Gloria Kaufman's life updates letter, 1990 December 31
Title
Gloria Kaufman's life updates letter, 1990 December 31
Description
This is a letter from Gloria Kaufman to her friends. The letter contains both professional and personal updates of Kaufman's life in 1990. Kaufman also outlines some of her future plans in the letter, such as her retirement in 1994.
Creator
Kaufman, Gloria
Source
Gloria Kaufman Papers, Indiana University South Bend Archives and Special Collections
Date
1990-12-31
Rights
Digital reproductions of archival materials from the Indiana University South Bend Archives are made available for noncommercial educational and research purposes only. The Indiana University South Bend Archives respects the intellectual property rights of others and does not claim any copyright interest for non-university records or materials for which we do not hold a Deed of Gift. It is the researcher’s responsibility to seek permission from the copyright owner and any other rights holders for any reuse of these images that extends beyond fair use or other statutory exemptions. Furthermore, responsibility for the determination of the copyright status and securing permission rests with those persons wishing to reuse the materials. If you are the copyright holder for any of the digitized materials and have questions about its inclusion on our site, please contact the Indiana University South Bend Archivist.
Identifier
Kaufman_Box2_Folder16_K006
Text
3l December 1990
Dear Friends-
I'm embarrassed to be reduced to a group letter, but at least i t will let you know I 'm still alive. (I 'll sign it.)
1990 has been quite a year. 89's peace promise dissolved so quickly! I personally doubt there will be a shooting war in the Persian Gulf area (both Bush & Saddam will end up losers and they know it), but all this chest-pounding has been enormously costly,in human terms even more than $-wise. In spite of very little low-cost housing and so many working poor homeless and visible, politicians remain largely unresponsive. I wonder how much misery needs to be on their doorsteps before they undertake to do their jobs .
I attended an international women's conference in June to find women in the "East bloc" nations (Poland, Hungary, USSR, E. Germany, Czech., etc.) profoundly apprehensive about their futures--the losses of day care, jobs, and mandatory representation in legislative bodies along with new repressive measures--such as new antibabortion law in Poland. At that time, the world covered by the mass media was still dancing over the opening up of the communist bloc and proclaiming that free market competition was vindicated and would save the nations emerging from socialist repressions. A former minister from Portugal wryly commented that only half of the world was changing, and that the Western half must also concede its mistakes. Grim gets grimmer while Bush runs around the world to avoid U.S. problems at home.
I have kept busy as Director of Women's Studies at IUSB. Our students' enrollments have increased by more than 20% with no increase in faculty, so we are all over-busy, and I'm looking forward to retirement in 1994, I have a new humor book coming out in spring of 1991, and Women's Studies International Forum (out of London) has invited me to guest edit one of their issues. I 've accepted and wi ll do i t the summer of 1991. I'm teaching two courses this spring--The Late Plays of Shakespeare and my interdisciplinary women's course. Shakespeare is still joyfully miraculous and my women's course, for its 20th year celebration, will have a large number of special speakers and presentations, including Dale Spender from Australia, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Vinie Burrows, Kate Clinton, Mary Kay Blakely, two natives (A Shawnee and a Chippewa), a new play about Emma Goldman, .... It will be exciting.
Notre Dame has stopped harrassing Sam, and his new chairman is both charming and appreciative of Sam's truly extraordinary performances as a teaching professor. He's also deeply back into chess, goi ng to tournaments, playing seriously at least three times/week. A new grandmaster from Greece is a grad student at Notre Dame, so Sam has someone better than he to tustle with. He's in good health and happy, He'll be giving a paper in Nebraska this spring, and he's also done some exciting research on hispanic immigrants in Indiana that will be the chapter of a book.
Our son David, now 26, came home unexpectedly this Xmas for a week. He is a computer game designer in Austin, Texas, and also does quite a bit of writing for his firm--that is, writing prose, both fiction and clue books, The computer games (mostly fantasy) have texts the length of a long novel; the last clue book, on the other hand, was only 75 pages. David's social life is great, and Austin with its many low mountains is a lovely place to be.
Our daughter, now named Leslie Viktora (a name she chose for herself), is headed for two weeks in Israel with her boyfriend, a sensitive and talented Russiam immigrant just her age (28). He and she have been helping to settle Russian Jews in their area (Ohio). They have also given a few concerts together--he, a baritone; she, the accompanist . Leslie supports herself as a piano teacher and free lance musician. Sasha is a computer engineer.
