February 2011 | Vol. IX No. 6

One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads Children and Religion: Nancy Berg Professor of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures Interfaith Families and Children’s Books Ken Botnick Professor of Art The Center for the frank account of a teenage girl’s Director of Kranzberg Book Studio Humanities is approach- journey toward sexual maturity, Gene Dobbs Bradford Executive Director ing the fifth anniversary but the titular Margaret is also a Jazz St. Louis of its Children’s Studies religious seeker, visiting syna- Elizabeth Childs Associate Professor and Chair of Minor, and this spring gogues and churches in an effort Department of Art History and I’m teaching a new course to understand the spirituality Archaeology Mary-Jean Cowell for the minor: “Children that her Jewish father and Chris- Associate Professor of Performing Arts and Childhood in World tian mother have tried to avoid. Phyllis Grossman Religions.” My course Today, the mechanics of Mar- Retired Financial Executive Michael A. Kahn devotes a few weeks in garet’s “sanitary napkins” are Attorney, Author and turn to each of the world’s outdated, but her spiritual quest Adjunct Professor of Law major religious traditions, is still very relevant, which may Zurab Karumidze Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia but that does not always explain why the novel was reis- Peter Kastor reflect the religious reali- sued just last year. A handful Associate Professor of History and American Culture Studies Program ties of children, at least in of recent YA novels (Praying to Chris King the United States. More A.L., The Mozart Season, Sam I Editorial Director than a quarter of married The St. Louis American Newspaper Am) have followed Margaret’s Olivia Lahs-Gonzales American adults have example, portraying a search Director chosen a partner with a for religious identity within an Sheldon Art Galleries Steven Meyer different religious affilia- interfaith family as part of a Associate Professor of English tion, so it’s clear that a lot of American children coming-of-age narrative. Joe Pollack are exposed to more than one faith within their Writer For younger children, there is now a sizable families. I myself was part of that demographic Anne Posega literature of picture books devoted entirely to Head of Special Collections, Olin Library as a child, and I still have to explain Granddad’s the Hanukkah-Christmas interchange, gener- Qiu Xiaolong Christmas tree to my Hanukkah-celebrating ally with goodwill toward all. Many of the Novelist and Poet family every December. Fortunately, the same Joseph Schraibman entries in this category are too didactic for my Professor of Spanish approach works with both my kids and my stu- taste, but I enjoy Margaret Moorman’s Light Henry Schvey dents: for a day or two, I haul out a short stack The Lights (1994), which uses beautiful illus- Professor of Drama of children’s books that deal with interfaith Wang Ning trations and simple words to describe a family Professor of English, Tsinghua University childhoods. where both Hanukkah and Christmas traditions James Wertsch Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and When I was growing up, there was exactly are celebrated. It’s when the story goes beyond Sciences one volume in the children’s section of the local Hanukkah and Christmas that things really get Associate Vice Chancellor for International Affairs library that addressed interfaith questions: Judy interesting, though. I especially admire James Ex Officio Blume’s controversial Are You There God? It’s Howe’s award-winning Kaddish for Grandpa Edward S. Macias Me, Margaret (1970). Blume’s breakthrough in Jesus’ Name Amen (2004), which presents Provost & Exec VC for Academic Affairs Gary S. Wihl young-adult novel is probably best known for its a young girl’s efforts to deal with her Dean of Arts & Sciences President’s Week Lectures with Princeton University Historian Sean Wilentz

Andrew Jackson Abraham Lincoln Ulysses S. Grant Last year the Center for the Humanities, in partnership 2. Abraham Lincoln: This lecture focuses on Lin- with the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH) coln’s connection to democracy, nationalism, and and University Libraries, sponsored the first President’s slavery and argues that Lincoln entwined democratic Day lecture with historian Patricia O’Toole speaking on nationalism with adamant antislavery by the time he Theodore Roosevelt. This year the Annual Humanities was inaugurated president in 1861. In taking issue Lectures Series, jointly sponsored by the Center for the with the idea that Lincoln initially prized the Union Humanities and IPH, will feature three lectures on U.S. presidents by noted Princeton historian Sean Wilentz to over antislavery, the lecture will pay special attention be given during the week of February 21, 2011. Wilentz to Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address. is the author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jef- Wednesday, February 23, 5pm, Formal Lounge, ferson to Lincoln (2005), The Age of Reagan: A History, The Women’s Building, Washington University 1974-2008 (2008), Chants Democratic: New York City 3. The final lecture focuses on and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850 Ulysses S. Grant: (1984), Andrew Jackson, part of the American Presidents’ Grant, one of the most reviled presidents of the nine- series edited by the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (2005), teenth century. In coming to his (partial) defense, and most recently, Bob Dylan in America (2010). the lecture will examine Grant’s version of demo- Wilentz’s three lectures are as follows: cratic nationalism amid the violence of Reconstruc- tion, with particular reference to the Ku Klux Klan 1. Three Presidents—Andrew Jack- Andrew Jackson: Act of 1871. son, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. Grant—were the most important political figures amid the three great Thursday, February 24, 5pm, Formal Lounge, political transformations of the mid-nineteenth century: The Women’s Building, Washington University the rise of party democracy, the triumph of an American All lectures are free and open to the public, please nationalism that repudiated secession, and the aboli- call 314-935-5576 to reserve a seat and receive a park- tion of slavery and pursuit of interracial democracy. All three men contributed to advancing the democratic ing pass. Short readings accompanying the lectures are nationalism that brought about slavery’s eradication and at: http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu the experiment of Reconstruction. This opening lecture lays out these propositions and then examines Jackson’s connections to democracy, nationalism, and slavery, culminating in the nullification crisis of 1832-33. Tuesday, February 22, 5pm, Formal Lounge, The Women’s Building, Washington University book of the month by Gerald Early

