October 2011 | Vol. X No. 2

One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads

Jian Leng, the editor of The Figure in the Carpet, decided to ture not just Jim’s calm and discretion, but also, in his tenure as reprint this piece I wrote for the campaign to raise money for the the director of African and Afro-American Studies, his toughness Table of Contents Jim McLeod Scholarship. I recall that when I ran into Jim shortly and his shrewd ability to assess accurately difficult situations after this was published in 2009 he told me, with a wry grin, I and to evaluate keenly the nature of the resources he had at hand was the best PR agent a person could have. I laughed too, but, as and how to use them. Jim had a bit of the Christian saint in him Page 1-2: What I Learned a writer, my hope was that the sharp honesty of my short mem- but he had also more than a bit of the quickness of Joseph among oir of Jim was the guarantee of its truth about a man I deeply the Egyptians. Jim was a fine balance of the pragmatist and the from Jim McLeod by Gerald admired. My intention was to work against all possibilities of PR moralist. My story about Jim is the tale of how an older, wiser Early puffery. Jim deserved something far more than being merely flat- and more capable man took a young apprentice under his wing tered or praised, which means that to the degree and showed him how to survive and even prosper in the formida- that a person can comprehend his colleague, Jim deserved to be bly competitive professional world of the academy and its uneasy Page 3: First Center for the illuminated as one might wish to shed light on a mystery. So, in intersection with racial politics. It is a story about leadership. Humanities Graduate Stu- my effort to describe my relationship with Jim, I wanted to cap- dent Fellows Annoucement What I Learned from Jim McLeod Page 4-5: The Great New As many of you may know, there real contribution to the world. In other is a campaign afoot to raise money words, the scholarship will germinate Hype by Rosalind Early in support of a scholarship named more Jim McLeods, which, doubt- for Jim McLeod, our dean of the less, is very good for our campus and undergraduate college of Arts and is unquestionably great for the world, Page 6-7: The Discursive Sciences. Provost Ed Macias and which can never suffer from having Self by Linda Nicholson I are serving as Executive Vice too many people who possess integri- Chairs of the Campus Committee, a ty, loyalty, steadfastness, intelligence, Page 7-10: Children, Poetry rather fanciful and bureaucratically and a courtly sense of the proprieties. grand way of saying that we are re- Jim, being a Morehouse College and Slavery by Rosalind sponsible for outreach to the faculty Ealry man and having all the natural in- on the Danforth campus. Students stincts and fine training of the breed, will be selected as McLeod Scholars, is something of an old-fashioned according to John Berg of Admis- Page 11-13: October Events Southern gentleman, which means he sions, on the basis of academic has the good sense and finer feeling Calendar achievement, commitment to serv- not to say anything inappropriate or, ing others, leadership potential, and worse still, useless and time-wasting. publishing scholar, he has more than character. They will “demonstrate the For instance, I have never heard Jim Page 14: Announcements compensated for that fact by enabling qualities that Jim values.” These, of McLeod utter a single self-promoting so many others, both students and course, are the qualities that we value word in my 27 years at Washington in Jim himself, including academic faculty, to produce good, great, and achievement. Although Jim is not a smart scholarship that has made a (Jian Leng’s column will return next month.)

1 editor's notes continued

University. Nor have I ever heard him in 27 years doing here, and Jim knew that. He assured me depreciate in any way the worth of anyone. In a that I belonged here. I studied Jim closely dur- place as competitive and ego-driven as a college ing those years, admiring the ease with which he campus, designed so by professional necessity, circulated in the world of Washington University where criticism and carping are forms of energy and wanting very much to learn how he did it so and dubious delight, Jim’s genteel demeanor is a that I could do it too. I wanted his patience, his refreshing vision for all of us about how we might tact, his Hemingway-esque grace under pressure. behave if only we could. A scholarship declar- I did not get these gifts, of course, but Jim gave ing Jim McLeod as a role model for us all! Now, me something to aim for. that’s a slogan we can all get behind, Democrats, Jim helped me tremendously when I became Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, the left- director of the program, for I had no idea how handed, the right-handed, and the great swath of to lead anything, and I constantly asked him for the ambidextrous. advice. The turbulence that accompanied my It is no secret that Jim is seriously ill. All of our ascendancy—for being insufficiently politically thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. pure—would have been far worse without Jim. We all hope that this scholarship would be an ex- He did everything he could to de-politicize the cellent morale-booster for our dean of the college program, and I marveled at how well he was able and get him back on his feet all the sooner. But, to transcend ethnic and campus politics. He even more selfishly, it is a good morale-booster for all offered to fire all the people who could be fired of us, his friends, his colleagues, his professional who were making the most noise before I as- community. Jim is in the hands of the finest doc- sumed the directorship. (Would that I had taken tors in the world, so there is nothing we can do Jim McLeod, Risa Zwerling, and students in 2008 Dance him up on that offer to the extent that I should on that score. Yet we all feel an urge to do some- Marathon, a charity fundraiser have!) Jim’s gimlet eye was never clouded by sen- thing, restless as we are with excess sympathy, ing at the time either dropping my appointment timent. He did what he did for me because, in his to show Jim we are thinking of him and missing in the program or leaving Washington University calm evaluation, my future was more important him all the days he has been away. So, this cam- entirely; as the hot new kid on the block I had to Washington University than that of many other paign is a good way to keep ourselves busy in the some offer letters in my pocket. people around me. He did not do what he did vineyard, doing the Lord’s work. (Non-believers merely because he thought highly of me (although Jim McLeod single-handedly saved the African can substitute a suitable secular word for Lord.) I was deeply humbled, sometimes tormented by and African American Studies Program. He re- It would be something that Jim would want us a sense of unworthiness, that he did) but because organized it administratively and made the front to do—not honoring him, which I am sure he he thought so highly of Washington University. office run better. He was largely responsible for is properly bemused and embarrassed by—but He did not want me to feel flattered, in the end; creating the Black Alumni Council, which has helping to improve our school and helping our he wanted me to be responsible, to my students, become an important instrument of outreach students by raising scholarship money. my colleagues, to the institution. to African American alumni. He built up stu- Needless to say, it is my hope that all of you on dent interest in the program. In fact, Jim was I would never have become director of AFAS the Danforth campus support this effort by pledg- extremely popular with students. He gave the or anything else had not Jim McLeod taught me ing generously, for it is hard for me to imagine program some stability and the sense of a future. and, even more importantly, inspired me to be that any single one of us is not directly or indi- I liked Jim because he gave me anything I asked a leader and had he not given my career some rectly indebted to Jim McLeod. for (what faculty member wouldn’t like a direc- guidance at a crucial time. When I see him, he Here is my brief story: Shortly after I was ten- tor like that!). Jim praised me all the time, told sometimes jokes about how he gets praised by a ured in 1988, Jim McLeod became director of the me how important I was not only to the program few elderly folk who mistake him for me. It is a African and African American Studies Program but to Washington University itself. In fact, he bit of an inside joke, but I often wish a few people (AFAS), a position he held for five years. The pro- treated me a great deal as if I were a prince and would mistake me for him. gram was in complete disarray at the time. Not Washington University was my kingdom and he I owe Jim McLeod can say only did it lack leadership—an assistant professor my Prime Minister. This did not, as I suspect and that is why I intend to pledge generously to who served as director was denied tenure, and Jim knew, have the effect of inflating my ego but the James E. McLeod scholarship fund. Please then there was a rapid series of interim direc- rather of calming me down, for in those days I give too. tors—but it lacked people: every single assistant think I was as skittish as an untested thorough- director was denied tenure except me. It was an bred. Jim understood my insecurities as a young odd feeling to be the last man standing, and as black scholar trying to make my way on a white Jim was not a scholar in the field, it was hard for campus that may not have quite known what to Gerald Early me to know exactly what his appointment meant. do with me or I with it. Jim was trying to make Director, me feel less out of place and less self-conscious. I Perhaps the program would be The Center for the Humanities closed down. I was seriously mull- was still trying to figure out what the heck I was

