I'm probably one of thousands to feel a personal satisfaction in the award of the megabucks Holberg Prize to historian, writer, activist Natalie Zemon Davis. I interviewed her once, many years ago, but I remember her as if she were a personal friend. It was perhaps the most enjoyable of all the interviews I have done over the years with historians about their work. NZD managed to be profoundly serious and alive to the moral issues of scholarship -- and at the same time to convey more sheer laugh-out-loud pleasure in the doing of historical work than anyone I ever met.
Globe story on the prize here. Apparently she has a memoir in the works too.
