High Honors Bestowed Here
Apr 25 '05 (Updated Aug 02 '09)
The Bottom Line In a world of scrawlers, this bard made his mark.
The first and most important thing to note here is that I have no business writing this essay. But that's never stopped me before.
This tribute to mshawpyle should come from someone far more intelligent, erudite, articulate and skillful with the written word than I. My little terrier should not be assigned the task of describing relativistic theory; and I should not try to elucidate the proper praises for the person Bonies7 called the “Dean of writers” on this site. He deserves more; he should have more.
Yet here I am.
My one small qualification, if you can call it that, is that I know this guy. I’ve known him for years now, in what truly ensconced geeks call the meat world. We’ve been to breweries, ball games and beefhouses on different occasions. We’ve even done a little bidness. But I met him here at Epinions, and it is one of the very few things I can still thank this site for after lo these many seasons. I arrived on the site three days after he did, but I could never have given the site as much credibility by the mere force of my prose. He did, though, and in those days, it was the writers who made the site – never doubt it. And in the sites’ heyday, if one asked who the best writers were, Pyle’s name always came up. Always.
This man, this “historian, baseballing bon vivant, Boll Weevil, W&L man; and the Walter Mitty of field sports,” made his mark early on by demonstrating, first, his mastery of any subject he cared to review; and second, with his incomparable ability to describe the subject comprehensively, yet with fine nuance, and concern for the discerning reader’s perception of the relevant issues pertaining to the object of Mr Pyle's scrutiny. He never left a door unopened or stone unturned.
Yes, I say “discerning reader,” for Mr Pyle never (as I was wont to do from time to time) wrote down to his audience. Rather, he required them to reach for the rafters on which he hung his premises and further required them to stretch thought and imagination until the reader could encompass the theme he presented. Yes, sometimes one needed a dictionary. Sometimes one needed a Latin dictionary. And sometimes even those tools were not enough, and only a furtive email enquiring of his meaning or use of terms would do; all of which were graciously answered if civilly presented. And sometimes, even when not civilly presented, because the man has his own standards and thank God it is not the same as many of ours. He knows the difference between ad hominem and true arguments, though often his opponents did not – or did not care to learn the difference.
Yet his attack of poorly-presented or baldly-untrue ideas was not so gracious, and rightly so, for it is ideas that people use to form their worldviews about important topics of the day – or yesterday – and one’s worldview informs one’s morality and actions. Stern and even harsh terms were required for imaginary ideas, statistics or conclusions foisted on others. And sometimes, his rancor was placed squarely on a person's shoulders if he perceived them to be hypocritical or spreading a falsehood. For this I never saw him apologize, and I think rightly so, for the battle of ideas is, these days, a fierce one, and one which requires its participants to be heavily armed. Where such battles were engaged I often saw sneering and deprecating mustard gas used against Pyle’s tank regiments, to little effect, for Pyle has the satellite view of the topics he undertakes as well as the microscopic view of its details. He always "put steel on target."
Markham is, in my opinion, an historian with few real peers. He is a member of the Society for Military History, the Southern Historical Association, the Southwestern Social Science Association, the Southwestern Historical Association, the Southwestern Political Science Association, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Texas State Historical Association. His grasp of history, and especially military history, is incomparable among other writers on this site and stands tall among other historians elsewhere.
I have also enjoyed his descriptions of some of the Finer Things in Life; i.e., wine, food and whisky, and though his health may now require him to limit his intake of these wonderful things, he is among the very best at describing the flavors and aromas of his favorites. I have, more than once, glanced at his reviews to get a direction on how I should set out my own descriptions of a beer or whisky. I may have failed while doing so, but the fault was mine, not his.
What I am trying to say (and could say, if I were a better writer) is that Markham is clearly a writer’s writer. He sets a standard. He is the one many others look up to when trying to measure their own work, if they aspire to write well at all. And, alas, those who look to him often despair because their writing cannot measure up. It’s just as well. Someone has to be the best.
So. Pay no attention to that man on the squash court, or riding the horse at the Rockbridge Hunt. But if he gives you a baseball stat or a detail concerning Great War Intel – even an obscure one – take it to the bank. His profile page deserves a visit. This guy is for real, and he, among these others set out here and more than most of them, deserves a place in this Epinions Hall of Fame.
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Epinions.com ID:
counsel
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Dwight
Location: Houston
Reviews written: 117
Trusted by: 499 members
About Me:
If I smell flowers, I start looking around for a coffin.
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