Bernstein at Harvard

Leonard Bernstein was invited to speak at a Harvard banquet in 1986.

Bernstein, a 1939 graduate of Harvard, agreed, with certain caveats: that then Harvard president Derek Bok be present, along with at least 15 students and two bottles of scotch. Seventy undergraduates turned up for the speech, delivered at 2 A.M., and, as reported in The Harvard Crimson, the event lasted an hour and a half.

He delivered his talk on terrorism and truth. One need not agree with everything the great man said to remember him with gratitude and fondness. [ht: Arts and Letters Daily]