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Ive never experienced anything like it in my life, observed one of the librarians at the Institute.
Usually we deal with people who are interested in petroleum engineering.
Harkness, 53, is blonde and dimpled and vivacious.
she declared, beaming.
There were tons of creative disagreements, she said.
I was really a pain in the ass, to be quite blunt.
Like her heroine, Harkness got her start as an intellectual historian specializing in the Medieval history of alchemy.
(She had also spent many years moonlighting as a wine blogger.)
As she recalls it, her students and colleagues were shocked and dismayed.
One of my students asked me, Arent you afraid no one will take you seriously anymore?
My heart kind of sank, Stoloff told me.
Harkness smiled warmly at Dees book, which catalogs conversations he claims to have had with angels.
(Among other things, they allegedly told him that he should swap wives with a colleague.)
Poor John Dee, she mused, as she carefully flipped a page.
Harkness laughed she could relate.
I think theres still that tendency to think: Shes lost her mind!
Dees conversations with angels were the subject of Harknesss graduate school dissertation.
I love the idea that somehow, there are still things that can be magical.
How is that possible?
I basically became a graduate student in 18th-century history.
responded Harkness, ready, as always, to get into the details.
For the classics, you really need it.
