To my now departed college professor, Mr. Gordon Jones – The most well-read person I’ve ever known and a true Kindred Spirit
I’m currently in four book clubs. I keep joining them, still searching for just the right group of people who want to talk about books in the way I crave. By that, I mean the kind of discussion where you underline specific lines because they’re worded just right; where you have strong opinions about punctuation choices, character names, sweeping storylines, paper quality, and how a book feels in your hand. Some meetings have been a success in this regard. Others leave me quietly dissatisfied, with no choice but to join yet another club.
One of the greatest gifts is encountering fellow readers who read books this way and discuss them in ways that leave you with things to think about for a lifetime. I found that kind of reader in my now-departed dear college professor, Mr. Gordon Jones.
The first time I met Mr Jones was at the Draper Library in 2019. I was heading into my Mount Liberty College admissions interview as one of their first students. I was a year off my LDS mission and had no idea what I was doing. I was stressed, imagining all the possible questions about my abysmal math performance in High School. Mr Jones instead started the conversation by asking, “Why on earth did you read The Trial by Kafka!” For the next 30 minutes, we talked books… my favorite subject. Every book I brought up, Mr. Jones already knew. I left feeling overjoyed to attend a college where reading and discussing books would be the whole focus of everything!
Mr Jones staring at the abysmal timeline we made from our limited knowledge. He realized the Herculean task of teaching us all of World History… a task he completed with great success. Circa 2020
On my first day of school, Mr. Jones began his class with his famous phrase, “Here are data.” Over the next four years of college, Mr. Jones taught me more than I ever dreamed was possible. He taught me Western Civ; American Government, African folk tales, and Russian short stories. Mr Jones knew something about everything, it seemed. In between reading early creation stories and observing famous paintings, he always shared the most fascinating insights from his own life, such as, “I have a high tolerance for chaos,” and “I spent $90 on a ticket to Cats in Chicago, and maybe I didn’t waste $90, but I wasted $85.” Sometimes he would pose interesting questions or statements instead of lecturing: “There is no way to survive without humor,” or “Is Gone With the Wind the American Epic?” There was always a funny quip like, “The downfall of American civilization started with the invention of air conditioning,” or “I kneel down every night and thank the Lord that I don’t have to deal with these complicated questions because I will be dead.”
Mr Jones reading his favorite detective stories aloud to us at the annual Mount Liberty College Christmas Party. December 2022
Of course, Mr. Jones credited most of his knowledge to all the books he had spent his life reading. Mr Jones taught me a new way to see the world and how to properly read a book. He had hundreds of suggestions for the kinds of books one ought to read to be educated. Only once did I suggest to him a book he hadn’t either heard of or read. After getting his copy and reading it in three days, he told me he “thoroughly enjoyed” it. That was better than the A he gave me that semester.
Mr Jones and his trusted slide deck, which he diligently made for every single class he ever taught. Often, these slide decks could teach you more than an entire textbook. Circa 2019
Out of the many book recommendations from Mr. Jones, one in particular stands out: A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. Mr. Jones once said it was a book he “read every five years.” With a recommendation like that, it was an immediate purchase for me. I read it the summer after my second year of college.
The novel follows a young woman, Jean, who is informed by an older English solicitor, Noel, that she has inherited a large sum of money. The story unfolds through correspondence between Noel and Jean, and the reader learns what Jean does with both her inheritance and her life.
It is a tremendous book and one I now recommend to everyone I know.
Mr. Jones was never my solicitor, and if he had discovered that I had come into a great deal of money, he would have petitioned me for the rest of his days to fund Mount Liberty College (now John Adams College). Still, I looked forward to a similar decades-long correspondence between Mr. Jones and myself—one in which I could tell him of my latest reading and of what I was doing with the great education he gave me, while he reflected on his own reading and continued to share his wisdom with me. Unfortunately, that correspondence will not be as long as I once hoped.
However, for the past seven years, I have benefited greatly from my correspondence with him, and I would like to share some of it with you.
Mr Jones and I on the day of my graduation from Mount Liberty College. April 2023
June 15, 2022 – Ari to Mr Jones
I just finished reading Pastoral today! I haven’t read all of Shute’s books yet, but I really like his storytelling.
Anyways I’m so glad you recommended it to me. I’ve heard you mention how much you love this book and I assume you have way more thoughts about why the book is good than I had and I would love to hear them if you would be willing to share. (abysmal sentence structure from Ari back in 2022)
Thanks for all the great book recommendations.
Ari
June 17, 2022 – Mr. Jones to Ari
I don’t know that I have any great thoughts about it. (Classic Mr Jones) One thing that has always struck me about it is that the story exists in a way outside time and place. Not that the war is not present. It is, of course. But there is no sort of introspection by the characters that they have any ideas about it. Peter goes up in a bomber. Anti-aircraft fire comes up from the ground. He drops his bombs on the ground. There is no description of those shooting or receiving, who they are, why they are doing it, what they feel when death rains down from the skies. I think that’s how participants felt about WWII. It was like a force of nature. not something that came about because of decisions. Perhaps that is true of all wars, for most of the participants.
This brief response sums up so well what Mr Jones was able to do. In just a few sentences, he changed the way I viewed the entire story and war in general. He ended this response by saying:
Keep reading! And don’t say “anyways.”
g
April 26, 2023 – Ari to Mr Jones
I just saw that you can preorder Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad!!
I never thought I would be excited about a new translation of the Iliad but here I am, and I know it’s because you taught me to value the voice of different translators.
