A talk by Sheridan Hay
Tuesday, September 2nd at 6pm
What are the relevant details of Melville’s life and how did Moby Dick become, according to Lewis Mumford, “one of the first, great mythologies to be created in the modern world?” Join author
and teacher Sheridan Hay as she addresses this question in her talk on one of America’s greatest writers. This lecture is intended to give a taste of what’s in store for participants in the new Moby
Dick reading group Hay will lead.
Sheridan Hay is the author the novel The Secret of Lost Things. An editor and teacher, Sheridan’s first novel was a B&N Discover Great New Writers selection, a Booksense Pick, and a finalist for the Borders Original Voices Award in fiction last year.
Worldly Wisdom:
A Book Party for James Sloan Allen
Thursday, October 16th at 6pm
Fall 2008 will bring the thirteenth in a series of classes taught here by James Sloan Allen. Now those classes have been brought together in the form of a book, Worldly Wisdom: Great Books and the Meanings of Life from the independent publisher, Frederic C. Beil.
After the events of September 11th, Allen set about constructing a class that would allow New Yorkers to delve into classic works in order to explore the various meanings of life, big and small.
Worldly Wisdom looks at more than fifty works and offers a guide to both dedicated readers and to those new to the pleasures of literature. We’ll celebrate its publication with a talk by James Sloan Allen and a wine and cheese reception. There will, of course, be books for sale and the event is cosponsored by The New York Center for Independent Publishing.
A cultural historian, essayist, and critic, James Sloan Allen received his doctorate from Columbia University. He has taught at Columbia, Haverford College, the New School, and the Juilliard School, where he was provost and dean. He also is the author of The Romance of Commerce and Culture: Capitalism, Modernism, and the Chicago-Aspen Crusade for Cultural Reform.
Rilke and his novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge: A Talk by Burton Pike
date and time TBA
Rilke was one of the great poets of the 20th century. The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, his only novel (1910), is one of the landmarks of literary Modernism. It records the struggle of a young
would-be Danish poet to forge a new kind of poetry for a new age. He makes many attempts but cannot achieve his goal. The novel itself, however, is an accomplished tour de force, which brilliantly
lays out the difficulties of reinventing the nature of telling stories. It was very influential for Sartre, the French nouveau roman, and the later French cinema.
Professor Pike’s talk places the novel in the frame of Rilke’s life and career and will act as an introduction to his course on Rilke.
\Burton Pike is professor emeritus of comparative literature and German at the CUNY Graduate Center. A writer, critic, and editor, he has translated novels by Robert Musil, Goethe, and Rilke, and shorter prose from German and French.
Beatrice.com Readings
The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction is pleased to
announce that we will continue our reading series with
Beatrice.com. The series is curated by Beatrice.com
founder Ron Hogan and celebrates both established
and emerging fiction writers. Events will take place
throughout the city and feature this season’s hottest
writers. Check back to learn more about which authors are reading
this fall and where.
For more information or to RSVP for any of these events, please call (212) 755-6710 or email info@mercantilelibrary.org
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