happiness and a few extra fries a - center for the humanities - april 06 new.pdf · planet, among...
TRANSCRIPT
Financial assistance for thisproject has been provided by theMissouri Arts Council, a stateagency, and the Regional ArtsCommission.
One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads
Happiness and a Few Extra Fries
As I sleepily scanned the cartoon stripsin the newspaper a few mornings ago,the text bubble above the usually sar-
castic mouse in “Pearls Before Swine” byStephen Pastis started me thinking. The mousecharacter in the strip asks the pig, who serves asthe butt of most of the jokes, what it means to behappy, “is it something subjective...or is therean objective component…is it simply the absenceof pain or is it something more? How does adumb guy like you answer a question like that?”The pig responds, “I think happiness is finding acouple of extra fries at the bottom of the bag.”
The pig s answer might be as good as any,because when it comes to questions abouta state of being such things as happiness, arehard to define, but we all think we know it whenwe feel it.˚ In fact, next to life and liberty, thepursuit of happiness is one of the unalienablerights written into our Declaration ofIndependence. And judging by our efforts toovercome even the most ordinary unhappinessinherent in living, many of us are pursuing thatright with a vengeance. Yet, despite the extensiveuse of this concept in thinking about our livesand to justify the principals of our society,perhaps we are all dumb guys when it comesto answering questions about happiness.
It seems doubtful that our earliest ancestorsspent much time thinking about whether or notthey were happy; they were too busy simplytrying to live.˚ There were no extra fries in theirlife, only extra dangers that they had to adaptto.˚ In fact, as Jonathan Haidt says in his bookThe Happiness Hypothesis (2005), thisadaptation resulted in our brains being wired so
The Center for the HumanitiesCampus Box 1071Old McMillan Hall, Rm S101One Brookings DriveSt. Louis, MO 63130-4899Phone: (314) 935-5576email: [email protected]://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu
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that most sense data pass through the amygdala,which helps control our fight-or-flight response,before being processed by other parts of ourcerebral cortex. ˚We are hardwired to react todanger even before we know what we are reactingto or if it is really dangerous.˚ We are thedescendents of ancestors who had very fast fight-or-flight responses to threats and who took fewchances. It made good sense to be fearful andcautious. ˚Perhaps this hardwired emphasis onthe dangers around In the relatively democraticculture of Athens, where value is placed on self-reliance and self-control, Socrates put forward theidea that happiness was something that can beearned by leading a good life. This was amomentous shift in the way we understoodhappiness because it shifted the responsibility ofhappiness from the gods shoulders onto our own.˚Happiness was now something that could bepursued. Of course, the payoff of this pursuit isnot always immediate. When this alignment ofindividual responsibility and a political orreligious order developed into the view of themedieval Christian church, living the good lifeearned you happiness only in the next life (unlessyou happened to be the manor lord).Enlightenment thinkers, with their rational viewof the world and confidence in our ability tocontrol it, began separating the pursuit ofhappiness from the eternal bliss promised byreligion and moved it toward the pursuit ofpleasure. We have been pursuing happiness onthese terms ever since.˚
But just what are we pursuing? If we are sobusy pursuing happiness, how will we know whenwe have it? As I drove to work this morning I
Nancy BergAssociate Professor ofThe Jewish, Islamic andNear Eastern StudiesProgram
Ken BotnickAssociate Professor of Art
Lorenzo CarcaterraWriter
Letty ChenAssistant Professor ofModern Chinese Languageand Literature
Robert HenkeAssociate Professor ofDrama and ComparativeLiteratureChair of ComparativeLiterature
Michael KahnAttorney at Law, BlackwellSanders Peper Martin
Larry MayProfessor of Philosophy
Steven MeyerAssociate Professor ofEnglish
Angela MillerAssociate Professor of ArtHistory and Archeology
Linda Nicholson
Professor and Director ofWomen and Gender StudiesDolores PesceProfessor and Chair ofMusic Department
Joe PollackKWMU Theatre & FilmCritic
Bart SchneiderEditor of Speakeasy
Jeff SmithAssociate Professor ofPerforming ArtsDirector of Film and MediaStudies Department
Robert VinsonAssistant Professor ofHistory and African andAfrican-American Studies
James V. WertschMarshall S. Snow Professorof Arts and Sciences inEducationDirector of theInternational and AreaStudies Program
Ex officio
Edward S. MaciasExecutive Vice Chancellor& Dean of Arts andSciences, Barbara and DavidThomas DistinguishedProfessor of Arts & Sciences
THE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
ADVISORY BOARD 2005-2006
One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads
another but each was aware of it and mutually profited by it. Cosell s support ofAli s right to choose his religious beliefs and to his right to work as he appealedhis draft evasion case helped Ali enormously with middle America. Moreover, asKindred points out several times, Cosell never asked Ali really tough questionsand he tended to play along with him in ways that showed Ali as gracious, humorous,likeable, even if he belonged to a racist, fascist minded religion. Cosell playedAli s straight man. Ali of course benefited Cosell by giving him a measure ofgravity (Ali was certainly the sole athlete of his time who raised uncomfortablesocial and political questions for his audience); by making Cosell even more famousand well-known in places which Cosell normally could not have reached. Aliinternationalized Cosell, made him and sports relevant among people who usuallydid not think about sports at all.
Naturally, this dual biography is about the relationship between blacks andJews. Cosell and Ali were the most black-Jewish pair in history and theirrelationship symbolized much about the relationship between the two groupsthemselves, particularly as that relationship was being worked out in the 1960s,both having a certain appreciation for the other, a certain depth of understandingthat produced as much wariness as it did admiration. Interestingly, they werenever really friends. Ali never once visited Cosell s home. Cosell never socializedwith Ali. What they had in common was that they had virtually nothing in commonbut the fierce determination to be what they were, sui generis, Muslim and Jew,the odd couple against the goyim.
Kindred s book is one of the best sports books to have crossed this reviewer sdesk in a few seasons. It is well-written, well researched, and balanced aboutboth men without tipping toward either sentimentality or hostility. The readeralso has the added pleasure of learning a bit more about the subjects as people asKindred knew them both personally. On the whole, this is a fine book that can berecommended to those who love either of the subjects, boxing, or sports in general,or those who like behind the scene stories about the sports media. And it can beequally recommended to those who have no interest in any of those things butwould like to read a well-crafted book about an engaging aspect of Americanhistory and culture.
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realized I did not know the answer to these questions andthat this Editor s Notes might end as have a few otherattempts over the years — in the trash folder. Just then,however, someone on a radio program on NPR startedtalking about John Milton s Paradise Lost and I almostturned it off. But, for some reason I did not and the onething that stood out from that program for me was a quotationfrom Milton s epic poem The mind is its own place, and initself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. Thatis the answer. We can find the source and the meaning ofhappiness in ourselves. For compared to the lives of ourancient ancestors, the life we live now is one ofunprecedented luxury, unimaginable good health, and a levelof safety that almost makes our hardwired reactions todanger superfluous. They would find our obsession withseeking more happiness foolish.
By the time I pulled into the parking lot I was beginningto ask myself whether Socrates was right about happiness.I certainly had not led the good life by waiting until the lastminute to finish these notes. Still, something good hadhappened to me and the ancestors were still with me, despiteall, for I looked up into a sky full of radio waves and HDTVsignals and wondered for a moment whether I had just hadthe good fortune to be saved by the radio gods.
Jian LengAssociate Director
The Center for the Humanities
Continued...
II.In February 1980, President JimmyCarter sent heavyweight boxingchampion Muhammad Ali (born CassiusMarcellus Clay, Jr. in Louisville,Kentucky) to Africa to help gain supporton the continent for a boycott of theSummer Olympics, to take place thatyear in Moscow. The Soviet Union hadjust invaded Afghanistan. At first blush,it would seem strange to send aprofessional athlete, and not a terriblyreflective or thoughtful one at that, toAfrica on such a mission. But PresidentFord had made former actress ShirleyTemple ambassador to Ghana.(Admittedly, she was far moreexperienced in diplomatic affairs than Alihaving served for five years as a delegateto the UN General Assembly.) Ali, at thetime, was the most black person on theplanet, among blacks especially, greatlyadmired. Besides, at this stage in hiscareer, having fought in the Phillippines,Zaire, and other places around the world,having been greeted and lionized byworld leaders, Ali, besotted by thisattention, was rather under theimpression that he was something of adiplomat.
But unlike his first trip to Africa in 1964,shortly after he won the heavyweight titleand announced that he had joined theNation of Islam, Ali was not greeted byadmiring crowds, enchanted by thehandsome, loudmouth, petulant Muslimboy wonder. In 1980, the president ofTanzania refused to see him, insulted thathe was sent. He fumbled at pressconferences, showing appallingignorance of even the most elementaryaspects of the United States relationshipto African nations, he convinced noAfrican country to take part in theboycott, except Kenya, which was goingto do so anyway, had he never showedup. Ali, the anti-Vietnam War rebel, theso-called independent conscience of hisage, tried to carry water for theestablishment that had been out of gethim, and was made to look like a fool.He had been granted his wish to be
important, to be a global star. It had beengranted perversely.