I also remember you saying that you wouldn’t survive to see her translation of the Iliad but luckily, you’re still here!
Best,
Ari
Same Day – Mr Jones to Ari
Thank you for your kind words.
And let me say how impressed I was with you last night. Since I have not had you in my classes for three years, I was not fully aware of the degree to which you had progressed. For a while there, I thought I was sitting around the Academy listening in.
g
November 21, 2023 – Ari (Attending graduate school) to Mr. Jones
My classmates and I have had many discussions and debates on translations of the Iliad and the “correct” and “right” way to translate a text from Greek into English. I will never forget those days reading the Iliad at the massive wooden table and going back and forth between Fagles, Pope, Butler, and Alexander. I wish I were a freshman again at Mount Liberty College with the knowledge I have now, so I could hear your thoughts about everything we’re discussing.
I have almost no time for pleasure reading, but I make the time for L.M. Montgomery and reread both Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside to prepare for Veterans Day. I thought back on our classes on World War I, where we read passages from Rilla and read The Piper by Walter Blythe. Nobody writes about the war like Montgomery.
Please try not to die any time soon!
Oh also not a November goes by that I don’t read “Sestina in November.” It’s beautiful and I love it.
I’m serious when I say you altered the way I see the world. I really do think daily of the lessons, history, readings, and personal experiences I heard in your class. If you ever wonder if you’ve changed a student’s life, you can add my name to the list.
Best,
Ari
Same Day – Mr Jones to Ari
Speaking of Montgomery, did you know there’s a new Anne Shirley Blythe book out? It’s titled The Blythes are Quoted, and it is an expansion and completion of The Road to Yesterday that was published in 1974. I just got it, and haven’t read it yet. Montgomery uses “The Pied Piper” as an opener to the book.
Anyway, thank you for writing. I will try to hold on until we get a chance to talk again. Until then, continue to lap it up, as I can see you are doing.
g
December 3, 2023 – Ari to Mr Jones
You asked where I got the poem “The Pied Piper.” You actually showed it to us in class one day and a quick Google search helped me find it again. I did not know there was a new Anne Shirley book. I have read The Road to Yesterday and I can’t wait to read an expansion over break. You can never have too much Anne Shirley in your life!
Best,
Ari
Dec 3, 2023 – Mr. Jones to Ari
You may be disappointed in The Blythes Are Quoted. I have been so far (which isn’t far at all). Montgomery was not always at the top of her game. I have found some of the non-Anne books much weaker, and even a couple of the Anne books are not quite up to par. Even the best authors produce a clinker along the way.
Babcock Readers did an evening of Poetry of War and Peace the other night, and I read Wilson’s translation of Achilles’ Shield. I have not read the rest of it, and likely won’t until time to teach it again (if I make it that far). Too much else to read.
g
November 4, 2024 – Ari from NYC to Mr. Jones
I’m going to an election watch party tomorrow at the Knickerbocker Club next to Central Park and I hope we will get results and that the streets remain safe.
We shall see.
It’s quite exhilarating to be in the big city for a national election like this one.
I decided to go down to Madison Square Garden to see the Trump rally last week, and it was worth seeing simply because nobody has ever seen that many Trump supporters in one place in New York City… ever.
These are strange times indeed.
Best,
Ari
Same day – Mr Jones to Ari
(Following paragraphs of reflection about an election he worked on in 1964)
After we finished, about 2 AM, and it was clear that Johnson had won the presidency, I wandered around Manhattan for an hour or two, feeling very, very blue, like the end of the nation had come.
Amazing. I haven’t thought about that experience for more than 50 years. That was the first election I was old enough to vote (it was 21 in those days).
Just remember, no matter what happens, there’s still a lot of life in the American Republic (he said, somewhat nervously).
Best,
g
August 12, 2025 – Ari to Mr. Jones
I just started reading Kristen Lavransdatter a few days ago, and can’t help but think it would be a perfect addition to your master historical fiction list that you had us look at for our final assignments.
I can’t remember if you had any novels about Scandinavia on your list, but I think this one would be a great addition!
Best,
Ari
Same day – Mr Jones to Ari
I was going to say that KL was not on my list because it is just bigger than any student would choose freely. But there are other blockbusters on the list, so that isn’t a good defense.
I have never read the whole thing. I’ve tried it a couple of times, but never got far enough in that I felt invested in finishing. But you are right, it should be on the list, perhaps with Undset’s The Snake Pit, which I have read.
g
Ari’s drafted response
After 30 long days of reading Kristen Lavransdatter, I came to the conclusion that you once again probably know best when it comes to books for your students.
The book was insanely long and perhaps a little too catholic. I’m very grateful I read it and learned alot about the Christian—
And that is where the draft ends. I never sent it. It was comforting in a way to see this draft, unedited and unsent in my inbox because it meant that Mr Jones and I were still in contact about the thing I loved talking to him about most: books.
Mr Jones introducing the Greek play put on by Mount Liberty College students. Circa September 2019
Of course, there is more correspondence about many more books, but writers have to stay mysterious when they can, so that’s all for now.
To put it plainly, I lost the best professor I ever had. But he was also the best observer, an incredible (a word he would say I am using incorrectly) writer, a wise and careful thinker, and most importantly, one of those rare souls who loved books the way they ought to be loved: by reading and discussing them. His departure from this life is tragic indeed.
I will treasure forever my 7 years of learning from someone as wise as Mr. Gordon Jones. A true Kindred Spirit.
To all of you, “Keep reading! and don’t say anyways.”