Review of with whom he played make-believe that ultimately led to Peter Pan (Neverland: J.M. Barrie, the Du 1. The Great White Father and for whom he became guardian Mauriers, and the Dark Side of Before the release of the 2004 when their stylish mother, Sylvia Peter Pan) filmFinding Neverland, it is quite du Maurier, died at the age of 43 in By Piers Dudgeon likely that few Americans knew 1910, three years after her husband, who James Matthew Barrie (1860- Arthur Llewelyn Davies, had died Pegasus Books, 2009, 333 pages 1937) was. To be sure, everyone in an appalling death from cancer of including index, notes, appendix, the English-speaking world knew the jaw in 1907. How Barrie—this and photos his great work, Peter Pan, the play odd man who was barely five feet, (1904) and the novel (1911), and three inches, the diminutive son of some may have connected this work a lower-middle-class Scots weaver, to Barrie’s name. But few people not handsome, not stylish, not Brit- actually knew who he was, andfew ish public school (although Captain could name anything else he had Hook certainly was), not Bohemian written (he was a highly produc- a la the du Mauriers, not conven- tive playwright and novelist who tionally professional middle-class wrote, among other works, The like the Llewelyn Davies, not even, Admirable Crichton, a noted play at times, especially well-tempered that was made into a film in 1957), (although like many of us he could and most no longer knew the story be exceedingly charming when he of how Peter Pan had come to be felt the need or the urge to be)— written although for a time that was wound up the father to five children well-known: the story of Barrie and to whom he was not related by the Llewelyn Davies boys, whom blood or marriage, despite being he met in Kensington Gardens, disliked or at least seen as suspect with whom he developed a rapport, by both the Llewelyn Davies and

Children and Religion: Interfaith Families and Children’s Books continued from page 1 grandfather’s death genre, and they are likely to appeal to a wider audience. set against a back- What’s still missing from my list are interfaith children’s drop of both Jewish books in combinations beyond Judaism and Christianity. and Christian Despite the increasing diversity of the American reli- mourning customs. gious landscape, I’ve found only one picture book about a Several very good Muslim-Christian family, and that was written as part of a books tackle cul- dissertation. I welcome further reading suggestions, either tural and religious for me or for the Center’s collection of children’s literature. issues simultane- Meanwhile, my family will be resorting to TV, where the ously: in Natasha family of PBS’s Sid the Science Kid celebrates Hanukkah, Wing’s Jalapeño Christmas, and the African-American holiday Kwan- Bagels (1996) zaa—but only as setup for an episode about the science of Pablo must decide temperature change! whether to bring his mother’s pan dulce or his father’s challah to school for International Day, and in Deborah Wendy Love Anderson, who holds a Ph.D. in Religious Bodin Cohen’s Papa Jethro (2007) a contemporary Chris- History from the University of Chicago, is the Academic tian grandfather tells his Jewish granddaughter about the Coordinator for the Center for the Humanities. Expect to interfaith (and, in the illustrations, multiracial) family of see more of her writing in the pages of the Center’s publi- the biblical Moses. These stories are more complex and cations in the future. Associate Director Jian Leng’s more compelling than most in the December-specific sub- column will resume next month. book of the month continued the du Maurier families, is one ended Barrie’s marriage. Sylvia’s of the remarkable stories in husband, Arthur, never liked Barrie, the history of English literary who was, for him, a persistent and studies. Why he wanted to be unwanted guest, although he rec- their father is something of a onciled himself to Barrie when he mystery: was it because he was was dying, in part because he knew impotent and could not have Barrie had the wherewithal to help children of his own, because a young widow with five children. he passionately loved Sylvia Besides, Barrie was never a sexual Llewelyn Davies, because he threat, so he could be tolerated was an altruistic and gener- if Sylvia found him entertaining. ous man, because he was Sylvia, indeed, took advantage of something of a child himself the fact that Barrie was not a sexual and was drawn to children, or competitor to her husband and because he was a misbegotten Michael, dressed as Pan, playing up to Barrie’s therefore did not really threaten to social and psychological can- Captain Hook. alienate her affections by self-in- cer who wanted to destroy the Father (which was the second title dulgently basking in the glow of his boys? All of these have been pro- for Peter Pan, combining colonial worship of her, going on trips abroad posed; the last is the theory of Piers paternalism—the Indians—with with him and the like. Unlike in the Dudgeon, vividly and venomously make-believe fatherhood—the Lost film, Frohman lovedPeter Pan when expressed in Neverland: J.M. Barrie, Boys—before American impresario he first read it, and it was his idea the Du Mauriers, and the Dark Side Charles Frohman had the good sense to cast the lead role with a woman of Peter Pan. “Barrie is the disen- to change it). How could it be other- rather than a boy because he felt it chanted interloper, maimed by his wise with such a winsome actor like would make it easier to cast the Lost parents and programmed to maim. . Johnny Depp playing the role! Just Boys without respect to Peter Pan’s . ,” writes Dudgeon. He is described having him played by a handsome, age. The Barrie play that preceded as having a “malign power over the charismatic actor erases nine-tenths Peter Pan, Little Mary, ran for over whole [Llewelyn Davies] family.” of Barrie’s neuroses and psychologi- 200 performances, so it was hardly a He is “the only imp in this story.” cal entanglements. Further, here is failure as the film suggests. In fact, Dudgeon writes of Barrie’s youth- an attempt to make the story of the at the time right before the premiere ful worship of older writers Thomas creation of Peter Pan as heartwarm- of Peter Pan, Barrie was one of the Carlyle and George Meredith, ing and life affirming as, supposed- most successful and one of the rich- “Stalking came naturally to him.” ly, Peter Pan itself is. Of course, by est writers in Great Britain. Peter More about this glittering hatred for now, everyone knows that the film, Pan only made him more so. Barrie anon. Whatever else can be like all Hollywood-type biopics, The discrepancies are not what said about him, Barrie was one tena- takes liberties: Sylvia had five sons, matter here at all, however. No cious, pushy, and, in some respects, not four; she was cavorting with sensible person expects a dramatic uniquely sinister man, endowed with Barrie (platonically) while she was