As a Nibley memorial, BYU Studies has created a page with links to free down loads of Nibley’s BYU Studies articles. Sunstone has a similar page set up. Also, BYU has set up a kind of electronic guestbook for Nibley. They are inviting people to send in their messages of appreciation to hughnibley-at-byu.edu. My understanding is that the messages sent to this address will be compiled and sent to the family.*
* If you send spam or vitriol to the address, I would like to go on the record as saying that you are a complete jerk.
I thought some T&S readers might enjoy this reminsence about Nibley from the famous avant garde composer John Cage. (I hope I didn’t already post this somewhere; apologies for the repeaet if I did.) It seems Cage and Nibley had been schoolmates; later, they both taught for a time at Claremont college. This appeared in Cage’s essay “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) 1965.” (It also appears as the epigraph to the final chapter of my dissertation.)
Hugh Nibley. I hadn’t seen him since high school days. I asked him what he thought about other planets and sentient populations. Yes, he said, throughout the universe: it’s Mormon doctrine. We said good-bye. I opened the door of the car, picked up my attaché case and everything in it fell out on the grass and the gutter. His comment: Something memorable always happens.
Also, a friend of mine who studies Cage happened upon some correspondence in which Cage asks Nibley to play the part of Brigham Young’s ghost in an experimental radio drama that was to be broadcast in Germany. I’m still trying to find out if it was broadcast, and if Nibley ended up playing the part.
Thanks for posting that, Jeremy. As a musician I’ve heard of the Cage-Nibley connection, but know almost nothing about it. If you know anything else, I’d like to be pointed in the right direction.
Arnold Schoenberg was also at UCLA back in the day. Does anybody know if Nibley was into his music or ever met him?