King's Cambridge

From the main biography page of this site:

The academic world of King's College, Cambridge

Jasper: "And, there was declaiming Milton (1608-1674) and Keats (1795-1821) from the punts. We were devoted to poetry and parties, and eventually women broke in a bit. E. M. Forster" (1870-1970) came to live in King's [College] in 1950 and the rampant snobbery of it all. 'Aren't you going to Morgan's party?' 'Isn't Morgan going to drop by later?' We set up a club to read papers. I wrote one on Thackeray (1811-1863). And, there were parties – and invited the Dons. Foster came. The highlight was when Forster put on a party and read to us from his unpublished unfinished novel. Not the homosexual one, but the other. I can't remember its name." Jasper was also in the circle of the English painter and printmaker Cecil Collins (1908–1989) and British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist Francis Crick (1916–2004).

There is much, much more about Cambridge on the main biography page...

Above: On the left, Martin Shuttleworth, Kings College, Cambridge, 1950, Jasper’s dear student friend (a writer and a poet) who sadly died very young. On the right, Stanley Woolston, 1952. Jasper’s “favorite person in all of Cambridge,” who owned an antique shop in Cambridge.

Above: On the left, Mr. Usborne, Jasper’s Cambridge barber, and Jasper Rose (in the barbershop mirror), Cambridge, 1953-56. Mrs. Fletcher, a collector of fine English china, and Jasper’s neighbor at Portugal Place, Cambridge, 1956-60.

Above: A bird’s eye view of King’s College, Cambridge in 2019, showing the entrance, chapel, and the River Cam.

Above: The entrance to King’s College, Cambridge in 2019.

Above: The King’s College Chapel as seen from a punt on the River Cam.

Above: A side view of the King’s College Chapel, an example of what Jasper called "great architecture" at Cambridge. It was built between 1446 and 1515, a period which spanned the Wars of the Roses. The chapel is an active house of worship, and home of the King's College Choir.

Above: A view of the ceiling inside the King’s College Chapel that Jasper so often cited as the best example of fan vaulting anywhere.

Above: The very top of the Great East Window of King's College Chapel. The window was constructed from 1515 to 1531. It displays symbols of the English monarchy.

Above: The middle section of the Great East Window of King's College Chapel which displays scenes of the Passion centering on the Crucifixion.

Above: The middle section of the Great East Window of King's College Chapel which also displays scenes of the Passion centering on the Crucifixion.

Above: On the left, Edward Morgan Forster, English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examined class differences and hypocrisy, including A Room with a View, Howards End and A Passage to India. On the right, James Henry Cecil Collins, English painter and printmaker, who was originally associated with the Surrealist movement, but came to have a mystical outlook on art and was influenced by the prophetic writings of William Blake and by American artist Mark Tobey. In 1947 Collins published his book The Vision of the Fool, in which he explained his philosophy of art and life. He attacked the "great spiritual betrayal" of the modern world, an "the betrayal of the love and worship of life by the dominance of the scientific-technical view of life in practically all the fields of human experience." He believed that the artist, together with the poet and the saint, are "the vehicle of the continuity of that life, and its guardian and his instrument is the myth and the archetypal image."

Above: On the left, Francis Harry Compton Crick, British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962 was awarded jointly to Crick, James Dewey Watson and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material," specifically the double-helix structure of DNA. Crick called his residence on the Portugal Place alleyway in Cambridge “The Golden Helix,” and displayed a yellow DNA sculpture above his front door. Crick’s wife Odile was an artist whose original sketch of DNA's double helix became a symbol of modern molecular biology. Francis loved poetry. While Jasper was employed by King’s College to teach, he also lived very nearby on Portugal Place.

Above: Top left Odile Crick in 1956. Bottom left an invitation (drawing by Odile) to a studio party on June 1, 1962 at Francis and Odile Crick's residence on Portugal Place. Party guests were given a pencil and a sketch pad to draw a reclining nude model. As the evening went on, the party progessed to dancing and drinks. On the right is Jasper's portrait of Odile. Did Jasper and Jean attend the party?

Above: Francis Crick sends his regrets (in a mass mailing).

Above: Map of the location of the Portugal Place alleyway (near St. John’s College, Cambridge) where Jasper lived while he was a teacher at King’s College.

Above: The beginning of the Portugal Place alleyway at Bridge Street in Cambridge. St. Clement’s parish church (parts constructed in the 13th Century) is on the corner, but there very few residences in that section. Most of the residences start after the alleyway takes an angular turn as seen on the map above.

Above: Looking down the alleyway at the residences on Portugal Place, where Jasper lived while he was a teacher at King’s College.