Word: langere
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...summer of 1939, a few short weeks before Hitler's invasion of Poland, Harvard historian William L. Langer was preparing to leave for a year's study in Mexico and Central America when he was contacted by the University Librarian, Keyes DeWitt Metcalf. Metcalf was anxious to purchase for Harvard the personal papers of a Russian exile then living in Mexico, and he asked Langer to represent Harvard in the negotiations...
...arrival in Mexico City Langer travelled by taxi to the suburb of Coyoacan. After riding down a respectable road the taxi turned into a deserted, unpaved street, with many rust but no houses. At the end of the street was a villa, protected by walls and heavilyarmed guards. The guards had been notified of Langer's arrival and he was admitted, without too much difficulty, to the simply-furnished villa...
...Langer's host was Lev Davidovich Bronstein who had been banished from Russia in 1929, and who, in the following years, was hounded-from Turkey to France and Norway and eventually to Mexico. Surrounded by a rapidly diminishing number of friends, most of his offspring and closest associates already dead, Bronstein had lost little of the intensity and dynamism which had characterized his years of greatness...
...Trotsky was becoming increasingly apprehensive about the safety of his papers and he resolved to sell them to some library that could guarantee their safety. In his negotiations with Langer, Trotsky was especially anxious to know what protection the papers would receive, and what sort of control he could exercise over their use. Langer was authorized to spend up to $10,000 for the papers, but the main issue was not the total amount, but rather how much of the archives should be included for that amount...
Nearly 30 years Later Langer recalls his encounter with Trotsky as one of the most unfortgettable experiences of his life. He describes Trotsky as a most attractive personality, whose magnetic leadership was still evident many years after his fall from power. Following two afternoons of negotiations Langer left Trotsky, having secured for Harvard the great bulk of Trotsky's personal papers covering the years 1917 to January 1, 1937 (Trotsky required the post-1937 papers for his working archive...