Murray felt indebted the rest of his life for all he learned from his friendship with Howard and Judith Daniel, whom he and Rosa met in Bucharest in 1939. They introduced a smart, bookish, but provincial young man to political, artistic, and intellectual worlds he had not encountered. In return, he did his best to explain one of his enduring passions, American college football.
Thursday, Dec 3 '92, to Bill Betts
...I was slipped two presidents box tickets to the UW-Oregon State game by Fred Haley, who hates football. I was going to take Mary (Adams) but she felt the steps would be too much for her knees. So I took Jonathan Raban, the British writer who has adopted Seattle. His first game. Lots of questions. Not much enthusiasm for the nuances, but did come up with a fine remark. He'd asked if there were Oregon State supporters in the crowd of 70,000. I said a few, and pointed to the orange sweatered bunch in the curved end of the bowl. He stared, then said "No barricades?" I said that there were occasional after-game skirmishes around the goal posts but we had not imported the Brit/Yurrup idea of war in the stands. He paused, then said "American football is so gentle."
This is fascinating - I'm trying to find out more about Howard and Judith Daniel - do you have other letters or other material? I know if was a substantial friendship with the Morgans. I would be very interested in any further information about them that you have. Could you contact me?
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