It Is Your Turn for Industry, Encouraging Innovation Is Are Interested in Arts and Humanities

September 2011 | Vol. X No. 1

One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads Table of Contents It Is Your Turn For industry, encouraging innovation is are interested in arts and humanities. We at the essential for creating new ways to serve and Center for the Humanities are very grateful to Pages 1-2: It Is Your Turn by Jian satisfy customers. The customer survey is you, our readers, for your support of this pub- Leng one of the best ways to improve a product by lication. We put a great deal of time, energy, finding out what customers like and dislike editorial care, and literary purpose into each about it. Domino’s Pizza provides an excellent issue because we respect the time and intelli- Page 3: Fall 2011 CFH Classes example. Acting on the responses to a custom- gence of each reader. er survey, the company increased its customer To the end of making The Figure in the base significantly by making major changes in Carpet the very best it can be, we have includ- Pages 4-5: African Americans and the product's original crust and sauce reci- Romance Comics by Gerald Early ed a readers’ survey in this first issue of the pes. In short, criticism stimulated innovation. academic year. We want to know what readers Although The Figure in the Carpet does not think about the St. Louis Literary Calendar in Pages 6-7: Ten Million Words: have a crust or sauce, we at the Center for the The Figure in the Carpet. How useful is it for Humanities would like our offerings to the arts keeping track of literary events in the region, 2011 Arts and Sciences Recogni- and humanities community to be as familiar tion Ceremony Faculty Address by and what would readers like us to change? In as a slice of pizza – and as popular. So we are addition, we include a request for demographic Erin Mc Glothlin asking for your help in suggesting new ways information that will help us understand the we can fashion, serve, and deliver the arts and composition of The Figure’s audience, which humanities to you. Pages 8-10: The Common Reader will aid greatly in developing strategies about This is not the first time we have asked for how best to serve you. We also want your by Gerald Early: A Review of Up your help. In fact, The Figure in the Carpet opinion about digital media: How often do you from History: The Life of Booker was born as a response to your suggestions. read online publications, and how often do you T. Washington Before we published the first issue, Gerald read hard-copy publications? If The Figure in Early, Director of the Center, sent letters to the Carpet were available only as an online more than one hundred literary organizations publication, would you still read it regularly? Page 10: Announcements in St. Louis asking how we might improve our Our questions reflect changes taking place publication offerings (which then consisted in the humanities. In June, I attended the an- only of Belles Lettres, our literary journal). nual meeting of the Consortium of Humani- Pages 11-12: Why Does “Ol’ Man The response was unanimous: everyone River” Stop Show Boat? by Todd ties Centers and Institutes (CHCI) in Toronto. wanted a monthly newsletter that included the Participants at the meeting addressed two Decker literary events calendar. Thus, The Figure in topics: Cities Humanities Archives (digitizing the Carpet was created in December 2002, to local records, newspapers and historical docu- act as a fast vehicle linking the campus with ments for public access), and Humanities (dot) Pages 13-14: September Events those of you in surrounding communities who Calendar Net, Currents in the Digital Humanities. Panel

1 editor's notes continued

cultural heritages around the world. We want drop in responses to the digital appeal. A local to make our local humanities heritage acces- municipality used to print and mail a newsletter sible to everyone. But does going digital truly to their citizens. In 2010, they too decided to go increase the reach of documents and other digital. In 2011, they started printing and mail- material? Is going digital more efficient? ing the publication again. One of the reasons To help us assess this issue, the Center ap- they gave was that calls to City Hall dramatical- plied for and received supplemental grants to ly increased with questions about events, trash our 2010 and 2011 NEH Summer Institutes pick-up, street closures, etc. (all information that supported digital enhancement of our proj- in the newsletter). People were not reading the ects. The goals were twofold: to achieve a dra- online version. So, it is possible that converting matic increase in the impact of NEH summer to an online-only version can reduce readership projects (from the 16 to 30 on-site participants and response rate for a publication. to a larger national audience); and to increase The Center currently prints 8,750 copies of the professional quality, classroom value, The Figure in the Carpet. These are mailed free and effective lifetime of NEH projects. Using of charge. Other than internet access charges, these funds we filmed participants presenting visiting our site to view our publications is also their ideas for lessons, as well as the lectures free of charge. The question is: Which do you of several instructors, and placed them on our prefer and would you support, and what changes Web site. We also hosted a blog for partici- would you like to see in the final product? It pants. With the assistance of the Office of Arts is your turn to help shape the future of local & Sciences Computing, I received two reports humanities. It is your turn to let us know your showing traffic to the Center for the Humani- opinions and preferences. We want to remain ties’ web site from June 1 to August 10, 2011. your friendly neighborhood humanists in what- The access numbers for the site were good ever mode you prefer, paper copy or digital. (2,771 visits by 1,675 people), but only during Your opinions are vitally important to our the period that people searched for and applied future, so please do take time to fill out the sur- to the NEH Summer Institute (we received 125 vey and send it back to us with any additional applications online) and during the Summer comments you would like for us to have. That is Institute itself. On both ends of that peak period a lot of power for the price of a postage stamp. discussions on this topic focused upon just one of activity, visits were between 5 and 35 a day. question: What are the big emerging ideas in Would that number increase if our publications the humanities, and how can they intersect with were accessible only digitally? new technologies? The principal issues of concern were new modes of engagement between We know that a number of local publica- research faculty in the humanities and the digi- tions have been digitized only to return to paper tal world that can enable faculty and students copy. For many years, a local Children’s Home to collaborate with librarians, engineers, and printed and mailed a newsletter with a dona- designers to enhance scholarship with new visu- tion envelope. In 2010, they opted to produce Jian Leng alization tools and dynamic databases. It is be- this newsletter online only (asking for dona- Associate Director lieved that digitalizing artifacts and documents tions only online). In 2011, they went back to a The Center for the Humanities can help preserve, frame, and make accessible printing and mailing format, citing a dramatic

Make a Gift to the Center for the Humanities Join other donors and supporters to ensure that the Center for the Humanities can continue to fulfill its mission. Help us continue to make the humanities a part of public life and your own life. Send your check, payable to Washington University, to: The Center for the Humanities c/o Shannon McAvoy Grass Washington University in St. Louis Campus Box 1202 One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

2 Nancy Berg Professor of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Litera- Fall 2011 CFH Courses tures Ken Botnick Professor of Art Bridging the Gap: The Scholar as Leader and Activist Director of Kranzberg Book Studio Dr. Joachim Faust Wed 2-4pm, Cupples II L009 Gene Dobbs Bradford Executive Director What does it mean to be a scholar? What do scholars Jazz St. Louis and leaders have in common? This two-credit sopho- more seminar explores these questions by exposing Elizabeth Childs Associate Professor and Chair of students to different ways of thinking, presenting them Department of Art History and with different views and models of scholarship, teach- Archaeology ing them the skills that scholars and leaders have in common, and giving them opportunities to directly Mary-Jean Cowell apply these skills to their own research and leadership Associate Professor of Performing Arts experiences. Students will also learn about campus Phyllis Grossman opportunities that will allow them to integrate scholar- Retired Financial Executive ship and leadership in meaningful ways during their junior and senior years. Michael A. Kahn Attorney, Author and Adjunct Professor of Law Freshman Seminar: The Clash of Cultures: The Humanities in an Zurab Karumidze Age of Science Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia Dr. Matthew Shipe Peter Kastor Tu/Th 2:30-4pm, Cupples II 230 Associate Professor of History and American Culture Studies Program Are the humanities and the sciences two separate worlds? Have they always been as far apart as they seem? Are they both equally

