"florence, Dante and Me": A Canadian Student Goes Italian for a Year, 1960-61

Robert Thomson was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1940. He was educated at the University of British Columbia (honors B.A. in French and Italian in 1962) and Yale University (PhD in French and Italian; his thesis was on Francois Mauriac.) On the way to his B.A. Thomson won a scholarship to spend a year in Italy (this is the subject of ＂Florence, Dante and Me.＂) Thomson taught at both the college and high school levels, took early retirement (1995) and started a publishing company, Godwin Books, through which published most of his books: ＂Great songs for the English Classroom,＂ ＂Hot tips for real estate investors,＂ ＂Italian for the Opera,＂ ＂Operatic Italian,＂ ＂Love songs in Spanish for Enjoyment and Learning＂ and his most recent book, ＂Florence, Dante and Me.＂ A major project in Thomson’s life has been to reprint two of George Godwin’s long lost classics: ＂The Eternal Forest＂ (out of print since 1929; Thomson reprinted it in 1994) and ＂Why Stay We Here?＂ (out of print since 1930; it is Godwin’s autobiography of fighting in France during World War I. Godwin (1891-1974) was Thomson’s great-uncle on his mother’s side. All of these books can be seen on Thomson’s website: www.godwinbooks.com Thomson also has a blog: lovesongsinspanish.wordpress.com