Old Scores

Paul Ballard is a handsome, thirty-six-year-old college professor. He has captivated more than one female student, but unwittingly, and their attentions mean little to him. He is also detached from the "revolutionary" changes of the 1960s. In his New England farmhouse, he lives an orderly life of intellectual endeavor.
But Elizabeth Sieverdsen brims with the certainty of youth. Her fervent desire to improve the world compels Ballard, as do her beauty and intelligence, and they become secret lovers.
Then "everything changes and is rearranged." Separated by a sudden accident, they live their adult lives apart; she leaves America, taking a painful secret with her, and the letters they write are not sent. In time, however, they come to discover they cannot leave the past behind and that what began as lust becomes all-consuming love.

Nicholas Delbanco directs the MFA in Writing Program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.