film to be a documentary or pure a sort of creepy, ironic innocence. married; in fact, she met Barrie on biography but rather a stylization One biographer called Barrie “con- December 31, 1897, (nearly 13 years of a person’s life. What is interest- sciously innocent,” which seems like before she died) right after having ing about Finding Neverland are a contradiction. her third son, Peter, named after the the major themes: the idealization Although literary critics and main character in Peter Ibbetson, of parenthood as unconditional biographers have mixed opinions a novel by her novelist/illustrator devotion, the belief that children’s of Barrie as both a writer and a father, George du Maurier. (Barrie fantasies need to be encouraged and person, Hollywood (or in this case named his St. Bernard Porthos after indulged in order for children to be Hollywood’s British counterpart), the St. Bernard in the novel, one of truly children, the displacement of disdaining ambiguity as something the first things he told Sylvia upon religion (and, in a profound sense, that is usually bad for the box office, meeting her.) Mary Barrie, Bar- piety) by the secular faith in the gives us a Barrie in Finding Never- rie’s actress wife, actually became magic of faith in oneself (one does land that is all sweetness and light. fairly friendly with Sylvia,, who, it is not have to believe in something; Here we have the good Barrie, said, encouraged Mary’s affair with one merely has to believe in one’s Barrie as The Great White Gilbert Cannan, which ultimately ability to believe), and the major idea that there is something wondrous and transformative; feminism as the such as Wullschlager and Piers Dud- about being a child. It is striking rebellion of girlhood; motherhood geon for being impotent, a repressed that instead of being troubled by this as fate; sex as woman-driven; death homosexual, a conniving sexual assortment of bourgeois romanti- as heroic, inevitable, and cruelly manipulator, and a secret pedophile. cism, viewers generally feel affirmed inflicted; desire as the conflation of (So much sexual dysfunction, preda- by it in a grand quest for innocence, the real and make-believe; and the tion, and dishonesty in one person!) a conscious innocence, which was denial of desire as innocence. The But if one wants to read something what Barrie was accused of having, story is, as Jackie Wullschlager ar- sexual into Peter Pan’s “abduction” which may have been the chord upon gues in Inventing Wonderland: Vic- of the Darling children to Neverland, which he established his popular- torian Childhood as Seen through it must be remembered that at first ity with the public. His brilliant the Lives and Fantasies of Lewis he wanted none of them (he came mythology of conscious innocence Carroll, Edward Lear, J. M. Barrie, to their home only for his shadow), filled the public’s need for it. (Noth- Kenneth Grahame, and A. A. Milne and then he only wanted Wendy to ing makes adults more willfully (1995), the complex dreamscape of tell stories to the Lost Boys. (She delusional, more blinded by simplis- the neurotic preoccupations of the manipulated Peter by telling him tic sentiment, than woolgathering adult males of the Edwardian era that as she tried to manipulate Peter about the innocence of childhood.) built around “a playful, wild outdoor into feeling sexual towards her.) He But Barrie may have understood the hero who never ages, combining in had no interest in her brothers until limitations, the banality of the idea one image the delights of the rural Wendy persuaded him to take them of childhood innocence, even as he and childhood retreat.” Peter Pan as well. If Peter is supposed to be exploited it, when he said at the 1912 is sort of Dorian Gray for children Barrie, I am not sure what any of unveiling of a statue of Peter Pan in and the young at heart. The sheer that sequence is supposed to mean in Kensington Gardens, which Bar- complexity of the work (Peter Pan some autobiographical sense. rie commissioned and paid for, “It himself does not remember anything But, in any case, if Finding Never- doesn’t show the Devil in Peter.” In and so feels no close connection to land gives us the good Barrie, books the first draft of the play, there was anyone, is tormented by bad dreams, like Dudgeon’s Neverland and Wul- no Captain Hook as Peter, “a de- is completely self-centered, hates lschlager’s Inventing Wonderland mon boy,” was the villain. Finding mothers, kills fathers, and exercises give us the bad Barrie, the perverted, Neverland suggests that the bour- absolute authority over the Lost nihilistic Barrie who wormed his geois innocence—the consciously Boys), so well disguised as simplic- way into a family that he ultimately constructed innocence—that was ity and childhood delight, makes the destroyed. Dudgeon’s thesis is that the story of the making of Peter Pan work as ripe for psychoanalytical first, Barrie’s mother, embittered by was a reflection of thePeter Pan deconstruction these days as is Bar- the accidental death of her favorite story itself. Dudgeon is right that rie himself, who is now commonly son, David, at the age of 13, twisted the tale is darker, not darker than we criticized by critics her younger son, Jamie, as J. know, but darker than we wish M. was called, aiding him in to acknowledge. developing “a philosophy of self- 2. “Boy, Why Are You interest, justified on the altar of Crying?” expediency. . . the stratagem to dissemble came with no hom- The novel version of Peter ily on moral virtue attached. . . Pan is a strangely blended mixture of whimsicality (Bar- ‘finding a way’ was the priority, rie’s stock in trade); British so- a matter not of solving a prob- cial satire; romantic racialism; lem, but of manipulation and masculine sentimentality as control. . . Their pact was Faus- boy adventure; outlawry as a tian, a loveless blood pact, ines- form of bourgeois self-absorp- capable.” Barrie had a strange tion; mother fixation as both relationship with his mother love and hatred; father fixa- after the death of his brother; he tion as virility envy, fear, and desired her love and was envious hatred; the war between youth of how much she continued to love the lost, favorite broth- and age; migration as magical Sylvia with George, the first-born of her five sons. book of the month continued er. He was very close to his mother, destroy a number of letters between that Barrie was a hypnotist and was and her stories about growing up in Michael Llewelyn Davies and Barrie something like a Svengali to the Kirriemuir, Scotland, became the because they seemed to have over- Llewelyn Davies family. (Hypno- basis for a series of stories that ef- whelmed him in their emotional tism was the rage at the time of the fectively launched his literary career. intensity. (He did not destroy them publication of Trilby. Even famous He also wrote her biography, Mar- all.) He consulted with his cousin, magicians like Houdini and Howard garet Ogilvy, published in December