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Life in the Field
Morton H. Fried in China

FRANCES LAFLEUR

'orton Fried had a lifelong association with Columbia
University, so it is most fitting that the fruits of his
^research should find a permanent home in the C. V
Starr East Asian Library. Even before he completed his doctoral
dissertation in 1951, he had begun lecturing in Columbia's
Department of Anthropology, and he remained affiliated with the
university until his death in 1986. From 1966 to 1969 he served as
department chair, and despite ill health he worked indefatigably
until his last day; he was correcting student papers at the time of
his death.

A native New Yorker, Fried grew up in a middle-class home
near Poe Park in the Bronx. His lively intellect manifested itself
early; in elementary school his hand was up constantly, and he
became known as an "upsetting student" to those teachers who
were not prepared to deal with his probing questions. His father,
a second-generation and largely self-educated customs inspector
of Hungarian and Gennan extraction, who read widely and loved
music, was a role model for his son.

After graduating from the Townsend Harris High School for
gifted children, Fried entered college at the age of fifteen. Initially,
he was attracted by English literature, but when a friend intro¬
duced him to anthropology, he was quickly seduced by the rigors
of the discipline and the tantalizing prospect of life in the field.

He had completed only one semester of graduate work at
Columbia when he was drafted in 1943. Because of his formidable
talents, he was selected to enter the Army's Chinese program at
Harvard, which was run by the eminent linguist Chao Yuan-jen.
He rapidly developed a fascination with Chinese language and
culture, and no doubt his incentive was increased by the Army's
policy of sending the bottom fourth of its classes directly to active
duty in Europe and posting the casualty lists on the Harvard bul¬
letin board.
 

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