2 Nancy Berg Professor of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures The Center for the Humanities Announces Ken Botnick Its First Class of Graduate Student Fellows Professor of Art Director of Kranzberg Book Studio

Gene Dobbs Bradford Europe since the fourteenth century, but it took Executive Director two hundred years before German authors began Jazz St. Louis commenting on its gendered, moral, and aesthetic implications. Modern historians debate the quan- Elizabeth Childs Associate Professor and Chair of titative impact of gunpowder technology on six- Department of Art History and teenth and seventeenth century societies, yet early Archaeology modern authors and eyewitnesses were in unani- mous agreement: Gunpowder had changed the Mary-Jean Cowell way people thought about war. By contextualizing Associate Professor of Performing Arts Patrick Brugh Anna Warbelow novels within the historical frameworks of gunpow- der technology, military theory, and journalistic Phyllis Grossman The Center for the Humanities in Arts & Scienc- Retired Financial Executive war reporting, Brugh’s project uncovers and ana- es is pleased to announce its Spring 2012 Graduate lyzes the problems of gunpowder warfare that these Michael A. Kahn Student Fellows. The recipients are Patrick Brugh, novels explore. Attorney, Author and Ph.D. student in the Department of Germanic Adjunct Professor of Law Languages and Literatures, and Anna Warbelow, Anna Warbelow’s dissertation project is entitled Ph.D. student in the Department of Art History and “Camping the Canon: Artifice and Identity in Ya- Zurab Karumidze Archaeology. sumasa Morimura’s Photographic Self-Portraiture.” Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia The late 1980s through the early 1990s were years The two Graduate Student Fellows will spend a of critical disruption and challenge within the Peter Kastor semester in residence at the Center, engaging in discipline of art history. Postmodern artists began Associate Professor of History and dissertation research and writing. They will also American Culture Studies Program making work that disrupted dominant ideologies Chris King actively participate in the Center’s established Fac- about gender and race as natural. Simultaneously, Editorial Director ulty Fellowship Program, which offers an intensive revisionist scholars began questioning the standing interdisciplinary intellectual environment in which The St. Louis American Newspaper interpretations and histories of art works within the the Graduate Student Fellows can discuss their re- canon by considering their political and social con- Olivia Lahs-Gonzales search with the Faculty Fellows in residence, other Director text. Warbelow’s project places camp—often de- Sheldon Art Galleries WU humanities faculty, and invited guests. fined as an ironic penchant for poor taste—within Patrick Brugh will work on a dissertation project this historical moment and theorizes it as a strategy Steven Meyer entitled “Black Powder Plots: Gunpowder Weap- Associate Professor of English used by artists to critique the canon of western art ons and the Narration of War in Early Modern and to intervene in revisionist art historical scholar- Joe Pollack Germany.” Gunpowder technology had been in ship. Writer

Anne Posega Head of Special Collections, Olin Library

Qiu Xiaolong Make a Gift to the Center for the Humanities Novelist and Poet Joseph Schraibman Join other donors and supporters to ensure that the Center for the Professor of Spanish Humanities can continue to fulfill its mission. Help us continue to Henry Schvey make the humanities a part of public life and your own life. Professor of Drama

Wang Ning Professor of English, Tsinghua University Send your check, payable to Washington University, to: The Center for the Humanities James Wertsch Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and Sciences c/o Shannon McAvoy Grass Associate Vice Chancellor for Washington University in St. Louis International Affairs Campus Box 1202 Ex Officio One Brookings Drive Edward S. Macias Provost & Exec VC for Academic Affairs St, Louis, MO 63130-4899

Gary S. Wihl Dean of Arts & Sciences 3 The Great New Hype Golf prodigy Michelle Wie was a media darling and then disappeared from view. Sportswriter Eric Adelson tries to explain why in his new biography.

Rosalind Early, a 2003 Arts and Sciences graduate of Washington University, is an assistant editor with St. Louis Magazine.

ing and Unmaking of Golf Phenom Michelle placed on her?” wonders Adelson. “And, more Wie. Hers is a classic story, really: the meteoric important, would she ever live up to her own rise of a young hopeful, the child-star athlete, great expectations for herself?” Despite being a followed by a spectacular fall. great golf player, Wie couldn’t seem to live up Adelson was one of the first reporters to to her potential. interview Wie when she was just a ten-year- In her first two years as a pro, Wie struggled old golf prodigy in Hawaii who could already mightily to break into the PGA and even to hit 300-yard drives on the fairways. “Michelle win any tournaments in the LPGA. Adelson’s Wie, at the time I first spoke with her, had the strong suit is in his minute descriptions of how potential to break more molds than [Alex Ro- Wie fought futilely: the bunkers, the double driguez, Kordell Steward, Eric Lindors or Kobe bogeys, and the missed putts. Even readers Bryant]. If she could hit a golf ball 300 yards at who can’t stand, or don’t understand golf will age 10, what would that mean for the game of find Adelson’s descriptions entertaining as he golf down the road? What kind of force would wrings all the possible tension out of them. she be in the game when she grew up to be say, Here he is describing the hole where she lost 18?” the U.S. Open (men’s) qualifying sectionals. When Michelle won the 2003 USGA “Wie arrived at the 4th tee, her 32nd hole of the Women’s Amateur Public Links Champion- ship at just 13 years old, “she spurred debate and resentment and discussion and plenty of prediction. She was all future, all potential, all entertainment, a thrill ride and a flash point,” writes Adelson. Team Wie (Adelson’s name for the Wie family, father B.J., mother Bo, and Michelle) did their part to keep the hype going. Michelle wanted to play with the golf Remember Michelle Wie? She is now the greats—the male golf greats. She didn’t want beautiful woman hawking the Kia Soul on to be the female Tiger Woods—no second- television commercials. She was supposed class stardom for her; she wanted to beat Tiger to be the new Nancy Lopez, champion golfer. Woods in a Major. And she wanted to do it Indeed, it was once thought she might be the soon, like by the time she was 15. So, she Michael Jordan of women’s golf. She wasn’t skipped some steps. Rather than play through supposed to wind up just another minor pretty the amateur golf circuit she went pro at age 16, face who occasionally bubbles up in pop adver- still having only won one tournament. She also tising. didn’t go to qualifying school (Q-school) on the There was a time when you couldn’t get away LPGA tour, instead getting sponsor exemptions from her. She was on the cover of Fortune, the to play in LPGA championships and PGA ma- front page of newspapers, and the top story on jor qualifications. Nike and Sony were just two newscasts. One moment she was fascinating sponsors who offered her huge multimillion the world and the next she is the answer to a dollar contracts based entirely on her potential trivia question. and the hype. Eric Adelson, a journalist for ESPN: The “Could Michelle Wie ever live up to the Magazine, is betting that she can fascinate multimillion-dollar bets her sponsors had again with his book The Sure Thing: The Mak-

4 The Great New Hype

day, and showed a barely perceptible sign of pable you believe it and push yourself too hard. strain: her back, always ramrod straight, bent When it doesn’t work, maybe you redouble your just slightly at her shoulders. Fatigue had crept efforts and push yourself even harder. in. She missed the fairway with a 3-wood. She It’s unhelpful and unnecessary to try and ex- hit a nice recovery shot over a ravine to within cuse Team Wie but the media machine that grew 25 feet, which she lagged to 3 feet. A row of up around a pretty girl with hardly any wins to fans crowned the fairway, gazing over the water her name is one of the most fascinating aspects hazard as she stepped up to her par putt. The col- of the Michelle Wie story and while Adelson lective gasp told the story: miss.” covers what happened in the media he doesn’t Wie’s game and what made her an exceptional really cover Michelle’s experience with it—the golfer are covered but the young woman behind book mostly recycles Wie’s media image. the swing remains aloof. Though Adelson thanks There are moments though, like when we hear the Wies in his acknowledgements, the book about what Wie said on the golf course to com- doesn’t read as if they had very much to do with petitors or how she feels about her future. But it. Perhaps that was better for all concerned. these moments don’t add up to a revelation and Biographies are seldom improved when the we are left with a story that entertainingly bobs subjects decide to micro-manage the story. This along the surface, leaving the reader wondering is especially the case with the Wies who did not what’s beneath it. seem altogether competent at micro-managing Michelle’s career. Take, for example, that qualifying round for the men’s golf U.S. Open mentioned above. Wie played that tournament in Summit, New Jersey rather than in her home state of Hawaii. She then played in the LPGA championship in Northern Maryland three days later. She lost. Twice. “What was B.J. Wie’s top priority?” won- ders Adelson. “If they’d simply stayed in Hawaii, Michelle would’ve had a much better shot at the U.S. Open.” If they wanted to win the LPGA Championship tournament “[Michelle] should never have played 36 holes on Monday in Hawaii or New Jersey... Unless…unless B.J.’s number one priority for Michelle, after consulting with the William Morris Agency [who represented her], was maximum exposure, which could translate into more endorsement money down the line.” But Adelson never has any sort of explanation of the Wie family’s behavior or an account of their perspective. He speculates that “the root cause of [Michelle’s] decline, the force that con- tributed to all the factors that brought her down, was greed.” We believe him because there is no nuanced view of the family from within. Isn’t it possible that while the Wie’s generated some of the hype, they also got swept up in the hysteria? Maybe when everyone is saying you’re unstop-