novelist Daphne du Maurier, in 1949 Thurston would eventually fake it 1896, which is as much about Barrie about the family history, particularly in their levitation acts.) Moreover, as it is about his mother. But it is wanting to learn more about their Barrie was the anti-du Maurier. Du one thing to say their relationship grandfather, George du Maurier, and Maurier’s “satire was upbeat and was strange; it is quite another to say they sustained their relationship until palpably sincere; a cynical drop of it was diseased. Dudgeon suggests Peter’s death. (Daphne knew Bar- acid was the very essence of Barrie’s that Barrie may have been respon- rie and in fact wrote quite glowingly genius. [Du Maurier] was a Roman- sible for the accidental death of his about him in her biography of her tic; he worshipped beauty. Feeling older brother, David, which so dev- father, Gerald, who acted in several was what he was all about. But astated Margaret: “Suppose Jamie of Barrie’s plays, including playing Barrie confessed he was incapable of [Barrie] had travelled from Kir- Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in ‘a genuine feeling that wasn’t senti- riemuir to Bothwell Academy [where the first production ofPeter Pan. ment,’ hated music, had no interest David attended school]. . .at the end But Peter Llewelyn Davies’s feelings in art.” Uncovering du Maurier’s in- of the Christmas holiday in order to werecomplicated by the fact that he fluence on Barrie is useful; Barrie as celebrate David’s birthday with him, needed Barrie’s money to launch anti-du Maurier is lit crit or textual in particular to go skating with him, him in the publishing business, that analysis that may be right or may be taking a brand new pair of birthday he was disappointed with his share simply labored and thesis-ridden or skates to Rothesay. Suppose Jamie. . in Barrie’s will, and that he had very a sloppy mixture of over-reading and .‘accidentally’ knocked David down little to show for himself aside from interpretative accuracy. and was the one who ‘fractured’ his what Barrie had provided for him Why was Barrie so attracted to the skull?” Dudgeon admits all of this and the fame Barrie had given him Llewelyn Davies family? Was Bar- is “highly speculative.” No kidding! and his brothers with Barrie’s self- rie the troubled and perverse cynic The fact is that Barrie was six years published photo/scrapbook, The Boy that Dudgeon makes him out to be? old at the time of his brother’s death, Castaways of Black Lake Island, (A less fevered book would have and there is not a shred of evidence about playing pirate games with the made this charge of Barrie-as-evil- to support this scenario and virtually boys during the summer of 1901, interloper more convincing by being no evidence to support how he char- and, of course, Peter Pan. That more measured and nuanced.) Did acterizes Barrie’s relationship with Peter disliked Barrie and felt he was Barrie know hypnotism, and did he his mother. It is this sort of per- an interloper is understandable; that use it on the Llewelyn Davies boys? sistent speculation about the “evil” Peter was obsessed about Barrie’s Did Barrie sexually assault any of Barrie, the Bad Barrie, that makes relationship with his mother, Sylvia, the Llewelyn Davies boys? Barrie Dudgeon’s book seem a bit like it’s and with his brothers, George and did not like all the boys equally, and on a mission to destroy Barrie no Michael, both of whom were clos- they did not all equally like him. matter what. est to Barrie and who died as young But they were all grateful to him in The second part of Dudgeon’s men—a World War I casualty and an some measure. He was generous to thesis is that Peter Llewelyn Davies, apparent suicide--is also understand- them, almost overly indulgent when who had never been very fond of able and clearly led to the composi- he became their guardian. And of Barrie since boyhood, committed tion of “The Morgue”; that Barrie all the extant letters from the boys suicide in 1960 at the age of 63 be- blighted Peter and was the cause of themselves, even into their manhood, cause Barrie had somehow blighted his committing suicide is not nearly not one suggests that Barrie ever mo- him. For roughly fifteen years so clear or obvious. lested them. Alas, that doesn’t prove before his death, Peter had worked The third part of Dudgeon’s thesis it didn’t happen. on a family history, “The Morgue,” is that Barrie was obsessed with So, we are caught between the which, because of the letters and George du Maurier and strongly good Barrie and the bad Barrie. other information it includes, has influenced by du Maurier’s novels, One day, a filmmaker or a biogra- become an important source for Peter IIbbetson (1891) and Trilby pher will give us the real Barrie. Barrie scholars. But Peter did (1894). Indeed, Dudgeon suggests newspaper. 7pm, Left Bank Books CWE, 399 ringer, the author turns to the patrons of a Events in N. Euclid Ave., 367-6731. grand old New York saloon as substitutes for February You are invited to join Kevin Brockmei- his family. Registration is required. 7pm, SL- er, the author of The Brief History of the CL-Grand Glaize Branch, 1010 Mera- Dead and The Truth About Celia and one mec Station Rd., 994-3300. of Granta magazine’s Best Young American You are invited to join Alice Hoffman, au- Novelists, as he discusses and signs his new thor of the beloved and critically acclaimed book, The Illumination. 7pm, St. Louis novels Here on Earth and Practical Tuesday, February 1 Public Library-Schlafly Branch, 225 Magic, for a discussion and signing of her Come join the Machacek Book Discus- N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. new novel, The Red Garden. 7pm, SLCL- sion Group. Please call for the current Come join the Writer’s Workshop, where writ- Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., selection. All are welcome. 10am, SLPL- ers 16 years and up are invited to present their 994-3300. Machacek Branch, 6424 Scanlan Ave., own works-in-progress of fiction, poetry, and St. Louis Poetry Center presents Ob- 781-2948. essays in a supportive atmosphere of con- servable Readings at Schlafly Bot- Webster Groves Public Library in- structive critique. A moderator will lead the tleworks, featuring poets Lynn Emanuel vites you to discuss Middle Passage by discussion. 7pm, SLCL-Grand Glaize and Allison Funk. 8pm, 7260 Southwest Charles Johnson. 