Arlen Hansen

1936-1993

We are judged by how hard we use what we have been given. - Flannery O'Connor

Arlen Hansen was my professor for Expatriates: Americans in Paris in the 1920s, a class that I took in the spring of 1989 during my Junior year in college.

He was quite ill at that point, in his second bout with cancer. The class itself was a magical bubble of transformation.

It was the most demanding class I took in college, or took ever.

I was on the editorial staff for our university literary magazine that spring. We dedicated the issue to Arlen Hansen.

I wrote Sister for my aunt, but I published it for Arlen.

Excerpt from "Sister"

11/21/86

You wear your knitted cap
like a crown.
You thank
me
for sharing my
poetry.

In return,
you share your
naked scalp,
cap twirling
in your fingers.

You grin like
the Grinch
after
he gave Christmas back to
Whoville.

When I go to Paris, it will be to Arlen's Paris.

Dr. Hansen's Work

Expatriate Paris: A Cultural and Literary Guide to Paris of the 1920s