Introduction

Summary

In the state of Arkansas in the United States of America there is a small town called Humphrey. Sometime in 1951 a woman in Humphrey called Joan Harlan gave birth to a son, and set about finding a godfather for him. Two years before, in July 1949, a Spaniard called José Ortega y Gasset – described somewhat uncertainly by Time magazine as a ‘Philosopher – Teacher – Statesman’ – and Albert Schweitzer, the medical missionary, had spent a fortnight in Aspen, Colorado, as the main attractions at a conference on the occasion of Goethe's bicentennial celebrations. Time quoted the conference's organiser, Robert Hutchins of the University of Chicago, as saying that the theme of the conference was to call attention to a ‘consciousness of moral responsibilities, liberty and the dignity of man’. In the context of the post-war world when the incarcerations and the carnage of 1939–45 were still fresh in the memory this enterprise was newsworthy, and Newsweek as well as Time sent reporters to the event. It is possible that Joan Harlan of Humphrey, Arkansas, first read of Ortega in one of these magazines in July 1949, or at least that she became aware of him through the publicity generated by his visit to Aspen and the things he said there. In any event, she clearly found him an attractive figure because two years later she wrote to Ortega in Spain asking him to be the godfather of her new-born son.