October 2009 - Center for the Humanities

October 2009 | Vol. VIII No. 2
One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads
The Center for
the Humanities
Advisory Board
2009–2010
Nancy Berg
Associate Professor of Asian and Near
Eastern Languages and Literatures
Ken Botnick
Associate Professor of Art
Gene Dobbs Bradford
Executive Director
Jazz St. Louis
Lingchei (Letty) Chen
Associate Professor of Modern Chinese
Language and Literature
Elizabeth Childs
Associate Professor and Chair of
Department of Art History and
Archaeology
Mary-Jean Cowell
Associate Professor of Performing Arts
Phyllis Grossman
Retired Financial Executive
Michael A. Kahn
Author and Partner
Bryan Cave LLP
Chris King
Editorial Director
The St. Louis American Newspaper
Olivia Lahs-Gonzales
Director
Sheldon Art Galleries
Paula Lupkin
Assistant Professor of Architecture
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Erin McGlothlin
Associate Professor of German
Steven Meyer
Associate Professor of English
Joe Pollack
Film and Theater Critic for KWMU,
Writer
Anne Posega
Head of Special Collections, Olin Library
Qiu Xiaolong
Novelist and Poet
Henry Schvey
Professor of Drama
Wang Ning
Professor of English, Tsinghua University
James Wertsch
Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and
Sciences
Director of International and Area Studies
Ex Officio
Zurab Karumidze
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia
Dissecting Frogs: The Rise of Music
The difference between appreciating the comedic
Jazz arose as a powerfully original musical
th
timing of a thrown pie or slap to the head, and
expression in early 20 century America. It beintellectually connecting to a joke that makes you
came the dominant form of popular dance music
laugh depends on one’s awareness of structure, the
in this country and even globally until roughly
symbolic grammar that informs humor rituals as
mid-century. From the late 1940s on, however, jazz
if they were a linguistic system. Similarly, knowtransformed itself from “popular” commercial music
ing the social, musicological,
into marginalized “art” music.
and historical context of a
The validity of the arguments
piece of music or an entire
regarding the “life” and sogenre helps us understand
called “death” of jazz is the
the creative genius behind
theme of the current Andrew
it, how a particular musician
W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer
manipulated musical structure
Seminar at Washington
and captured the feeling of his
University’s Center for the
time, but it does not explain
Humanities: “How Deep is
the way that some music mathe Ocean: The Rise and Fall
nipulates our emotions. Think,
of Jazz.” The seminar includes
for example, of the way that
Washington University faculty
military marches or national
and students as well as teachanthems stir us emotionally, or
ers, writers, academics and
the way a Vivaldi concerto in
musicians from across the
a large cathedral can transcountry. The seminar started
port you from your seat on a
September 3rd and will continhard wooden bench to a state
ue until May 2010, so there is
that is beyond weariness and
still time to attend (see http://
Morton published “Jelly Roll Blues” in
discomfort. With music, howcenhum.artsci.wustl.edu).
1915, the first jazz work in print.
ever, even music with lyrics,
I have always appreciated the
understanding this persistence
history of music, but I used to
of structure and design is only
feel that analyzing music was like analyzing humor
one
of
the
differences
between appreciating and
and that both could be compared to dissecting a
emotionally
connecting.
frog. It did not seem to be a very interesting exercise
and required, a priori, the death of the frog. I was
at least partially mistaken, however. An analysis
of a performance by The Three Stooges, where the
comedic emphasis is on fast physical action and
ridiculous situations, might kill the frog, but understanding the social context of a joke often makes
the initial laughter a deeper intellectual experience.
There are numerous explanations of how and
why music became integral to human life. Music
in the form of birdcalls and other animals’ vocalizations, or of moving wind and water would have
been familiar to our pre-human ancestors, and they
probably copied and built on the sounds. From
an evolutionary perspective, however, birdsong is
Edward S. Macias
Provost & Exec VC for Academic Affairs
Gary S. Wihl
Dean of Arts & Sciences
visit our blog site at http://cenhum.artsci.w ustl.edu/pubs/blog.htm
editor’s notes
continued
property of the
human brain, or
perhaps it was
cobbled together
from bits of preexisting machinery and then
fine-tuned, or was
a mutation that
transformed people’s perceptions
of the world. In
any case, it has
Bone flutes (7,000 to 9,000 years old) found in China.
subsequently
been exploited by
evolution and made functional. People
analogous, not homologous, to human
may respond to music because many
song (our common ancestor, a Paleozoic
natural sounds stir up human emotions
reptile, did not have the vocal structure
for perfectly good reasons. Think, for exto sing). Thus, the human ability for
ample, of the fear experienced at the clap
vocal learning has evolved indepenof thunder preceding a storm or the roar
dently. Instrumental sound generation
of a lion if you are alone on the savanis rare among animals and appears to be
nah, the relaxing feeling at the sound of
limited to purely rhythmical elements
gently running water, or the protective
pounded out on a chest or drummed on
emotions stirred by the crying of a child.
the ground or a resonating tree trunk
Sexually selected attributes commonly
by our closest cousins, the African apes
rely on such pre-existing perceptual
(chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas).
biases. Thus, although we have no sure
Thus, instrumental music in the form of
way to know, music could have been
drumming among our closest primate
built on emotions that originally arose in
relatives might be the source of the huresponse to natural sounds, but human
man ability for drumming that is found
cognitive evolution has taken this origin
in the musical cultures of virtually all
and expanded it a hundredfold.
human societies.
