The Pure Pleasure of It

In his domestic habits as well as in his relationship to his students, Zariski revealed his affinity not only with European culture, but also with the traditions of the nine teenth century that had shaped the minds of his Italian teachers. He rented half of a comfortable old duplex on Avon Street for three years, and in 1950, when Ray was already twenty-three and finishing his doctorate in political science and Vera was eighteen and about to begin her first year at Radcliffe, he and Yole bought a house at 27 Lancaster Street in Cambridge.

With its big front porch and mahagony-panelled dining room and, especially, its octagonal study lined with bookshelves on the second floor, the elegant Victorian house would have pleased Enriques or Castelnuovo. Zariski immediately moved his huge oak desk up against the front windows of the study, where twenty-five years of pacing have left their mark upon the floor.