In Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again (University of California Press, $24.95, 9780520255418/0520255410), Roger H. Martin, past president and professor of history emeritus of Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Va., recounts a semester he spent as a 61-year-old freshman at St. John's College, Annapolis, Md., whose program focuses on the classics of Western tradition.
Concerning St. John's bookstore, whose director is Robin Dunn, he wrote:
"Just before seminar this evening, where we will tackle Plato's Meno, I pop over to the bookstore to try to find a good translation of Aeschylus's Oresteia, the work we will be reading later this week.
"The bookstore, located in the basement of Humphreys Hall, is unlike any I have ever seen. The room is dark and cool, with an arched brick wall in the back that gives one the vague feeling of being in a wine cellar. Instead of bottles of vintage wine, however, the shelves are filled with vintage books, indeed with every conceivable translation of the Great Books in the St. John's program. There are at least six translations of the Iliad alone!"