Joseph Michael Phillips, Rest In Peace

The Philadelphia Inquirer posted a touching obituary of my twelfth-grade English teacher, Joseph Michael Phillips. His class had a great influence upon me and led me to study many different classics in college, most often for political philosophy, history, or literature courses, and from there to become a college instructor and novelist. Readings he selected for us in Advanced Placement English included: The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, The Bell Jar, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hamlet, Crime and Punishment, Light in August, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and "The Love Song for J. Alfred Prufrock." In addition to these classics, he introduced us to ideas from Boethius, Kant, and others. It was quite a class, and Dr. Phillips was the first intellectual I'd ever had for a teacher. Over the years, I've had many conversations about Dr. Phillips with a friend I stayed in touch with from high school. I'll add more and better writing to this at some point.