Chris King important to our lives today? Is there some common ground be- Editorial Director tween the sciences and the humanities? This freshman seminar The St. Louis American Newspaper will explore these questions through visits from a range of WU Olivia Lahs-Gonzales professors and readings including C.P. Snow’s The Two Cultures Director and Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth. Prerequisite: first-year Sheldon Art Galleries standing. Steven Meyer Associate Professor of English Joe Pollack Interdisciplinary Introduction to Children’s Studies Writer Dr. Wendy Love Anderson Anne Posega Tu/Th 11:30-1pm, Seigle 306 Head of Special Collections, Olin Library What is childhood? Is it supposed to be happy? Qiu Xiaolong And what can children’s books, toys, and memoirs Novelist and Poet tell us about the experience of childhood in a certain Joseph Schraibman time and place? This course is designed to introduce Professor of Spanish students to the field of children’s studies, including Henry Schvey readings in the history and literature of American childhood, excerpts from children’s films and TV, Professor of Drama visits from WU faculty studying children across Wang Ning various disciplines, and field trips to a children’s Professor of English, Tsinghua University museum and a juvenile detention facility. James Wertsch Marshall S. Snow Professor of Arts and Sciences Associate Vice Chancellor for International Affairs Ex Officio Edward S. Macias Provost & Exec VC for Academic Affairs Gary S. Wihl Dean of Arts & Sciences 3 African Americans and Romance Comics

Gerald Early is Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and director of the Center for the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis.

I had appeared on PBS’s History Detectives use. Several years ago, I contributed an essay in 2010 as an expert helping the show’s inves- I mentioned to one of the show’s producers at about African Americans and comics (“The tigator, Tukufu Zuberi, solve the mystery of the time of the Pittsburgh shooting that I had 1960s, African Americans, and the American a Jackie Robinson All-Stars scorecard. That an old, coverless comic with African American Comic Book”) to a book edited by Sam Fox episode of the show, or at least my portion of characters entitled Negro Romance and won- professor D. B. Dowd (co-edited with Todd it, was shot in Pittsburgh, which was where the dered if it might qualify as a mystery worthy of Hignite), first published as The Rubber Frame: Jackie Robinson All-Stars played the particu- being solved by one of the show’s detectives. I Essays in Culture and Comics and later repub- lar game that the scorecard recorded. I had to should make clear that what I wanted to find lished as Strips, Toons, and Bluesies: Essays in pretend that the house in which the show was out, I could have researched myself: Comics and Culture. So, I had thought criti- being shot was, in fact, my home, and so there cally about race and comics and, in fact, had was, as there is in all documentary film, a bit of 1. Who drew and wrote the comic book? done some research in the topic. I concealed fiction or manipulation, a bit of illusion. It was 2. What did the cover look like? this from the producers of the show. I did not all good fun, meant to entertain, after all, and I 3. Who was the audience for the comic? misrepresent myself. I told them I had been a thought I had put my expertise to good fan of comics since my boyhood and that I had

4 ond in the series, was the mind while humbling the ego. published in August The episode of History Detectives that fea- 1950.) Negro Romance tured Negro Romance is readily available, and was a great deal like so I won’t bother to repeat the show’s revela- the black cinema of the tions except to say that the comic book was the 1930s and 1940s, made result of a black-Jewish creative partnership, for black urban audi- not unusual at that time in American popular ences, mostly by black culture, and that the company that issued Negro filmmakers but some- Romance, Fawcett, also issued, in the late 1940s times not. The films, and early 1950s, a series of comic books about like Negro Romance, Jackie Robinson as well as other black sports gave the viewer an heroes (Willie Mays, Roy Campanella). entirely black world, all the businesses depicted Since History Detectives aired its episode are run by blacks, all on Negro Romance, many have asked to see the professionals—doc- the comic book. That is impossible because it tor, lawyer, policeman, is so fragile and has no cover, which helps to scientist—are black, and protect a comic book from wear and tear. But all the black people are to satisfy public curiosity, we have reproduced middle class. (In the the first three pages of the first story entitled ‘30s and ‘40s cinema, “Possessed,” about the all-controlling Gloria, the middle class blacks who takes over the lives of her beau, his mother were also light-skinned and his sister, only to nearly destroy her chance too.) There is not a at love. The second story, “Forever Yours”, is single white person about Edith, who learns she has a potentially anywhere in Negro fatal disease and decides to live it up (“party Romance. like it’s 1999,” to use a phase), much to her boyfriend’s confusion and concern. After her I was sure that most physical collapse, she dedicates herself to restor- people had no idea such ing her health with her boyfriend at her bedside. a comic book existed. “Love’s Decoy”, the final story, is about Sara I also thought it would Morgan, who wants desperately to become a be good for the comic successful dancer. Her nightclub boss promises book collection we have her the lead in a dance number if she would at Washington Univer- only get friendly with a certain customer named a large collection that I had donated to Washing- sity if I were publicly Bruce. They fall in love, and against her better ton University but I did not reveal that I had ever connected with it, as its founder, so to speak. judgment, seduced by the promises of stardom written anything about them or had given much That, I thought, was far more important than any by her boss, she plants a letter on Bruce, an un- thought to them in a scholarly way. I thought the pretensions, such as they are, I might have as a dercover cop, that gets him fired from the force. producers would be more inclined to research comic book scholar, about which, frankly, I have She ultimately confesses; the boss is arrested the subject if I seemed to be only a collector and always felt a bit uneasy, as if it were not quite a and Sara and Bruce confess their undying love not even a fanboy. My motive was simple and serious undertaking in the same way that being a and seek out the nearest preacher. Epithalami- hardly selfish: I thought that perhaps viewers literary scholar is. (I grant that V. S. Naipaul and um-inspired endings were de rigueur for ro- might appreciate learning something about this a good many other writers don’t think literary mance comics, no matter the race of the char- comic book, that it might offer a fresh perspec- scholarship is worthy of being taken seriously acters. And the black girls who read this comic tive about race in America, as Negro Romance either, but that is a story for another time.) To (girls overwhelmingly read romance comics; was unusual for its time, not as a romance comic, defend the pursuit of popular culture too vigor- men overwhelmingly wrote them) may have felt as it conformed to all the conventions of that ously always sounded to me a bit like special a bit more included in the mainstream culture as genre, but rather as a black romance comic at a pleading disguised as academic bravado. I have black relationships at the time were almost never time when blacks rarely appeared in comics ex- simply learned to live with my uneasiness, a ten- associated with the fantasy of romance and love. cept as jungle natives. (The issue I had, the sec- sion that has the decided virtue of concentrating

