Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz: Smith College professor, philosopher, and Cat Lady? In 1985, Ambrose put an article in the newspaper offering a $1000 reward for information on who mysteriously injured her beloved cat, Cricket. What can the mystery surrounding her cat reveal about Ambrose herself?
References
Callahan, M.T. (1986, June 25). [Letter to Alice and Morris Lazerowitz]. Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz Papers (Box 4, Folder “Useful Teaching Materials”), Smith College Special Collections.
CoinNews Media Group. (2021, October 13). Inflation Calculator. US Inflation Calculator. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/.
Daniels, G. (Photographer). (1985, August 14). Cricket the Cat Is Held By Alice Lazerowitz [photograph]. Daily Hampshire Gazette. Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz Papers (Box 895, Folder 1), Smith College Special Collections.
Fuller, K.S. [Letter to World Wildlife Member]. Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz Papers (Box 13), Smith College Special Collections.
Regan, J. (1985, August 14). Owners of Ill Cat Offering Reward. Daily Hampshire Gazette. Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz Papers (Box 895, Folder 1), Smith College Special Collections.
United States Census Bureau (1987, August). Money Income of Households, Families, and Persons in the United States: 1985. United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1987/demo/p60-156.html.
Suggested Materials
“The Wisdom of Cats” (article)
“13 Writers Who Really Loved Cats” (article)
“Alice Ambrose and the American Reception of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Mathematics, 1935–75” (article with biographical information about Ambrose)
Street View of 126 Vernon Street
Transcript
A cat named Cricket, an outstanding and substantial reward offer, a retired philosopher, a bizarre, seemingly unresolved situation. What, if anything, can the love between a woman and her cat tell us about one of the most fascinating former members of Smith College’s faculty?
*Cat Noise*
This is kNOw Women in Philosophy season one: Alice Analysis. Today’s episode: Cat lady. I’m Cecily Kolko.
I’m Lily Bouler.
I’m Jenna Lindsey.
I’m Nellie Alexandre. And today we’re going to delve into the life of former Smith College philosophy professor and logician Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz through an odd mystery surrounding her cat, Cricket.
When we went looking through the Smith College Archives’ extensive Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz collection during class, we found a bunch of stuff, like lecture notes, syllabi, essays, etc. But we also found two artifacts more feline than philosophical.
First, we found a scanned copy of an article from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, dated August 14 1985. Half the page taken up by a nearly 80 year old Lazerowitz, Alice that is, holding her beloved pet Cricket.
The article by Jane Regan reads, “Owners of Ill Cat Offer Reward. The Lazerowtizes, who live at 126 Vernon St. believe their cat, Cricket, may have been intentionally hit by a car, beaten, or even poisoned. Ever since July 22nd, when Mrs. Lazerowitz found Cricket huddled by the curb in front of her home, she suspected something happened that night.”
*Cat Noise*
Our class went on a field trip of some sort to the Lazerowitz’s 70’s style one story on this super hot September afternoon. We likely walked past the very spot where Alice found Cricket.
“The cat cries all the time and refuses to go outside,” Lazerowitz said. “And because veterinarians cannot give them a concrete answer, they have taken out newspaper advertisements offering a $1,000 reward for help in identifying ‘the person who brutalized [their] black cat.’”
Cricket’s quiet whimpers, his uneven walk, and his refusal to jump up onto a coffee table where he usually sits (next to what Lazerowitz calls his ‘Archie Bunker chair’) indicates to them that the cat is in pain. ‘There are animal sadists, you know,’ Lazerowitz said. ‘I’d be glad to pay the amount if the person could be identified.’”
In today’s money, her offer would be around $2500, more than I can imagine offering for a lost pet I desperately want back. It seems like an even larger sum considering Cricket wasn’t even missing, just injured.
I mean, today you could buy lots with $2500. 2-3 nice computers…
I mean, last summer that’s about what I sold my car for. I mean, not a great car, but still.
And the $1,000 reward is more than 4% of the median household income in 1985.
It’s also interesting how set Alice was on the idea of the cause being a person, rather than, say, a force of nature or an accident. She was very set on the idea that it was a person with intentions. Kinda weird…
The story could have ended there had Lazerowitz not been super resourceful– she would take notes on scrap paper and her mail. One page of her trademark blue scrawl, which we found throughout the archives, bleeds through a letter that was written nearly a year after the article’s publication.
Mary T Callahan, news director of the NewsSmith wrote: “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lazerowitz, I just received the enclosed letter with a note asking that it be sent to you. Apparently, the author of the letter, Martha J. Holden, saw the article about your cat, Cricket, in the NewsSmith and she believes she can help him in some way.”
So this letter reveals a few things. First of all, Alice had taken her plea to a different paper, and her desperation for answers had seemingly not decreased in the past year.
If only Alice had jotted down some thoughts on said enclosed letter, then maybe we’d have something closer to a conclusion. But instead, we are left hanging with only our imaginations and personal speculations.
I mean, for one thing, Alice loved her cat very much. In general, she seemed to have a fondness for animals, as suggested by receipts for her donations to the World Wildlife Fund, which we found among her letters in the archives.
These pieces in the archives really stood out to me and I was happy to find them because you know, mixed among, like, papers and essay notes, there’s just, like, this cute little picture of a black cat and this just strange story and this woman who just really cared about her cat. You know, people are so often only remembered for their accomplishments or their greatest achievements. But, we’re all just people, and a lot of people, you know, one of the most important parts of their life was they had a pet that they really, really loved and to imagine being remembered that way, I don’t know, it makes me happy.