5 Faculty Fellow

The Discursive Self

Linda Nicholson Linda Nicholson, Susan E. and William P. Stiritz Distinguished Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of History in Arts and Sciences, was a Faculty Fellow at the Center for the Humanities during the Spring semester 2011. During this time, she worked on a book project entitled “Iden- tity After Identity Politics,” which explores contemporary U.S. discourse about the continued salience of race and gender. It is a sequel to her 2008 book, Identity Before Identity Politics.

When I was growing up, I often heard the This new understanding of such words came phrase “sticks and stones will break your about largely as the result of the growing influ- bones, but words will never hurt you.” As I ence of what came to be called “environmen- have been studying the words that describe talism.” “Environmentalism” was the view us, words such as “male,” “female,” “white,” that much of our character is a consequence of “black” “Caucasian,” “Negro,” etc., I have the environments we grow up in, rather than a come to realize how the words that describe us consequence of the physical characteristics we can indeed hurt us or help us a great deal. In inherit from our parents. And since the envi- my new project I will be aiming to clarify some ronments we grow up in are highly individual Americans, who early in the twentieth century of the ways in which such words make us who and not necessarily correlated with the physi- were regarded by many as constituting a dis- we are and how changes in the ways in which cal characteristics we possess, words such as tinct racial group, were able by the mid-twen- we use such words come about. “Negro” or “man” tell us little about anyone’s tieth century to change their status to “ethnic In the nineteenth century in the United character. group.” Wasn’t it the social understanding that States, many scientists, as well as many in the To be sure, during the twentieth century, had changed rather than the biology? Even general population, thought of words such as and even into the twenty-first, environmen- the distinction between “men” and “women,” “man” or “white” as no different from words talism never came to completely eclipse the thought to obviously describe a natural distinc- like “rock” or “ocean.” In all of these cases, earlier view. Debates about the importance of tion, was shown to be influenced by cultural the words were thought to describe a natural set “nature” versus “nurture” continued to flour- considerations. Some societies, unlike oth- of phenomena, a set whose basic characteristics ish. Such debates have been about questions of ers, allow for more than two sexes, and some were given by nature. And as the word “rock” whether “nature” or “nurture” is more or less societies, more so than others, describe the told us much about the grey colored object in important and also about the relationship be- relationship between women and men as reflec- our hand—such as how it would act in most tween either of these concepts and such social tive of a continuum of difference, rather than as situations—so would a word such as “man” tell labels as race and gender. a sharply divided opposition. And there seemed us how the two-legged, mustached object in But an emerging view among some scholars nothing within science itself that proved that front of us would also act in most situations. in the last part of the twentieth century brought any of these metaphorical ways of thinking Over the course of the twentieth century, the debate about “nature” versus “nurture” about the male/female distinction was more jus- many scholars, and then also many in the gen- to a new level. Many scholars began to point tified than others. What these social differenc- eral population, came to reject elements of this out that even many of the so called “natural” es in metaphorical thinking suggested instead view of social labels. Many came to believe elements of such social labels as “black” or is that even the so called “natural” aspects of that words such as “Negro” or “man” contained “female” were influenced by social factors. such distinctions are affected by social beliefs, only a partial natural component. While a For example, it was noted that, in the United or as many scholars have come to suggest, exist word such as “Negro” did pick out all of those States, those with any African ancestry have within a “web of meaning.” with brown skin, this was all that such a word been labeled “Negro” or “black” even though The Center for the Humanities Faculty Fel- did; it did not tell us anything about how such a more than 50% of the ancestry of those so lowship has enabled me to begin work on a person would act in any given situation. Simi- labeled might be European. But if those with book that more fully explores the symbolic or larly, by learning that someone was a “man,” less than 50% of African ancestry were labeled discursive aspect of social identity labels. In one would learn something about the physical “Negro,” then how could the label “Negro” be this book I will elaborate on how an under- parts this person possessed but very little, if understood as even in part a biological con- standing of such labels in these anything, about his character. cept? Similarly some groups, such as Jewish terms helps us understand many

6 The Discursive Self (continued) of the ways in which gender and race operate we are in a “post racial” or “post feminist” The Figure today, as for example, salient in some contexts era while others argue that race and gender in the Capet and not salient in others or as possessing one remain significant determinants of one’s life meaning in one context and something very opportunities. Seeing how social category online different in another. As I will argue, labels labels work as words helps us understand how such as “woman” or “black” do not describe lack of change in some arenas can coexist Expanded versions of the September a fixed set of properties but describe diverse with a great deal of change in others. In sum, and October issues of The Figure in sets of phenomena that are differently picked thinking about how such labels function as the Carpet can be found online at out by different speakers within different con- words—as words that can indeed hurt us as texts. I will claim that social change involv- much if not more than sticks and stones— http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu. They ing the meanings of such words necessarily helps us understand many of the complex include additional articles and images occurs unevenly as certain groups within a ways in which gender and race operate today. that are not in the print versions population shift slightly their use of these words in specific contexts. We live in a time when words such as “black,” “manly,” etc. are undergoing a lot of change. Some commentators say that Children, Poetry, and Slavery The Eugene Field House and Toy Museum Adapts with Age

I. The Eugene Field House is Born while prominent Missouri politician David through the poetry of Eugene Field, the house It was a typical summer day in St. Louis, ag- Francis read a few words: “This tablet to the embraces its connection with the Dred Scott onizingly and unrelentingly hot. But a crowd memory of Missouri’s greatest poet and sweet- decision and the Civil War through Eugene’s gathered at 4:30 in the afternoon on June 6, est singer is unveiled by a man who is not only father Roswell Sr. The Field house demon- 1902, at an unprepossessing three-story brick the greatest Missourian, but the best-known strates, as Twain inadvertently revealed that house at 634 S. Broadway. Carlos Hurd, the American man of letters of the day. It is a day, that what we choose to remember and young reporter who would later write first- privilege to be here.” how we choose to remember it has more to do hand about the Carpathia rescuing passengers Or it was, until Eugene Field’s younger with the present than the past. of the Titanic, kept his straw boater on in brother Roswell Jr. arrived and announced that II. Eugene Field, the Children’s Poet feeble defense against the sun. The Countess his late brother hadn’t really been born there Who Did Not Like Children at all. That honor went to a building on Collins de Rochambeau, visiting with her husband The history of the Eugene Field House Street that had since become a feed store. from France, fanned herself. Mark Twain was begins on November 4, 1895, the day Eugene there too on what would be his last trip to St. “Rose,” Twain replied. “Whatever the fact died at the age of 45. “Sudden End of the Louis, wearing his customary white suit. may be is relatively unimportant. It is the Poet and Humorist at Chicago. A remark- They stood in front of what was once a official and formal thing that counts. Offi- able character is gone,” wrote the New York row of affluent Greek revival homes that had cially, and for the purposes of the future, your Times. “Mr. Field’s death was first discovered domiciled St. Louis’s upwardly mobile law- brother was born here.” by his son, who occupied the [bed]room with yers and politicians 50 years before. Now, the Twain was right about the unimportance him. The young man heard his father groan, buildings were dowdy, though still occupied, of veracity in these matters, and 33 years and, putting out his hand, discovered that as evidenced by one curious neighbor leaning later the house was made into a shrine, later his father was dead.” The obituary goes on out of a window to see what all the fuss was. It becoming the Eugene Field House and Toy lamenting the loss of Eugene, “whose verses was a dedication ceremony. Museum. But today even what is official and have charmed many thousands of readers, and Twain hung a plaque that read: “Here was formal about the house has changed. Instead whose companionship was enjoyed by hosts of born/ Eugene Field/ The Poet/ 1850–1895,” of paying homage to a sentimentalized past friends.”