5 Faculty Address – 2011 Arts and Sciences Recognition Ceremony

By Erin McGlothlin, Associate Professor, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Director of Research and Grants, the Center for the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis Ten Million Words

I am very pleased and excited to be speaking in these many instances of communication, we pretend for the sake of this happy occasion ac- to you here on this most important day—an spoke to and with you. curately reflects your actual attendance record. occasion of significance not only for you, the Now, I should make clear that I’m a profes- Now, of course, as you know, the faculty didn’t graduates, and your friends and families, but sor in the humanities, and I normally don’t speak the entire time during those 1,680 hours. also for us, the faculty and administration of traffic in statistics, especially when it concerns After all, here at Washington University, an Washington University. My job here today is the power and efficacy of words, but I thought hour of any given class usually lasts only 53 to mark this exceptional and festive moment it might be instructive to actually make some minutes. Moreover, we also encouraged you, by delivering some parting words on behalf of calculations. Let’s say that each of you was in the students, to speak at least part of the time. the faculty. After all, this is the last time one class for an average of 15 hours a week for each But, you may have noticed that we professors of us will officially address you as professor to semester you’ve been here. Of course, most of tend, on the whole, to be quite loquacious—if student, a situation that itself deserves not downright long-winded (and I offer as celebration. Back in March, when Deans evidence for this my own present oration). McLeod and Wihl invited me to give So let’s face it, we faculty likely spoke for this address, I immediately perceived at least 2/3 of the time—about 40 min- the import of the assignment—I was to utes per class hour. That still yields about represent the faculty of Arts and Sci- 1,120 hours. Of course, we can’t really ences on this momentous occasion. multiply this number by the number of During the last several weeks, I lay in you who are graduating—about 900 stu- bed at night thinking about it, since, after dents in Arts and Sciences—since most all, it’s a big responsibility. I realized that of these communications were collective this final communication on the part of and not individual matters. But we can the faculty—we, who have helped guide say, conversely, that each of the 900 of you through your education these last you was instructed, trained, encouraged, four years—would have to be profound, advised and so on for at least 1,120 hours meaningful and inspirational. And, my during your time here. And that num- address would also have to somehow, in ber neither includes the many hours of the brief span of 10 minutes and de- formal and informal academic advising, livered in an echoing gymnasium to a office hour consultation and other com- group of excited graduates, do justice to munications you’ve had with faculty, nor the many instances of communication, Erin (second from left) and graduating seniors on Commencement Day does it reflect your extensive contact with large and small, that we’ve had with you administrative staff. (By the way, I’d like during your time as undergraduates at Wash- you were in class for a greater amount of time to take this moment to recognize the excellent ington University. And those cumulative com- than that, if one counts subsections and labs academic, administrative and residential life munications constitute quite a bit of talk. We— and if one considers that many of you—espe- staff we have here at Washington University. your professors, instructors, teaching assistants, cially those who were disappointed to find out Neither we as faculty nor you as students would administrative staff, 4-year and major advisors that one could only choose two majors and be able to do what we all do—and do it so and residential life staff—have spent numerous one minor—took many more than 15 units a well—without their cheerful and tireless help. hours instructing, preparing, advising, encour- semester. But let’s just go with the standard 15 They, too, are part of the story of your com- aging, evaluating, coaching, inspiring, lectur- hours per week. Multiply that by 14 weeks per mencement.) And of course, the number 1, 120 ing, training, guiding, counseling, and—hope- semester for 8 semesters, and that gives us a also doesn’t include the many hours of commu- fully—edifying you. On one of those sleepless minimum of 1,680 hours of class time for the nication that has taken place among and be- nights on which I pondered what I would say 4 years you’ve been here, assuming, of course, tween you, the students. But back to the matter to you, I tried to figure out exactly how much, perfect attendance, an assumption we’ll just at hand—the number of hours we’ve commu-

6 Ten Million Words (continued)

nicated with you. So even though 1,120 hours is care what I say anyway. This is your moment, written yourselves are at least as important—if a pretty conservative number, all things consid- not mine, and you’ve understandably got things not more so—than the ten million words that ered, let’s stick with it. (Incidentally, I’m aware on your mind that have little to do with what a we’ve spoken to you, which after all were uttered that what I’m doing here is conspicuously similar random professor drones on about, and you’re in an attempt to model our scholarly process to to the theme of the song “Seasons of Love” from probably just hoping that my speech is not too you, so that one day our words would become the musical “Rent”—you know, the one that long. (Again, as we’ve just ascertained with my unnecessary and the responsibility to speak goes “Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six calculations, professors do tend toward verbosity, would be transferred to you and you would be Hundred Minutes…” That’s not a coincidence, so your suspicions are certainly justified.) You’re fully prepared for what comes next, whether it’s I think, for it’s a very human endeavor to some- worried about packing up and moving to the the workplace or another classroom. In a sense, how account for time when we’re marking mean- hundreds of places to which you’re all dispers- I don’t really need to say anything here, since ingful moments.) But into how many words does ing, you’re thinking of the friends sitting around the important communications and their effects that amount of time translate? According to the you and wondering how many of them you’ll have already taken place, and your presence here research—and, in the interest of full academic still be in touch with in 5 years, you’re worried is evidence of their success. My 1,500 words disclosure and proper citation, I will admit that about your new job or your fellowship or the fact can’t—and shouldn’t—compete with these many my source for this is Wikipedia—the average that you have neither job nor fellowship, you’re millions of words—words exchanged not only person speaks about 150 words per minute at a sitting there trying to keep your stomach from between you and us, but also between your- comfortable pace. So, assuming that the major- grumbling and wondering if anybody notices selves. Rather, they are meant to reflect on the ity of faculty speaks at a comfortable pace (an you texting. (By the way, the answer to that last fact that those countless shared communications assumption to which many of you who have concern is emphatically YES. We’ve always that took place over the course of four years struggled to keep up with note-taking in lectures noticed you texting.) Most of you are just taking actually served to shape you and your future. My would probably object), for the 1,120 hours each in the moment, aware that this is the last time task here is to mark these words, to remember of you spent listening to us in the classroom, we all of you will be together in one place. So, in a that they happened and to urge you to do the spoke, collectively, approximately 10 million, 80 way, I’ve got a pretty easy job here. I just need same, to remind both you and us that we shared thousand words. Ten MILLION words. That’s to deliver my 1,500 words and then you can get in this process of education together. You may quite a daunting number, especially when you to the fun part of the ceremony, where we call think that that you are the only ones who have consider that the average ten-page research paper out your name, we shake your hand, and your been transformed by this exchange between consists of about 4,000 words. So perhaps you parents kvell with pride. professor and student, that you have just passed can begin to see my problem here. My task as Second, in my nighttime musings on what I through here in your pursuit of an education the faculty speaker, is, in a speech of just 1,500 was supposed to do here, I began to understand without leaving your mark and that we, the fac- words, to in some way do justice to this veritable that the task I had imagined for myself—that of ulty, remain eternally unaltered by the millions deluge of academic communication. To somehow adequately gesturing to the cumulative weight of words that have circulated between us. But sum it up, to recapitulate its highlights, to bring of what we’ve given you as faculty during your we, too, have been affected by this common ex- closure to it. I began to suspect that this privilege education—simply can’t be done. There’s no way perience and our interactions with you, we have bestowed on me by Deans McLeod and Wihl in- that I, in ten minutes, can ever hope to equal four become better teachers, better researchers, more volved an almost Sisyphean endeavor. But rather years of an education that I hope has been as aware of the ways in which you—and the people than remain cowed by it, I did what many of excellent as we endeavored, with our ten million you will become as a result of the education you you have done numerous times over the last four words, to give you. And, after all, doesn’t such an have gained here—constitute our legacy in the years: I drank two Red Bulls and pulled an all- expectation contradict the point of an education world. Your words have also instructed, encour- nighter! No, seriously: I did what I as a scholar anyway? It’s a process, a dialectical give-and- aged, inspired, counseled—and yes, even edi- usually do with apparently unsolvable problems take between student and teacher, not a collec- fied—us, and the effects we will all continue to and what I hope we’ve taught all of you to do: I tion of words handed down all at once from on experience will be much greater than my 1,500 carefully thought through the matter and consid- high and absorbed and assimilated by the passive words here can possibly express. So, now that I ered it rationally and methodically from different student in one single gulp. With this process, this have realized that my task here, to all intents and angles. From these systematic deliberations, I educational expedition that has comprised your purposes, has already been accomplished, the realized two important things that made my job four years here, we’ve tried our best to enable only thing left for me to do is to offer you all my of composing this address much easier. you to become a dynamic participant in your most heartfelt congratulations! Well done, Class First, I came to recognize that, if I were hon- own education—we’ve endeavored to teach you of 2011! est with myself, I would have to admit that you to learn actively and think critically. This means are probably too excited right now to really that the millions of words that you’ve spoken and

