these models are more likely to appeal to former students, colleagues (most if not all, perhaps), and fellow historians specializing in the same field or sub-field who want to see whether their own work is cited or disparaged. The eight-cylinder model comes equipped with a retractable roof for enhanced visibility, and is the least common of the three. It is a rarity, in fact. Jill Ker Conway appears to be custom-designing a blend of the three models. She has already published The Road from Coorain (1989), a superb exemplar of the four-cylinder type, and True North: A Memoir (1994), a variant of the six. Presumably there will be a third, upscale model before long, perhaps bearing