7 Children, Poetry, and Slavery (continued)

By then he was living in Buena Park, a a tour de force into sentiment by such a rank There was a way to save the house, since it neighborhood of Chicago, and was known for unsentimentalist, a congenital and cultivated wasn’t owned by Curran but by the St. Louis his newspaper column “Sharps and Flats,” in unsentimentalist, is their chiefest claim to at- Board of Education. Superintendent Henry the Chicago Daily News. He wrote humorous tention.” Gerling snatched back Curran’s permission to and derisive observations about the city’s elite. Though such a contradiction may seem demolish the home, but since the property was But Eugene’s greatest fame came as a poet minor, it “cast an indelible shadow on Field’s in decay, there wasn’t much else that could be for children. One critic hailed a collection of posthumous reputation” according to Robert done. The only thing about the house that still his work as “the Canterbury Pilgrimage of Conrow in his book Field Days: The Life, looked presentable was the plaque that Twain infancy.” Most famous among his poems now Times and Reputation of Eugene Field (1974). had hung there 32 years before. is the lullaby “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” Reverend Frank Gunsaulus was also trou- The triumphant headline in the New York about three tykes who sail away in a wooden bled by aspects of Eugene’s personality that Times in 1935 tells the rest of the story: shoe and fish among the stars. (Franklin seem minor today. He wrote to W.K. Bixby, “100,000 pupils in St. Louis donate pennies to Roosevelt used the cadence of the poem to “There are two of each one of us and there restore the poet’s boyhood home.” Newspapers wryly denounce three conservative Republi- had touted the “children’s crusade” for years. can congressmen in a speech in 1940: Martin, Wouldn’t it be charming if Eugene’s biggest Barton, and Fish.) fans donated money to make a memorial for Field reached the zenith of his posthumous him? Now, St. Louis students had done just popularity in the 1920s and came to represent that. In the midst of the Great Depression, a time before speakeasies and anonymous they’d raised nearly $2,000. Near its end, the cities, the Great Migration and World War article mentions that two St. Louis insurance I. He could stand as a reminder of home and agents put up the bulk of the money to restore hearth—that perfect embodiment of a nostal- the house. gically rosy-hued past. But it’s the official account that counts. The man himself was of little consequence, as James Young noted in the New York Times III. The Eugene Field House Gets in 1922: “Field’s work is much better known Reinvented than himself. ‘Little Boy Blue’ has become a Visitors have to ring the doorbell to get into classic wherever the language has penetrated. the Eugene Field House and Toy Museum. The But the Field who was a delight in the flesh front foyer has drawings of the old neighbor- is little more than a shadow now.” That’s hood. The double parlor displays Eugene’s because Eugene the man complicated the piano, which is rotted on the inside, portraits memory of Eugene the Children's Laureate of his family, and the collar of Eugene’s favor- the way the actual historical ite dog. now complicates the memory of the icon who On the tour Barbara Faupel, the house’s as- drafted the Declaration of Independence. Eugene with wife, Julia Comstock, 1873. sistant director, notes that this is a toy mu- His friend, Slason Thompson, in his book were two of the astonishing unit, called the seum because Eugene collected toys. “By the Heredity and Contradictions, published in personality of Eugene Field.” Gunsaulus had time of his death, he had over 2,000 toys,” she 1901, inadvertently cast the first shadow, when been planning to write a biography of Eugene explains. “Unfortunately, there was a ware- he wrote, “Field’s fondness for other people’s but, as he explained to Bixby, “I was unhorsed house fire before we became a museum, up in children was like that of an entomologist for by a lot of material which was and is unspeak- Chicago, and we lost almost all of his pieces. bugs—for purposes of study, dissection, and able… Just as I had my things in order.” The Only nine survived. We have seven,” mostly classification.” The idea that Eugene Field children’s poet wrote bawdy verse, sometimes metal wind-up toys. The house supplements wasn’t inspired by his sheer love of children even recited it in gentlemen’s clubs. the collection with other toys from the period. to spontaneously write verse didn’t jibe with But Field’s popularity has clearly waned. On the image some people held of him. St. Louis In 1934, however, when printing company the day I visit I’m the only guest until a few el- journalist William Marion Reedy jumped owner Con P. Curran announced plans to tear derly gentlemen march determinedly up to the at the chance to “out” Eugene as a phony in down Eugene's “birthplace,” M.P. Smith, su- third floor to see a war toys exhibit, bypassing the St. Louis Sunday Mirror. “The Field that perintendent of a neighboring school district, any information about Field entirely. Trends people have overdone as an idol came into be- raised a battle cry (of sorts) in the St. Louis change. His humorous writing is no longer ing chiefly through his cute discovery that the Star: “If [Eugene’s home] could be spared, it funny; poetry’s not as popular as it was. His way to reach the public most effectively was eventually would become a shrine to which son, also named Eugene, didn’t help matters through sentiment and not through humor,” many people would make pilgrimages. Is there when he forged manuscripts in his wrote Reedy. “That [these writings] are such no way to stir up interest in the matter and save the house?” father’s name to make a quick buck.

