Ronald Wright

My school email account gets a lot of emails. I don’t keep track, but I would hazard a guess that I get at least 10 emails a day that are completely meaningless to me. Sometimes, out of boredom, I’ll actually read them. Sometimes I delete them right off. Last Friday I got one about U of A’s International Week and I opened it up because what else am I going to do at 3:30 in the afternoon? Anyway, I scrolled down, not actually reading it, and two words leaped out at me in bold:

Ronald Wright.

I was alone in my office, so luckily there are no witness to my girly squee and hand fluttering. But I told everyone I saw after that and no one had heard of Ronald Wright or his books, so I had to explain that he’s the author of many great books, including what just may be my favourite book: A Scientific Romance. He writes primarily non fiction, though, and his most recent work was A Short History of Progress. I met him once in 2002. I wrote about it in my blog at the time, but I’m going to reproduce that entry here, rather than give you a link to the original posting.

At the time Ronald Wright lived in Port Hope, a town close to the hamlet where my parents live. I was home for Christmas and my mom was trying to reach him (she did a phone interview with him once) to get him to sign a book for me. He called the house on Christmas Eve and mom wasn't there, so my brother Mike took a message. When we got home that day, the following exchange took place:

Mike: Mom, Ronald Wright called, he left a number for you to call.
Me: Ronald Wright?!
Mike: [nod]
Me: [high pitched, slightly hysterical] Ronald Wright! Ronald Wright called here??
Mike: No. Mom, Donald White called.

So, mom called back "Ron," as she called him, and he invited us to his house so he could sign my book. On Boxing Day, mom and I drove out to Port Hope and were invited into the beautiful kitchen of the beautiful home of the perfectly amiable and non-pretentious Ronald Wright.

I didn't know what he'd be like, but he was very nice, and he signed my copy of Henderson's Spear and a copy of Cut Stones and Crossroads, which I had gotten Mike for Christmas (as he was about to travel to Peru). The edition I bought had a mistake in it, and he corrected it! After the books were signed, he and mom talked local politics for about ten minutes.

That is my Ronald Wright story. He has since left Port Hope and moved to BC. And now there’s only one week left until his talk!