7 The Common Reader by Gerald Early

Review of race leader trying to give white southerners the Perhaps Washington did not like being called type of Negroes—docile, inadequately trained, “The Wizard” because it made him seem too accepting of their own inferior social and politi- duplicitous, as if he were conning the whites cal status—that the whites thought they already who supported him, “puttin’ on ole massa,” as had and very much wanted to continue to have? the game was called back during slavery when And is this why a coalition of white philanthro- slaves learned to live by their wits and to tell pists and New South leaders dubbed him the whites what they wanted to hear. He did not, race leader of the era? Certainly, Washington’s at any time, want it to be suggested in any way black and liberal critics and enemies thought so. that his political message of “accommodation” But it must be remembered that Baum’s to the regime of Jim Crow, that is, of blacks Wizard was not just a fraud but also a civiliza- learning to live with and in the thrall of trucu- tion builder (he had the people of Oz build the lent white nationalism, was inauthentic, a mask. Emerald City) and a much-admired leader.1 He imbibed the same values as the white elite Washington biographer Robert J. Norrell de- that, in many respects, created him. And he scribes Washington’s Tuskegee Institute when wanted very much to be a bridge between black Washington was at the height of his power in and white. To be The Wizard in this sense, 1905: “. . . [its] enrollment surpassed that of a slick cynic, meant that he was a black man nearly all other institutions of higher educa- constantly on the brink of being exposed as tion in the South. The dozen new buildings on an imposter. He never felt he was pretending campus stood as tall, red-brick testaments to to be something that he was not. Yet this was what blacks could do on their own.” Even in precisely what happened to him, and his white 1890, before Washington became a national fig- enemies, particularly the virulent racist south- ure, Tuskegee “had 400 students, almost twice erners who denounced him, spoke of him as a as many as were enrolled at the University of sort of master of misdirection, as if he were a Up from History: Alabama . . . and a third more than at the white stage magician. The Life of Booker T. Washington Agricultural and Mechanical College at Au- This form of attack became common after burn. Tuskegee was producing about as many Washington’s dinner at the White House with By Robert J. Norrell black teachers as all the white normal schools Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, shortly after TR Harvard University Press, 2009, 508 pages in Alabama together. . . . [N]o other institution became president. Ben Tillman, Tom Heflin, including index, notes, and photos of learning for blacks had developed nearly so Jim Vardaman, Thomas Dixon and the other far under the direction of a black man.” Earlier, staunch white nationalists condemned Washing- Norrell describes Tuskegee in this way: “. . . ton as a fake, as the wily Negro out to fool the 1. If Ever, Oh Ever, a Wiz There Was [it] functioned as a kind of informal board of master: Yes, he may speak meekly and mildly education for black schools—placing teachers, about black political rights, but he was simply His intimates and admirers called Tuskegee supervising curriculum, listening to complaints, another uppity black who, by dining with the Institute president and fin de sièclerace leader and finding support for the little rural schools.” president, showed he desired social equality Booker T. Washington “The Wizard.” He did with whites and, like all black men, craved in- not like this name, and so was never referred to In effect, Tuskegee, in the world of black edu- terracial marriage. (The fact that TR’s daughter, in this way to his face. Perhaps he thought it cation, was the Emerald City, the seat of power Alice, joined her father in dining with Washing- made him seem something of a fraud, like the and civilization, where all roads led. His black ton was, for the white nationalists, proof of the character in L. Frank Baum’s famous children’s enemies began to call his school, his entire latent sexual depravity of integration.) Dixon, book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published set-up, “the Tuskegee Machine,” and not within fact, offered Washington “$10,000 from the in 1900, when Washington was 44 years old out reason as Washington’s tentacles reached th profits of ‘The Clansman’ [Dixon’s highly suc- and the most famous black person in America. far and wide into the early 20 century black cessful novel that became the basis for film- Baum’s Wizard, it will be recalled, was asked world. Not only was Tuskegee sending forth maker David Wark Griffith’s Birth of a Nation] by his four supplicants—the Scarecrow, the teachers and influencing policy and philoso- . . . provided you give complete satisfactory Lion, the Tin Woodman, and Dorothy—to give phy in the world of black southern education proof that you do not desire Social Equality for them what they already had and what anyone but Washington, because of his connections to the Negro and that your School is opposed to in his right mind could not reasonably expect white industrial philanthropists, directed the the Amalgamation of the races.” Washington another person to give. Was Washington as flow of much of the private financial support for black schools. never responded to offer, knowing it was a trap