Today is winter at its most glorious--a brilliant sun carpets the snow with crystal rainbows. And the frigid 8-degree (F) air puts an extra hop in everyone's step outdoors. Oddly, however, we've been bailing flood waters out of out-basement all week: even the cold and the sun have not arrested the underground wet. I hope two more days will see us dry. The past two years I have been cementing all the holes in the basement, and were it not for that, things would have been out of control. As it is, the water is seeping in through tiny new cracks and with our pumping, never gets above three inches. Cold, clean, and clear, the water reminds me of mountain streams in winter.
HAPPY 1991!
Dear Friends-
I'm embarrassed to be reduced to a group letter, but at least i t will let you know I 'm still alive. (I 'll sign it.)
1990 has been quite a year. 89's peace promise dissolved so quickly! I personally doubt there will be a shooting war in the Persian Gulf area (both Bush & Saddam will end up losers and they know it), but all this chest-pounding has been enormously costly,in human terms even more than $-wise. In spite of very little low-cost housing and so many working poor homeless and visible, politicians remain largely unresponsive. I wonder how much misery needs to be on their doorsteps before they undertake to do their jobs .
I attended an international women's conference in June to find women in the "East bloc" nations (Poland, Hungary, USSR, E. Germany, Czech., etc.) profoundly apprehensive about their futures--the losses of day care, jobs, and mandatory representation in legislative bodies along with new repressive measures--such as new antibabortion law in Poland. At that time, the world covered by the mass media was still dancing over the opening up of the communist bloc and proclaiming that free market competition was vindicated and would save the nations emerging from socialist repressions. A former minister from Portugal wryly commented that only half of the world was changing, and that the Western half must also concede its mistakes. Grim gets grimmer while Bush runs around the world to avoid U.S. problems at home.
I have kept busy as Director of Women's Studies at IUSB. Our students' enrollments have increased by more than 20% with no increase in faculty, so we are all over-busy, and I'm looking forward to retirement in 1994, I have a new humor book coming out in spring of 1991, and Women's Studies International Forum (out of London) has invited me to guest edit one of their issues. I 've accepted and wi ll do i t the summer of 1991. I'm teaching two courses this spring--The Late Plays of Shakespeare and my interdisciplinary women's course. Shakespeare is still joyfully miraculous and my women's course, for its 20th year celebration, will have a large number of special speakers and presentations, including Dale Spender from Australia, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Vinie Burrows, Kate Clinton, Mary Kay Blakely, two natives (A Shawnee and a Chippewa), a new play about Emma Goldman, .... It will be exciting.
Notre Dame has stopped harrassing Sam, and his new chairman is both charming and appreciative of Sam's truly extraordinary performances as a teaching professor. He's also deeply back into chess, goi ng to tournaments, playing seriously at least three times/week. A new grandmaster from Greece is a grad student at Notre Dame, so Sam has someone better than he to tustle with. He's in good health and happy, He'll be giving a paper in Nebraska this spring, and he's also done some exciting research on hispanic immigrants in Indiana that will be the chapter of a book.
Our son David, now 26, came home unexpectedly this Xmas for a week. He is a computer game designer in Austin, Texas, and also does quite a bit of writing for his firm--that is, writing prose, both fiction and clue books, The computer games (mostly fantasy) have texts the length of a long novel; the last clue book, on the other hand, was only 75 pages. David's social life is great, and Austin with its many low mountains is a lovely place to be.
Our daughter, now named Leslie Viktora (a name she chose for herself), is headed for two weeks in Israel with her boyfriend, a sensitive and talented Russiam immigrant just her age (28). He and she have been helping to settle Russian Jews in their area (Ohio). They have also given a few concerts together--he, a baritone; she, the accompanist . Leslie supports herself as a piano teacher and free lance musician. Sasha is a computer engineer.
Today is winter at its most glorious--a brilliant sun carpets the snow with crystal rainbows. And the frigid 8-degree (F) air puts an extra hop in everyone's step outdoors. Oddly, however, we've been bailing flood waters out of out-basement all week: even the cold and the sun have not arrested the underground wet. I hope two more days will see us dry. The past two years I have been cementing all the holes in the basement, and were it not for that, things would have been out of control. As it is, the water is seeping in through tiny new cracks and with our pumping, never gets above three inches. Cold, clean, and clear, the water reminds me of mountain streams in winter.
HAPPY 1991!
Collection
Citation
Kaufman, Gloria, “Gloria Kaufman's life updates letter, 1990 December 31,” IU South Bend Archives Digital Collections, accessed May 5, 2024, https://iusbarchives.omeka.net/items/show/133.