6pm. The library is in its tem- Branch, 1010 Meramec Station Rd., 994- Ave., www.stlouispoetrycenter.org/observable. porary location on 3232 S. Brentwood Blvd., 3300. Webster Groves, 961-3784. The Mystery Book Club invites you to a Tuesday, February 8 Left Bank Books presents Helen Simon- discussion of Deeper than the Dead by Join the Grand Glaize Library Book son whose debut novel, Major Pettigrew’s Tami Hoag. 7pm, SLCL-Florissant Val- Discussion Group! The selection is The Last Stand, centers around Major Ernest ley Branch, 195 New Florissant Rd., 994- Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This Pettigrew, a most honorable though slightly 3300. book is available two weeks prior to discus- irascible gentleman whose safe and predict- sion at the front desk. 2pm, SLCL-Grand able life is forever changed when his friend- Friday, February 4 Glaize Branch, 1010 Meramec Station ship with the enchanting shopkeeper Jasmina You are invited to an author event with Ron Rd., 994-3300. Ali evolves into something more. 7pm, Left Reagan, who will discuss and sign his book The Foreign Literature Reading Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave., 367-6731. My Father at 100: A Memoir. 7pm, SL- Group will discuss The Street of Croco- The Adult Book Discussion group will CL-Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh diles by Bruno Schulz. 7:30pm, Washington be looking at Major Pettigew’s Last Stand Blvd., 994-3300. University’s West Campus Center, 7425 For- by Helen Simonson. Light refreshments will syth, 727-6118. be served. 7pm, SLCL-Meramec Valley Saturday, February 5 Branch, 625 New Smizer Mill Rd., 994-3300. The Saturday Afternoon Book Club Wednesday, February 9 will be discussing The Street by Ann Petry. Best-selling author Bobbi Smith, the Wednesday, February 2 2pm, Webster Groves Public Library. “Queen of the Western Romance,” will share Borders Book Club in Sunset Hills will be The library is in its temporary location on 3232 her publishing success at Chesterfield Arts! meeting in Borders Cafe to discuss Let the S. Brentwood Blvd., 961-3784. Smith has published over 40 novels and nu- Great World Spin by Colum McCann. 7pm, You are invited to join the Black History Month merous short stories, has appeared on the New Borders, 10990 Sunset Hills Plaza, 909-0300. Book Talk & Panel Discussion with Dr. Louis York Times Best Seller List, the USA Today Best Seller List, Walden’s Best Seller List and Left Bank Books presents Lise Saffran, au- Gerteis, professor of history at UMSL. He will set the stage for a panel discussion with a book many more. All are welcome at this FREE thor of the novel Juno’s Daughters, reading River Valley Authors Series event. 7pm, from her work. 7pm, 399 N. Euclid Ave., 367- talk about his research and examination of the The Gallery at Chesterfield Arts, 444 6731. Civil War in St. Louis with perspectives on the African-American experience during the Civil Chesterfield Center Dr., Suite 130, Chester- Thursday, February 3 War. 2pm, SLPL-Julia Davis Branch, field, 636-519-1955, www.chesterfieldarts.org. The Trailblazers Adult Book Club will 4415 Natural Bridge Ave., 383-3021. Join the Bookies Book Discussion be discussing Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Ar- Group to discuss The Good Earth by cher. Registration is required. 10am, SLCL- Monday, February 7 Pearl Buck. Visitors welcome; open member- Jamestown Bluffs Branch, 4153 N. Mary Troy, director of UMSL’s MFA ship. 2pm, SLCL-Oak Bend Branch, Highway 67, 994-3300. Program in Creative Writing, editor 842 S. Holmes Ave., 994-3300. of Natural Bridge, and associate professor Boone’s Bookies Book Discussion Book Journeys will be discussing The of English, reads from her first novel, Beau- Last Juror by John Grisham. Registration is Group will discuss Winter Wheat by Mil- ties, which won a USA Book Award for best dred Walker. Refreshments will be served. recommended. 2pm, SLCL-Indian Trails book of literary fiction. Troy, author of three Branch, 8400 Delport Dr., 994-3300. Registration encouraged. There are afternoon short story collections, has won a Nelson Al- and evening groups available. 2pm and 7pm, Clarence Lang, Associate Professor of Afri- gren Award and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading SLCL-Daniel Boone Branch, 300 can-American Studies and History at the Uni- Award. 12:15pm, Rm 78, JC Penney Center, Clarkson Rd., 994-3300. versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and UMSL, no registration required. Call 516-5699 author of Grassroots at the Gateway, will join for information. Take MetroLink to UMSL North Left Bank Books and the St. Louis in a conversation with Jamala Rogers, a long- station, or park in Lot C. Public Library invite you to a read- time community organizer in St. Louis and a ing and signing with Pulitzer Prize- Come join the Book Bunch! In this month’s winner Isabel Wilkerson, author featured columnist for the St. Louis American selection, The Tender Bar by J. R. Moeh- Calendar continued of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Prize, The Iowa Book Award, and The William on the holidays and throughout the year. 8pm, Epic Story of America’s Great Migra- Carlos Williams Award. The reading will be Left Bank Books CWE, 399 N. Euclid Ave., tion. Wilkerson chronicles a watershed event followed by a reception and book sale. 8pm, 367-6731. in American history—the decades-long migra- Washington University’s Danforth Campus, tion of African-Americans from the South to the Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201, 935- Tuesday, February 15 North and West, from World War I through the 5190. The Florissant Valley Afternoon 1970s—through the stories of three individu- Book Discussion Club will read William als and their families. 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Friday, February 11 P. Young’s The Shack: A Novel. 2pm, SL- Branch, 225 N. Euclid, 367-4120. The Great Expectations Rock Road Book CL-Florissant Valley Branch, 195 New The St. Louis County Library Foun- Discussion Group will be discussing The Florissant Rd., 994-3300. dation’s Pacesetter Author Series Space Between Us by Sharon Owens. Join the Pageturners and discuss the presents St. Louis business leader Harlan Pick up your copy at the Rock Road Branch. Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Recommend- Steinbaum, author of Tough Calls from 10am, SLCL-Rock Road Branch, ed for adults; registration is required. There the Corner Office: Top Business Lead- 10267 St. Charles Rock Rd., 994-3300. are afternoon and evening groups available. ers Reveal their Career-Defining Mo- The UMSL MFA Program presents a Refreshments will be provided. 2pm and 7pm, ments. The event is co-sponsored by the St. panel of publishers from independent press- SLCL-Tesson Ferry Branch, 9920 Lin- Louis Business Journal. 7pm, SLCL- es that specialize in books of literary fiction Ferry Dr., 994-3300. Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., and poetry. Alex Schwartz from Switch The Tuesday Afternoon Book Dis- 994-3300. Grass, Ben Furnish from BkMk, and Jon cussion Group will be exploring Blue Tribble from Crab Orchard will discuss and Shoes and Happiness by Alexander Mc- Thursday, February 10 answer questions about what they look for in Call Smith. Books are available for checkout Murder of the Month Club will be look- manuscripts, how to submit, what to expect, one month prior to the discussion. Newcom- ing at Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes. and more. Free and open to the public. 6pm, ers are welcome. 