8 The Common Reader continued

and an insult. In 1905, the year Theodore is coercion.” Roosevelt delivered the commencement Norrell tries to rehabilitate Washington address at Tuskegee, several southern among his critics today in three ways: first, by newspapers openly called for Washington’s de-polemicizing his standing in today’s rheto- assassination and the destruction of his ric as a conservative, which has only served to school. At the commencement, two armed divide opinion about Washington and distort Pinkerton detectives were present especial- our understanding of the choices he faced and ly to guard Washington, not the president. how he responded to them; second, by remind- This fact should disabuse today’s critics ing readers how much Washington was hated by of Washington of the belief that white many, if not most, southern whites, how close southerners loved him because he did not he lived to racial violence, and how threatening actively oppose Jim Crow. he was to the status quo even when preaching One supposes that Washington thought the virtues of black economic development and his public role as black leader and black industrial education; third, by showing how college president was tough enough hard Washington fought, under cover, against without acknowledging or accepting the the disfranchisement of blacks in the South and sobriquet of The Wizard. He might as how he was, in many instances, the lone legiti- well have himself publicly called The mate opposition because, unlike his contempo- Boss or The Operator. If he seemed as if Washington’s family in 1899. From left to right: Ernest Davidson, raneous black enemies, he actually lived in the he were openly and approvingly declaring Booker T. Jr. (Baker), Margaret (his third wife, by whom he had South. The case Norrell makes for Washington, that he was a power manipulator, he would no children), and Portia. at times a tad tendentious, is, overall, compelling be more of a threat to southern whites than ton, far more so than Louis R. Harlan’s prize- and well worth reading. he already was. Any black man who wanted winning two-volume biography (The Making of A particular advantage of Norrell’s biography to do what Washington did at the time he did it a Black Leader, 1856-1901, published in 1972, is that it is decidedly shorter than Harlan’s (one had to be a confidence man of no small ability, The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901-1915, published volume of reasonable length instead of two), but but part of the con was that he had to convince in1983), which has become, for better and for it manages to tell the complete story: the boy those around him that he was completely inca- worse, the standard account of Washington’s life. born a slave of a black mother and an unknown pable of even understanding what a con was. He Indeed, as the closing pages of Norrell’s book white father; Washington’s dislike of his stepfa- had to believe the moral imperative of his own make clear, where he openly quarrels with Har- ther and the life of drudgery in the West Virginia con. And he did. But he was also exactly what lan’s characterization of Washington, Up From salt mines; Washington’s travel to Hampton the southern whites who hated him said he was, History exists as a sort of corrective. “Washing- Institute where he meets his exemplar, General a dissembler, a power manipulator, a cunning ton has often been portrayed as the symbol of the Samuel Chapman Armstrong; Washington’s tactician. He was also what his black critics like age of segregation, usually with the presumption search for a profession including his aborted stay W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter that he acquiesced in Jim Crow. In light of the at Wayland Seminary; his big chance when he said he was, someone who failed to acknowl- evidence of Washington’s challenges to white is sent to start a school in Tuskegee, Alabama, edge how much he acquiesced to the brutality domination, that view seems wrong. He has in 1881; his rise to national prominence as a of the oppression that surrounded him, someone often been called conservative. At the very least, result of his “accommodation” or “compromise” who made a very bad bargain with southern that claim conveys an unacceptably imprecise speech at the Cotton States and International whites, a petty prince who became first in the meaning. Washington’s purpose was to change Exposition in Atlanta on September 18, 1895, line of many HNICs (Head Negroes in Charge) conditions for African Americans. He should that made him attractive to both northern philan- whose job it is to broker race deals with whites. be considered a conservative only with regard to thropists and New South white moderates; the He was what his enemies and critics said he his belief that capitalist enterprise offered blacks importance of his three wives to the operation of was. His greatness lies in the fact that he was their best opportunity to rise in America and his Tuskegee and its success; his involvement with also far more than his enemies and critics said skepticism that much help would be forthcom- Republican Party politics and his dinner with he was. ing from governments. The almost universal Theodore Roosevelt in 1901; his self-mytholo- 2. What Did I Do To Be So Black and characterization of Washington as an accommo- gizing autobiography, Up From Slavery, that has Blue? dationist to segregation is also inaccurate. Hav- never been out of print since it was published ing conditions forced on him, with the threat of Robert Norrell’s Up From History is a highly in 1901; the steady erosion of his influence as a destruction clearly the cost of resistance, does not sympathetic portrait of Booker T. Washing- result of unrelenting and sometimes unfair criti- constitute a fair definition of accommodation. It

9 Annoucements

The Cool, The Commercial, and Recent Changes in cism from the black Childhood and Child Rearing radicals and his in- ability to speak out forcefully against the Friday, September 16, 2 p.m., location TBA white pogrom against blacks in Atlanta in This talk will present a historical and visual perspective on how the modern 1906 or Teddy Roo- toy, media, and advertising industries shaped raising and being kids in Modern sevelt’s summary America. discharge of three By Gary Cross black companies of Gary Cross is Distinguished Professor of Modern History at Penn State and the all-black 25th author of Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing Worlds of American Childhood Infantry Regiment (1997); The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American on the grounds that Children's Culture (2004); and Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Imma- some number of them turity (2008). He is currently working on two projects: a book about packaged pleasures, the engineering of sensual intensity around 1900, and a second book about the decline of shot up the town of markers of male maturity in American culture since 1950. Brownsville, Texas, in August 1906 de- spite the fact that so What Did “Integration” Mean? little evidence existed Theodore Roosevelt, with whom against the soldiers Liberals and the 1965 Conference on Washington dined at the White House that a white Texas and assisted in the dispersal of political “The Negro American” patronage in the South. Roosevelt also grand jury declined damaged Washington’s political to indict them; the standing among blacks during the embarrassing “peep- Brownsville Affair. ing keyhole” incident Thursday, September 22, 4 p.m., DUC 276 in which Washington was assaulted by a white man in In the early 1960s, to be a liberal in America meant to favor racial integration, especially for African Americans. Yet what did “integration” mean? Eliminat- New York in March 1911 for allegedly trying to pick up ing prejudicial attitudes, achieving economic parity, or acknowledging cultural or “mash” a white woman. (Washington could never give diversity? A color-blind society or racial preferences to overcome past oppres- a persuasive account of why he was in this modest New sion? Inclusion of racial minorities as individuals or recognition of them as York City neighborhood on this particular evening, not groups within a pluralist society? Questions such as these were debated at an one of the usual haunts of the high-class donors he typi- important 1965 conference held by the journal Dædalus on “The Negro Ameri- cally visited.) can” that included such prominent figures as Kenneth Clark, Ralph Ellison, Erik Erikson, John Hope Franklin, Talcott Parsons, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It is hard to know whether Norrell’s sharply argued (This year Dædalus revisited this project with two journal issues edited by Gerald Early and Law- encomium of Washington will change many minds, but rence Bobo on “Race in the Age of Obama.”) In his talk, Daniel Geary will explore the history of just to have a strong critique of the tactical excesses and the Dædalus conference on “The Negro American” in its broader political and intellectual context. sloppy thinking of the black radicals is useful as a kind He will argue that, in stressing the distinctions between liberal, conservative, and black nationalist of balance, especially as the “social justice” crowd—then positions on race, scholars have too often overlooked significant divisions among liberals themselves. and now—can often be insufferable in its self-righteous- Liberal positions on racial questions were and are diverse and at times contradictory. ness, believing, as the self-righteous often do, that all its By Daniel Geary sins are merely venial, always the mistakes of the morally Daniel Geary is the Mark Pigott Lecturer in U.S. History at Trinity College Dublin. His publica- zealous, never the mistakes of the morally mistaken. It tions include Radical Ambition: C. Wright Mills, the Left, and American Social Thought (2009) is good to have a new, highly readable and competent and “Racial Liberalism, the Moynihan Report, and the Dædalus Project on ‘The Negro American’” reinterpretation of this extraordinarily complicated and (Dædalus, 2011). He is currently working on a book-length study of the Moynihan Report contro- engaging man, a tragic titan of his age. versy tentatively titled The Crisis of Liberalism. Please join us for this important exploration of an essential topic, jointly sponsored by the Center for (Endnotes) the Humanities, Department of History, African & African-American Studies, and American Culture Studies. 1 “Just to amuse myself, and keep the good people busy, I ordered them to build this City, and my palace; and they did it all willingly and Both lectures are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be well. . . . I have been good to the people, and they like me. . .” provided at each event. Please contact the Center for the Humanities at 314-935-5576 to order a free parking --L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900 sticker and to reserve a seat.

