cover image Cattle Boat to Oxford: The Education of R.I.W. Westgate: Edited from His Letters, Diaries and Papers

Cattle Boat to Oxford: The Education of R.I.W. Westgate: Edited from His Letters, Diaries and Papers

R. I. W. Westgate. Walker & Company, $19.95 (196pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-1300-1

Bill Westgate (1904-1988) was born in German East Africa to a family of Canadian missionaries, and spent his youth in Africa, England, Ireland and Canada. In this collection of his letters, excerpts from his unfinished autobiography and reminiscences by his wife, Sheila, the reader shares in the adventures of his formative years, including teaching on a Sioux Indian reservation and going to England for the first time to secure an Oxford fellowship by working on a cattle boat. He also recalls being a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford; entering high society and meeting the Prince of Wales; teaching at Harvard, Radcliffe, Phillips Andover and the Brooks School; and 22 years as headmaster of St. Bernard's School in New York City. Although Westgate's struggles with Cicero and Demosthenes will strike few chords with contemporary readers, the formation of a multitalented man has broad appeal. Photos. (Dec.)