2pm, SLCL-Cliff Cave 3:30pm, SLCL-Indian Trails Branch, Lucas Hall 200, 516-6845. Branch, 5430 Telegraph Rd., 994-3300. 8400 Delport Dr., 994-3300. You are invited to join the discussion of Dinaw The 2011 Rava Memorial Lecture, “As- Saturday, February 12 Write-Along Writer’s Workshop is Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That trology and Politics in the Background to the Heaven Bears. 6:45pm, SLPL-King- Galileo Affair,” will be given by Professor a place where writers age 16 and older can come to have their work critiqued amongst a shighway Branch, 2260 S. Vandeventer Michael H. Shank, University of Wiscon- Ave, 771-5450. sin-Madison, Professor of History of Science group of peers. Please bring a sample of your and Integrated Liberal Studies. 4pm, Hurst work to each meeting. 10am, SLCL-Indian Come join the Book Club and discuss Lounge, Duncker 201, Washington Univer- Trails Branch, 8400 Delport Dr., 994-3300. Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy. Stop by sity Danforth Campus. For more information, the circulation desk to pick up a copy. Visitors please visit http://rll.wustl.edu/news/477 or Sunday, February 13 and prospective members welcome. 7pm, SL- email [email protected]. The BookClub invites you to their 421st dis- CL-Prairie Commons Branch, 915 Utz cussion. This month they will discuss The Age Lane, 994-3300. The Urban Street Lit Café Book Dis- of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Dis- Come to the Sachs Evening Book Dis- cussion Group will be looking at Har- covered the Beauty and Terror of Science by riet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. cussion. Copies of the selection are avail- Richard Holmes. Contact Lloyd Klinedinst at able to check out prior to the meeting. Please 6:30pm, SLPL-Julia Davis Branch, 636-451-3232 for details about time and loca- 4415 Natural Bridge Ave., 383-3021. ask for a copy at the circulation desk. 7pm, tion, http://www.klinedinst.com. SLCL-Samuel C. Sachs Branch, You are invited to an author event with Chris 16400 Burkhardt Pl., 994-3300. Bohjalian, bestselling author of The Dou- Monday, February 14 ble Bind and Midwives. His latest novel, Fred Fausz, Associate Professor of His- Wednesday, February 16 The Secrets of Eden, tells of shattered tory at UMSL, will discuss and sign copies of Come to a Sachs Afternoon Book Dis- faith, intimate secrets, and the delicate nature his new book Founding St. Louis: First City of cussion. Copies of the book will be available of sacrifice. 7pm, SLCL-Headquarters, the New West. 12:15pm, JC Penney Center, to check out prior to the meetings. Please ask 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300. Room 78, UMSL, no registration required. Call for a copy at the circulation desk. 2pm, SLCL- Come join For the Love of Wisdom: 516-5699 for more information. Take MetroLink Samuel C. Sachs Branch, 16400 Bur- A Philosophy Book Discussion to UMSL North station, or park in Lot C. khardt Pl., 994-3300. Group! They will be discussing The Life- Come join the Macachek Book Discus- st Join the Wednesday Afternoon Book style Puzzle: Who We Are in the 21 sion Group as they discuss Carson Mc- Discussion Group for a lively discussion Century by Henrik Vejlgaard. Please call Culler’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and ahead to reserve your copy. 7pm, SLPL- 6:30pm, SLPL-Machacek Branch, 6424 Sweet by Jamie Ford. Books are available Carpenter Branch, 3309 S. Grand Blvd., Scanlan Ave., 781-2948. for checkout one month prior to the discussion. 772-6586. Left Bank Books presents Wade Newcomers are welcome. 2pm, SLCL-Cliff Join Washington University’s MFA Rouse, the acclaimed author of Confes- Cave Branch, 5430 Telegraph Rd., 994- Program for a reading by poet Kathleen sions of a Prep School Mommy Han- 3300. Peirce. Pierce is the author of four books of dler and America’s Boy, whose memoirs The Eureka Hills Book Discussion Group poems, Mercy; Divided Touch, Divided celebrate his colorful family, their unusual cel- will be discussing The Help by Kathryn Color; The Oval Hour; and The Ar- ebrations, and all of the ways we love, humili- Stockett. 6pm, SLCL-Eureka Hills Branch, dors. Among her awards are the AWP ate, frustrate, honor and forgive one another 103 Hilltop Village Center, 994-3300. Series ticket holders. 7:30pm, Helene & Carl Come join the Bridgeton Trails Book Trailblazers After Dark invites you to a Mirowitz Performing Arts Center, 442-3191. Discussion Group as they discuss discussion of The Shimmer by David Mor- Washington University’s MFA Pro- Still Alice by Lisa Genova. 7pm, SLCL- rell. 7pm, SLCL-Jamestown Bluffs gram presents a reading by poet Jennifer Bridgeton Trails Branch, 3455 McK- Branch, 4153 N. Hwy 67, 994-3300. Kronovet, whose debut poetry collection, elvey Rd., 994-3300. Join the Wednesday Evening Book Discus- Awayward, was selected by Jean Valen- Poetry at the Point will feature five poets sion Group as they look at Olive Kitteridge tine as winner of the seventh annual A. Pou- from Young and In the Way, the new “young by Elizabeth Strout. 7pm, SLCL-Cliff Cave lin, Jr, Poetry Prize. Kronovet’s poems have friends” arm of the St. Louis Poetry Center. Branch, 5430 Telegraph Rd., 994-3300. appeared or are forthcoming in the Colora- Young and In the Way plan social gatherings do Review, Pleiades, Ploughshares, and literary events in St. Louis for poets and The Urban Book Discussion Group A Public Space, and other journals. The poetry lovers. Come early to the reading and invites you to join the discussion of For Col- reading will be followed by a reception and hang out with the group at Maya Café (next to ored Girls Who Have Considered Sui- book sale. 8pm, Washington University’s the Focal Point). 7:30pm, Focal Point, 2720 cide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Nto- Danforth Campus, Hurst Lounge, Duncker Sutton Blvd. Check the website, wwwstlou- zake Shange and The Corner: A Year in Hall, Room 201, 935-5190. ispoetrycenter.org, for more information. the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon. 7pm, SLPL-Carpenter Saturday, February 19 Wednesday, February 23 Branch, 3309 S. Grand Blvd., 772-6586. The Mystery Lover’s Book Club will Discuss contemporary and classic literature. Join the Evening Book Discussion be looking at Murder on St. Mark’s Place New members welcome! No registration re- Group for a discussion of The Camel by Victoria Thompson. 10am, SLPL-Buder quired. This month the discussion will be Book Club by Masha Hamilton. 