Today is a special day. Not just because there is a tornado warning here in northern New Jersey, but because at long last a very hefty volume entitled In Search of Cultural Identities in West and Central Asia: A Festschrift for Prudence Oliver Harper, edited by Betty Hensellek, Judith Lerner and me, now sits on my overflow desk/dining room table.
When I say the book is hefty, I mean it. Its surface area is equal to three and one-third Loeb volumes (in this case, Herodotus), and it is more than one Loeb thick (Herodotus again). I estimate that it weighs as much as ten Loebs (Herodotus + Pausanias + Thucydides vol. 1).
It is, in other words, a hefty work of scholarship! But, of course, that has as much to do with the wonderful contributions as it does the book’s physical properties. As a great admirer of Prudence Harper, I am honored to have been part of the editorial team for this volume.