Music may have been an emergent
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flute is missing one end and cannot be
played. Recent excavations at the early
Neolithic site of Jiahu, located in Henan
province, China, however, have yielded
six complete bone flutes 7,000 to 9,000
years old, which seem to be the earliest
complete, playable, multi-note musical
instruments yet known. These flutes are
made from wing bones of red-crowned
cranes and have from five to eight holes.
(You can see and listen to them at http://
www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/1999/bnlpr092299.html.) Tonal analyses reveal
that the seven holes correspond to a tone
scale similar to the Western eight-note
scale, suggesting that Jiahu flutists could
play more than single notes: They could
have produced what we would recognize
as music.
Today we seem to have an infinite
playlist of musical offerings. A few
clicks of the mouse command sounds
of 9,000 year old Neolithic flutes. A
few more clicks and we can hear the
Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s 1917
recording of “Livery Stable Blues,” the
first jazz recording ever released; or a
1920s piece of classic jazz, “Song from a
Cotton Field” by Bessie Brown; or Duke
Ellington’s 1941 swing style “Take the
A Train,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Jazz). In fact, the internet gives us access
to a virtual history of recorded music,
and cheap electronic storage allows us to
store so much music that it would take
months to hear it all. Yet, despite the
gigabytes of music on our i-Pods and
our ability to cast a musical net across
the wide sea of recordings, we seem to
return to familiar tunes time after time,
the songs that speak to our emotional
centers. And the question remains: why
does certain music resonate with us like
a string quartet in a cathedral or a flute
in a cave? This is the
frog that I would
rather not dissect.
There are some things we do know.
Although it is possible that instrumental
music among humans is much older,
the archaeological record we do have
begins with the discovery of a bone
flute approximately 37,000 years old.
The delicate flute, with five finger holes
apparently carved by stone tools, is
made from the wing bone of a vulture.
This flute might have provided the
Paleolithic version of a Vivaldi concerto
in a cathedral. Imagine experiencing
skillful playing of such a flute (perhaps
accompanied by drumming on a hollow piece of wood, or on stalactites and
stalagmites) in a cave whose acoustical
Jian Leng
properties would magnify the sound,
Associate Director
and it is easy to appreciate how powerful
early music could be. Unfortunately, the Center for the Humanities
book of the month
Review of
Paul Newman: A Life
By Shawn Levy
Harmony Books, 2009, 490 pages with
index, bibliography, notes, and photos
Somebody: The Reckless Life and
Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando
By Stefan Kanfer
Knopf, 2008, 350 pages with index,
bibliography, and photos
1. The Method and its Madness
I learned everything I’ve learned about
acting at the Actors Studio.
--Paul Newman
Marlon’s going to class to learn the Method
was like sending a tiger to jungle school.
--Elaine Stritch on Marlon Brando
learning the Method at the New School
for Social Research
It is a well-known fact about film acting in the United States that the advent
of the 1950s brought a new breed of actor and a new style of male acting before
the public. Popular actors of the 1930s
and 1940s such as Errol Flynn (my
boyhood favorite), Humphrey Bogart,
Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Spencer
Tracy, Ronald Colman, Paul Muni, and
Fredric March all knew their craft but
tended to approach their characters from
the outside in. They had their process,
their mannerisms, their bag of tricks,
their stylized exactitude in creating a
character. They may have delighted you
as a viewer once you got to know them,
but they never surprised you.
Then came the Method, something
of a misnomer, as it was not simply one
technique or one way of learning to act.
The High Temple for the Method was
the Actors Studio in New York founded
by Elia Kazan (I saw Kazan act in the
1941 film Blues in the Night, where he
played a jazz musician; it was fortunate
for him that he became a director),
Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis,
which had grown out of the Group
Theater, using techniques associated
with Konstantin Stanislavsky. The most
famous teachers of the Method were
Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, although
they did not agree about how actors
by Gerald Early
should be taught. The Method did for
acting what supply-side economics did
for political ideology: it energized the
craft by creating a partisan schism--you
either loved it or hated it, embraced it
as the new light or denounced it the
way many “traditional” actors like
Raymond Massey did as fraudulent and
nonsensical. It changed acting forever,
emphasizing seizing a role from within,
intense psychological identification with
a character, naturalness, and a certain
sort of creative spontaneity, catching a
moment as if an actor were in some sense
emotionally channeling the immediacy
of a Chet Baker or a Jackson Pollock.