7:30pm, SL- Branch, 4401 Hampton Ave., 352-2900. about any book by author Taylor Caldwell. CL-Oak Bend Branch, 842 S. Holmes The Saturday Reading Club Book 4pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Ave., 994-3300. Discussion Group invites you to join Euclid Ave., 367-4120. The FV Evening Book Discussion them. 12:30pm, SLPL-Julia Davis Group will discuss Harlan Coben’s Tell No Branch, 4415 Natural Bridge Ave. Please Thursday, February 24 One. 7:30pm, SLCL-Florissant Valley call 383-3021 for current selection. Author Torrey Maldonado will discuss and sign his new book, Secret Saturdays. Mal- Branch, 195 New Florissant Rd., South, 994- The St. Louis Public Library Cabanne Branch 3300. donado is a teacher and author who was born invites you to share your favorite book. 1pm, and raised in the Red Hook projects section SLPL-Cabanne Branch, 1106 Union of Brooklyn, New York. For nearly ten years, Thursday, February 17 Blvd., 367-0717. The Book Journeys invites you to a dis- he has taught in the New York City public cussion of Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Sunday, February 20 school system. Books are for sale courtesy of 2pm, SLCL-Indian Trails Branch, Pudd’nHead Books. 6:30pm, SLPL-Carpen- The St. Louis Poetry Center is proud to ter Branch, 3309 S. Grand Blvd., 772-6586. 8400 Delport Dr., 994-3300. feature poet James Arthur in a Sunday You are invited to a reading by Wes Moore, Workshop/Critique. Arthur’s first book, You are invited to join the Book Discus- author of The Other Wes Moore, a dra- Charms Against Lightning, is forthcom- sion Group while they discuss Jubilee matic, true story of two boys with the same ing from Copper Canyon Press. 1:30pm, Uni- by Margaret Walker. We read and discuss name. This event is part of the Maryville versity City Library Auditorium, 6701 Delmar. diverse contemporary literature every fourth Talks Books series, co-sponsored by For more information: www.stlouispoetrycen- Thursday of the month. New members are Maryville University, St. Louis Pub- ter.org/workshops. welcome. 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, lic Radio, and HEC-TV. Books for signing 225 N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. will be available from Left Bank Books Monday, February 21 Join Washington University’s MFA Program at the event. 7pm, Christ Church Cathedral, You are invited to a reading and for a reading by Deb Olin Unferth. Un- 1210 Locust. signing with Matthew Pitt, author ferth is the author of a new memoir, Revo- You are invited to join author and Former of Attention Please Now: Stories by lution, a story collection, Minor Robber- Chairman & CEO of Medicare-Glaser, and Matthew Pitt. 7pm, Left Bank Books ies, and the novel Vacation, winner of the Chairman of ExpressScripts Harlan Stein- CWE, 399 N. Euclid Ave., 367-6731. 2009 Cabell First Novelist Award and a New baum, author of Tough Calls from the River Styx’s popular reading series, River York Times Book Review Critics’ Choice Corner Office: Top Business Leaders Styx at Duff’s, continues its 36th season award. She has received two Pushcart Prizes Reveal Their Career-Defining Mo- with readings from Gabrielle Calvo- and a 2009 Creative Capital grant for Innova- ments in a program panel discussion with coressi and Missouri poet Sara Burge. tive Literature. The event will be followed by Susan Elliott, Founder & Chairman of SSE, 7:30pm, Duff’s Restaurant, 392 N. Euclid a reception and book sale. 8pm, Washington Michael Staenberg, Co-Founder & President Ave., 533-4541. University’s Danforth Campus, Hurst Lounge, of THF Realty, Ambassador George Herbert Duncker Hall, Room 201, 935-5190. Walker III, Chairman Emeritus of Stifel Nico- Tuesday, February 22 Friday, February 25 laus, Frank Jacobs, Co-Founder, Chair The Grand Glaize Library Book & CEO of Jacobs Int’l and Former Chair of Discussion Group will be discussing You are invited to a reading and book sign- Falcon Products. Moderator: Larry Levin, Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton, an un- ing with Sarah Blake. Blake’s new novel, CEO & Publisher of St. Louis Jewish forgettable saga of a heartland family. 2pm, The Postmistress, is an entertaining and Light. Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the SLCL-Grand Glaize Branch, 1010 provocative novel of America on the verge door, free to St. Louis Jewish Book Festival Meramec Station Rd, 994-3300. of World War II, London during the Blitz, and Europe in the grip of the Nazis. Spring 2011 Faculty Fellows’ Lecture and Workshop Series The Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to announce its sixth class of Faculty Fellows, their lectures, and their invited scholars’ lectures and graduate workshops for Spring 2011.

Faculty Fellow Lecture Faculty Fellow Lecture Guest Faculty Lecture On the Art of Black Cast, White Cast: Leonard Bernstein’s Contemporary Slowness Using Show Boat to Rethink On the Town, and the Politics Lutz Koepnick Broadway History of Race in Wartime America Tuesday, January 25th, 4 p.m., Todd Decker Carol Oja, Harvard University Women’s Building Formal Lounge Thursday, February 10th, 4 p.m., Thursday, February 24th, 3:30 p.m., Lutz Koepnick is Professor of Women’s Building Formal Lounge Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201 German, Film and Media Studies, Todd Decker is an Assistant Professor in Carol J. Oja is the William Powell and Comparative Literature at the Department of Music at Washington Mason Professor of Music at Harvard Washington University in St. Louis. University and is also affiliated with and on the faculty of its Program in the He has written widely on German the American Culture Studies and Film History of American Civilization. Her film, visual culture, and literature, and Media Studies programs. His book Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s (2000) won the Lowens Book on media arts and aesthetics, and on Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz Award from the Society for American critical theory and cultural politics. (2011) reevaluates an iconic figure Music and an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Book publications include Framing in American culture. Decker’s current Award. She is completing a book Attention: Windows on Modern project, “Show Boat: Race and the Making tentatively titled “Bernstein Meets German Culture (2007); The Dark and Re-making of an American Musical,” Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Mirror: German Cinema between Hitler will explore the complex production Time of War.” Professor Oja is the and Hollywood (2002). He has also history of this frequently revived work. invited guest of 2011 Faculty Fellow coedited or coauthored three further Todd Decker. volumes. Guest Faculty Graduate Student Workshop These lectures and graduate student workshops are part of the Center for the Humanities’ Faculty Fellowship Program (http:// “Bernstein Meets Broadway: cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu). EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO Collaborative Art in a Time of THE PUBLIC. Refreshments will be provided at all the events. War”—Exploring a Please contact 314-935-5576 to order a free parking sticker Work-in-Progress and to reserve a seat. Carol Oja, Harvard University Friday, February 25th, 12:00 p.m., Eliot 307 Spring 2011 Faculty Fellows’ Lecture and Workshop Series

