A Southern Agrarian at the University of Chicago

Richard Weaver came to the University of Chicago in 1944 to teach English and rhetoric in the college; he became professor in 1957 and stayed at the university until his death in 1964 at the age of fifty-three. Weaver was of medium height, solidly built, had strongly held opinions which his rather heavy, clearly marked features reflected. Out of place as Weaver may have been in Chicago, the challenge and intellectual stimulation of the university undoubtedly contributed to his creative achievement. Property, Weaver unequivocally states, is "the last metaphysical right," metaphysical "because it does not depend on any test of social usefulness." Is it not, he goes on to ask, "quite comforting to feel that we can enjoy one right which does not have to answer to sophistries of the world or rise and fall with the tide of opinion?" The triumph and continuance of Christian culture attests the power of rhetoric in holding men together and maintaining institutions.