These new Method actors included
Montgomery Clift and James Dean, the
twin tragedies: Dean, star of East of Eden
and the near-mythic youth film Rebel
Without a Cause, died in September 1955
at the age of 24 from injuries sustained
in a head-on crash in his Porsche; and
Clift, star of A Place in the Sun (the film
version of Dreiser’s An American Tragedy), From Here to Eternity, and Red River,
nearly killed in an auto accident in May
1956, the result of his having had too
much to drink. Elizabeth Taylor, whom
Clift had been visiting, ran immediately to the scene and saved him from
choking to death on his smashed teeth.
His gorgeous face ruined, repaired but
not entirely restored by plastic surgery,
Clift, despite appearing in such notable
post-accident films as Suddenly, Last
Summer, The Young Lions, Wild River,
and Judgment at Nuremberg, was never
to be the actor or presence that he had
been before, ravaged by alcoholism and
drugs until his merciful death in July
1966 at the age of 45. (Some in Hollywood referred to it as the longest suicide
in history.) And then there were the
two survivors, the giants of their time,
the two actors most associated with the
Method and clearly most successful with
it: Paul Newman and Marlon Brando.
Despite Brando’s compulsive overeating
and Newman’s near alcoholism, both
lived a long time, well beyond their
prime as actors.
Brando, who came to New York and
immediately fell in love with African
Americans, jazz, cosmopolitan Jews, and
the counter-culture of the post-World
War II era, was, as Elaine Stritch said,
like a burning tiger set loose in his element, a kind of paradigmatic Norman
Mailer-esque White Negro in search
of kicks and the anti-bourgeois life. If
anyone became the poster boy for the
Method, it was Brando, who was tremendously admired, worshipped even,
and fearfully ridiculed for his style of
acting (and speaking). Brando inspired
a generation of actors whether or not
they formally studied the Method: Burt
Reynolds, Warren Beatty, Sal Mineo, Al
Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Gene Hackman.
Newman was never a perfect fit for the
Method, never the genius student like
Brando, never “the natural,” a respected
and admired actor but never the trailblazing influence that Brando was. But
Newman was, more than Brando, a
believer, and he certainly learned, if not
quite how to inhabit a part to its fullness, to interrogate a role to death. Newman kept his looks and physique longer
and overall appeared in better movies
than Brando. One man was undone by
his excesses, the other disciplined by his
limitations. One played Charlie Parker
to the other’s Miles Davis.
continued
book of the month continued
2. “I just want you to know who I am”
Last night I went to see A Dry White
Season and I don’t care if you are five
hundred pounds or fifty pounds. You are a
fucking genius.
--Actor Karl Malden in a letter to Marlon
Brando, 1989
In order to be an actor, you really have to
be a child. And if that theory is correct,
then it follows that the more childish you
are, the better actor you are. If I’m a really good actor and I make a tremendous
amount of money—from which I have to
pay the federal government—then what
you want me to be is an accountant. And
if I’m an accountant, I’m a responsible
human being. I’m mature. If I’m mature,
I can’t be a very good actor, which means I
can’t make any money!
--Paul Newman to an IRS agent about
why he had problems with his tax records.
The agent accepted his reasoning as a legitimate explanation.
In your heart of hearts, you know perfectly
well that movie stars aren’t artists.
--Marlon Brando, 1978, in Lawrence
Grobel’s Conversations with Marlon
Brando
It is commonly believed that actors
do not know or don’t like who they are,
so that is why they go around getting
paid for pretending to be other
people. “My own personality is
so vapid and bland, I have to go
steal the personalities of other people to
be effective,” Paul Newman once said.
But many, if not most, people are, in
some lesser or larger degree, strangers to
themselves, trying to find some hook to
hang an identity on, in varying measures
of desperation: a political ideology, a
skin color, a family heritage, a religion,
a career, a crime, a nationality, a cause,
a set of mannerisms, a set of possessions,
something to save us from the void of
the meaningless. Perhaps we are so
fascinated by successful actors because
they are able to do something we wish
we could: pretend to be something other
than what we are or pretend to be something in order, in fact, to be something
at all. Maybe actors, through their craft,
give us the meaning of meaninglessness.
“Everybody is an actor,” Marlon Brando
said on more than one occasion, “You
spend your whole day acting. Everybody
has suffered through moments where
you’re thinking one thing and feeling
one thing and not showing it. . . . Acting
is just hustling.” Many have felt that
Brando was always being disingenuous
when he said this, that his sentiment
related more to his personal discomfort at the thought of being an actor,
of thinking it a worthless profession
because perhaps he, a worthless person,
was doing it. And it seemed the only
thing he could do well.
Both Newman and Brando were born
Midwesterners: Newman in Cleveland
Heights, Ohio; Brando in Omaha,
Nebraska. Newman’s father owned a
successful sporting goods store. Newman himself tried to be an athlete in
school but was never good enough.
