MD - Deep Duck - Chapter 10 (Ewing)

[Joseph Tracy]

Very cool information. 
Somewhere in here in next chapters, Aunt Euphrenia shows up. Euphrenia was an ancient goddess in the region of Holland ( see wikipedia), she was often accompanied by a dog. Whether it was a talking dog appears lost to the mists of time, but one of the purposes of P's emphasis on Dutch history in M&D is the importance of Dutch role in Pennsylvania history.  Another interesting factoid along this LINE is that a century or so earlier Descartes moved to Holland to become a military officer and spent most of the rest of his life there.
On Feb 15, 2015, at 1:16 PM, Becky Lindroos wrote:

> Another thing -  while doing a bit of research on this sermon,  I discovered that the guy to whom Mason gave his journals just prior to his death was one John Ewing in Philadelphia and that he was a Rev’d.  
> 
> For our fiction,  Cherrycoke is a Revd and apparently a close friend of Mason.  They are both very interested in astronomy, one as a professional the other as a lay-person.  I think this character may have been inspired by the Revd John Ewing, a  Presbyterian minister and Provost of Univ of Penn - also apparently a friend, certainly more than an acquaintance, of the real life Mason and also interested in astronomy (observed two Transits of Venus, anyway). 
> 
> ** How the volume arrived at Penn is unknown. The earliest record of it being present in the library comes from May 1914. There is some possibility it came to Penn thanks to the fact that upon Mason’s death in Philadelphia in 1786 he left many of his books and papers to Rev. John Ewing, an early provost at Penn. See Cope and Ewing, “The Astronomical Manuscripts Which Charles Mason Gave to Provost the Reverend John Ewing during October 1786,” Proceedings of the APS 96.4 (1952), 417-423.  -Editor ** 
> https://uniqueatpenn.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/the-transit-of-venus-2/
> 
> 
> John Ewing
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ewing_(pastor)
> 
> http://www.mdlpp.org/pdf/library/FactandFiction.pdf
> "The Astronomical Manuscripts which Charles Mason Gave to Provost the Reverend John Ewing during Oct. 1786," co-authored with H. W. Robinson, PAPS, Aug 1952
> 
> *!*!*!*   http://www.mdlpp.org/pdf/library/FactandFiction.pdf   
> 
> etc. 
> Becky 
> 
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list

-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l