| Abstract: | The intellectual relationship between Erving Goffman and Everett C. Hughes is explored in the context of an apprenticeship model derived from correspondence between the two sociologists. Goffman is identified as a “reluctant apprentice” because his work and his letters to Hughes display a tension between a striking originality and a fidelity to his “master.” Three phases of their ambivalent relationship are described and an explanation for Goff‐man's reluctant acknowledgment of Hughes's influence is briefly explored. |
