Orrin Tilevitz is seeking the origin of “That’s right, Private Aberthistle, put my stump right over there, and give me a hand up.” He found the quotation in a letter from his late father-in-law, “a well-educated officer in Europe during World War II.”
“the thing which man will not surrender” (January-February). Jeanne Heifetz sent word that this slightly misquoted phrase comes from the poem “Running,” by Richard Wilbur, A.M. ’47, JF ’50. It appears in part III, “Dodwells Road (Cummington, Massachusetts).”
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