By 1980, Howard Cosell (born HowardCohen, who grew up in Brooklyn) wassick of Monday Night Football, thepathbreaking sports program that hispresence and voice had made possiblewhen Roone Arledge first thought it upin 1970. He, too, had been granted hiswish of becoming the most importantsportscaster in America. There was noone more famous who did sports. Hisface, his voice, his mannerisms, hisvocabulary were the stuff of legend and
satire. He was right when he spoke ofthe three Cs of broadcasting from the1960s on, Cronkite, Carson, and Cosell.He had wanted to bring serious sportsjournalism to television, had wanted topresent sports in their wider socialcontext. Now, he felt trapped by celebrityjock broadcasters, by prattle aboutmeaningless games, meaningless seasonswhere who won didn t matter, by theinability to get Americans take sportsmore seriously as a social, economic, andpolitical industry. Fame made him acaricature. He hadn t raised sports; hehad merely fallen to level of sportsbanalities. This was the price he paid forhis stardom. He was not able to get outof Monday Night Football until 1983, inpart, when he referred to WashingtonRedskins African American receiver
Alvin Garrett as that little monkeyCosell, the liberal commentator who hadstood up for Muhammad Ali during thedays of the draft-dodging, Black Muslimcontroversy, who memorialized JackieRobinson, who gave sprinters TommieSmith and John Carlos fair coverage fortheir clenched-fist salute during themedal-awarding ceremony for their eventat the 1968 Olympics, now condemnedin some quarters as Cosell the insensitive,Cosell the racist! Cosell weathered theinevitable storm but he was disgustedbecause he felt that should not have beenany storm for him to have weathered. Heleft Monday Night Football and was gladto go.
Dave Kindred s Sound and Fury may nothave been meant to be another bookabout the relationship between blacksand Jews, although it is that. It seemsmore like a book about the relationshipbetween a star athlete, a star commentatorwho interpreted the athlete, and corporateworld of big-time sports media coveragewhich grew up around them and in somemeasure happened because of them. Thatmedia framed them both. Ali and Cosellwere unlikely stars: the pretty,completely superficial, self-absorbedblack boy from Kentucky with badtechnique but extraordinary skills, theloudmouth kid who threw his lot into theNation of Islam and became caught upinternecine gangster terrorism, draftdodging, and fighting for tin horn ThirdWorld dictators. And Cosell, the tall,sloop-shouldered lawyer with theBrooklyn Jewish voice, pompous,egotistical, often insufferable, whowanted a career as a big-timesportscaster, not because he loved sportsas much as he loved what theyrepresented. It was amazing that theyshould have succeeded as they did in theirchosen fields. More amazing it was thatthey should have become such a pair inpopular culture, linked together by themany interviews that Cosell conductedwith Ali over the years. (Not all of themas unrehearsed as some may haveimagined.) The two men used one
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NOTICEFor more articles and reviews that do not appear in either
of our print publications The Figure in the Carpet or BellesLettres, please visit the website for the Center for theHumanities at http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/. For instance,Gerald Early, the Center s director, wrote columns for a blogfor the New York Times in February. In April, on our website,we will run the columns that were written for the blog butthe Times editor chose not to run.
If you are interested in submitting an article or reviewfor our website, please email us at [email protected] your submission. All Washington University Faculty,Staff, and Students are eligible to submit. Writers of postedpieces are paid an honorarium.
Upcoming Children Film Symposium later this Spring.Please check our center s website in the coming days formore information!
Gerald EarlyDirector, The Center for the Humanities
The Center for the HumanitiesFaculty Fellows’ Lecture and
Workshop Series
Thursday, April 17Narrative Transgression
in Contemporary German-Jewish HolocaustLiteratureErin McGlothlin (WU,Department of GermanLanguage)7:00 pm, Old McMillanHall, Room 115
Professor McGlothlin s presentation will investigatethe ways in which two works of contemporaryGerman-Jewish writing on the Holocaust, EdgarHilsenrath s The Nazi and the Barber and MaximBiller s Harlem Holocaust, self-consciouslytransgress against established modes of conceivingof the Holocaust as a sacred, profoundlyincomprehensible event.
Monday, April 24In the House of Mirrors: Painting and Experience
in the Dutch RepublicMari t Westermann (New York University, Director,Institute of Fine Arts)4:00 pm, Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 305
Professor Westermann will deliver a public lectureon her recent work on the mirror as a luxury item inseventeenth-century Dutch culture, and as a modelof new kinds of painting.
Tuesday, April 25Silence and Noise in
Dutch Paintings ofMannersMari t Westermann(Workshop with graduatestudents)9:00 am, Simon Hall,Room 108
Events are free and open to the public. Please callthe Center at 314-935-5576 for a free parking stickerand to reserve a seat so that we can have an accuratecount. Refreshments will be provided.
Events in
April
St. Louis Literary Calendar
Calendar continues on next page...
All events are free unless otherwise indicated.Author events are followed by signings. Allphone numbers take 314 prefix unlessindicated.
Saturday, April 1St. Louis Writers Guild presents a workshopled by author Julie Failla Earhart titled“Copyrights and Wrongs?”, B&N Crestwood,9618 Watson Rd, 10am, 821-3823.
B&N St. Peters welcomes author”Lester Popesigning Lights, Camera…Arch: St. Louis andthe Movies, 320 Mid Rivers Ctr Dr, 1-3pm, 636-278-1118.
Borders Fairview Heights presents KathleenGoodman signing her travel guide Paris bythe Numbers, 6601 N Illinois St, 2 pm, 618-397-6097.
Monday, April 3SLCL Eureka Hills & LBB welcomes localmystery author Shirley Kennett signing Timeof Death, 103 Hilltop Village Ctr, Eureka,6:30pm, 636-938-4520.
SCCL McClay Branch hosts an Open Housefor Local Authors, 2760 McClay Rd, 6:30-8:30pm, 636-441-7577.
LBB welcomes author of Raising Kids in St.Louis: An Essential Guide for the MindfulParent Anne Wells, 399 N Euclid Ave, 7pm,367-6731.
Tuesday, April 4
The College Club of St. Louis welcomes areading and talk by Richard Newman,University Club Towers 21st floor, 1034 S.Brentwood, 11am.
Fiction writer Richard Burgin reads from hiswork, Webster University Pearson House,8260 Big Bend, 1:30pm, 968-7170.
SLCL Indian Trails Book Discussion Grouptalks about I Am David, 8400 Delport Dr, 7pm,428-5424.
UMSL hosts a reading by poet Joy Katz, 44East Dr, Gallery 210, 7pm, 516-6845.
The WU Writing Program Spring ReadingSeries presents novelist and visiting HurstProfessor Sigrid Nunez, Hurst Lounge,Duncker 201, WU Campus, 8 p.m., 935-7130.
Wednesday, April 5The Borders Sunset Hills Book Club meetsto discuss Pope Joan, 10990 Sunset HillsPlaza, 7pm, 909-0300.
LBB and SLPL welcomes author JacquelineWoodson signing Show Way, Schlafly Branch,225 N Euclid Ave, 7pm, 367-6731.
LBB and SLCL hosts a talk and signing byauthor of Refuse to Choose: A RevolutionaryProgram for Doing Everything That You Love,Barbara Sher, HQ Branch, 1640 S Lindbergh,7pm, 367-6731.
SCCL McClay Branch Book Discussion Clubtalks about Angry Housewives Eating BonBons, 2760 McClay Rd, 7pm and again at 2pmon the 12th, 636-441-7577.
Thursday, April 6SLCL HQ Branch Mystery Lovers’ BookClub meets to discuss The Puzzled Heart,1640 S Lindbergh, 10am, 994-3300.
The Book Journeys Discussion Groupmeets to talk about A Garden in Paris, SLCLIndian Trails, 8400 Delport Dr, 2pm, 428-5424.
SIEU ELLA Speaker Series 2005-06: KarenKovacik, Mississippi/ Illinois Room, MorrisUniversity Center, 4 pm, for info [email protected] .
SLPL Walnut Park Branch hosts Authors @Your Library featuring author of SteppingStones to Success, Lydia Douglas, 5760 WFlorissant Ave, 4:30pm, 383-1210.
B&N St. Peters welcomes author VinitaHampton Wright discussing and signingDwelling Places, 320 Mid Rivers Ctr Dr, 7-9pm,636-278-1118.
The Kirkwood Public Library series BetweenTwo Worlds continues with Kathleen Nigroleading discussion about The Centaur in theGarden, by Moacyr Scliar, 140 E Jefferson,Kirkwood, 7pm, 821-5770.
SLPL Schlafly Branch hosts Authors @ YourLibrary featuring authors of Chemotherapyand Radiation for Dummies, PatriciaCorrigan, Alan Lyss & Umberto Fagundes,225 N Euclid Ave, 7pm, 367-4120.
SLCL Bridgeton Trails Branch & LBBwelcomes local mystery author ShirleyKennett signing Time of Death, 3455McKelvey Rd, 7pm, 291-7570.
Writers’ Workshop at the SLCL Grand GlaizeBranch, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, 7pm, 636-225-6454.
Jane Mead & Carl Phillips will be readingfrom their works at the Schlafly Tap Room,2100 Locust St, 8pm, 241-2337.
SLPL Schlafly Branch presents PatriciaCorrigan and others in a discussion on themyths and realities of cancer treatment, 225N Euclid, 7pm, 367-4120.