Maybe this was a lingering obsession
that could explain why Newman became
a serious racecar driver in his middle
age. Brando’s father was a philandering
sales executive. Neither father was close
or affectionate with his son. Newman
and Brando, in turn, had problems with
being fathers and relating to their own
children; each had a troubled child who
died as a young adult. Newman had the
easier childhood; he was a more obedient
son: he attended Kenyon College and
Yale Drama School. He served in the
navy during World War II. He fell into
acting. “I didn’t have greasepaint in my
blood,” Newman said years later. “I was
just running away from the family retail
business and from merchandising. I just
couldn’t find any romance in it. Acting
was a happy alternative to a way of life
that meant nothing to me.” Brando was
a failure in school: too lazy to excel at
sports or with his studies. His mother’s
alcoholism did not help matters. Brando
had a below-average IQ of 90, which was
used to explain his disruptive behavior. His father sent Marlon to military
school, and the son washed out there as
he had at other schools. The only thing
Marlon seemed to have a remote interest
in was acting. So, after being rejected
for military service because of a trick
knee, Marlon was sent, as a last ditch
effort, to New York to learn acting at the
New School for Social Research, a den
for the Method. Brando arrived in New
York in 1943; Newman in 1952. By
the time Newman arrived, Brando was
already a star in Hollywood, nominated
for an Academy Award for his incandescent performance in A Streetcar Named
Desire in 1951; he would win the Oscar
for his performance in On the Waterfront
the following year. The men were only
one year apart in age.
After an apprenticeship in live television and on stage, Newman quickly
caught up to Brando in Hollywood:
his breakthrough film was Somebody
Up There Likes Me (1956), a biopic of
middleweight fighter and urban ethnic
bad boy Rocky Graziano; he was nominated for Oscars for Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof (1959), The Hustler (1962), a truly
iconic performance and one of the most
layered and complex films about a sport
or a game ever made, and Hud (1964),
one of the finest films of the 1960s. It
is striking how, after On the Waterfront,
Brando’s career went steadily downhill
and he did not star in any films between
1955 and 1964 that equaled the best of
Newman. Indeed, until Brando performed wondrously in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather in 1972, he had appeared in only three films, highly flawed,
since the mid-1950s, that were somewhat
worthy of his talents: One-Eyed Jacks,
the only film he directed, in 1961, the
announcement
ill-fated Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962,
and Burn in 1969, a Marxist allegory
about slavery and capitalism very loosely
suggesting the career of American filibusterer (English in the film) William
Walker, directed by leftist filmmaker
Gillo Pontecorvo, most famous for The
Battle of Algiers, a stunning film that has
always warmed the cockles on the hearts
of lefties and cineastes. Brando, always
a liberal, much like Newman, had
become decidedly more left toward the
end of the 1960s, hanging around with
the Black Panthers, and Burn rather fit
his political sensibilities of the moment.
He and Pontecorvo wound up hating
each other’s guts by the time the film
wrapped.
On the whole, Newman was not the
better actor, as he himself freely admitted (he hated being compared to Brando), but he had the better career, played
more interesting characters, made a
greater number of very good films, and
made more films that were successful at
the box office. Newman even handled
food better, launching a company with
writer A. E. Hotchner called Newman’s
Own that put out everything from salad
dressing to lemonade and has made millions for charity. Brando simply stuffed
himself with it. Yet at the end Brando
was still the bigger legend. When
Brando was bad, he was very bad, but
when he was good, no one could touch
him.
Shawn Levy’s biography of Newman and Stefan Kanfer’s biography of
Brando are both solid, useful works
about two complex men who did not
enjoy their fame very much and may not
have been especially fulfilled by being
actors. Both authors are skilled and
experienced writers about actors and
film. The books provide good accounts
of the lives—Newman was married for
many years to actress Joanne Woodward, not his first marriage, but it was
considered a model in Hollywood where
marriages sometimes do not last as long
as the run of some unsuccessful movies.
But both partners were far from perfect;
Levy tells of at least one affair that
Newman had. He may very well have
had more, but Levy spares us all that.
Join Us for the Eighth Annual
Faculty Books Celebration
The Center for the Humanities
announces its eighth annual Faculty
Books Celebration, a colloquium to
be held Tuesday, November 17,
2009, at 4:00 p.m. in Graham
Chapel on Washington University’s
Danforth Campus. Immediately following will be a reception and book
signing in Holmes Lounge, where
faculty books published in the last
five years will be displayed.
This year’s keynote address is presented by Louis Menand, the Anne
T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard University. An essayist,
a literary critic, and a distinguished contributor to national journals, Professor
Menand is the author of The Metaphysical Club, which won the 2002 Pulitzer
Prize in History. His new book, The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance
in the American University, with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as series editor will be
released in December 2009.
The colloquium will focus on books by scholars from across the disciplines
of the arts and sciences, acknowledging our colleagues’ passion for their
subjects, celebrating their encounters with the act and art of writing. Two
Washington University faculty authors will make presentations about their
recently published books.
The Washington University Campus Bookstore will display faculty authors’
books, all of which will be available for purchase, and the authors who present
will be available to sign their books after the colloquium. Washington University and the entire St. Louis community are invited to attend. Please call (314)
935-5576 for more information.