8 Children, Poetry, and Slavery (continued)

On March 29, 2007, however, the Eugene William Scott wrote in his decision. “Since Field House was awarded a National Historic then, not only individuals but States have been Landmark (NHL) designation. St. Louis only possessed with a dark and fell spirit in relation has 15 National Historic Landmarks, among to slavery, whose gratification is sought in the them the Anheuser-Busch brewery, Scott Joplin pursuit of measures whose inevitable conse- House, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the quence must be the overthrow and destruction Eads Bridge. The Old Courthouse hasn’t made of our Government. Under such circumstances, the list. Neither has the St. Louis Art Museum it doesn’t behoove the State of Missouri to show or the Fabulous Fox. According to the criteria, the least countenance to any measure which a National Historic Landmark designation “is might gratify this spirit.” ascribed to sites, buildings, and objects that Since it was a state case, Dred and Harriet possess exceptional value or quality in illustrat- Scott were officially out of options until Roswell ing or interpreting the heritage of the United Field developed the strategy to turn this straight- States." forward bid for freedom into a test of the very So how did the Eugene Field House and Toy boundaries of slavery and black U.S. citizenship. Museum get one? According to its application, Around 1849, Irene Emerson moved to Spring- “The Field House is significant as the home of field, Massachusetts, and married Dr. Calvin Roswell Field [Eugene Field’s father], attorney Clifford Chaffee, a physician and abolitionist for the slave Dred Scott, whose case, Scott v. with aspirations to be an elected official. She Sandford (1857), was the most controversial left the Scotts to her brother, John Sanford, who Supreme Court case of the nineteenth century, lived in New York. Roswell was therefore able and remains one of the most significant cases in to argue that the case now fell under “diversity the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.” jurisdiction.” When two people in different states “We really started focusing more on Roswell Eugene Field, date unknown sue each other, then the case is tried in a federal Field about ten years ago,” explains Bill Piper, court. If Dred Scott was free, Roswell argued, ly. It involved a slave’s bid for his freedom. the president of the Eugene Field House Board. then he must be a citizen of a place, and that “[There] was a gradual realization that we Dred Scott had been the slave of Dr. John place would logically be Missouri, and he was really had something here. Historically speak- Emerson, who left Missouri to be a military sur- suing his owner who was a citizen of New York. geon, first in Illinois and then at Fort Snelling in ing, I would have to say that Roswell Field was District Judge Robert Wells the Wisconsin territory. Dred Scott accompanied a great deal more important to the history of decided that the matter of Scott’s freedom was him and met and married the teenaged Harriet, the country than Eugene.” Piper continues, a state issue. Since the state of Missouri had also a slave, in Fort Snelling in 1836; he stayed “Without [Roswell Field, this case] would not ruled that he was not free, then he wasn’t and there with her while Dr. Emerson went to Louisi- have gotten into Federal Court and become the therefore lost his case again. major precipitating factor for the Civil War. So ana, where he met and married Irene Sanford in I think that’s kind of important. Not pleasant, 1838. Eventually, the Scotts returned to Missouri But Roswell wasn’t finished with his legal but important.” and Dr. Emerson died. acrobatics. He argued that Scott had been taken to a federal territory when he went to Fort Snel- At the time, slave law was based on the idea IV. The Dred Scott Case and ling; therefore, it was really a federal question that if you took a slave to a place where slavery Roswell Field if, in going to that territory, Scott had been was illegal, then he was free. So when Dred’s The history of the Field House begins with manumitted by his master. Judge Wells didn’t and Harriet’s masters took them to free terri- the threat of another cholera epidemic. Roswell rule on this point, which left the case open for tory, they had technically freed them. When Field had moved to St. Louis in 1839 and was an appeal to the Supreme Court. Dred and Harriet discovered this, they began living on Collins Street with his wife and their their suit for freedom from Irene Emerson, who “The Supreme Court felt that [slavery] was a one-year-old child, Eugene, but their north-side had inherited them on her husband’s death. state issue,” explains Wendy Dyer a freelance neighborhood was being taken over by factories consultant for museums and historic homes The Scotts won in the St. Louis Circuit Court and warehouses, so they moved to S. Broadway who spearheaded the NHL project for the with a sympathetic Judge Hamilton presiding. to avoid another cholera outbreak. Eugene Field House. “[They] really refused to But Irene Emerson appealed the case to the Around this time, Roswell, a lawyer, may hear any cases that would force them to answer Missouri Supreme Court where pro-slavery have gotten a visit from his friend Alexander what they felt about slavery in the territories. politics caused Chief Justice William Scott to Hamilton (a St. Louis judge, not the Found- And Roswell recognized all of this. He knew overturn 28 years of Missouri precedent and ing Father and first Secretary of the Treasury, that he had this amazing opportunity.” That deny Dred Scott his freedom. whose portrait is on the $10 bill) who might doesn’t fully explain, though, why Roswell, have told him about a case that had “Times are not now as they were when the who up till then had primarily been involved in gone hopelessly downhill recent- former decisions on this subject were made,” real estate law would take the case. He didn’t

9 like the institution of slavery––he grew up in been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and famous Republican speaker and politi- Vermont. But he also seemed to have liked and altogether unfit to associate with the white cian.” Dred Scott, securing the bondman a job in his race, either in social or political relations; and As grandiose as it all became, maybe Ro- law offices while the case was pending. so far inferior that they had no rights which swell Field’s greatest contribution to the case Roswell Field couldn’t go to D.C. to argue the the white man was bound to respect; and that was making sure Dred Scott got his freedom. case himself, probably because of the expense the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced That was, after all, what he signed on to do. to slavery for his benefit.” of travelling for a pro bono case. So he con- By the time Scott’s verdict was handed tacted his friend attorney Montgomery Blair, Paul Finkelman, an American legal history down, John Sanford was in an insane asylum, whose family were well-known opponents of professor at Albany Law School, who was and Calvin Chaffee, who had married Dred slavery, and asked him to take the case. On assigned to assess the Eugene Field House’s Scott’s former owner, Irene Emerson, was a February 7, 1856, Blair filed a brief with the NHL application by the National Park Service, U.S. Congressman who had run on an aboli- U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott thinks Roswell’s contribution to the history of tionist platform. v. Sandford (the court reporter misspelled John the United States is even more significant. “If Sanford’s name) that Roswell Field certainly Roswell Field didn’t get [the Dred Scott case] to “All the long years of servitude through helped prepare. “As free negroes [sic] are the Supreme Court, then it’s possible that Lin- which this [Scott] family has been doomed permitted to hold property in all the States, coln would remain a minor Illinois politician,” to labor,” wrote one reporter in the Spring- to carry on commerce under the laws of the he says. The Republican Party that Lincoln field Argus, “has this hypocrite [Chaffee] United States, [and] are entitled to bounties,” joined in 1856 had been designed to prevent the kept their ownership by his family from argued Blair and Roswell in the brief, “they spread of slavery into the territories. the public, while he had profited, not only must be embraced in a class of citizens.” by their labor, but on the other hand by his “Chief Justice Taney says that the federal extraordinary professions of love for the poor “I rec’d your brief in the Dred Scott case and government has no power to stop slavery in Negro.” As a maelstrom kicked up across your two letters relating to it,” Field wrote Blair the territories and in fact the federal govern- the country, Irene Emerson still refused to on March 12. “I have delayed writing to you ment has to protect slavery in the territories. give up her slaves. She finally agreed so long in the expectation that the case would soon be If that’s true, then the reason for the Repub- as she could keep the wages that the Scotts decided & that I should have the opportunity of lican Party to exist is no longer legitimate. had earned while working under the custody congratulating you on the result. As the Court Because basically what the Republican Party of the sheriff while their freedom suit was has taken its long recess without coming to a has to do is campaign against the Supreme pending. decision I will not delay longer the expression Court,” explains Finkelman. “And Lincoln, of my gratification at the able manner in which who is a very good trial lawyer and a serious Chaffee gave the slaves to the Blow family you have presented the questions to the court.” constitutional thinker, comes up with what is of St. Louis, who had owned Dred Scott be- fore Dr. Emerson, and they manumitted Dred It turned into a much longer recess than probably the best political arguments against Dred Scott.” and Harriett and their daughters, Eliza and expected. The justices didn’t want their deci- Lizzie. Field even found Scott his first job sion influencing the presidential election, so By deciding that Dred Scott is ineligible to as a freed man. He was a porter at Barnum’s they called for the case to be argued again in sue in federal court, Taney makes his ruling in Hotel in St. Louis and a local celebrity. December. The case was now getting national the case, and the case is over. “So, what Lin- attention because everyone anticipated that it coln argues is that everything Taney says after Now the Field House tries to make room would answer the question about slavery in the he says Dred Scott can’t sue is what lawyers for both father and son, Eugene and Roswell. territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 call ‘dicta,’ which means it’s not part of the “Eugene is still the name of who we are,” flew in the face of the Missouri Compromise by case—it’s just something that the judge wants explains director Kimberly Larson. “It’s allowing slavery north of Missouri. to say and it has no legal value whatsoever. It’s the reason we exist. If it hadn’t been for his just Chief Justice Taney mouthing off. writing and who he was as a journalist, we But Roswell became less invested in the case wouldn’t even be here. So you can’t lose when his wife died on November 18, three “The other thing Lincoln does is to use the that.” weeks before the Supreme Court would hear the Dred Scott case to set up an analysis which es- case again. A few weeks later his two-month- sentially says that Dred Scott is going to lead But the house that was built on a nostalgic old daughter Frances passed away as well. to nationalizing slavery,” explains Finkelman. image of hearth, home, and sentiment has embraced a man whose greatest accomplish- As Roswell’s family disintegrated around “We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming ment is also his biggest failure. If the official him, his case also fell apart. On March 6, that the people of Missouri are on the verge now means understanding history as it was 1857, Chief Justice Taney declared in his of making their State free,” warned Lincoln instead of honoring an anesthetized portrait opinion that the Missouri Compromise, in try- in his “A House Divided” speech. “And we of what we want it to have been, then maybe ing to regulate slavery, overstepped Congress’ shall awake to the reality instead, that the Su- times really have changed for the better. realm of power and was void and that no preme Court has made Illinois a slave State.” black could be a citizen of the United States: “Between these two arguments,” says Fin- Rosalind Early is a 2003 Arts and Sciences “[Negroes] had for more than a century before kelman, “Lincoln becomes a very prominent

