Trust Issues ⇥

Paul Collins, writing for Lapham’s Quarterly:

Because thanks to an eccentric New York lawyer in the 1930s, [Hartwick] college in a corner of the Catskills inherited a thousand-year trust that would not mature until the year 2936: a gift whose accumulated compound interest, the New York Times reported in 1961, “could ultimately shatter the nation’s financial structure.”

I promise this is a fascinating essay. Grab a mug of coffee, plop yourself on the couch and spend a while reading.