Middbriefs

Author: Brian Fung and Anthony Adragna

Esarey wins ice cream for Gonzales prediction

The next time you see Assistant Professor of Political Science Ashley Esarey, ask him what flavor he's on now. Esarey, who recently won a contest by correctly predicting the date and time of former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation, was awarded a year's supply of Ben and Jerry's ice cream from Burlington-based TrueMajority.org.

Esarey explained that he expected Gonzales to fight for his post at least until Labor Day, but predicted the AG would ultimately step down due to heightened GOP scrutiny before November. After reasoning that Gonzales would only resign "after a weekend of soul searching and deliberation with President Bush," Esarey decided on a Monday in August, a historically quiet month on the political calendar.

"By pure luck, I guessed Monday, August 27 at 10:10 a.m.," wrote Esarey in an e-mail. "Gonzales resigned at 10:30 a.m. The next day, TrueMajority notified me that I had won 52 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream."

So far, Esarey has said his favorite flavor is Cherry Garcia, though the professor has also sampled Pistachio and Cookie Dough. Esarey also hinted that students lucky enough to have enrolled in his first-year seminar, Media and Politics, may see a few pints coming their way as well.

"Hopefully, winning the contest won't cause me to gain 100 pounds and require a new wardrobe," Esarey joked, "although I recognize that some of my students might think the latter would be for the best!"



Hemingway collection added to archives

The College acquired dozens of personal Ernest Hemingway correspondences and artifacts for the Julian W. Abernethy Collection of American Literature over the summer.

In the collection is a series of family documents, journal entries and over 1,400 original letters. The memorabilia stems from the outset of the Civil War to Hemingway's death in 1961.

Anne Hemingway Feuer and Hilary Hemingway, daughters of Hemingway's now deceased younger brother offered the collection to the College. Leicester Hemingway used the documents to write a biography of his brother in 1962.

Feuer and Hemingway made the offer to allow public access to the previously private documents. Once completed in Fall 2008 the Donald Everett Axinn '51 Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Starr Library will feature an exhibit of the items.

Of particular interest in the collection is a series of love letters written by Hemingway's parents, diaries that date to before the Civil War and letters written by Hemingway's grandfather. The collection also includes a carbon copy of a version of the first chapter of "The Sun Also Rises" that was subsequently deleted from the novel.

Over 70 other collections of Hemingway items exist, both in public and private venues. The most notable is in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Middlebury College Special Collections and Archives Curator Andrew Wentink called the collection the "most important acquisition for the College's Abernethy Collection of American Literature since the purchase of Henry David Thoreau's personal copy of the first edition of 'Walden' in 1940" in a press release.