10 Events in October

Saturday, October 1 Crossing, Pennsylvania, in the years leading up to the The Mystery Book Club will talk about Patricia Corn- Civil War, the novel follows Dorothea Granger’s pas- well’s Body of Evidence. Using high-tech forensic skills, The would like St. Louis Public Library System sage from innocence to wisdom against the harrowing Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta collects a body of to invite you to discuss Aaron Likens’ Finding Kansas: backdrop of the American struggle over slavery. Cop- evidence in the brutal stabbing death of a famous Romance Decoding the Enigma of Asperger’s Syndrome. ies of the book are available for check-out one month writer. 7pm, SLCL-Florissant Valley Branch (Room Likens has created a new vocabulary for parents, educa- prior to the meeting. 10:30am, SLCL-Thornhill 2), 195 S. New Florissant Rd., 994-3300. tors, and therapeutic professionals, turning sterile and tech- Branch (Small Meeting Room), 12863 Willowyck Dr., nical terms into an understandable narrative. This program You are invited to join Washington University’s 994-3300. is in honor of Disability Awareness Month. 2pm, SLPL- Tennessee Williams Centennial Celebration Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. Authors @ Your Library invites you to attend as by attending “Tennessee at 100: From Washington Uni- author Amanda Doyle discusses and signs her book versity to the Wider World,” a presentation by Henry I. Monday, October 3 Finally A Locally Produced Guidebook to St. Schvey, Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature. Join the Machacek Book Discussion Group for a Louis By and For St. Louisans: Neighborhood by A Q&A reception follows the event. 7pm, Steinberg Audito- discussion of Fannie Flagg’s I Still Dream About You. Neighborhood. Books for sale courtesy of Reedy Press. rium, Washington University in St. Louis, Danforth Campus, 10am, SLPL-Machacek Branch, 6424 Scanlan Ave., 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 North Euclid Ave., 935-5858. 781-2948. 367-4120. Heather Brewer will be at Middendorf Kredell In this week’s Monday Noon Series, UMSL historian Calling all non-fiction book lovers! The Bridgeton to discuss and sign the first book in the Slayer Chronicles Steven Rowan will recount his research for his forthcom- Trails Branch Library is introducing a new non-fiction series, a spin off the Vladimir Tod series. 7pm, Middendorf ing book, The Baron in the Grand Canyon: Map- book discussion group called Get Real. Come be a part of Kredell Branch, St. Charles City-County Library, Maker and Artist Friedrich von Egloffstein from it! Our selection for October is Founding Mothers: The 2750 Highway K, O’Fallon, MO, (636) 978-7926, main- St. Louis to the Far West, 1850-1860. This is a free Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts. streetbooks.net event and no registration is necessary. 12:15pm, Rm. 222, 7pm, SLCL-Bridgeton Trails Branch (Room 2), 3455 McK- JC Penney Center, UMSL, 516-5699. elvey Rd., 994-3300. Friday, October 7 You are invited to Washington University for a Stu- who has been writing, drawing, and John Porcellino, Thursday, October 6 dent Presentation on Tennessee Williams’s The Glass publishing minicomics, comics, and graphic novels for over The Mystery Lovers’ Book Club invites you to join Menagerie, part of the Tennessee Williams Centennial twenty-five years, is signing books at Subterranean a book discussion. 10am, SLCL-Library Headquar- Celebration. 9am, Women’s Building Olin 2 Stu- Books. His celebrated self-published series King-Cat ters (East Room), 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300. dio, Washington University in St. Louis, Danforth Campus, Comics, begun in 1989, has inspired a generation of car- 935-5858. toonists. 7pm, Subterranean Books, 6275 Delmar Blvd., The Trailblazers Adult Book Club will be discussing 862-6100. Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress. This lively discussion Join the Tennessee Williams Centennial Cele- group digs into popular and sometimes controversial books bration as Jeremy Lawrence presents his one-man Come to and discuss Nicholas Main Street Books on a wide variety of topics. Registration is required. 10am show Tom and Rose, a portrait of Williams’s relationship Nickleby by Charles Dickens. New members welcome! and 2pm, SLCL-Jamestown Bluffs Branch, 4153 with his sister, Rose. Q&A to follow. 7pm, A.E. Hotchner Members receive 10% discount on book club books. 7pm, N. Hwy 67, 994-3300. Studio, Washington University in St. Louis, Danforth Cam- 307 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO, (636) 949-0105. Book Journeys will discuss The Giver by Lois Lowry. pus, 935-5858. Join the Brentwood Science Fiction Book Club Registration recommended. 2pm, SLCL-Indian Trails to discuss Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. No registration Saturday, October 8 Branch, 8400 Delport Dr., 994-3300. is required. Everyone is welcome to attend. 7pm, Brent- You are invited to join the Mystery Lovers Book wood Public Library, 8765 Eulalie Ave., 963-8630, Join Curator Jane Portal for a fascinating look at the Club as they discuss Aunt Dimity’s Death by Nancy www.brentwood.lib.mo.us. role of art in one of the world’s most isolated and secretive Atherton. Groups of 5+ call ahead. 10am, SLPL-Buder nations. Portal is one of the few Westerners to visit and write Branch, 4401 Hampton Ave., 352-2900. Tuesday, October 4 about North Korea and its artistic practices. She is the au- In recognition of Come join in a discussion of Kate Jacob’s Comfort Food. thor of Art Under Control in North Korea and Korea: National Disabilities Awareness Month and in collaboration with Paraquad and VSA Mis- Light refreshments will be served. 7pm, SLCL-Meramec Art and Archaeology. 6pm, Whitaker Hall Audi- souri, experience the screening of Disability Culture Valley Branch, 625 New Smizer Mill Rd., 994-3300. torium at Washington University in St. Louis. For directions and parking information, visit www.wustl.edu/ Rap. This bold and controversial film mixes artistic expres- Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library in- sion, politics, and humor to move audiences to a deeper vites you to a lecture by on “What community/visitors/maps/. Rabbi Shalom Paul understanding of disability from a minority and cultural Makes Jonah Run?” Admission is $7. Free to friends of the Authors @ Your Library presents Candice Mil- perspective. A presentation of readings from the recently Brodsky Library. 7:30pm, Kopolow Bldg., 12 Millstone Cam- lard, who will discuss and sign her book The Destiny of published anthology Where We Can Read the Wind pus Drive. For more information, call 442-3720 or email the Republic. Meticulously researched, epic in scope and [email protected]. accompanies a discussion about disability culture. 1pm, pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity SLPL-Carpenter Branch, 3309 South Grand Blvd., narrative drive, this book will stand alongside The Devil 772-6586. Wednesday, October 5 in the White City and The Professor as a classic of narrative history. Candice Millard is the New York Times The St. Louis Public Library presents African Ameri- The Thornhill Book Chat will be discussing Jenni- bestselling author of The River of Doubt. 7pm, SLPL- can Male Symposium: The Place of the Black Male in God’s fer Chia- verini’s The Sugar Camp Quilt: An Elm Schlafly Branch, 225 North Euclid Ave., 367-4120. Plan. Dr. A. Wayne Jones, author of Anagrams of Creek Quilts Novel. Set in Creek’s Dialectic Antithesis, Dr. John L. Johnson, author