LBB presents author of Stepping up: the Storyof All-Star Curt Flood & His Fight for BaseballPlayers’ Rights, Alex Belth, 399 N Euclid Ave,7pm, 367-6731.
Friday, April 7The St. Charles Community CollegeCoffeehouse hosts an open-mic in theStudent Center Dining Center, 4601 MidRivers Mall, 7-9pm, 636-922-8407.
Saturday, April 8The Mystery Lover’s Book Club meets atthe SLPL Carondelet Branch to discuss KissMe Deadly, 6800 Michigan Ave, 10-11am, 752-9224.
SLPL Carondelet Branch hosts Authors @Your Library featuring Chicago area mysteryauthors Julie Hyzy & Michael A. Black, 6800Michigan Ave, 11am, 752-9224.
Borders Sunset Hills presents author SheliaMoses signing The Return of Buddy Bush,10990 Sunset Hills Plaza, 1pm, 909-0300.
Join the inaugural meeting of the SLPL WalnutPark Book Club as they discuss Icarus Girl,5760 W Florissant Ave, 1-3pm, 383-1210.
Writers’ Workshop at the SLCL Mid CountyBranch, 7821 Maryland Ave, 2pm, 721-3008.
SLPL Barr Branch hosts Authors @ YourLibrary featuring author of Better Off, EricBrende, 1701 S Jefferson Ave, 2pm, 771-7040.
Anne Wells signs Raising Kids in St. Louis:The Essential Guide for the Mindful Parent,Borders Creve Coeur, 11745 Olive Blvd, 2pm,432-3575.
Words on Purpose presents readings byAllison Funk, Nanora Sweet, & Mary Troyto benefit women’s support and communityservices, Soulard Coffee Garden, 910 GeyerAve, 4pm, 646-7500, ext 101.
Douglas Century, Barney Ross, NewYork: Schocken Books, 2006. 216 pageswith appendices and photos
Dave Kindred, Sound and Fury: TwoPowerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship,New York: Free Press, 2006. 368 pageswith index and photos
Ipromoter Don King once said words tothe effect that prizefighters occupy aboutthe same space in the social scale as $25whores. You know you re in a toughbusiness when the people who run it saythings like that about you. (Things areeven tougher if you re a $25 whore.)
However one feels about professionalboxing, and I suppose most of us feelnone-too-good about its continuedexistence as a money-making pastime,its history tells us something aboutethnicity and manhood in America, thecountry where professional fighters canstill make the most money. Today,boxing rings are crowded with the nativesons of Eastern Europe, Latinos,Filipinos, and African Americans, for themost part. Back in the 1930s, there wereIrish, Italians, and Jews, especially Jews,who not only had a sizablerepresentation in the ring but also weredisproportionately represented amongpromoters, trainers, and managers.
Book of the Month by Gerald Early
Incredibly, for instance, German fighterMax Schmeling s American managerwas a Jew, Joe Jacobs. The man whomade it possible for Joe Louis to fightfor the title in 1937 was promoter MikeJacobs (no relation to Joe), also a Jew.The first historian of blacks in boxingwas Nat Fleischer, who published TheRing magazine, also a Jew. (His historyof blacks in boxing which came out inthe 1930s is five volumes.) For thosewho want to know more about Jews andboxing, Allen Bodner s When BoxingWas a Jewish Sport, is must-reading.
Douglas Century s short biography ofBarney Ross returns to public attentionone of the great Jewish fighters of the1930s, holder of the lightweight, juniorwelterweight, and welterweight crowns,when such a feat meant somethingbecause there was only one championper division. (There are at least fourthese days.) Century tells us the storyof man born Dov Ber Rasofsky, how hegrew up in Chicago s tough MaxwellStreet ghetto, how his father, a grocer,was killed when he was held up by twoAfrican American gunmen, and howRoss went into boxing to get money toget his siblings out of an orphanage. Ihad no hopes or goal of a big timesuccess, Ross said years later . (Quotedin Century on page 39) Ross was alwaysa restless man, a chain smoker, unableto sit still for long. He lostunconscionable sums of moneygambling and left the fight game, aftertaking a terrible beating from St.Louisan Henry Armstrong, with vituallynothing.Ross became known as the Pride of theGhetto and Jews came to his fights ingreat number but, as Century explains,Jewish culture never esteemed boxingor, indeed, sports generally. (Century, p.26-27). The Yiddish press never wrotemuch about men like Ross or LewTendler or Jackie Fields or BennyLeonard or any of the other great Jewishfighters of the 1920s and 1930s(Century, p. 30)
After Ross left prizefighting, he enlistedin the Marines and fought atGuadalcanal where he won the SilverStar but was so severely wounded thathe became a morphine addict. Heeventually overcame this and, in 1947,ran guns to Jews in Palestine.
Two films were made his life: Body andSoul (1947), a loose adaptation by actorJohn Garfield and writer AbrahamPolonsky, a former Communist who wasblacklisted. Both men were Jews. (Theadaptation would have been more exactif Ross had not become a drug addict.)Polonsky made some changes includingnot having African Americans killRoss s father. He also establishes afriendship between Ross and a blackfighter with a blood clot, played byCanada Lee, who is exploited anddestroyed by the mob and, for whom,Ross s character seeks justice. Thesechanges, made clearly to highlight a kindof black-Jewish sympathy, areinteresting and the film, an independentventure, was meant to be political.The other film was Monkey On MyBack (1957) which sensationalizedRoss s drug addiction. It s hard to gaugewhich film Ross hated more.
Ross died of oral cancer in 1967. ButCentury s book is more about its subtextthan its subject. And the subtext is aJewish warrior tradition, dating back toJoshua, that is little acknowledged, notmuch among Jews and completelyunknown to Gentiles. (See theChronology in Century, pp. 199-210).Centuiry s book is no protest against theevils of boxing. His view is that warriorculture, Jewish toughness, as he callsit, is essential to understanding Jewishculture and the Jewish mind, essentialto understanding aspects of Jewishheroism. For Century, boxing is bothpsychological and political. Centurywrites: Barney Ross was everything theDiaspora tradition had warned Jews notto become, but a fulfillment as well ofits secret fantasy. (Century , p. 184)
St. Louis Literary CalendarMonday, April 10
SLCL Prairie Commons Branch & LBBwelcomes local mystery author ShirleyKennett signing Time of Death, 915 Utz Ln,Hazelwood, 7pm, 895-1023.
LBB presents author of the memoirAmerica’s Boy, Wade Rouse, 399 N EuclidAve, 7pm, 367-6731.
LBB presents political activist and author ofMemoirs, Ahmed Kathrada, Central ReformCongregation, 5020 Waterman Ave, 7pm,367-6731.
Tuesday, April 11The SLCL Grand Glaize Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about Waiting for Snowin Havana, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, 2pm,636-225-6454.
The SLCL HQ Branch Book Discussion willbe about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1640 SLindbergh, 7pm & again on the 13th at 2pm,994-3300.
B&N St. Peters welcomes author BuzzBissinger & St. Louis Cardinals winningmanager Tony LaRussa who will be signingThree Nights in August, 320 Mid Rivers CtrDr, 5-7pm, 636-278-1118.
The SLCL Tesson Ferry Branch ReaderRendezvous Book Discussion Groupmeets to talk about Waiting, 9920 Lin-FerryDr, 7pm, 843-0560.
UMSL hosts a reading by poet Ross Gay,44 East Dr, Gallery 210, 7pm, 516-6845.
SCCL Kisker Road Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about My Sister’sKeeper, 1000 Kisker Rd, 7pm, 636-447-7323.
As the Page Turns meets at SLCL WeberRoad Branch to discuss Fast Food Nation,4444 Weber Rd, 7pm, 638-2210.
St. Louis Writers Guild hosts open mic nightat Sunset 44 Bistro, 118 W Adams,Kirkwood, register in advance, 7-9pm, 821-3823.
WU Foreign Literature Group discussesAuto-da-Fe [The Tower of Babel], LL of WestCampus Bldg, 7425 Forsyth, 7:30pm, 727-6118.
Wednesday, April 12The WU Assembly Series presents Dr.Wayne Fields to speak at Graham Chapel,Hilltop Campus, 11 am, for info see http://assemblyseries.wustl.edu/.
Bookies Book Discussion Group talksabout The Professor and the Madman: A Taleof Murder, Insanity and the Making of theOxford English Dictionary, SLCL Oak BendBranch, 842 S Holmes, 2pm, 822-0051.
Boone’s Bookies meets to discuss LakeNews, SLCL Daniel Boone Branch, 300Clarkson Rd, 2pm & again at 7pm, 636-227-9630.
Sisters in Crime welcomes award winningmystery author Francis “Mike” Nevins,SLCL HQ branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd,6:45 to 9pm, 469-6356.
Thursday, April 13
Murder of the Month Club discussesMoney, Money, Money, SLCL Indian TrailsBranch, 8400 Delport Dr, 3:30pm, 428-5424.
Contemporary Issues Book Groupdiscusses Urban Injustice: How GhettoesHappen, SLPL Carpenter Branch, 3309 SGrand Blvd, 7pm, 772-6586.
LBB and Elders-Probe-the-Arts featuresLynn Rubright presenting her book,Mama’s Window, SLPL Buder Branch, 4401Hampton Ave, 7pm, 352-2900.
