In the summer of 1954, with money from a Sewanee Fellowship, James, 31, Maxine, 28, and Chris, not quite three, went to Europe. They landed in England, where they picked up a Hillman Minx convertible, then traveled to Dunkirk, down to Paris, and to the Cote d’Azur. In Cap d’Antibes, they rented a ramshackle villa called Galidou, on the hill below the lighthouse. They took occasional trips to Cannes, to get mail from the American Express office there, and up into the mountains to a small ski resort at Valberg.

In the spring they drove to Italy. What follow, in a separate posting, are photographs taken with a Kodak "Brownie" on that trip, and excerpts from a rambling conversation between James and Chris in Columbia, S.C., on December 29, 1996, a few weeks before James died.

All the photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them. - C.D.