Center for American Literary Studies to Sponsor Spring 2008 Community Read of Ernest Hemingway’s Novel A Farewell to Arms
02/19/2008 11:11 am
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Throughout the spring term, 2008, Penn State’s Center for American Literary Studies, in partnership with the Penn State University Libraries and the Penn State Institute for Arts and Humanities, will sponsor a Community Read of Ernest Hemingway’s powerful 1929 novel, A Farewell to Arms. The Community Read will feature a number of Hemingway-related lectures and discussions of the book that will take place throughout March and April of 2008.
A Farewell to Arms was chosen as the book for the 2008 Community Read by Penn State Professor of English Sandra Spanier, a world-renowned Hemingway specialist and editor of the ground breaking Hemingway Letters Project which will result in the first complete edition of Hemingway’s more than 6,000 extant letters. When asked why she chose the book, Spanier stated that A Farewell to Arms remains her favorite Hemingway novel. “The style approaches poetry,” she said. “The book remains timely eighty years after it was written.”
The Community Read will kick off with a lecture by Professor James Nagel, the author of Hemingway in Love and War, on Wednesday, March 5, 2008, at 7:30pm at the Nittany Lion Inn. Nagel’s account of Hemingway’s First World War experiences formed the basis of a Hollywood film directed by Lord Richard Attenborough, starring Sandra Bullock and Chris O’Donnell.
On Thursday, March 6, 2008, acclaimed short story writer and memoirist Tobias Wolff will deliver the Penn State University Libraries Charles W. Mann lecture (time and place to be announced). Wolff’s most recent work, his 2003 novel Old School, revolves around the experiences of a young writer eager to meet Hemingway, his literary idol.
On Tuesday, March 25, April 1, and April 8, 2008, at 7:30pm in 102 Kern Building, pairs of Penn State faculty will lead discussions of A Farewell to Arms for all interested readers.
On Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 7:30pm in Foster Auditorium, Jonathan Bank, the Artistic Director of New York City’s Mint Theater, will give a talk about Hemingway’s little-known play of the Spanish Civil War, The Fifth Column.
On the evening of April 17, 2008 at 7:30pm in Foster Auditorium, Dr. Susan Beegel, the editor of the Hemingway Review, will present a multi-media presentation about the World War I context of A Farewell to Arms.
The Community Read will culminate with a gala lecture on April 18, 2008 at 7:30pm in the Ballroom of the Atherton Hotel in downtown State College. The gala will feature Professor Sandra Spanier, who will offer her interpretation of A Farewell to Arms, as well as responses by distinguished Hemingway scholars Professor Debra Moddelmog (Ohio State University), Professor Robert W. Trogdon (Kent State University), and Professor Susan Beegel (University of Idaho).
The Center is also sponsoring a Community Read essay prize for Penn State undergraduates. The first prize of $500 for the best essay about A Farewell to Arms will be awarded at the gala. All events for the Community Read are free and open to the public. For more information, see the Center for American Literary Studies web site: < http://English.la.pus.edu/CALS/> or contact Professor Hester Blum at hmb13@psu.edu.
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