Webster Groves Library and EmersonLibrary present a poetry reading featuringRichard Newman & Robert Nazarene, 101Edgar Rd, Webster Groves, 7pm, 961-3784.
LBB co-sponsors bestselling author of MeTalk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Familyin Corduroy & Denim, David Sedaris, PowellSymphony Hall, 718 N Grand Ave, 8pm,$37.50, 543-1700.
The WU Writing Program Spring ReadingSeries presents Jon Cook speaking on thecraft of poetry, Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201,WU Campus, 8 p.m., 935-7130.
Friday, April 14LBB & SLCL welcomes the inspirationbehind Hotel Rwanda & author of AnOrdinary Man, Paul Rusesabagina, HQBranch, 1640 S Lindbergh, 7pm, 367-6731.
Saturday, April 15B&N St. Peters welcomes local authors JoyWooderson, Donna Volkenannt, andCandace Rice Courage, 320 Mid Rivers CtrDr, 1-3pm, 636-278-1118.
SLPL Schlafly Branch welcomes TheUnpublished: Mike McHugh & theCreative Writing Students from UMSLsharing their work, 225 N Euclid, 2pm, 367-4120.
Anne Wells signs Raising Kids in St. Louis:The Essential Guide for the Mindful Parent,Borders Ballwin, 2pm, 636-230-2992.
Monday, April 17UMSL welcomes novelist David Haynesreading and discussing his work, NorthCampus, 229 JC Penney Bld, 12:15pm, 516-6845.
SLCL Thornbirds Book Discussion Groupfor Adults meets to talk about a group ofbooks with the theme “I’ll Never Grow Up,”12863 Willowyck Dr, 2pm, 878-7730.
WU Ctr. for the Humanities Faculty FellowErin McGlothlin lecture, 305 Anheuser-Busch Hall, Hilltop Campus, 4 pm, 935-5576.
Leamos! Let’s Read! Spanish BookDiscussion Group meets to discuss Cuentosde Eva Luna, SLPL Carpenter Branch, 3309S. Grand, 7pm, 772-6586.
River Styx Reading Series presents LooselyIdentified Poets, Duff’s Restaurant, 392 NEuclid, Admission $5, 7:30pm, 533-4541.
Tuesday, April 18SLPL Kingshighway Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about Messages frommy Father, 2260 S Vandeventer Ave,6:30pm, 771-5450.
SLCL Bridgeton Trails Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about Marker, 3455McKelvey Rd, 7pm, 291-7570.
UMSL hosts a reading by poet Brian Taylor,44 East Dr, Gallery 210, 7pm, 516-6845.
Wednesday, April 19The WU Assembly Series welcomesMarian Wright Edelman presenting “Standup for Children Now,” Graham Chapel, 11am,info at http://assemblyseries.wustl.edu/.
St. Louis Community College WritingFestival 2006 featuring Pam Houston,Meramec Campus Business Admin Bldg,room 105, reading at 1pm & lecture at 7pm.
SLCL Oak Bend Branch Evening BookGroup meets to discuss The Samurai’sGarden, 842 S Holmes, 7:30pm, 822-0051.
Thursday, April 20SCCL Deer Run Branch Book DiscussionClub talks about Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’sForgotten Walk Across Victorian America,1300 N Main, O’Fallon, 10am, 636-978-3251.
The Borders Historical Book Groupdiscusses The Great Influenza, 10990Sunset Hills Plaza, 1pm, 909-0300.
Book Journeys Discussion Group meetsat SLCL Indian Trails Branch to talk about APrayer for the Dying, 8400 Delport Dr, 2pm,428-5424.
SCCL Middendorf-Kredell Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about The Body inthe Transept, 2750 Hwy K, O’Fallon, 2pm,636-978-3261.
The Kirkwood Public Library seriesBetween Two Worlds continues withKathleen Nigro leading discussion aboutKaaterskill Falls, by Allegra Goodman, 140E Jefferson, Kirkwood, 7pm, 821-5770.
SLCL Tesson Ferry Branch & LBB welcomeslocal mystery author Shirley Kennettsigning Time of Death, 9920 Lin-Ferry Dr,7pm, 843-0560.
St. Louis Writers Guild presentsnRichardNewman lecture “Last Ones Standing: TheResilience of Successful Writers,” B&NLadue, 8871 Ladue Rd, 7pm, 821-3823.
LBB & SLPL welcome bestsellingauthor”Eric Jerome Dickey signing ChasingDestiny, Carpenter Branch, 3309 S GrandBlvd, 7pm, 367-6731.
St. Louis Poetry Center hosts “6 Decadesof Poets,” with readings by CharlesGuenther, Marlene Miller, & Loy Ledbetter,U City Library Auditorium, 6701 Delmar, seewww.stlouspoetrycenter.org for details.
Saturday, April 22Borders Creve Coeur presents SteveFischer signing When the Mob Ran Vegas:Stories of Money, Mayhem, and Murder,11745 Olive Blvd, 2pm, 432-3575.
Sunday, April 23St. Louis Poetry Center sponsors a PoetryWorkshop with pre-submitted poemscritiqued by guest Mary Jo Bang, U CityLibrary, 6701 Delmar, 1:30-3:30pm, 770-9130.
The BookClub has a discussion on JaneEyre, for time and venue, 636-451-3232.
Monday, April 24WU Ctr. for the Humanities welcomes guestlecturer Mariët Westermann, 305Anheuser-Busch Hall, Hilltop Campus, 4 pm,935-5576.
SCCL Kathryn Linnemann Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about The Poet ofTolstoy Park, 2323 Elm St, 7pm, 636-723-0232.
UMSL MFA Student Reading with MichaelNye, Marie Kreuter, Dylan Smith, & Ann-Lesley Rosen, Duff’s, 392 N Euclid, 7:30pm,516-6845.
Come to a reading featuring the fiction andpoetry of WU MFA students in the WritingProgram, Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201, HilltopCampus, 8 pm, 935-7130.
Tuesday, April 25WU Ctr. for the Humanities guest lecturerMariët Westermann leads graduate studentworkshop, 201 Laboratory Sciences Bldg.,Hilltop Campus, 10am, 935-5576.
SLCL Grand Glaize Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about The Bonesetter’sDaughter, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, 2pm,636-225-6454.
As the Page Turns meets at SLCL WeberRoad Branch to discuss A Hole in Texas,4444 Weber Rd, 7pm, 638-2210.
SCCL Corporate Parkway Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about ShadowDivers: The True Adventure of TwoAmericans Who Risked Everything to SolveOne of the Last Mysteries of WWII, 1200Corporate Pkwy, Wentzville, 7pm, 636-332-8280.
St. Louis Poetry Center sponsors a PoetryReading by Susan Grigsby and RobertNazarene at the Focal Point, 2720 SuttonBlvd., 7:30-9:00pm, 636-225-5423.
Wednesday, April 26Bookies Book Discussion Group meetsto talk aboutnAn Unfinished Season, SLCLOak Bend Branch, 842 S Holmes, 2pm, 822-0051.
SLCL Grand Glaize Branch welcomes localmystery author Shirley Kennett signingTime of Death, 1010 Meramec Station, 7pm,636-225-6454.
LBB & SLPL welcome Lois Lowry signingGossamer, Buder Branch, 4401 HamptonRd, 7pm, 367-6731.
Come to a reading featuring the fiction andpoetry of WU MFA students in the WritingProgram, Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201, WUCampus, 8 p.m., 935-7130.
Thursday, April 27LBB welcomes historian and author RichardRhodes signing John James Audubon: TheMaking of an American, 399 N Euclid Ave,7pm, 367-6731.
Friday, April 28Let’s Chat Book Discussion meets to talkabout The Dragon King’s Palace, SLCLAsian Center, 300 Clarkson Rd, 2pm, 636-207-0175.
WU Libraries sponsors an Open House atthe Kranzberg Illustrated Book Studio, 7425Forsyth, 5-7 pm, 935-6569.
Saturday, April 29SLPL Schlafly Book Discussion Grouptalks about Message from my Father, 225N. Euclid, 7pm, 367-4120.
NoticesKirkwood Public Library hosts Between 2Worlds poster exhibition celebrating over350 years of Jews in America, 140 E.Jefferson Ave, Kirkwood, March-April, 821-5770, ext 11.
Best Poem Contest sponsored by St.Louis Poetry Center with $2,000 grandprize & publication. For info, visithttp://www.stlouispoetrycenter.org.Deadline May 15, 2006.
21st-Annual New Letters Awards forWriters with $4,500 in prizes &publication. For information, visithttp://www.newletters.org/awards.asp.Deadline: May 18, 2006.
WU Libraries sponsors a Visual PoetryExhibition, Olin Library, Hilltop Campus,April 7-May 30.
New Works of Merit Playwriting Contestwith $300 first prize award and reading, for submission guidelines visitwww.PlaywritingContest.cjb.net.Deadline: June 30, 2006.
AbbreviationsB&N: Barnes & Noble; LBB: Left BankBooks; SLCL: St. Louis County Library;SLPL: St. Louis Public Library; SCCL:St. Charles City-County Library; WU:Washington University.
Check the online calendar atcenhum.artsci.wustl.edu for moreevents. To advertise, send eventdetails to [email protected],or call 314-935-5576.
