The Geography of One Geographer

Southeastern Geographer Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, November 1997, pp. 112-121 THE GEOGRAPHY OF ONE GEOGRAPHERi John Fraser Hart I am a part of all that I have met. —Tennyson, Ulysses My career in geography has been the product of my own geography. I would not have done what I have done were I not a Southerner, and I am intensely proud of my heritage. I began teaching at the University of Georgia at a time when the most exciting research questions ofthe day were rural. What was going to take the place of cotton? How do agricultural regions originate, mature, and die? I have sought answers in the rural landscape, coordinated with census data, in an iterative process that has combined fieldwork with mapping census data. When I left Georgia I was disquieted by the negative perceptions of Southerners in other parts ofthe nation, and I turned to regional geography as the best way ofhelping our fellow citizens to understand and to appreciate the nation and the world we live in. My career in geography has been informed by the inseparably intertwined themes of regional geography and the rural landscape, and both are deeply rooted in my Georgia experience. The most important and enduring responsibility ofthe President ofthe AAG is to present a presidential address. Between 1955 and 1966 our annual presidential address was presented by an appointed Honorary President rather than by the elected President. We were treated to some thoughtful and stimulating addresses that we otherwise would not have had, but nonetheless I felt deprived of the wisdom and insights we would have received from the likes ofJoe Russell, Louis Quam, Clarence Jones, Chauncy Harris, Lester Klimm, Paul Siple, Jan Broek, Gilbert White, Arch Gerlach, Arthur Robinson, and Ed Espenshade. When I was appointed Editor of the Annals I contacted each of these friends and invited each one to contribute the presidential address that he might have delivered . I was disappointed that none ofthem was able to do so, despite the interest that some ofthem expressed. Chauncy Harris in particular made an indelible impression on me by his comment that he might have written about the geography of geographers. I suspect that most of us are strongly influenced by our geography, and I know that my own career in geography has been a product ofmy own geography . Dr. Hart is Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Vol. XXXVII, No. 2 113 I am a proud child of the South. My mother's forebears had settled in South Carolina in 1747, my father's forebears were farming and fighting Indians in the Valley ofVirginia by 1 763, and both my parents and I were born in the Valley. We lived in Virginia until 1939, when my family moved to Atlanta, and I enrolled at Emory University, where I majored in the Classical Languages, Latin and Greek. In the fall of 1943 I was still a few credits short ofa degree, but Emory gave me an A. B. anyhow, because the Navy had called me to serve as a line officer on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Theater. In the summer of 1946, when the Navy had had enough of me, I felt that I had earned a bit ofrest and recreation, so I decided to attend the University of Georgia, which had quite a reputation as a party school back in those days. They told me that I had to take some classes, so I decided to enroll in a course on the geography of the Pacific Basin, because I was curious about many of the things and places I had seen during the war. Such a course was not offered (and I still have not gotten it!), so I enrolled in a course in physical geography instead. My plans were still pretty much up in the air at the end ofsummer, and Georgia looked like it was going to have an awfully good football team in 1946, so I decided to stick around for the fall quarter. They told me that I had to enroll in something in order to get student football tickets, and I had thoroughly enjoyed Finch and...