Kanfer is also circumspect in dealing with
Brando’s sex life, staying mostly with the
marriages and the known girlfriends that
Brando had. For every sexual encounter
that Brando allegedly had—with man,
woman, plant, and inanimate object—
see Darwin Porter’s exploitative Brando
Unzipped (2006). Porter has just published a new biography that does the same
thing to Newman—Paul Newman, The
Man Behind the Baby Blues: His Secret Life
Exposed.
According to Porter, Newman had affairs with Robert Stack, James Dean, Tennessee Williams, Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Joan Crawford,
Sal Mineo, and on it goes. Newman, in
effect, was the pretty boy whore of Hollywood, something that, Porter claims,
Newman’s father feared would happen to
his son in the acting profession, matching
Brando’s promiscuity but hiding it behind
the image of the stable man and good
husband. Since Newman hid this so well,
perhaps in the end he really was a better
actor than Brando. Despite the prurient
sensationalism, Porter’s book tells essentially the same story about Newman’s
career as Levy’s does. But some sensationalism is good, I suppose, to remind
us that people like Brando and
Newman are not like you and me.
Events in
October
All events are free unless otherwise indicated.
Author events generally followed by signings.
All phone numbers have 314 prefix unless otherwise indicated.
Thursday, October 1
You are invited to join The Mystery Lovers
Book Club as they discuss Girl of His Dreams
by Donna Leon. 10am, SLCL-Headquarters
Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300.
The Trailblazers Book Club will discuss the
book Beach House by Jane Green. 2pm, SLCL-Jamestown Bluffs Branch, 4153 N. Hwy 67,
994-3300.
Authors @ Your Library presents Kimberla
Lawson Roby, who will discuss and sign her
new book, A Deep Dark Secret. 7pm, SLPLJulia Davis Branch, 4415 Natural Bridge Ave.,
383-3021.
The inaugural meeting of the Brentwood Science Fiction Book Club will meet to discuss
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. No registration necessary. 7pm, Brentwood Public Library, 8765 Eulalie Ave., 963-8630.
Washington University’s Writing Program
invites you to join visiting Hurst Professor and
fiction writer, Rikki Ducornet, for a reading from
her work. 8pm, WU Danforth Campus, Hurst
Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201, 935-5190.
Friday, October 2
The Missouri History Museum invites you to
a book signing and spoken word event with jessica Care moore, poet and author of God Is
Not An American. Purchase tickets in advance
for $10 at www.mohistory.org, $15 at the door.
Books will be available for purchase. 6pm, Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, 746-4599.
Saturday, October 3
St. Louis Writers Guild is proud to present
“Get the Right Gun for Your Murder: A Firearms
Primer for Writers,” a workshop presented by
Tom Applewhite. SLWG members free, $5 for
non-members. Please register in advance at
www.stlwritersguild.org 10am, Kirkwood Community Center, 111 S. Geyer.
You are invited to join author, Pat Bubash, who
will be signing her new book, Successful Second Marriages. 1pm, Main Street Books, 307
S. Main St., St. Charles, MO. 636-949-0105.
Webster Groves Public Library Book
Discussion Group will meet to discuss
Rachel Calof’s Story: Jewish Homesteader on
the Northern Plains, by Rachel Calof. 2pm, 301
E. Lockwood Ave., 961-3784.
Monday, October 5
Monday Noon Series: Colleen McKee (UMSL
English Dept.), co-editor of Are We Feeling Better Yet? Women’s Encounters with Health Care
in America, and Catherine Rankovic (WU English Dept.) contributor to the anthology, read
from the book and discuss women, depression,
and creative writing. 12:15pm, UM-St. Louis, JC
Penney Conference Center, Room 222. Disabled accessible, park in Lot C, 516-5699.
The Book Bunch selection this month is Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle. 7pm, SLCL-Grand
Glaize Branch, 1010 Meramec Station Rd., 9943300.
Tuesday, October 6
St. Louis Public Library invites you to join the
Machacek Book Discussion Group. 10am,
SLPL-Machacek Branch, 6424 Scanlan Ave.,
781-2948.
Webster Groves Public Library Book Discussion Group will meet to discuss Women
with Men, by Richard Ford. 6pm, 301 E. Lockwood Avenue, 961-3784.
You are invited to attend the St. Louis Writers
Guild’s Open MIC Night. 7pm, Wired Coffee,
3860 S. Lindbergh. Register to read online:
www.stlwritersguild.org.
Left Bank Books invites you to join author
John Lutz for a discussion about his latest in
the Frank Quinn series, Urge to Kill. 7pm, LBB,
399 N. Euclid, 367-6731.
Wednesday, October 7
Join St. Louis County Library for a discussion
about The House on Mango Street by Sandra
Cisneros. 10:30am, SLCL-Thornhill Branch,
12863 Willowyck Dr., 994-3300.
Washington University Assembly Series with
the Elliot Stein Lecture in Ethics welcomes
Harold Ford Jr., the former Democratic Congressman from Tennessee who lost a close
senatorial bid in 2006 and now chairs the Democratic Leadership Council, is a vice president
at Merrill Lynch, and teaches public policy at
Vanderbilt University. 4pm, WU Danforth Campus, Graham Chapel, 935-4620.
