To the editor,
I thoroughly enjoyed Paul Hollander's "Acknowledgments: An Academic Ritual" (Winter 2001-02) and have a question for the author: Did he not find change over the course of academic careers? My impression—which stands to reason-is that the effusion Professor Hollander so gently chronicles surfaces most in first publications and then rapidly dries out. Can he confirm this?
Daniel Pipes
Middle East Forum
Philadelphia, PA
Professor Hollander responds,
Daniel Pipes may be right about the greater effusiveness of acknowledgements in first publications but I did not do a chronological study. So I am not sure of the answer. Actually, I believe that many of the books from which I cited were not first publications.
In the final analysis both can be true, i.e., that people who write their first book are more anxious to be ingratiating and humble - what Pipes suggests - and that they get into the habit of writing such tributes even in later books when their professional standing is more secure.
