Remembering Denny

by Calvin Trillin

Remembering Denny is Calvin Trillin's most inspired and powerful book to date: a memoir, a work of investigative reporting, a book of self-examination that captures something essential about how America has changed. In 1957, the graduation from Yale of Denny Hansen - "a strapping young man with a flat-top crew cut and a gregarious manner and a broad, absolutely dazzling smile" - was the subject of a feature in Life magazine, with photographs by Alfred Eisenstaedt. A varsity swimmer and Phi Beta Kappa and Rhodes Scholar from California, Hansen was the emblematic college hero of his time and place. His classmates used to joke about the posts they would occupy when he was President. But life worked out differently for Denny Hansen. After some early jobs in government and journalism, he concentrated on foreign affairs, eventually becoming a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. He gradually lost touch with his family and his old friends. As