Dear Ellis,

Since we historians are always consulting documents from the past, I thought it
most appropriate to do just that as we celebrate your upcoming ninetieth
birthday. My source today is almost 48 years old-~more than half your age. it
dates from September 1 960 and has until now been kept secret from the world.
ft is a diary entry I composed shortly after coming to study with you here in
Cincinnati nearly half a century ago. The following is its text:


“This afternoon I had my first talk of the year with Rivkin, Aside from setting
down a program ([courses on) Renaissance and Reformation and Nineteenth~
Century Europe at UC; two Rivkin courses plus a readings course with
Spicehandler at HUC), it was a stimulating intellectual experience, it brought
back memories of Collingwoodian historiography—the reliving of the experiences
of the historical character. Rivkin thinks that emotions as well as thoughts can
be relived and that Collingwood would have admitted it had he lived to feel the
full impact of Freud. Rivkin says there is no such thing as irrationality, only
partial rationalities or degrees of rationality. Le. an act once serving a ~rationaP
purpose, repeated out of context compulsorily, is commonly called irrationaL
Rivkin~s tendency to theorize widely and sometimes wildly he justifies by his
insistence that since the historian is bound to err anyway, he might as well err
grandly.”


Ellis, although I have not always followed in your historiographical footsteps, I
have always admired your ability and willingness to take theoretical risks. And
therefrom has emerged for me an ever stimulating relationship over these many
years of friendship. Moreover, more than one of those risky theories has proven
to be anything but an error.


I join your family and friends in wishing you a very happy ninetieth birthday and
many more years of untrammeled thought.


Your student and friend,

Michael Meyer