St. Louis Literary CalendarMonday, April 10
SLCL Prairie Commons Branch & LBBwelcomes local mystery author ShirleyKennett signing Time of Death, 915 Utz Ln,Hazelwood, 7pm, 895-1023.
LBB presents author of the memoirAmerica’s Boy, Wade Rouse, 399 N EuclidAve, 7pm, 367-6731.
LBB presents political activist and author ofMemoirs, Ahmed Kathrada, Central ReformCongregation, 5020 Waterman Ave, 7pm,367-6731.
Tuesday, April 11The SLCL Grand Glaize Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about Waiting for Snowin Havana, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, 2pm,636-225-6454.
The SLCL HQ Branch Book Discussion willbe about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1640 SLindbergh, 7pm & again on the 13th at 2pm,994-3300.
B&N St. Peters welcomes author BuzzBissinger & St. Louis Cardinals winningmanager Tony LaRussa who will be signingThree Nights in August, 320 Mid Rivers CtrDr, 5-7pm, 636-278-1118.
The SLCL Tesson Ferry Branch ReaderRendezvous Book Discussion Groupmeets to talk about Waiting, 9920 Lin-FerryDr, 7pm, 843-0560.
UMSL hosts a reading by poet Ross Gay,44 East Dr, Gallery 210, 7pm, 516-6845.
SCCL Kisker Road Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about My Sister’sKeeper, 1000 Kisker Rd, 7pm, 636-447-7323.
As the Page Turns meets at SLCL WeberRoad Branch to discuss Fast Food Nation,4444 Weber Rd, 7pm, 638-2210.
St. Louis Writers Guild hosts open mic nightat Sunset 44 Bistro, 118 W Adams,Kirkwood, register in advance, 7-9pm, 821-3823.
WU Foreign Literature Group discussesAuto-da-Fe [The Tower of Babel], LL of WestCampus Bldg, 7425 Forsyth, 7:30pm, 727-6118.
Wednesday, April 12The WU Assembly Series presents Dr.Wayne Fields to speak at Graham Chapel,Hilltop Campus, 11 am, for info see http://assemblyseries.wustl.edu/.
Bookies Book Discussion Group talksabout The Professor and the Madman: A Taleof Murder, Insanity and the Making of theOxford English Dictionary, SLCL Oak BendBranch, 842 S Holmes, 2pm, 822-0051.
Boone’s Bookies meets to discuss LakeNews, SLCL Daniel Boone Branch, 300Clarkson Rd, 2pm & again at 7pm, 636-227-9630.
Sisters in Crime welcomes award winningmystery author Francis “Mike” Nevins,SLCL HQ branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd,6:45 to 9pm, 469-6356.
Thursday, April 13
Murder of the Month Club discussesMoney, Money, Money, SLCL Indian TrailsBranch, 8400 Delport Dr, 3:30pm, 428-5424.
Contemporary Issues Book Groupdiscusses Urban Injustice: How GhettoesHappen, SLPL Carpenter Branch, 3309 SGrand Blvd, 7pm, 772-6586.
LBB and Elders-Probe-the-Arts featuresLynn Rubright presenting her book,Mama’s Window, SLPL Buder Branch, 4401Hampton Ave, 7pm, 352-2900.
Webster Groves Library and EmersonLibrary present a poetry reading featuringRichard Newman & Robert Nazarene, 101Edgar Rd, Webster Groves, 7pm, 961-3784.
LBB co-sponsors bestselling author of MeTalk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Familyin Corduroy & Denim, David Sedaris, PowellSymphony Hall, 718 N Grand Ave, 8pm,$37.50, 543-1700.
The WU Writing Program Spring ReadingSeries presents Jon Cook speaking on thecraft of poetry, Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201,WU Campus, 8 p.m., 935-7130.
Friday, April 14LBB & SLCL welcomes the inspirationbehind Hotel Rwanda & author of AnOrdinary Man, Paul Rusesabagina, HQBranch, 1640 S Lindbergh, 7pm, 367-6731.
Saturday, April 15B&N St. Peters welcomes local authors JoyWooderson, Donna Volkenannt, andCandace Rice Courage, 320 Mid Rivers CtrDr, 1-3pm, 636-278-1118.
SLPL Schlafly Branch welcomes TheUnpublished: Mike McHugh & theCreative Writing Students from UMSLsharing their work, 225 N Euclid, 2pm, 367-4120.
Anne Wells signs Raising Kids in St. Louis:The Essential Guide for the Mindful Parent,Borders Ballwin, 2pm, 636-230-2992.
Monday, April 17UMSL welcomes novelist David Haynesreading and discussing his work, NorthCampus, 229 JC Penney Bld, 12:15pm, 516-6845.
SLCL Thornbirds Book Discussion Groupfor Adults meets to talk about a group ofbooks with the theme “I’ll Never Grow Up,”12863 Willowyck Dr, 2pm, 878-7730.
WU Ctr. for the Humanities Faculty FellowErin McGlothlin lecture, 305 Anheuser-Busch Hall, Hilltop Campus, 4 pm, 935-5576.
Leamos! Let’s Read! Spanish BookDiscussion Group meets to discuss Cuentosde Eva Luna, SLPL Carpenter Branch, 3309S. Grand, 7pm, 772-6586.
River Styx Reading Series presents LooselyIdentified Poets, Duff’s Restaurant, 392 NEuclid, Admission $5, 7:30pm, 533-4541.
Tuesday, April 18SLPL Kingshighway Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about Messages frommy Father, 2260 S Vandeventer Ave,6:30pm, 771-5450.
SLCL Bridgeton Trails Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about Marker, 3455McKelvey Rd, 7pm, 291-7570.
UMSL hosts a reading by poet Brian Taylor,44 East Dr, Gallery 210, 7pm, 516-6845.
Wednesday, April 19The WU Assembly Series welcomesMarian Wright Edelman presenting “Standup for Children Now,” Graham Chapel, 11am,info at http://assemblyseries.wustl.edu/.
St. Louis Community College WritingFestival 2006 featuring Pam Houston,Meramec Campus Business Admin Bldg,room 105, reading at 1pm & lecture at 7pm.
SLCL Oak Bend Branch Evening BookGroup meets to discuss The Samurai’sGarden, 842 S Holmes, 7:30pm, 822-0051.
Thursday, April 20SCCL Deer Run Branch Book DiscussionClub talks about Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’sForgotten Walk Across Victorian America,1300 N Main, O’Fallon, 10am, 636-978-3251.
The Borders Historical Book Groupdiscusses The Great Influenza, 10990Sunset Hills Plaza, 1pm, 909-0300.
Book Journeys Discussion Group meetsat SLCL Indian Trails Branch to talk about APrayer for the Dying, 8400 Delport Dr, 2pm,428-5424.
SCCL Middendorf-Kredell Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about The Body inthe Transept, 2750 Hwy K, O’Fallon, 2pm,636-978-3261.
The Kirkwood Public Library seriesBetween Two Worlds continues withKathleen Nigro leading discussion aboutKaaterskill Falls, by Allegra Goodman, 140E Jefferson, Kirkwood, 7pm, 821-5770.
SLCL Tesson Ferry Branch & LBB welcomeslocal mystery author Shirley Kennettsigning Time of Death, 9920 Lin-Ferry Dr,7pm, 843-0560.
St. Louis Writers Guild presentsnRichardNewman lecture “Last Ones Standing: TheResilience of Successful Writers,” B&NLadue, 8871 Ladue Rd, 7pm, 821-3823.
LBB & SLPL welcome bestsellingauthor”Eric Jerome Dickey signing ChasingDestiny, Carpenter Branch, 3309 S GrandBlvd, 7pm, 367-6731.
St. Louis Poetry Center hosts “6 Decadesof Poets,” with readings by CharlesGuenther, Marlene Miller, & Loy Ledbetter,U City Library Auditorium, 6701 Delmar, seewww.stlouspoetrycenter.org for details.
Saturday, April 22Borders Creve Coeur presents SteveFischer signing When the Mob Ran Vegas:Stories of Money, Mayhem, and Murder,11745 Olive Blvd, 2pm, 432-3575.
Sunday, April 23St. Louis Poetry Center sponsors a PoetryWorkshop with pre-submitted poemscritiqued by guest Mary Jo Bang, U CityLibrary, 6701 Delmar, 1:30-3:30pm, 770-9130.
The BookClub has a discussion on JaneEyre, for time and venue, 636-451-3232.
Monday, April 24WU Ctr. for the Humanities welcomes guestlecturer Mariët Westermann, 305Anheuser-Busch Hall, Hilltop Campus, 4 pm,935-5576.
SCCL Kathryn Linnemann Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about The Poet ofTolstoy Park, 2323 Elm St, 7pm, 636-723-0232.
UMSL MFA Student Reading with MichaelNye, Marie Kreuter, Dylan Smith, & Ann-Lesley Rosen, Duff’s, 392 N Euclid, 7:30pm,516-6845.
Come to a reading featuring the fiction andpoetry of WU MFA students in the WritingProgram, Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201, HilltopCampus, 8 pm, 935-7130.
Tuesday, April 25WU Ctr. for the Humanities guest lecturerMariët Westermann leads graduate studentworkshop, 201 Laboratory Sciences Bldg.,Hilltop Campus, 10am, 935-5576.
