An Old (Academic) Voice from the Past

So, I received an email out of the blue today from Dr. Donald "Mack" Hassler, a former editor of Extrapolation, a prolific critic within SF Studies, and also my Honors thesis advisor at Kent State University back in .... let's say, 2005-2006 it must have been, so fifteen years ago. Anyway, he had just seen my recent article in Extrapolation about Poul Anderson's poetry, and dropped me a line. 

Here's part of what he said:

The new issue of Extrap just got to me in the mail, and I am delighted to see the new long piece by you.  Also, I see that you are now Director of Undergrad Studies in Arizona.

I remember the old days in the Honors College so well and am very proud of how you are moving in the profession.

He was a good advisor, too -- gave me free reign to do what I want, and very patient. If I remember right, after a summer of working on my thesis** alone, I then handed him a 100-page mess in September, un-proofread, with comments like "INSERT EVIDENCE HERE" still scattered all over the place. Only in retrospect do I realize how horrifying that must have been (and he couldn't quite keep the horror out of his expression, to be honest), but I eventually got things hammered out. He even threw me a bone by publishing a short excerpt of my thesis as a chapter in a book he was co-editing, Political Science Fiction, with Clyde Wilcox.

-------------------

** Entitled Stephen R. Donaldson and his Apotheosis of the Existential Prototype. There was actually an archive of SRD materials in the Kent State Special Collections, since SRD got his Master's there.

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