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Article: Robert Maynard Hutchins: A Memoir.
- Article from:
- Chicago Review
- Article date:
- March 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 University of Chicago. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Milton Mayer first met Robert Hutchins in 1933, when Hutchins, at the age of 34, was already four years into stirring up the University of Chicago as its "Boy President." Four years later, Mayer, who had been working as a journalist in the city, asked Hutchins for an interview; once in the door, Mayer implored Hutchins to "save" him from William Randolph Hearst. Hutchins thought Mayer needed saving only from Mayer, but he gave him a job anyway - at half his former salary. Mayer: "I can't live on that." Hutchins: "You didn't say you wanted to live; you said you wanted to be saved. You cannot be saved any cheaper" (7).
For the next decade, Mayer worked, in his words, ...