10 Why Does “Ol’ Man River” Stop Show Boat? Todd Decker

Todd Decker, Assistant Professor of Musicology in Arts and Sciences, was a Faculty Fellow at the Center for the Humanities during the Spring semester 2011. During this time he worked on a book project entitled “Show Boat: Making and Re-making a Twentieth-Century Mu- sical,” which considers the interracial character of this formative work of the American musical theater. In upcoming issues of The Figure in the Carpet, we will feature essays by the other Spring 2011 Faculty Fellows, Anca Parvulescu, Linda Nicholson and Lutz Koepnick, that showcase the research they performed while in residence at the Center for the Humanities.

It’s a familiar phenomenon for mances as Joe but equally significant St. Louis audiences. About thirty is a long pattern of audiences for minutes into the musical Show Boat, the Broadway musical—historically the show stops cold while loud and almost entirely white—reacting to long applause greets the singing of black performers singing particular “Ol’ Man River.” The cheers step on kinds of songs. the long held note that ends the song, Why do audiences for Show Boat and more than a few in the crowd rise respond so powerfully to “Ol’ Man to their feet. The chorus of African River”? The answer lies in the American men who sing “Ol’ Man origins of the show itself. In Sep- River,” led by a charismatic bass-bari- tember 1926, Edna Ferber’s novel tone in the role of Joe, hold their final Show Boat was published to great pose, soaking up the applause while the fanfare. By December it would remainder of Show Boat’s cast—which be among the best-selling books contrary to standard Broadway practice of the year. Broadway songwriter includes black and white performers— Jerome Kern (1885-1945) read waits for the show to resume. Show Boat and immediately The MUNY has presented Show Boat recognized it as a compelling more times than any other musical—fif- basis for a musical show with teen productions since 1930—and the the capacity to feature a black entire history of Show Boat has played star of the moment singing out on the massive stage in Forest Park. music the white audiences of For almost twenty years, Michel Bell has midtown, Jazz Age Manhat- sung “Ol’ Man River” at the MUNY, play- , 2008 tan were already cheering. Kern ing the pivotal musical role of Joe in 1992, From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch brought lyricist Oscar Hammer- 2003, and 2010, and singing the song in the stein II (1895-1960) on board. Among the first MUNY’s 2008 ninetieth anniversary revue. songs the pair wrote was “Ol’ Man River,” Bell is practically an honorary citizen of St. played Joe for Houston in 1989, traveling to which Kern remembered was inspired not by Louis, part of Show Boat’s place in the histori- Cairo, Egypt, with the production and singing Ferber’s book but rather by the sound of Paul cal memory and contemporary life of a river “Ol’ Man River” in a theatre located on an is- Robeson’s voice. land in the Nile. Bell also appeared in a lavish city that loves musicals and treasures this show Robeson (1898-1976) —a black dramatic with particular passion. And Bell has enjoyed production directed by Harold Prince in the mid-1990s that ran for two years on Broadway, actor who had recently begun singing recit- a prominent place in Show Boat beyond St. als of Negro spirituals—was at the height of Louis. In the 1980s, Houston Grand Opera toured the U.S., and played London’s West End. (The 2010 MUNY production recreated his 1920s fame, and it made sense to Kern, helped install Show Boat in the American Hammerstein and their producer Florenz opera house. (Chicago Lyric Opera will stage this version.) Bell’s extraordinary voice ac- counts for some of the reaction to his perfor- Ziegfeld to feature Robeson as much as pos- Show Boat in January 2012.) Bell sible in Show Boat. Initially, they

11 Why Does “Ol’ Man River” Stop Show Boat? continued

wanted Robeson not only to play Joe and sing “Ol’ Man River” but also to perform a set of Negro spirituals as himself in act two, accompanied by his regular pianist, the accomplished African American musician Lawrence Brown. Robeson and Brown’s first all-spirituals concert in April 1925 had proved a smashing success. They packed the Greenwich Village Theatre and gave two encore concerts shortly after, one in a Broadway theatre in the heart of Times Square. Crowds—predominantly white—reportedly lined up in the snow to buy tickets to these sold out events. Robeson and Brown then toured the Northeast and Midwest— never reaching St. Louis but stopping in Chicago—and audiences and critics raved about them just about everywhere they went. Audiences cheered and wept, demanding encore after encore. Critics hailed the duo and regularly described what they offered as more than just a concert but an experience. Robeson was praised for expressing “all the plaintiveness of the colored race” with “a haunting tenderness, a wistful longing, an indescribable seeking for something just beyond, to be found in the voice of the Negro, and in no other voice.” Part of the 1920s cultural and ar- tistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, the Robeson-Brown recital experience combined music and race, capturing contemporary white fascination with black music and performers in a tremendously attractive package. Featuring Robeson and Brown in Show Boat would maximize Robeson’s presence in the cast, enlarge the role of Joe, and attract New York audiences eager to hear the best-known spiritual singer of the moment.

Kern, Hammerstein, and Ziegfeld wanted to make the Robeson-Brown William Smith bestrides a New Jersey production of experience part of Show Boat. While Robeson resisted their plan and Joe at the MUNY in 1947, 1952 and 1958. Show Boat refused to play Joe in the original Broadway production, Kern and Ham- in 1952. Smith played merstein did succeed in bringing a black male voice before the white Broadway audience simply by way of “Ol’ Man River.” This spiritual- like Broadway song—with its soaring tune that echoes folk melodies and lyrics expressing the predicament of black Americans in ways the white Unlike almost any other Broadway musical, Show Boat taps into a his- audience could accept without feeling threatened—quickly became Show torical desire by white audiences to see and hear the African American Boat’s signature moment. Ferber (1885-1968) remembered the reaction experience represented in a particular way on the popular musical stage. to Robeson as Joe in 1932—the first time he played the part on Broad- For all the progress made in race relations in the more than eighty years way—this way: “I witnessed a New York first-night audience, after Paul since Show Boat first played to packed houses, the power of “Ol’ Man Robeson’s singing of Ol’ Man River, shout and cheer and behave gener- River” in its original context remains, providing one reason why Show ally as I’ve never seen an audience behave in any theatre in all my years Boat itself keeps sailing on. of playgoing.” Robeson sang Joe for the first time in London in 1928, where one reviewer noted, “his performance is worth all the money you will pay for admission.” More than one review in the show’s long performance history echoes this astonishing claim that a single song sung by a character with no role in the plot was sufficient reason to sit through the entire show.