SLCL Grand Glaize Book DiscussionGroup meets to talk about The Bonesetter’sDaughter, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, 2pm,636-225-6454.
As the Page Turns meets at SLCL WeberRoad Branch to discuss A Hole in Texas,4444 Weber Rd, 7pm, 638-2210.
SCCL Corporate Parkway Branch BookDiscussion Club talks about ShadowDivers: The True Adventure of TwoAmericans Who Risked Everything to SolveOne of the Last Mysteries of WWII, 1200Corporate Pkwy, Wentzville, 7pm, 636-332-8280.
St. Louis Poetry Center sponsors a PoetryReading by Susan Grigsby and RobertNazarene at the Focal Point, 2720 SuttonBlvd., 7:30-9:00pm, 636-225-5423.
Wednesday, April 26Bookies Book Discussion Group meetsto talk aboutnAn Unfinished Season, SLCLOak Bend Branch, 842 S Holmes, 2pm, 822-0051.
SLCL Grand Glaize Branch welcomes localmystery author Shirley Kennett signingTime of Death, 1010 Meramec Station, 7pm,636-225-6454.
LBB & SLPL welcome Lois Lowry signingGossamer, Buder Branch, 4401 HamptonRd, 7pm, 367-6731.
Come to a reading featuring the fiction andpoetry of WU MFA students in the WritingProgram, Hurst Lounge, Duncker 201, WUCampus, 8 p.m., 935-7130.
Thursday, April 27LBB welcomes historian and author RichardRhodes signing John James Audubon: TheMaking of an American, 399 N Euclid Ave,7pm, 367-6731.
Friday, April 28Let’s Chat Book Discussion meets to talkabout The Dragon King’s Palace, SLCLAsian Center, 300 Clarkson Rd, 2pm, 636-207-0175.
WU Libraries sponsors an Open House atthe Kranzberg Illustrated Book Studio, 7425Forsyth, 5-7 pm, 935-6569.
Saturday, April 29SLPL Schlafly Book Discussion Grouptalks about Message from my Father, 225N. Euclid, 7pm, 367-4120.
NoticesKirkwood Public Library hosts Between 2Worlds poster exhibition celebrating over350 years of Jews in America, 140 E.Jefferson Ave, Kirkwood, March-April, 821-5770, ext 11.
Best Poem Contest sponsored by St.Louis Poetry Center with $2,000 grandprize & publication. For info, visithttp://www.stlouispoetrycenter.org.Deadline May 15, 2006.
21st-Annual New Letters Awards forWriters with $4,500 in prizes &publication. For information, visithttp://www.newletters.org/awards.asp.Deadline: May 18, 2006.
WU Libraries sponsors a Visual PoetryExhibition, Olin Library, Hilltop Campus,April 7-May 30.
New Works of Merit Playwriting Contestwith $300 first prize award and reading, for submission guidelines visitwww.PlaywritingContest.cjb.net.Deadline: June 30, 2006.
AbbreviationsB&N: Barnes & Noble; LBB: Left BankBooks; SLCL: St. Louis County Library;SLPL: St. Louis Public Library; SCCL:St. Charles City-County Library; WU:Washington University.
Check the online calendar atcenhum.artsci.wustl.edu for moreevents. To advertise, send eventdetails to [email protected],or call 314-935-5576.
Events in
April
St. Louis Literary Calendar
Calendar continues on next page...
All events are free unless otherwise indicated.Author events are followed by signings. Allphone numbers take 314 prefix unlessindicated.
Saturday, April 1St. Louis Writers Guild presents a workshopled by author Julie Failla Earhart titled“Copyrights and Wrongs?”, B&N Crestwood,9618 Watson Rd, 10am, 821-3823.
B&N St. Peters welcomes author”Lester Popesigning Lights, Camera…Arch: St. Louis andthe Movies, 320 Mid Rivers Ctr Dr, 1-3pm, 636-278-1118.
Borders Fairview Heights presents KathleenGoodman signing her travel guide Paris bythe Numbers, 6601 N Illinois St, 2 pm, 618-397-6097.
Monday, April 3SLCL Eureka Hills & LBB welcomes localmystery author Shirley Kennett signing Timeof Death, 103 Hilltop Village Ctr, Eureka,6:30pm, 636-938-4520.
SCCL McClay Branch hosts an Open Housefor Local Authors, 2760 McClay Rd, 6:30-8:30pm, 636-441-7577.
LBB welcomes author of Raising Kids in St.Louis: An Essential Guide for the MindfulParent Anne Wells, 399 N Euclid Ave, 7pm,367-6731.
Tuesday, April 4
The College Club of St. Louis welcomes areading and talk by Richard Newman,University Club Towers 21st floor, 1034 S.Brentwood, 11am.
Fiction writer Richard Burgin reads from hiswork, Webster University Pearson House,8260 Big Bend, 1:30pm, 968-7170.
SLCL Indian Trails Book Discussion Grouptalks about I Am David, 8400 Delport Dr, 7pm,428-5424.
UMSL hosts a reading by poet Joy Katz, 44East Dr, Gallery 210, 7pm, 516-6845.
The WU Writing Program Spring ReadingSeries presents novelist and visiting HurstProfessor Sigrid Nunez, Hurst Lounge,Duncker 201, WU Campus, 8 p.m., 935-7130.
Wednesday, April 5The Borders Sunset Hills Book Club meetsto discuss Pope Joan, 10990 Sunset HillsPlaza, 7pm, 909-0300.
LBB and SLPL welcomes author JacquelineWoodson signing Show Way, Schlafly Branch,225 N Euclid Ave, 7pm, 367-6731.
LBB and SLCL hosts a talk and signing byauthor of Refuse to Choose: A RevolutionaryProgram for Doing Everything That You Love,Barbara Sher, HQ Branch, 1640 S Lindbergh,7pm, 367-6731.
SCCL McClay Branch Book Discussion Clubtalks about Angry Housewives Eating BonBons, 2760 McClay Rd, 7pm and again at 2pmon the 12th, 636-441-7577.
Thursday, April 6SLCL HQ Branch Mystery Lovers’ BookClub meets to discuss The Puzzled Heart,1640 S Lindbergh, 10am, 994-3300.
The Book Journeys Discussion Groupmeets to talk about A Garden in Paris, SLCLIndian Trails, 8400 Delport Dr, 2pm, 428-5424.
SIEU ELLA Speaker Series 2005-06: KarenKovacik, Mississippi/ Illinois Room, MorrisUniversity Center, 4 pm, for info [email protected] .
SLPL Walnut Park Branch hosts Authors @Your Library featuring author of SteppingStones to Success, Lydia Douglas, 5760 WFlorissant Ave, 4:30pm, 383-1210.
B&N St. Peters welcomes author VinitaHampton Wright discussing and signingDwelling Places, 320 Mid Rivers Ctr Dr, 7-9pm,636-278-1118.
The Kirkwood Public Library series BetweenTwo Worlds continues with Kathleen Nigroleading discussion about The Centaur in theGarden, by Moacyr Scliar, 140 E Jefferson,Kirkwood, 7pm, 821-5770.
SLPL Schlafly Branch hosts Authors @ YourLibrary featuring authors of Chemotherapyand Radiation for Dummies, PatriciaCorrigan, Alan Lyss & Umberto Fagundes,225 N Euclid Ave, 7pm, 367-4120.
SLCL Bridgeton Trails Branch & LBBwelcomes local mystery author ShirleyKennett signing Time of Death, 3455McKelvey Rd, 7pm, 291-7570.
Writers’ Workshop at the SLCL Grand GlaizeBranch, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, 7pm, 636-225-6454.
Jane Mead & Carl Phillips will be readingfrom their works at the Schlafly Tap Room,2100 Locust St, 8pm, 241-2337.
SLPL Schlafly Branch presents PatriciaCorrigan and others in a discussion on themyths and realities of cancer treatment, 225N Euclid, 7pm, 367-4120.
LBB presents author of Stepping up: the Storyof All-Star Curt Flood & His Fight for BaseballPlayers’ Rights, Alex Belth, 399 N Euclid Ave,7pm, 367-6731.
Friday, April 7The St. Charles Community CollegeCoffeehouse hosts an open-mic in theStudent Center Dining Center, 4601 MidRivers Mall, 7-9pm, 636-922-8407.
Saturday, April 8The Mystery Lover’s Book Club meets atthe SLPL Carondelet Branch to discuss KissMe Deadly, 6800 Michigan Ave, 10-11am, 752-9224.
SLPL Carondelet Branch hosts Authors @Your Library featuring Chicago area mysteryauthors Julie Hyzy & Michael A. Black, 6800Michigan Ave, 11am, 752-9224.
Borders Sunset Hills presents author SheliaMoses signing The Return of Buddy Bush,10990 Sunset Hills Plaza, 1pm, 909-0300.
Join the inaugural meeting of the SLPL WalnutPark Book Club as they discuss Icarus Girl,5760 W Florissant Ave, 1-3pm, 383-1210.
Writers’ Workshop at the SLCL Mid CountyBranch, 7821 Maryland Ave, 2pm, 721-3008.
SLPL Barr Branch hosts Authors @ YourLibrary featuring author of Better Off, EricBrende, 1701 S Jefferson Ave, 2pm, 771-7040.
