The Ultimate Answer to the "Dinner" Question

How many times have you heard the question, "If you could have dinner with one person or one group of people from history, who would you choose and why?"  As a history buff, I usually hate answering that question, and I never answer it the same way twice.  Previous answers in my past have included Dwight Eisenhower, MacArthur, Patton and Marshall all together; the writers of the four gospels; historian Stephen Ambrose; a few of the old popes; Martin Luther; well, you get the idea...the answer always seemed to change.

No longer.  I have found the answer to the question - the ultimate answer.  I was reading Brave Companions by noted historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough when I first encountered the famous Saturday Club of the mid 1800s.  The fourth saturday of every month, the following gentlemen would gather to dine and to chat:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - One of the greatest poets in American History

Jean-Louis Aggasiz - A French geologist and polymath who almost singlehandedly transformed Harvard University into a modern mecca of education.

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Possibly the greatest American mind ever...I don't even need to say anymore.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - A physician and another well-known poet.

And occasionally they were joined by a random nobody - one Nathaniel Hawthorne - the famous author of The Scarlet Letter.

I can't even begin to imagine the sheer mental power in the room when those men got together.  I would give large amounts of money just to sit and listen and overhear their conversations.  It boggles my mind - and it is something that will probably never happen again - that many of the greatest minds in the world gathering together...

Could there even be a better answer to the aforementioned "Dinner Question?"

I think not.