Guest Faculty Graduate Faculty Fellow Lecture Guest Faculty Lecture Student Workshop The Televised Revolution, Social Identities and the Looking at the Old through or Why the Revolution Question of Realism the New: Film Spectatorship Needs Its Dead Linda Martín Alcoff, Hunter in the Digital Era Anca Parvulescu College / CUNY Graduate Center Thursday, April 14th, 4 p.m., Laura Mulvey, Tuesday, March 22nd, 4 p.m., University of London Location TBA Location TBA Anca Parvulescu is Assistant Professor Linda Martín Alcoff is Professor of Friday, March 4th, 12:00 p.m., of English and holds a joint appointment Philosophy at Hunter College and Location TBA with the Interdisciplinary Project in the the CUNY Graduate Center. She has Laura Mulvey is Professor of Film and Humanities at Washington University written two books, Visible Identities: Media Studies at Birkbeck College, in St. Louis. Her work is in twentieth- Race, Gender and the Self (2006), which University of London. She is the author century literature and culture, literary won the Frantz Fanon Award in 2009, of Death Twenty-four Times a Second: and critical theory, 1989 and Eastern and Real Knowing: New Versions of Stillness and the Moving Image (2006), Europe, and visual culture. She is the the Coherence Theory (1996); she has edited nine other volumes. She has held Fetishism and Curiosity (1996), Citizen author of Laughter: Notes on a Passion an ACLS Fellowship and a Society for Kane (1996), and Visual and Other (2010) and of numerous articles Pleasures (1989; second edition 2009). the Humanities at Cornell University published in journals such as Critical Fellowship. Professor Alcoff is the She has made six films in collaboration Inquiry, New Literary History and invited guest of 2011 Faculty Fellow with Peter Wollen including Frida Diacritics. Linda Nicholson. Kahlo and Tina Modotti (1980) and Riddles of the Sphinx (1978) and with artist/filmmaker Mark LewisDisgraced Guest Faculty Graduate Monuments (1994). Professor Mulvey is Student Workshop the invited guest of 2011 Faculty Fellows Social Identities and the Lutz Koepnick and Anca Parvulescu. Question of Knowledge Linda Martín Alcoff, Hunter Guest Faculty Lecture College / CUNY Graduate Center The Paradoxes of Rear Friday, April 15th, 12:00 p.m., Projection: The Now Archaic Faculty Fellow Lecture Eliot 307 Identity Before Identity Politics Special Effect and its Revival Linda Nicholson in the Work of Contemporary Tuesday, March 29th, 4 p.m., Artist Mark Lewis Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201 Laura Mulvey, Linda Nicholson is the Susan E. University of London and William P. Stiritz Distinguished Friday, March 4th, 4 p.m., Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of History at Washington Women’s Building Formal Lounge University in St. Louis. She is the author of Identity Before Identity Politics (2008) and The Play of Reason: From the Modern to the Postmodern (1998); editor of The Second Wave: Readings in Feminist Theory (1997). She has edited the book series Thinking Gender with Routledge Press. Music and Non-Profit Org. Literature U.S. Postage PAID Reading Group Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the St. Louis, MO Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 Regional Arts Commission. Permit No. 2535 3:30 p.m. Eliot Hall, Room 307 American Band: Music, Dreams and Coming of Age in the Heartland is Kristen Laine’s insightful The Center for the Humanities chronicle of a year-in-the- Campus Box 1071 life of the Eckhart, Indi- Eliot Hall, Suite 300 ana Concord High School One Brookings Drive Marching Minutemen, a St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 240-plus ensemble pre- Phone: (314) 935-5576 paring to defend its state email: [email protected] title. The work offers http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu both a powerful portrait of small-town American life and a meditation on the meaning of making music.

Calendar continued

7pm, Left Bank Books CWE, 399 N. Euclid ing. Students want to make books. Why? And For contact information, email Jessica Saigh, Ave., 367-6731. how is the book as subject different from con- [email protected]. sidering the book as practice? 12:15pm, Room Gitana Productions is currently accepting Saturday, February 26 78, JC Penney Center, UMSL, no registration personal essays that amplify the rich, shared The Writer’s Workshop invites you to meet required. Take MetroLink to UMSL North sta- experiences between Irish Americans and Af- with peers to enhance your writing skills. tion, or park in Lot C, 516-5699. rican Americans. Select essays will tour St. 10am, SLPL-Baden Branch, 8448 Church Louis and be featured at the MCPEAKE event Rd., 388-2400. Upcoming Events on March 11, 2011. The deadline is Feb. 12, The Buder Branch Book Discussion Group and Notices 2011. Application and guidelines are avail- invites you to their discussion of The Bluest Maplewood Library Write-In meets on the able at http://stlouis.missouri.org/501c/gitana/ Eye by Toni Morrison. 1pm, SLPL-Buder third Thursday of each month. New or experi- submit2.htm. If you have any questions, con- Branch, 4401 Hampton Ave., 352-2900. enced writers are welcome to drop in to write tact Cecilia Nadal at 721-6556 or at gitana@ We’re excited to welcome Ree Drummond or chat any time between 7 and 9 p.m. Maple- stlouis.missouri.org. back to St. Louis for a reading from her mem- wood Public Library, 7550 Lohmeyer Ave., oir, The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels 781-2174. Abbreviations to Tractor Wheels, described by Ree on STL: Saint Louis; B&N: Barnes & Noble; The Missouri Society of Children’s Book KPL: Kirkwood Public Library; LBB: Left Bank her website as a “Harlequin Romance-meets- Writers and Illustrators meets every month Green Acres saga of how my husband roped Books; SLCL: St. Louis County Library; SLPL: in three locations. The St. Charles group St. Louis Public Library; SCCCL: St. Charles my heart and took me away from civilization meets the first Wednesday of each month at and Starbucks forever.” Sponsored by Left City County Library; UCPL: University City 7 pm at the Mid Rivers Barnes and Noble. For Public Library; UMSL: University of Missouri— Bank Books and the St. Louis Coun- more information, contact Stephanie Bearce at ty Library. 6pm, SLCL-Headquarters, St. Louis; WU: Washington University; WGPL: [email protected]. The Florissant group Webster Groves Public Library. 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300. meets the second Thursday of each month at 7 pm at Florissant Presbyterian Church. For Check the online calendar at cenhum.artsci. Monday, February 28 more information, contact Sue Bradford Ed- wustl.edu for more events and additional de- Ken Botnick, Professor of Art at Washington wards, [email protected]. The tails. To advertise, send event details to litcal@ University, points out that at a time in our cul- St. Louis City group meets the third Sunday of artsci.wustl.edu, fax 935-4889, or call 935- tural history when the book is thought to be an the month at SLPL-Buder Branch at 2:30 pm. 5576. antiquated form, we find instead that it is thriv-