Bread & Ink

I'm a diehard Portlander, but I spent two years of my high school career at Phillips Academy, a school outside of Boston, learning the ways of the East Coast. I had some pretty rad teachers at that school, in particular a dude named Edwin Quattlebaum, who taught my 8:30am modern European history class. He was the very first teacher I experienced at ol' Andover. Because of that, I felt that he always had my back. I was a little out of my league back East, and I think he understood my West Coast sensibility more than most people did, maybe since he was a Berkeley student when the city was under martial law.

Here's the email exchange. Things worth noting: we often reference the Rolling Stones in emails, Palmer is one of the editors of the history book we used in his class, I played a lot of volleyball in high school, and I <33333333 Dr. Quattlebaum.

from Claire Fox
to equattlebaum@andover.edu
date Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 9:28 PM
subject american history, james spader, research
mailed-by gmail.com

hey dr. quattlebaum,

i have a question for you in the name of arts and humanities research. i have this memory of history 340 when you were describing james spader to us kids, and you mentioned that you were teaching a particular time period (in hist 300, i think) where mr. spader became obsessed with a particular event within that time period and researched it with a couple buddies, never really moving on from that moment, even as the course progressed and eventually left him behind.

if you remember what i'm talking about (and i realize this is a pretty inane question): do you remember what that moment in history was that consumed james spader's attention? i'm indirectly using it to justify some research i'm doing.

also: HI! how have you been? what's new? i hope all's well in andover.

it's only rock n roll (but i like it),
claire (fox '06)

from Edwin G Quattlebaum
to Claire Fox
date Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 11:46 AM
subject RE: american history, james spader, research
mailed-by andover.edu

Dear Claire,
Great to hear from you.
You have an amazing -- Palmer-like -- memory, for the IMPORTANT things of History 340.
Your recollection is absolutely correct. The topic was the scandal in the Andrew Jackson administration, from 1829-1837, and it involved the alleged loose morals of one Peggy Eaton, in about 1830. I think one of Jackson's cabinet members, perhaps John Timberlane?, wanted to marry her, and all the other Cabinet-members' wives developed catty hatred for her. But Old Hickory himself stuck up for her, partly because his beloved late & lamented dead wife had suffered similar cattiness from Cabinet wives?
Something like that.
Google it. Smithsonian Magazine had a big article on it, I think, and JT [my nickname for him] obsessed in a hilarious fashion about
the whole scandal, although he may not have done a whole lot of research about it. But he sure talked a good game.
As for Rock 'n' Roll, it was Billy Joel: "It's All Rock 'n' Roll to Me." Itunes it.
Hope you are still living in Portland, Oregon, and still spiking a million volleyballs.
As ever,
Ed Q.