You are invited to the 42nd Annual St. Louis
Literary Award honoring Salman Rushdie.
Book sale and signing at 4:30pm. Award Presentation and Conversation with Salman Rushdie 5:30pm. Busch Student Center, St. Louis
University campus. Please register on line:
www.stlliterary.com or call 977-3145.
Left Bank Books is pleased to present Jamie
Ford, the author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter
and Sweet. 7pm, LBB, 399 N. Euclid, 367-6731.
Border’s Book Club meets to discuss The Island by Victoria Hislop. 7pm, Borders’ Cafe in
Sunset Hills, 10990 Sunset Hills Plaza, 9090300.
Thursday, October 8
You are invited to join the HQ Afternoon Book
Discussion Group to discuss The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. 1:30pm, SLCLHeadquarters Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd.,
994-3300.
If you like mysteries, the Murder of the Month
Club is the book club for you. This month’s
selection is A Catered Affair by Isis Crawford.
3:30pm, SLCL-Indian Trails Branch, 8400 Delport Dr., 994-3300.
Devin Johnston, whose poetry collection
Sources was a finalist for the National Book
Critics Circle award for poetry in 2008, will read
from his work. Johnston will be joined by poets
Michele Glazer and John Estes. 8pm, Schlafly
Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Ave., 241-2337.
Washington University’s Writing Program
invites you to join visiting Hurst Professor and
fiction writer, Rikki Ducornet for a lecture on
the craft of fiction. 8pm, WU Danforth Campus,
Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201, 9355190.
Friday, October 9
You can expect great company, discussion,
and refreshments at the Great Expectations
Rock Road Book Discussion Group. This
month’s selection is TBA. 10am, SLCL-Rock
Road Branch, 10267 St. Charles Rock Road,
994-3300.
Monday, October 12
Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to
Change Harlem and America by Paul Tough is
a portrayal of Geoffrey Canada and the children
and parents who are struggling to better their
lives and the impact of the Harlem Children’s
Zone. Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid, 3676731.
Tuesday, October 13
Grand Glaize Library Book Discussion
Group will discuss The Color of Water by
James McBride. 2pm, SLCL-Grand Glaize
Branch, 1010 Meramec Station Rd., 994-3300.
The Tuesday Night Writers’ Critique Group
will meet to read and critique each others’ work.
Writers of all levels of experience are invited
to join us. For more info contact Susan: [email protected] 7pm, B&N Crestwood,
9618 Watson Rd.
Brentwood Public Library Book Club invites
you to join a discussion of the book by Julia
Child, My Life in France. The book club is free
and open to the public. 7pm, Brentwood Public
Library, 8765 Eulalie Ave., 963-8630.
st. louis literary calendar
Authors @ Your Library presents Keisha
Ervin, who will sign and discuss her new book,
Gunz & Roses. 7pm, SLPL-Carpenter Branch,
3309 S. Grand Blvd., 772-6586.
Wednesday, October 14
The Bookies Book Discussion Group invites
you to a discussion on the book Where God was
Born by Bruce Fieler. 2pm, SLCL-Oak Bend
Branch, 842 S. Holmes Ave., 994-3300.
You are invited to join the Boones Bookies
Discussion Group. 2pm, SLCL-Daniel Boone
Branch, 300 Clarkson Rd., 994-3300.
National Book Award winning author of Three
Junes, Julia Glass will read from and sign her
latest novel, I See You Everywhere. This is an
on-stage interview with KMOX’s Debbie Monterrey. 7pm, SLCL-Headquarters Branch, 1640
S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300.
March by Geraldine Brooks is the selection this
month. 7pm, SLCL-Mid-County Branch, 7821
Maryland Ave., 994-3300.
Fontbonne University’s Writer’s Reading
Series hosts MacArthur Award winner Eleanor
Rand Wilner, author of six books of poetry, including The Girl with Bees in Her Hair and Reversing the Spell: New and Selected Poems.
8pm, Fontbonne University Library, the Lewis
Room, 889-4551.
Thursday, October 15
Washington University Assembly Series in
conjunction with the Center for Academic Integrity Conference welcomes David Callahan. The author of The Moral Center and The
Cheating Culture believes Americans have lost
their moral compass in search of success at any
cost. 4pm, WU Danforth Campus, Graham Chapel, 935-4620.
Saturday, October 17
Join the Mystery Lover’s Book Club to discuss Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. 10am,
SLPL-Carondelet Branch, 6800 Michigan Ave.,
752-9224.
St. Louis Public Library invites you to read and
discuss African American titles. 12:30pm, SLPL-Julia Davis Branch, 4415 Natural Bridge
Ave., call 383-3021 for current selection.
