Not as Smart as Dr. Watson

Donald Keene and Burton Watson

Burton Watson was Columbia class of 1950; I'm Harvard class of 2002. In 1957, Burton Watson published Ssu-ma Ch'ien: Grand Historian of China. It's 2009, 7 years since I've graduated from Harvard, but I've produced essentially nothing. What I can't get over is that Watson didn't just put out a book -- he put out a terrific book, at once a joy to read and a meaty bit of historiography.

What a wake-up call. I think I've been wasting a lot of time.