12 Events in September

Tuesday, September 6 Sunday, September 11 www.slcl.org. Authors @ Your Library invites you to attend as au- Left Bank Books invites you to a discussion with Pu- Left Bank Books welcomes author David Stokes, thor Sylvia Duncan presents to us mystery, intrigue litzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler, who whose book The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Nor- and suspense. She will read her story Ideally and will be signing copies of his new book, A Small Hotel. ris and the Murder Trial that Captivated America skill- share the multi-volume anthology, Mysteries of the 4pm, Left Bank Books-CWE, 399 N. Euclid Ave., fully explores the events leading up to one of the Ozarks. A book sale and signing will follow. 10am, 367-6731. most intriguing, yet largely forgotten, crime stories in SLPL-Machacek Branch, 6424 Scanlan Ave., 781- America’s history. Set during the post-World War I Monday, September 12 2948. oil boom, the story culminates in a courtroom drama Washington University Assembly Series invites Webster Groves Public Library invites you to dis- pitting powerful lawyers against one another with the you to a lecture presented by Steven Galloway, au- cuss The Day of the Locust by Nathaneal West. life of a wildly popular and equally loathed religious thor of The Cellist of Sarajevo. 7pm, WU Danforth 6pm. The library is in its temporary location at 3232 leader, J. Frank Norris, hanging in the balance. 7pm, Campus, South 40, College Hall, 935-4620. S. Brentwood Blvd., 961-3784. Left Bank Books – CWE, 399 N. Euclid Ave., 367- Tuesday, September 13 6731. Wednesday, September 7 The Brentwood Book Club will meet to discuss Thursday, September 15 Poets Debra Allbery and Stephanie Schlaifer will Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon. 7pm, Brentwood kick off the 2011-2012 Observable Reading Series Authors @ Your Library presents New York Times Public Library, 8765 Eulalie Ave., 963-8630, www. as they read from their work. Allbery, noted for her bestselling author Laurie R. King, who will read from brentwood.lib.mo.us. rich sense of the pastoral, is the author of the award- and sign her new book, The Pirate King. This swash- winning Walking Distance and Fimbul-Winter. In- Washington University Foreign Literature Read- buckling Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mystery formed by social class and travel, Schlaifer’s poetry ing Group will meet to discuss Lorna Doone by Rich- ventures into the world of early silent films. Books has appeared in literary journals such as Fence, Col- ard D. Blackmore. 7:30pm, Washington University for sale courtesy of Left Bank Books 7pm, SLPL- orado Review, and Chicago Review. 8pm, Schlafly West Campus Center, 7425 Forsyth, 727-6118. Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Ave., Maplewood. Wednesday, September 14 Washington University’s Comparative Literature The Observable Reading Series (www.stlouispoetry- Program is hosting visiting lecturer Professor Law- Sixth Annual Suspense Night at SLCL. St. Louis center.org/observable), part of the St. Louis Poetry rence Venuti. His talk is titled “Translation, Intertex- County Library Foundation presents Suspense Night Center, is funded in part by the St. Louis Regional tuality, Interpretation.” 6:30pm, WU Danforth Cam- 2011, a free event bringing together seven sus- Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council. For pus, Women’s Building Formal Lounge, 935-5170. pense authors from across the country. The event more information about the reading, contact Robert is in partnership with the 2011 Bouchercon Conven- Friday, September 16 Lowes at [email protected]. tion, an annual national convention of mystery writ- With her most recent novel, Cleopatra: A Life, author Thursday, September 8 ers and readers, which will be held from September Stacy Schiff boldly separates fact from fiction to res- Left Bank Books invites you to an evening with au- 15-18 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in downtown cue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a thor Catherine Graves as she discusses her searing St. Louis (www.bouchercon2011.com). The St. Louis new world order. Schiff is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and candid memoir, Checking Out: An In-Depth Look County Library is the Bouchercon 2011 non-profit biographer. This Maryville Talks Books event is co- at Losing Your Mind. Graves shares the bittersweet partner. Suspense Night 2011 features: Megan Ab- sponsored by Left Bank Books, Maryville Univer- story of a woman tormented by a past for which she bott, the Edgar-winning author of the novels Die a sity, St. Louis Public Radio, and HEC-TV. 7pm, must find absolution. 7pm, Left Bank Books–CWE, Little, The Song Is You, Queenpin, Bury Me Deep, Maryville University Auditorium, 650 Maryville Uni- 399 N. Euclid Ave., 367-6731. and The End of Everything; Reed Farrel Coleman, versity Dr., 367-6731. whose latest book is Innocent Monsters, the sixth Friday, September 9 installment in the Moe Prager detective series; S.J. Saturday, September 17 Second Friday Notes (SLPC) features poets Katy Rozan, whose latest novel, Ghost Hero, is the elev- Authors @ Your Library presents Joe Schwartz, Miller and Travis Mossitto with local folk rocker Bob enth in the series featuring Chinese-American detec- who will discuss and sign his new book, The Games Gleason. Miller has work forthcoming in Pleiades and tive Lydia Chin; Peter Spiegelman, author of Black Men Play. This book combines twenty-one short sto- the American Journal of Nursing. Mossitto is a recent Maps, Death’s Little Helpers, Red Cat, and Thick as ries that will take the reader on a haunting journey lecturer at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Thieves; Steve Hamilton, whose books include A through St. Louis from the city’s darkest streets to His poetry appears in American Literary Review, New Cold Day in Paradise; Lisa Lutz, author of the New the most rural areas of the county. A St. Louis native, York Quarterly, Passages North and RHINO. 7pm, York Times bestselling Spellman Files series; and Schwartz writes exclusively about the Gateway City. Cafe at Whole Foods Market, Clayton and Woods Christa Faust, a successful horror and crime writer He invites you to read him free at www.SCRIBD.com. Mill, Town and Country, www.stlouispoetrycenter.org/ whose most recent novel is Money Shot. Authors will 2pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., readings. read from recent work and discuss their craft. A panel 367-4120. discussion and book signing will follow the program, Saturday, September 10 Sunday, September 18 and Puddin’Head Books will be selling copies of the The Saturday Afternoon Book Club will be discuss- authors’ books. Program sites are accessible. Upon The BookClub’s 428th discussion is about the book ing Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. 2pm, two weeks’ notice, accommodations will be made for Cutting for Stones by Abraham Verghese. For more Webster Groves Public Library. The library is in its persons with disabilities. 7pm, SLCL-Library Head- information, venue and time, email lloydk@kline- temporary location on 3232 S. Brentwood Blvd., 961- quarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd., 994-3300 or visit dinst.com or call 636-451-3232. 3784.

