Grégorien

2003 · rif. 79611 — New York NY: Simon & Schuster 2003. First Printing Stated. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 10 354 4 p. Illustrations. Index. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads: To Elliot with gratitude and best wishes. Vartan. Vartan Gregoriana born April 8 1934 is an Armenian-American academic educator and historian. He has been serving as president of the Carnegie Corporation since 1997. An Armenian born in Iran Gregorian moved to the United States at 22. He graduated with dual Ph.D. from Stanford University. He subsequently taught at several universities and his work as a historian focused mainly on the Muslim world. He went on to join the University of Pennsylvania faculty then as its provost. From 1981 to 1989 he served as president of the New York Public Library during which he succeeded in financially stabilizing the institution and revitalizing its cultural importance. From 1989 to 1997 he served as the first foreign-born president of Brown University. Gregorian's work has been widely acknowledged. He has received dozens of honorary doctorates the National Humanities Medal 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom 2004. In January 1997 Gregorian was chosen as the president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York at the time the 16th largest foundation in the US known for its advocacy of education and peace. He assumuted the position in June 1997 and became the 12th president and the first not from within the foundation to head it. At Carnegie Corporation Gregorian has advocated "initiatives in teacher education international peace and cooperative efforts with other foundations." Derived from a Kirkus review: The restless Gregorian-presidencies at the New York Public Library Brown University the Carnegie Corporation-offers a memoir that expertly blends poetry progressivism and unruly university politics. By his fourth sentence Gregorian is already engaged in a scholarly discourse on the identity of biblical rivers-and so the book continues with Gregorian always happy to drop in a few lines of Robert Frost say or to explain how The Sorrows of Young Werther captures his feelings after a love affair falls apart. For Gregorian is all about brains-using them nimbly honestly compassionately-starting with his grandmother's teachings when he was a poor youth in Tabriz Iran right through to his present post at the Carnegie Corporation. Getting there wasn't easy and what a story it makes: leaving Iran alone and destitute to study in Beirut; gaining entrance to Stanford; and teaching at San Francisco State in the mid- to late-1960s. The author bounces from the University of Texas to Penn keeping one hand busy with his teaching while dipping the other into the mire of university politics. He is brilliant in delineating the backstabbing pettiness and obfuscations he contended with in order to raise the level of educational quality when he was dean at various schools. He has a light touch knowing when to coax the reader gently through an intricate piece of philanthropic politics and when to let rip: "I was not a Mr. Magoo. If somebody spits at me I cannot pretend it is a raindrop." His stint at the NYPL and now at Carnegie allows him to fuse learning with philanthropy-but his loss from academia is a great one. Gregorian made an important life for himself the old-fashioned way by earning every little bit of it. Simon & Schuster hardcover