11 Events in October

of Black Biblical Heritage, and Sultan Ali Muham- Come see Dr. John L. Oldani as he talks about his and 7pm, SLCL-Daniel Boone Branch (Blue Room), mad, author of My Transformation from the Gang new book, You Did What in the Ditch? Folklore of 300 Clarkson Rd., 994-3300. Mentality, will focus on African American and Hispanic the American Quilter. Not just for quilters, this book ex- Male historical and spiritual identity. Refreshments will be amines the vocabulary, sayings, folk beliefs, superstitions, Thursday, October 13 served. 1pm, SLPL-Julia Davis Branch, 4415 Natu- historical significance and even the graffiti of the American The HQ Afternoon Book Discussion Group will ral Bridge Ave., 383-3021. quilter. Books will be available for purchase and signing. meet for conversation on literature. 1:30pm, SLCL-Li- 2pm, SLCL-Florissant Valley Branch, 195 S. New brary Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994- Schlafly Branch Libraryinvites you to hear Doctor 3300. Valerie Walker, author of 131 Ways to Live 131 Florissant Rd., 994-3300 or visit www.slcl.org. Years, discuss the state of Americans and their health and The Grand Glaize Branch Book Discussion Murder of the Month Club invites you to come talk about Dorothy Francis’s Eden Palms Murder. Please healthcare. Dr. Walker practices holistic, traditional and spir- Group will talk about The Double Bind by Chris Bo- itual healing methods. Books available for sale. 2pm, SLPL- hjalian. Books are available two weeks prior to discussion ask at the circulation desk for a copy of the book. 3pm, SL- , 8400 Delport Dr., 994-3300. Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. at the Circulation Desk. 2pm, SLCL-Grand Glaize Branch, CL-Indian Trails Branch St. Louis County Library invites you to come see As part of Washington University’s Tennessee Wil- 1010 Meramec Station Rd., 994-3300. acclaimed biographer Allison Weir as she presents her liams Centennial Celebration, Jeremy Lawrence pres- Left Bank Books will be holding a discussion on Rich- new non-fiction book Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of ents his play Everybody Expects Me to Write An- ard Burgin’s Shadow Traffic. In his seventh collection Kings. 7pm, SLCL-Library Headquarters, 1640 S. other Streetcar. Q&A Reception to follow. 7pm, A.E. of stories, Richard Burgin gives us his most incisive, witty, Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300 or visit www.slcl.org. Hotchner Studio, Washington University in St. Louis, Dan- and daring collection to date as he explores the mysteries forth Campus, 935-5858. of love and identity, ambition and crime, and our ceaseless, Join the Love of Wisdom: A Philosophy Book if ambivalent, quest for truth. 7pm, Left Bank Books–CWE, Discussion as they discuss Absence of Mind: The Sunday, October 9 399 N. Euclid Ave., 367-6731. Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of Sauce Celebrity Chef Series (Left Bank Books) the Self by Marilynne Robinson. To reserve your copy, call You are invited to join a discussion on Cormac McCarthy’s presents Alton Brown, author of the newly released Michael at 772-6586. 7pm, SLPL-Carpenter Branch, The Road with the Good Eats 3: The Later Years. Like Volumes 1 and 2, this “As the Page Turns” Book 3309 South Grand Blvd. . 7pm, book packs a bounty of information and entertainment be- Discussion Group SLCL-Weber Road , 4444 Weber Rd., 994-3300. tween its covers. Brown will answer your questions and sign Branch Friday, October 14 your books, and he may do it with asparagus in hand. The The HQ Evening Book Discussion Group will Great Expectation is Rock Road’s book discussion talk is free and open to the public, but to receive a ticket to meet for conversation on literature. 7pm, SLCL-Library group, where you can expect great company, discussion the book signing line, purchase one of Alton Brown’s books Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300. and refreshments! This month’s selection is The Virgin of by Nancy Pickard. Pick up your copy of the from Left Bank Books. 4pm, Ethical Society of St. Are you interested in some literary conversation or just like Small Plains book at the circulation desk. 10am, Louis, 9001 Clayton Rd., 991-0955. to talk about the books you enjoy? Come to the Sachs SLCL-Rock Road , 10267 St. Charles Rock Rd., 994-3300. Evening Book Discussion Group! Copies of the Branch Monday, October 10 book for discussion will be available to check out prior to the SLPC’s Second Friday Notes at Whole Foods You are invited to join a discussion on Robert B. Parker’s meetings. Please ask for one at the circulation desk. 7pm, Market in the cafe. Poet Jeff Hamilton, who also teach- Jesse Stone and private investigator Sunny Split Image. SLCL-Samuel C. Sachs Branch, 16400 Burkhardt es at Washington University, will read along with poet Lisa Randall team up to solve two cases: the gunshot murder of Pl., 994-3300. Pepper and singer- Craig Jacobson. Ham- Petrov Ognowski and a religious cult holding an 18-year- Join the Brentwood Book Club to discuss The ilton and Pepper are part of the curatorial team for Observ- old girl against her will. 1:30pm, SLCL-Weber Road able Readings, another SLPC reading series. 7pm, at Branch, 4444 Weber Rd., 994-3300. Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. No registration is required. Everyone is welcome to attend. 7pm, Brent- Whole Foods Market in Town and Country, 973-0616. In this week’s , , Monday Noon Series Ron Ebest wood Public Library, 8765 Eulalie Ave., 963-8630, Monday, October 17 English professor at St. Louis Community College-Floris- www.brentwood.lib.mo.us. sant Valley, will read from his new novel, The Dave Store In this week’s Monday Noon Series, Richard M. Massacre, an updated story of the Matewan Massacre. The Foreign Literature Group will discuss Death and Cook, UMSL English professor, discusses the “truth” of This massacre was a bloody 1920 shoot-out between coal the Penguin, by Andrey Kurkov. 7:30pm, WU West self-writing (journals, memoirs, autobiographies), a concern miners and strike beakers, now transplanted to the present Campus Center, 7425 Forsyth, 727-6118. raised in his work on American critic and autobiographer Al- and set in a discount chain store. But cheer up: it’s a come- Wednesday, October 12 fred Kazin. Cook is the author of Alfred Kazin: A Biog- dy, sort of…. 12:15pm, raphy and editor of Alfred Kazin’s Journals. 12:15pm, Rm. 222, JC Penney Center, Join the Bookies Book Discussion Group to dis- , 516-5699. Rm. 222, JC Penney Center, UMSL, 516-5699. UMSL cuss Julie of the Wolves by Jean C. George. 2pm, SL- St. Louis County Library and Left Bank Books CL-Oak Bend Branch, 842 S. Holmes Ave., 994-3300. Come to Main Street Books and discuss the Immor- tal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. New invite you to come see Sharon Kay Penman as she will talk Boone’s Bookies Discussion Group members welcome! Members receive 10% discount on book presents Lionheart, a stunning story of a great medieval about Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simon- club books. 7pm, 307 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO, (636) warrior-king, the accomplished and controversial son of son. In a small English town, retired and widowed Major Er- 949-0105. Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Richard, Coeur de Lion. nest Pettigrew is an old-school Englishman. He meets Mrs. 7pm, SLCL-Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lind- Jasmina Ali, a Pakistani widow and food shop owner. De- Gerald Early will read from and discuss his book A Level bergh Blvd., 994-3300 or visit www.slcl.org. spite many interferences, a friendship begins to blossom. Playing Field: African American Athletes Tuesday, October 11 Refreshments will be served. Registration encouraged. 2pm and the Republic of Sports. 7pm, Uni-