Book Journeys invites you to join as they discuss The Devil in the White City by author Erik
Larson. 2pm, SLCL-Indian Trails Branch, 8400
Delport Dr., 994-3300.
MORWA presents: “Write Like You Mean It:
Being a Full time Writer Without Writing Full
Time” featuring Jenna Peterson, best selling
Avon author. Practical advice and tips on how to
recognize writing blocks and, even more important, how to overcome them. 11am, B&N Crestwood, 9618 Watson Rd., fee charged, www.
morwa.org.
Monday, October 19
Monday Noon Series: Daniel L. Rust (UMSL
Center for Transportation Studies) discusses
his book Flying Across America: The Airline
Passenger Experience 12:15pm, UM-St. Louis,
JC Penney Conference Center, Room 222. Disabled accessible, park in Lot C, 516-5699.
Join the Thornbirds for a lively discussion
about Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns.
2pm, SLCL-Thornhill Branch, 12863 Willowyck
Dr., 994-3300.
¡Leamos! Spanish Book Discussion Group
will discuss Prision verde by Ramon AmayaAmador. 7pm, SLPL–Carpenter Branch, 3309
S. Grand Blvd., 772-6586.
Left Bank Books and the Ethical Society welcome Deepak Chopra to discuss his new book,
Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul.
Book purchase required from LBB to attend
the event. 7pm, Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton
Road, 367-6731.
River Styx’s popular reading series continues
its 35th season with three poets: Kathleen
Driskell, Jeanie Thompson, and Gardner McFall. Admission is $5, $4 for seniors, students,
and members. 7:30 pm, Duff’s Restaurant, 392
N. Euclid, 533-4541.
Tuesday, October 20
St. Louis Public Library invites you to join the
Machacek Book Discussion Group. 10am,
SLPL-Machacek Branch, 6424 Scanlan Ave.,
781-2948.
St. Louis Public Library invites you to discuss
Andrew Davidson’s, The Gargoyle. 6:45pm,
SLPL-Kingshighway Branch, 2260 S. Vandeventer Ave., 771-5450.
Prairie Commons Adult Book Club selection
is The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Stop by the circulation desk to pick
up your copy. 7pm, SLCL- Prairie Commons
Branch, 915 Utz Ln., 994-3300.
The Tuesday Night Writers’ Critique Group
will meet to read and critique each others’ work.
Writers of all levels of experience are invited
to join us. For more info contact Susan: [email protected] 7pm, B&N Crestwood,
9618 Watson Rd.
Washington University’s Writing Program
invites you to a lecture on the craft of poetry
featuring visiting Hurst Professor, poet Claudia
Rankine. 8pm, WU Danforth Campus, Hurst
Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201, 935-5190.
St. Louis Writers Guild presents Loud Mouth
Open MIC Night, a live performance for writers
and guests who are 18+ years. Register to read
online: www.stlouiswritersguild.org. 8pm, The
Mack, 4615 Macklind Ave.
Wednesday, October 21
Cliff Cave Book Discussion Group. Newcomers welcome! 2pm, SLCL-Cliff Cave Branch,
5430 Telegraph Road, 994-3300.
Sachs Afternoon Book Discussion Group.
2pm, SLCL-Samuel C. Sachs Branch, 16400
Burkhardt Pl., 994-3300.
Trailblazers After Dark will meet to discuss
Relic by Douglas Preston. 7pm, SLCL-Jamestown Bluffs Branch, 4153 N. Hwy 67, 994-3300.
Urban Lit Discussion Group will meet to discuss Just too Good to be True by E. Lyn Harris.
7pm, SLPL–Carpenter Branch, 3309 S. Grand
Blvd., 772-6586.
The Wednesday Night Book Discussion
Group invites you to join the discussion of
the riveting tale The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
by David Wroblewski. 7pm, SLCL-Cliff Cave
Branch, 5430 Telegraph Rd., 994-3300.
Join the Evening Book Discussion Group for
a discussion. Visitors welcome; open membership. 7:30pm, SLCL-Oak Bend Branch, 842 S.
Holmes Ave., 994-3300.
Thursday, October 22
You are invited to attend the St. Louis County
Library’s Grand Glaize Library Book Discussion Group to discuss The Other Side of the
Bridge by Mary Lawson. 2pm, SLCL-Grand
Glaize Branch, 1010 Meramec Station Rd.,
994-3300.
St. Louis Public Library invites you to join the
Central Book Discussion Group. The selection for October is Lace Reader by Brunonia
Barry. 4pm, SLPL-Central Library, 1301 Olive
St., 539-0396.
St. Louis Public Library Book Discussion
Group invites you to join them to discuss Mudbound: A Novel by Hillary Jordan. No advance
registration is required, and new members are
always welcome! 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch,
225 N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120.
Richard Newman, editor of River Styx will
read from his newest poetry collection, Domestic Fugues. Books will be available for purchase
through Subterranean Books. 7:30pm, Dressel’s Pub, 419 N. Euclid, 533-4541.
