(1971) revived and preserved that writer's reputation. This Canadian literary critic, author of books on Eliot, Chesterton, Becket, and Joyce, among others, ended his career at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia). His memoirs were published in 2000, The Elsewhere Community.
In this last book, we find out about Francis, his Siamese cat. In a discussion of knowing, he points out the wondrous mystery of the kitten, who, seeing a tree for the first time at 12 weeks old, climbed up several feet immediately: knowing what to do with no prior experience. "It's not something he had been taught, even by example. [How to climb a tree, and such knowledge]...is innate inborn knowledge, a spectacular endowment of cats and dogs and horses....The innate knowledge of cats is highly specific. And highly mysterious. How on earth did Francis recognise that tree as something to call forth his climbing knowledge."He writes, in this context: "Humans yearn after knowledge and know it must be sought elsewhere."
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