12 Events in October

versity City Library, 6701 Delmar, 727-3150. The St. Louis Poetry Center (SLPC) in collabo- Are you looking for a critique group? If you ration with Washington University Libraries are a writer living in the St. Louis Metro area, be sure to presents “Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker”—a check out one of these critique groups sponsored by the Wednesday, October 19 reading of the poetry and letters of Elizabeth Bishop with Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illus- Authors @ Your Library presents Nikki Grimes, guest poet readers, Mary Jo Bang, Lorin Cuoco, trators (SCBWI): winner of numerous awards including Coretta Scott King William Gass, Carl Phillips and Catherine The St. Charles group meets the first Wednesday of honors, here to launch Reading Pays-Pass It On! For chil- Rankovic, and the author Joelle Biele, the editor each month at 7pm at the Mid Rivers Barnes and Noble. Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Com- dren in grades 3-5, this program is modeled after Read It of For more information, contact Stephanie Bearce at plete Correspondence, Forward, the popular program that gets teens talking about published this year. Free. 4pm, [email protected]. books. This inaugural program is partially funded by the St. Washington University, Danforth Campus, Wilson Hall Louis Community Credit Union. Children (or parents who 214, with reception to follow in Olin Library’s Ginko Room, The Florissant group meets the second Thursday of show their child’s library card) can pick up a copy of Make 935-5410. each month at 7pm at Florissant Presbyterian Church. Way for Dyamonde Daniel by Grimes while supplies For more information, contact Sue Bradford Edwards, last. 6pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 North Euclid Tuesday, October 25 [email protected]. Ave., 367-4120. SLPC’s Poetry at the Point features Mary Ann The St. Louis City group meets the third Sunday of Thursday, October 20 deGrandpre Kelly, Rebecca Ellis, and Pame- the month at Borders in Brentwood at 2:30pm. For con- la Garvey. Doors open at 7pm; the reading begins at tact information, email Jessica Saigh, jessicasaigh@sw- Left Bank Books invites you to attend a discussion of 7:30pm. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd. in Maple- bell.net. Amina Gautier’s At-Risk. Amina Gautier’s stories explore wood. www.stlouispoetrycenter.org. the lives of young African Americans who might all be clas- The writer’s group in West St. Louis Coun- sified as “at-risk,” yet who encounter different opportunities Wednesday, October 26 ty is also looking for several new members. They and dangers in their particular neighborhoods and schools The Central Book Discussion Group invites meet the third Monday at 6:30pm at Borders on Olive/ through the lens of different family experiences. 7pm, Left you to discuss contemporary and classic literature. New Ballas in Creve Coeur. Please contact Cindy Reeg Bank Books—Downtown, 321 N. 10th St., 367-6731. members welcome! No registration required. This month’s if you are interested, [email protected]. selection is Paul Auster’s Follies. 4pm, SL- The Creve Coeur Critique Group meets on the Friday, October 21 PL-Schlafly Branch Library, 225 N. Euclid Ave., second Tuesday of each month at the St. Louis Bread Co. Please join Subterranean Books at COCA for an 367-4120. on North Ballas, in the Balmoral Plaza shopping center evening with Daniel Woodrell. There will be a Q&A, Meet as he launches The Medusa (just south of Olive) at 6:30pm. If you are interested in a film screening of Winter’s Bone—the adaptation of Gordon Korman Plot, the first book in his new 39 Clues series, Cahills vs joining, contact Katie Gast at [email protected]. Woodrell’s novel—and a book signing of Woodrell’s new- Vespers. Doors open at 6:30pm; program starts at 7pm, est release, The Outlaw Album. Doors open at 5:30pm; The Loosely Identified Poetry Critique Group talk begins with Q&A at 6pm; 7-7:30pm book signing; film St. Charles City-County Library, Kathryn meets the second Friday of the month at 6:30pm at the 2323 Elm St., St. Charles MO, begins at 7:30pm. For ticket information, visit http:// Linnemann Branch, University City Library auditorium. All women (636) 723-0232. orders.cocastl.org/single/EventDetail.aspx?p=663. COCA poets welcome. For more information contact: Becky Ellis (Center of Creative Arts), 524 Trinity Ave., University City, Thursday, October 27 [email protected]. 725-6555. Come to a fiction reading at Webster University by author Abbreviations Saturday, October 22 John McNally, writer of After The Workshop and STL: St. Louis; B&N: Barnes & Noble; KPL: Kirkwood The Book of Ralph. 1:30pm, Pearson House, Authors @ Your Library invites you to attend as Public Library; LBB: Left Bank Books; SLCL: St. Louis Webster University, 8260 Big Bend Blvd. For more New York Times best-selling author Stephanie County Library; SLPL: St. Louis Public Library; SCCCL: information, contact Professor Karen Miller, 968-7170. Pearl-McPhee, a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot, discusses and St. Charles City County Library; UCPL: University City signs her new book, All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot The Schlafly Book Discussion group reads and Public Library; UMSL: University of Missouri-St. Louis; Writes for a Spin. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is the au- discusses contemporary literature every fourth Thursday of WU: Washington University; WGPL: Webster Groves thor of several knitting books and two collections of knitting- the month. This month’s discussion will be Suzanne Col- Public Library. related essays: Yarn Harlot and Free-Range Knit- lins’s The Hunger Games. 7pm, SLPL- Schlafly Check the online calendar at cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu ter. She maintains a popular blog at www.yarnharlot.ca/ Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. for more events and additional details. To advertise, send blog. 2pm, SLPL-Buder Branch, 4401 Hampton Ave., Upcoming Events and Notices event details to [email protected], fax 935-4889, or 352-2900. call 935-5576. St. Louis Writer’s Guild invites you to a workshop

Sunday, October 23 held at the Kirkwood Community Center on the 1st The BookClub’s 429th discussion will be on The Im- Saturday of every month from 10am until noon. mortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. We’ll meet on the 2nd floor (room # to be announced). For more information on time and venue, email lloydk@ There is an elevator and plenty of parking. 111 S. Geyer klinedinst.com. Rd., www.stlwritersguild.org.

13 Announcements

Full Disclosure African American A Documentary Film by Brian Palmer Children’s Literature and the Importance of Wednesday, October 12, 7 p.m., Wilson 214 the Obscure (with a reception in Olin Library’s Ginkgo Reading Room Friday, October 28, 2 p.m., immediately following the screening) Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201 The film, shot by Brian A Lecture by Kate Capshaw Smith Palmer during his time as an embedded journalist with a The presentation will U.S. Marine combat unit in explore forgotten texts Iraq, concentrates on the daily for young people by activities of American troops African American authors and the effects of combat on of the Harlem Renaissance the troops themselves as well and Black Arts move- as on Iraqi civilians. Palmer ments, addressing the made his first trip to Iraq as a following questions: How journalist and photographer in does awareness of these 2004. Armed only with a pen texts help us reconsider and a camera, he felt that his the ideological, generic, essays and photographs did and political investments U.S. Marine searches Iraqi sheikh entering Forward Operating not sufficiently capture the ex- of African American literature? How do the children’s Base Iskandariyah, August 2004. perience. So when he returned texts reflect the process of building a black reader- in 2005 and 2006, he brought a ship? What do the texts indicate about youth activ- video camera. ism and literary experimentalism? And, of course, “I tried to probe deeper into the stories of the Marines and the Iraqi men and why are these texts obscure in the first place? How women I met,” Palmer says. The film also explores the filmmaker’s conflicting role does this neglect reflect the contours of literary his- as an impartial journalist sometimes mistaken for a Marine. “My presence affected tory? The presentation will address a range of texts, everyone’s behavior. Although I didn’t carry a gun, I looked intimidating in my including self-published ABC books, a short-lived black helmet, desert camouflage bulletproof vest, and combat boots,” he says. socialist children’s magazine, and black power photo- “Small children cried and ran away if I came too close.” graphic texts. Authors include the unknown writers Brain Palmer is an independent journalist and filmmaker. He has written for Anselmo R. Jackson, O.A. Pierce, and Kali Grosvenor, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post, Pixel Press.org, and ColorLines, among others, as well as the major voices of Claude McKay and June and has produced video projects for various outlets including PBS and MTV. He is Jordan. a Fellow at NYU’s Center on Law and Security and the recipient of a Nation Insti- Kate Capshaw Smith is Associate Professor of Eng- tute grant for reporting in Bangladesh in 2010. Palmer received a Ford Foundation lish at the University of Connecticut. Her monograph Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom grant in 2008 to complete Full Disclosure. He on children’s literature of the Harlem Renaissance is an instructor at The School of Visual Arts in New York City and an adjunct in- structor at Baruch College, City University of New York. won the 2006 award for Best Scholarly Book from the Children’s Literature Association. She is currently the In conjunction with the screening, an exhibition of Palmer’s photography and editor of the Children’s Literature Association Quar- journal excerpts will be featured in the Grand Staircase Lobby in Olin Library. Also terly, and she is working on a new book on twenti- on display will be war-related materials from the Libraries’ Department of Special eth-century photography and black childhood. Collections. For more information, contact the Libraries’ Film & Media Archive at 314-935-6154. This event is sponsored jointly by The Center for the Humanities and University Libraries. Both lectures are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided at each event. Please contact the Center for the Humanities at 314-935-5576 to order a free parking sticker and to reserve a seat.

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