Anne Wells signs Raising Kids in St. Louis:The Essential Guide for the Mindful Parent,Borders Creve Coeur, 11745 Olive Blvd, 2pm,432-3575.
Words on Purpose presents readings byAllison Funk, Nanora Sweet, & Mary Troyto benefit women’s support and communityservices, Soulard Coffee Garden, 910 GeyerAve, 4pm, 646-7500, ext 101.
Douglas Century, Barney Ross, NewYork: Schocken Books, 2006. 216 pageswith appendices and photos
Dave Kindred, Sound and Fury: TwoPowerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship,New York: Free Press, 2006. 368 pageswith index and photos
Ipromoter Don King once said words tothe effect that prizefighters occupy aboutthe same space in the social scale as $25whores. You know you re in a toughbusiness when the people who run it saythings like that about you. (Things areeven tougher if you re a $25 whore.)
However one feels about professionalboxing, and I suppose most of us feelnone-too-good about its continuedexistence as a money-making pastime,its history tells us something aboutethnicity and manhood in America, thecountry where professional fighters canstill make the most money. Today,boxing rings are crowded with the nativesons of Eastern Europe, Latinos,Filipinos, and African Americans, for themost part. Back in the 1930s, there wereIrish, Italians, and Jews, especially Jews,who not only had a sizablerepresentation in the ring but also weredisproportionately represented amongpromoters, trainers, and managers.
Book of the Month by Gerald Early
Incredibly, for instance, German fighterMax Schmeling s American managerwas a Jew, Joe Jacobs. The man whomade it possible for Joe Louis to fightfor the title in 1937 was promoter MikeJacobs (no relation to Joe), also a Jew.The first historian of blacks in boxingwas Nat Fleischer, who published TheRing magazine, also a Jew. (His historyof blacks in boxing which came out inthe 1930s is five volumes.) For thosewho want to know more about Jews andboxing, Allen Bodner s When BoxingWas a Jewish Sport, is must-reading.
Douglas Century s short biography ofBarney Ross returns to public attentionone of the great Jewish fighters of the1930s, holder of the lightweight, juniorwelterweight, and welterweight crowns,when such a feat meant somethingbecause there was only one championper division. (There are at least fourthese days.) Century tells us the storyof man born Dov Ber Rasofsky, how hegrew up in Chicago s tough MaxwellStreet ghetto, how his father, a grocer,was killed when he was held up by twoAfrican American gunmen, and howRoss went into boxing to get money toget his siblings out of an orphanage. Ihad no hopes or goal of a big timesuccess, Ross said years later . (Quotedin Century on page 39) Ross was alwaysa restless man, a chain smoker, unableto sit still for long. He lostunconscionable sums of moneygambling and left the fight game, aftertaking a terrible beating from St.Louisan Henry Armstrong, with vituallynothing.Ross became known as the Pride of theGhetto and Jews came to his fights ingreat number but, as Century explains,Jewish culture never esteemed boxingor, indeed, sports generally. (Century, p.26-27). The Yiddish press never wrotemuch about men like Ross or LewTendler or Jackie Fields or BennyLeonard or any of the other great Jewishfighters of the 1920s and 1930s(Century, p. 30)
After Ross left prizefighting, he enlistedin the Marines and fought atGuadalcanal where he won the SilverStar but was so severely wounded thathe became a morphine addict. Heeventually overcame this and, in 1947,ran guns to Jews in Palestine.
Two films were made his life: Body andSoul (1947), a loose adaptation by actorJohn Garfield and writer AbrahamPolonsky, a former Communist who wasblacklisted. Both men were Jews. (Theadaptation would have been more exactif Ross had not become a drug addict.)Polonsky made some changes includingnot having African Americans killRoss s father. He also establishes afriendship between Ross and a blackfighter with a blood clot, played byCanada Lee, who is exploited anddestroyed by the mob and, for whom,Ross s character seeks justice. Thesechanges, made clearly to highlight a kindof black-Jewish sympathy, areinteresting and the film, an independentventure, was meant to be political.The other film was Monkey On MyBack (1957) which sensationalizedRoss s drug addiction. It s hard to gaugewhich film Ross hated more.
Ross died of oral cancer in 1967. ButCentury s book is more about its subtextthan its subject. And the subtext is aJewish warrior tradition, dating back toJoshua, that is little acknowledged, notmuch among Jews and completelyunknown to Gentiles. (See theChronology in Century, pp. 199-210).Centuiry s book is no protest against theevils of boxing. His view is that warriorculture, Jewish toughness, as he callsit, is essential to understanding Jewishculture and the Jewish mind, essentialto understanding aspects of Jewishheroism. For Century, boxing is bothpsychological and political. Centurywrites: Barney Ross was everything theDiaspora tradition had warned Jews notto become, but a fulfillment as well ofits secret fantasy. (Century , p. 184)
realized I did not know the answer to these questions andthat this Editor s Notes might end as have a few otherattempts over the years — in the trash folder. Just then,however, someone on a radio program on NPR startedtalking about John Milton s Paradise Lost and I almostturned it off. But, for some reason I did not and the onething that stood out from that program for me was a quotationfrom Milton s epic poem The mind is its own place, and initself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. Thatis the answer. We can find the source and the meaning ofhappiness in ourselves. For compared to the lives of ourancient ancestors, the life we live now is one ofunprecedented luxury, unimaginable good health, and a levelof safety that almost makes our hardwired reactions todanger superfluous. They would find our obsession withseeking more happiness foolish.
By the time I pulled into the parking lot I was beginningto ask myself whether Socrates was right about happiness.I certainly had not led the good life by waiting until the lastminute to finish these notes. Still, something good hadhappened to me and the ancestors were still with me, despiteall, for I looked up into a sky full of radio waves and HDTVsignals and wondered for a moment whether I had just hadthe good fortune to be saved by the radio gods.
Jian LengAssociate Director
The Center for the Humanities
Continued...
II.In February 1980, President JimmyCarter sent heavyweight boxingchampion Muhammad Ali (born CassiusMarcellus Clay, Jr. in Louisville,Kentucky) to Africa to help gain supporton the continent for a boycott of theSummer Olympics, to take place thatyear in Moscow. The Soviet Union hadjust invaded Afghanistan. At first blush,it would seem strange to send aprofessional athlete, and not a terriblyreflective or thoughtful one at that, toAfrica on such a mission. But PresidentFord had made former actress ShirleyTemple ambassador to Ghana.(Admittedly, she was far moreexperienced in diplomatic affairs than Alihaving served for five years as a delegateto the UN General Assembly.) Ali, at thetime, was the most black person on theplanet, among blacks especially, greatlyadmired. Besides, at this stage in hiscareer, having fought in the Phillippines,Zaire, and other places around the world,having been greeted and lionized byworld leaders, Ali, besotted by thisattention, was rather under theimpression that he was something of adiplomat.
But unlike his first trip to Africa in 1964,shortly after he won the heavyweight titleand announced that he had joined theNation of Islam, Ali was not greeted byadmiring crowds, enchanted by thehandsome, loudmouth, petulant Muslimboy wonder. In 1980, the president ofTanzania refused to see him, insulted thathe was sent. He fumbled at pressconferences, showing appallingignorance of even the most elementaryaspects of the United States relationshipto African nations, he convinced noAfrican country to take part in theboycott, except Kenya, which was goingto do so anyway, had he never showedup. Ali, the anti-Vietnam War rebel, theso-called independent conscience of hisage, tried to carry water for theestablishment that had been out of gethim, and was made to look like a fool.He had been granted his wish to be
important, to be a global star. It had beengranted perversely.
By 1980, Howard Cosell (born HowardCohen, who grew up in Brooklyn) wassick of Monday Night Football, thepathbreaking sports program that hispresence and voice had made possiblewhen Roone Arledge first thought it upin 1970. He, too, had been granted hiswish of becoming the most importantsportscaster in America. There was noone more famous who did sports. Hisface, his voice, his mannerisms, hisvocabulary were the stuff of legend and
satire. He was right when he spoke ofthe three Cs of broadcasting from the1960s on, Cronkite, Carson, and Cosell.He had wanted to bring serious sportsjournalism to television, had wanted topresent sports in their wider socialcontext. Now, he felt trapped by celebrityjock broadcasters, by prattle aboutmeaningless games, meaningless seasonswhere who won didn t matter, by theinability to get Americans take sportsmore seriously as a social, economic, andpolitical industry. Fame made him acaricature. He hadn t raised sports; hehad merely fallen to level of sportsbanalities. This was the price he paid forhis stardom. He was not able to get outof Monday Night Football until 1983, inpart, when he referred to WashingtonRedskins African American receiver
Alvin Garrett as that little monkeyCosell, the liberal commentator who hadstood up for Muhammad Ali during thedays of the draft-dodging, Black Muslimcontroversy, who memorialized JackieRobinson, who gave sprinters TommieSmith and John Carlos fair coverage fortheir clenched-fist salute during themedal-awarding ceremony for their eventat the 1968 Olympics, now condemnedin some quarters as Cosell the insensitive,Cosell the racist! Cosell weathered theinevitable storm but he was disgustedbecause he felt that should not have beenany storm for him to have weathered. Heleft Monday Night Football and was gladto go.