As the Page Turns Books Discussion Group
invites you to join them for a discussion of Into
the Wild by Jon Krakauer. For further information, please pick up a list of our future reads at
the Weber Road front desk. 7pm, SLCL-Weber
Road Branch, 4444 Weber Rd., 994-3300.
Authors @ Your Library presents Keven
Kious, Henry Herbst and Don Roussin, authors of the St. Louis Brews, the first comprehensive book on the history of brewing in St.
Louis. 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 North
Euclid Ave., 367-4120.
st. louis literary calendar
continued
Washington University’s Writing Program invites you to join
poets Monica de la Torre and Mark Bibbins, who will read
from their work. 8pm, WU Danforth Campus, Hurst Lounge,
Duncker Hall, Room 201, 935-5190.
Financial assistance for this project has been provided
by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the
Regional Arts Commission.
Friday, October 23
You are invited to join author Marion Moore Hill while she
signs her delightful historical mystery, Deadly Design, which
has a Lewis & Clark and Thomas Jefferson storyline. 2pm,
Main Street Books, 307 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO, 636949-0105.
Washington University’s Assembly Series with the Spencer T. Olin Fellows Lecture presents Urvashi Vaid,”Beyond
the Wedding Ring: LGBT Activism in the Age of Obama.” The
prominent activist, lawyer and author of Virtual Equality has devoted her career to fostering equal rights for the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgendered communities. 4pm, WU Danforth
Campus, Graham Chapel, 935-4620.
The Ethical Society and Left Bank Books invite you to join
Eoin Colfer for a book signing of his new book, And Another
Thing. The event is free; books for signing must be purchased
at LBB to receive a ticket. 7pm, Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton
Rd., 367-6731.
The Center for the Humanities
Campus Box 1071
Old McMillan Hall, Rm S101
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
Phone: (314) 935-5576
email: [email protected]
http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
St. Louis, MO
Permit No. 2535
Saturday, October 24
As part of Read St. Louis the St. Louis County and City Public Libraries are pleased to invite you to an author visit with
Patricia McKissack as she discusses her new book, Stitchin’
and Pullin.’ 2pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave.,
367-4120.
Andy Williams will talk, sing a few songs and sign his book,
Moon River and Me, presented by the Ethical Society and
Left Bank Books. Book purchase required from LBB to attend
the event. 7pm, Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton Road. 367-6731.
Sunday, October 25
The BookClub will hold its 405th discussion on The # 1 Ladies
Detective Agency by Alexander McCall. For more information,
venue and time, email, [email protected] http://www.klinedinst.com or call 636-451-3232.
You are invited to a book signing with the author of Between
Me and the River, Carrie Host. 1pm, Main Street Books, 307
S. Main St., St. Charles, MO, 636-949-0105.
Thursday, October 29
Washington University’s Assembly Series and the Chimes
Junior Honorary are pleased to present Francis G. Slay.
Under Mayor Slay’s leadership, St. Louis has made progress
in reducing urban social ills, but still faces many challenges,
especially in education, a topic he will focus on in this informal
discussion. 5:30pm, WU Danforth Campus, Danforth University Center, Tisch Commons, 935-4620.
Washington University’s Writing Program invites you to a
reading with Claudia Rankine. 8pm, WU Danforth Campus,
Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201, 935-5190.
Saturday, October 31
Buder Branch Book Discussion Group will discuss Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. 2pm, SLPL-Buder Branch, 4401
Hampton Ave., 352-2900.
Notices
The Big Read in St. Louis will focus on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by
Mark Twain. Activities begin on October 10 with the Big Read Festival through
February 2010. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment
for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.
The Big Read is presented by Centene Corporation and produced by Cultural
Festivals, 863-0278; email: [email protected]; website: www.bigread.
net/index.htm
St. Louis Writers Guild, a cutting edge literary organization, has a lecture
every other month starting in January, on the third Thursday from 7-8pm at
Barnes & Noble Book Store, 8871 Ladue Road, Ladue, MO. Lectures are
free. For more information, contact the Guild President, Rebecca Carron, at
314-974-2395 or at [email protected]. Also, check The St. Louis
Writers Guild website at www.stlwritersguild.org
St. Louis Writers Guild has a monthly workshop on the first Saturday from
10am-12noon at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 S. Geyer, Kirkwood,
MO. Workshop Fee is $5 unless you are a member. If you become a member
at the Workshop, $5 will be deducted from your membership cost. For more
information, contact the Guild President, Rebecca Carron, at 974-2395 or at
[email protected]. Also, check The St. Louis Writers Guild website
at www.stlwritersguild.org
Abbreviations
STL: Saint Louis; B&N: Barnes & Noble; LBB: Left Bank Books; SLCL: St.
Louis County Library; SLPL: St. Louis Public Library; SCCCL: St. Charles City
County Library; UCPL: University City Public Library, WU: Washington University, WGPL: Webster Groves Public Library.
Check the online calendar at cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu for more events and
additional details. To advertise, send event details to [email protected],
fax 935-4889, or call 935-5576.