13 Events in September

St. Louis Poetry Center (SLPC) presents poet and Thursday, September 22 Louis Public Library present New Yorker writer critic Pamela Garvey, who will review pre-submitted Kirkwood Public Library invites you to a presen- Calvin Trillin, who will read from his newest book, poems. Poems must be pre-submitted by 5pm, Sep- tation on quilts and a book signing with author Ann Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of His tember 10. Garvey‘s chapbook Fear was a finalist for Hazelwood. 1:30pm, Kirkwood Public Library, 140 E. Funny Stuff. 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 N. the New Women’s Voices Competition. 1:30pm, Uni- Jefferson, 821-5770. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. versity City Library, 6701 Delmar, www.stlouispoetry- You are invited to join Vickie Weaver as she debuts Friday, September 30 center.org/workshop/. her first novel, Billie Girl, which is a Southern Goth- Buzz Westfall Favorite Author series presents ac- Monday, September 19 ic tale. The heroine’s life, a gender-bending puzzle claimed historian Laurence Bergreen, who details The 37th season of the River Styx Reading Series filled with dark humor, is a series of encounters with the many adventures and historical background of kicks off at Duff’s Restaurant in the Central West End strangers who struggle with what they are given. Christopher Columbus’s celebrated, controversial with fiction writer Danielle Dutton and novelist Bon- 7pm, Left Bank Books – CWE, 399 N. Euclid Ave., career. Bergreen’s previous biographies include the nie Jo Campbell. Admission is $5 or $4 for seniors, 367-6731. national bestsellers Marco Polo and Over the Edge students, and members. 7:30pm, Duff’s Restaurant, Tuesday, September 27 of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation 392 N. Euclid, 533-4541. of the Globe. 7pm, SLCL-Headquarters Branch, Left Bank Books features the poems in Devin 1640 S. Lindbergh, 994-3300. Books for signing will Tuesday, September 20 Johnston’s Traveler, which cross great distances, be available for purchase from Pudd’nHead Books. Join author Maureen Stanton as she discusses her from the Red Hills of Kansas to the Rough Bounds of Washington University Performing Arts Depart- book Killer Stuff and Tons of Money, the story of one the Scottish Highlands, following weather patterns, ment presents a Staged Reading of a new play by dealer’s journey from the populist mayhem of flea bird migrations, and ocean voyages. Less literally, WU student Sarah Wagener entitled This Is It. 7pm, markets to the rarefied realm of auctions, and reveals these poems move through translations and protean WU Danforth Campus, A.E. Hotchner Studio The- the rich, often outrageous subculture of antiques and transformations. 7pm, Left Bank Books–CWE, 399 atre, Mallinckrodt Center, 935-5858. collectibles. 7pm, Left Bank Books – Downtown, N. Euclid Ave., 367-6731. 321 North 10th St., 463-3049. Poets Maurice Hirsch and Deborah Katz will read Upcoming Events and Notices Reading Garden Event Series presents Scott for Poetry at the Point (SLPC). Hirsch is the author of Are you looking for a critique group? If you are a Westerfeld, the New York Times bestselling author several poetry collections including Roots and Paths writer living in the St. Louis Metro area, be sure to of the Uglies science fiction series. In the highly- and Taking Stock. Katz specializes in free verse and check out one of these critique groups sponsored by anticipated final installment in the Leviathan trilogy, experimentation with traditional poetry forms. She is the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustra- Goliath, Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their writing a memoir about her father, a decorated vet- tors (SCBWI): eran. Doors open at 7pm, 7:30pm readings, Focal round-the-world quest to end World War I and re- The St. Charles group meets the first Wednesday of Point, 2720 Sutton, Maplewood, www.stlouispoetry- claim Alek’s throne as prince of Austria, and they fi- each month at 7pm at the Mid Rivers Barnes and center.org/readings. nally fall in love. 7pm, SLCL-Headquarters Branch, Noble. For more information, contact Stephanie 1640 S. Lindbergh, 994-3300. Books for signing will The Pacesetter Author Series presents Susan El- Bearce at [email protected]. be available for purchase from Pudd’nHead Books. liott, one of the first programmers at IBM and the The Florissant group meets the second Thursday founder of Systems Service Enterprise. Elliott was Wednesday, September 21 of each month at 7pm at Florissant Presbyterian a woman pioneer in the man’s world of technology. Church. For more information, contact Sue Bradford Mystery Readers Book Discussion invites you to Her book Across the Divide details how she con- Edwards, [email protected]. talk about The Immaculate Deception by Iain Pears. ceived and managed her business in a field with ex- 2pm, Kirkwood Public Library, 140 E. Jefferson, ponential change and international competition. 7pm, Creve Coeur Critique Group Meets on the second 821-5770. SLCL-Headquarters Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh, Tuesday of each month at the St Louis Bread Co. on Authors @ Your Library presents Australian author 994-3300. Books will be available for purchase and North Ballas, in the Balmoral Plaza shopping center Denis Finn, who will talk about and sign his book signing. (just south of Olive) at 6:30pm. If you are interested The Vulture Perspective. This is the ultimate instruc- in joining, contact Katie Gast at [email protected]. Wednesday, September 28 tion manual for the game of life. Denis “Dorsal” Finn Abbreviations has over 20 years experience working with people Central Book Discussion group discusses contem- STL: St. Louis; B&N: Barnes & Noble; KPL: Kirkwood who have life barriers. 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, porary and classic literature. This month they will dis- Public Library; LBB: Left Bank Books; SLCL: St. 225 N. Euclid Ave., 367-4120. cuss Maeve Binchy’s Night of Rain and Stars. 4pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid Ave., 367- Louis County Library; SLPL: St. Louis Public Library; Left Bank Books and the St. Louis Jewish Book 4120. SCCCL: St. Charles City County Library; UCPL: Uni- Festival present international best-selling author versity City Public Library; UMSL: University of Mis- Nicole Krauss. The National Book Award citation Thursday, September 29 souri-St. Louis; WU: Washington University; WGPL: described her book Great House as “a novel about You are invited to join the Schlafly Book Discus- Webster Groves Public Library. the long journey of a magnificent desk as it travels sion as they read and discuss diverse contemporary Check the online calendar at cenhum.artsci.wustl. through the twentieth century from one owner to the literature every fourth Thursday of the month. This edu for more events and additional details. To adver- next. It is also a novel about love, exile, the defile- month the group will discuss Octavia Butler’s Wild tise, send event details to [email protected], fax ments of war, and the restorative power of language.” Seed. 7pm, SLPL-Schlafly Branch, 225 N. Euclid 935-4889, or call 935-5576. 7pm, Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Cam- Ave., 367-4120. pus Dr., 367-6731. Left Bank Books, Sauce Magazine, and the St.