Dave Kindred s Sound and Fury may nothave been meant to be another bookabout the relationship between blacksand Jews, although it is that. It seemsmore like a book about the relationshipbetween a star athlete, a star commentatorwho interpreted the athlete, and corporateworld of big-time sports media coveragewhich grew up around them and in somemeasure happened because of them. Thatmedia framed them both. Ali and Cosellwere unlikely stars: the pretty,completely superficial, self-absorbedblack boy from Kentucky with badtechnique but extraordinary skills, theloudmouth kid who threw his lot into theNation of Islam and became caught upinternecine gangster terrorism, draftdodging, and fighting for tin horn ThirdWorld dictators. And Cosell, the tall,sloop-shouldered lawyer with theBrooklyn Jewish voice, pompous,egotistical, often insufferable, whowanted a career as a big-timesportscaster, not because he loved sportsas much as he loved what theyrepresented. It was amazing that theyshould have succeeded as they did in theirchosen fields. More amazing it was thatthey should have become such a pair inpopular culture, linked together by themany interviews that Cosell conductedwith Ali over the years. (Not all of themas unrehearsed as some may haveimagined.) The two men used one
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NOTICEFor more articles and reviews that do not appear in either
of our print publications The Figure in the Carpet or BellesLettres, please visit the website for the Center for theHumanities at http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/. For instance,Gerald Early, the Center s director, wrote columns for a blogfor the New York Times in February. In April, on our website,we will run the columns that were written for the blog butthe Times editor chose not to run.
If you are interested in submitting an article or reviewfor our website, please email us at [email protected] your submission. All Washington University Faculty,Staff, and Students are eligible to submit. Writers of postedpieces are paid an honorarium.
Upcoming Children Film Symposium later this Spring.Please check our center s website in the coming days formore information!
Gerald EarlyDirector, The Center for the Humanities
The Center for the HumanitiesFaculty Fellows’ Lecture and
Workshop Series
Thursday, April 17Narrative Transgression
in Contemporary German-Jewish HolocaustLiteratureErin McGlothlin (WU,Department of GermanLanguage)7:00 pm, Old McMillanHall, Room 115
Professor McGlothlin s presentation will investigatethe ways in which two works of contemporaryGerman-Jewish writing on the Holocaust, EdgarHilsenrath s The Nazi and the Barber and MaximBiller s Harlem Holocaust, self-consciouslytransgress against established modes of conceivingof the Holocaust as a sacred, profoundlyincomprehensible event.
Monday, April 24In the House of Mirrors: Painting and Experience
in the Dutch RepublicMari t Westermann (New York University, Director,Institute of Fine Arts)4:00 pm, Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 305
Professor Westermann will deliver a public lectureon her recent work on the mirror as a luxury item inseventeenth-century Dutch culture, and as a modelof new kinds of painting.
Tuesday, April 25Silence and Noise in
Dutch Paintings ofMannersMari t Westermann(Workshop with graduatestudents)9:00 am, Simon Hall,Room 108
Events are free and open to the public. Please callthe Center at 314-935-5576 for a free parking stickerand to reserve a seat so that we can have an accuratecount. Refreshments will be provided.
Financial assistance for thisproject has been provided by theMissouri Arts Council, a stateagency, and the Regional ArtsCommission.
One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads
Happiness and a Few Extra Fries
As I sleepily scanned the cartoon stripsin the newspaper a few mornings ago,the text bubble above the usually sar-
castic mouse in “Pearls Before Swine” byStephen Pastis started me thinking. The mousecharacter in the strip asks the pig, who serves asthe butt of most of the jokes, what it means to behappy, “is it something subjective...or is therean objective component…is it simply the absenceof pain or is it something more? How does adumb guy like you answer a question like that?”The pig responds, “I think happiness is finding acouple of extra fries at the bottom of the bag.”
The pig s answer might be as good as any,because when it comes to questions abouta state of being such things as happiness, arehard to define, but we all think we know it whenwe feel it.˚ In fact, next to life and liberty, thepursuit of happiness is one of the unalienablerights written into our Declaration ofIndependence. And judging by our efforts toovercome even the most ordinary unhappinessinherent in living, many of us are pursuing thatright with a vengeance. Yet, despite the extensiveuse of this concept in thinking about our livesand to justify the principals of our society,perhaps we are all dumb guys when it comesto answering questions about happiness.
It seems doubtful that our earliest ancestorsspent much time thinking about whether or notthey were happy; they were too busy simplytrying to live.˚ There were no extra fries in theirlife, only extra dangers that they had to adaptto.˚ In fact, as Jonathan Haidt says in his bookThe Happiness Hypothesis (2005), thisadaptation resulted in our brains being wired so
The Center for the HumanitiesCampus Box 1071Old McMillan Hall, Rm S101One Brookings DriveSt. Louis, MO 63130-4899Phone: (314) 935-5576email: [email protected]://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu
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that most sense data pass through the amygdala,which helps control our fight-or-flight response,before being processed by other parts of ourcerebral cortex. ˚We are hardwired to react todanger even before we know what we are reactingto or if it is really dangerous.˚ We are thedescendents of ancestors who had very fast fight-or-flight responses to threats and who took fewchances. It made good sense to be fearful andcautious. ˚Perhaps this hardwired emphasis onthe dangers around In the relatively democraticculture of Athens, where value is placed on self-reliance and self-control, Socrates put forward theidea that happiness was something that can beearned by leading a good life. This was amomentous shift in the way we understoodhappiness because it shifted the responsibility ofhappiness from the gods shoulders onto our own.˚Happiness was now something that could bepursued. Of course, the payoff of this pursuit isnot always immediate. When this alignment ofindividual responsibility and a political orreligious order developed into the view of themedieval Christian church, living the good lifeearned you happiness only in the next life (unlessyou happened to be the manor lord).Enlightenment thinkers, with their rational viewof the world and confidence in our ability tocontrol it, began separating the pursuit ofhappiness from the eternal bliss promised byreligion and moved it toward the pursuit ofpleasure. We have been pursuing happiness onthese terms ever since.˚
But just what are we pursuing? If we are sobusy pursuing happiness, how will we know whenwe have it? As I drove to work this morning I
Nancy BergAssociate Professor ofThe Jewish, Islamic andNear Eastern StudiesProgram
Ken BotnickAssociate Professor of Art
Lorenzo CarcaterraWriter
Letty ChenAssistant Professor ofModern Chinese Languageand Literature
Robert HenkeAssociate Professor ofDrama and ComparativeLiteratureChair of ComparativeLiterature
Michael KahnAttorney at Law, BlackwellSanders Peper Martin
Larry MayProfessor of Philosophy
Steven MeyerAssociate Professor ofEnglish
Angela MillerAssociate Professor of ArtHistory and Archeology
Linda Nicholson
Professor and Director ofWomen and Gender StudiesDolores PesceProfessor and Chair ofMusic Department
Joe PollackKWMU Theatre & FilmCritic
Bart SchneiderEditor of Speakeasy
Jeff SmithAssociate Professor ofPerforming ArtsDirector of Film and MediaStudies Department
Robert VinsonAssistant Professor ofHistory and African andAfrican-American Studies
James V. WertschMarshall S. Snow Professorof Arts and Sciences inEducationDirector of theInternational and AreaStudies Program
Ex officio
Edward S. MaciasExecutive Vice Chancellor& Dean of Arts andSciences, Barbara and DavidThomas DistinguishedProfessor of Arts & Sciences
THE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
ADVISORY BOARD 2005-2006
One Civilized Reader Is Worth a Thousand Boneheads
another but each was aware of it and mutually profited by it. Cosell s support ofAli s right to choose his religious beliefs and to his right to work as he appealedhis draft evasion case helped Ali enormously with middle America. Moreover, asKindred points out several times, Cosell never asked Ali really tough questionsand he tended to play along with him in ways that showed Ali as gracious, humorous,likeable, even if he belonged to a racist, fascist minded religion. Cosell playedAli s straight man. Ali of course benefited Cosell by giving him a measure ofgravity (Ali was certainly the sole athlete of his time who raised uncomfortablesocial and political questions for his audience); by making Cosell even more famousand well-known in places which Cosell normally could not have reached. Aliinternationalized Cosell, made him and sports relevant among people who usuallydid not think about sports at all.
Naturally, this dual biography is about the relationship between blacks andJews. Cosell and Ali were the most black-Jewish pair in history and theirrelationship symbolized much about the relationship between the two groupsthemselves, particularly as that relationship was being worked out in the 1960s,both having a certain appreciation for the other, a certain depth of understandingthat produced as much wariness as it did admiration. Interestingly, they werenever really friends. Ali never once visited Cosell s home. Cosell never socializedwith Ali. What they had in common was that they had virtually nothing in commonbut the fierce determination to be what they were, sui generis, Muslim and Jew,the odd couple against the goyim.
Kindred s book is one of the best sports books to have crossed this reviewer sdesk in a few seasons. It is well-written, well researched, and balanced aboutboth men without tipping toward either sentimentality or hostility. The readeralso has the added pleasure of learning a bit more about the subjects as people asKindred knew them both personally. On the whole, this is a fine book that can berecommended to those who love either of the subjects, boxing, or sports in general,or those who like behind the scene stories about the sports media. And it can beequally recommended to those who have no interest in any of those things butwould like to read a well-crafted book about an engaging aspect of Americanhistory and culture.
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