Nobel Prize Winning Playwright Harold Pinter Dead

An actor, essayist, screenwriter, poet and director as well as a dramatist, Harold Pinter died last Wednesday of cancer. In more than 30 plays,includingThe Birthday Party,The Caretaker,The Homecoming and Betrayal, Pinter captured the anxiety and ambiguity of life. The adjective Pinteresque has become part of the cultural vocabulary as a byword for strong and unspecified menace. Pinter was outspoken in his views on repression and censorship, at home and abroad. He used his Nobel Prize acceptance speech to critize American foreign policy, stating that the United States had not only lied to justify waging war against Iraq, but that it had also “supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing military dictatorship” in the last 50 years. He once said “The play is a comedy because the whole state of affairs is absurd and inglorious. It is, however, as you know, a very serious piece of work.”

New Movies From Books

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, opens December 25. Brad Pitt is the voice of Benjamin Button, a man who ages in reverse. Marley & Me, based on the best selling book by John Grogan, opens December 25. A couple (Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson) learn life lessons from a lovable yet rambunctious dog. The Spirit, based on the comic book series by Will Eisner, opens December 25. Frank Miller adapted and directed this tale of a cop (Gabriel Macht) who returns from the dead to fight crime. Revolutionary Road, based on the novel by Richard Yates, opens December 26. A couple (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) struggle to overcome their personal problems while raising children in a 1950s Connecticut suburb.

Poet Elizabeth Alexander to Read at Inauguration

President-elect Obama has asked Elizabeth Alexander to compose and read a poem at his inauguration next month. As the Washington Post observed, "It is the first time that 'poetry's old-fashioned praise,' as Robert Frost called it, will be featured at the ceremony since Bill Clinton's second swearing in back in 1997." Alexander, a professor at Yale University, has written several books, including four poetry collections. Her most recent, American Sublime , was a finalist for the 2005Pulitzer prize. "I'm just so honored to have been asked to present and to compose a poem for this momentous occasion," Alexander told the Guardian. "What we have seen is a man who understands that words bring power, who understands the power of language, the integrity of language, that it's not just idle. To be asked to turn my own words to this occasion and for this person is all but overwhelming."

Best Business Books 208

Business Week has named its best business books of 2008:
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R. Morris;
The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder;
The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D. Ellis;
Hell's Cartel: I.G. Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys;
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely.

New York Times 10 Best Books of 2008

The editors of the New York Times Book Review have selected the following titles:
Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories by Steven Millhauser
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Dark Side by Jane Meyer
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
Nothing to be Frightened of by Julian Barnes
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
The World is What It is: Authorized Biography of V.S.Naipaul by Patrick French

2008 World Fantasy Awards

Life Achievement to: Leo & Diane Dillon, Patricia McKillip.
Novel to: Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay;
Novella to: Illyria by Elizabeth Hand;
Short Story: "Singing of Mount Abora" by Theodora Goss; Anthology to: Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural by Ellen Datlow, Editor;
Collection to :Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman.

Studs Terkel, Voice of Chicago, Dies

The author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago symbol died last Friday. He was 96 years young. "My epitaph? My epitaph will be 'Curiosity did not kill this cat,'" he once said. "Studs Terkel was part of a great Chicago literary tradition that stretched from Theodore Dreiser to Richard Wright to Nelson Algren to Mike Royko," Mayor Richard M. Daley said Friday. "In his many books, Studs captured the eloquence of the common men and women whose hard work and strong values built the America we enjoy today. He was also an excellent interviewer, and his WFMT radio show was an important part of Chicago's cultural landscape for more than 40 years."

Author Michael Crichton Dead at 66

Michael Crichton, the visionary physician author, died Tuesday. He wrote numerous books, including, The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Airframe, and Sphere. He started writing as a means to pay his way through medical school, but he switched to writing full time because "the writing was more interesting than the medicine." He also created the popular TV series ER. In the New York Times, Charles McGrath described Crichton as "a kind of cyborg, tirelessly turning out novels that were intricately engineered entertainment systems. No one--except possibly Mr. Crichton himself--ever confused them with great literature, but very few readers who started a Crichton novel ever put it down."

In Memoriam: Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman died this past weekend. I feel as if I have lost a friend. His stories celebrated the Navajo culture and the beauty of the Southwest. He wrote a series of mysteries featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. These characters grew with each novel. He also wrote a haunting stand-alone: Finding Moon.
I wanted to share this tribute to Hillerman from Craig Johnson, author of Another Man's Moccasins and Kindness Goes Unpunished because I think that it is most apt: "Perhaps the best words to describe his legacy are those of his protagonist Jim Chee, 'Everything is connected. The wing of the corn beetle effects the direction of the wind, the way the sand drifts, the way the light reflects into the eye of man beholding his reality. All is part of totality, and in this totality man finds his horzo, his way of walking in harmony, with beauty all around him.'"

Chicago Author Chercover at Warren Newport Public Library

Bestselling crime fiction author Sean Chercover will be at the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Illinois on Mon., Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. The former Chicago private investigator will discuss Trigger City, just released Oct. 14. Publishers Weekly raves, "Chercover brings a crackling authenticity to Dudgeon, paying homage to the noir masters while creating a doggedly stubborn new hero all his own." Books will be available for purchase and signing at the free event. Reserve a place: www.wpln.info.

Forbes' World's Best Paid Authors

Forbes magazine recently announced its annual "The World's Best Paid Authors" list of 10 bestselling writers who "pulled in a combined $563 million between June 1, 2007, and June 1, 2008, thanks to hefty advances, impressive sales and silver screen adaptations." This year's Forbes list includes:
J.K. Rowling ($300 million)
James Patterson ($50 million)
Stephen King ($45 million)
Tom Clancy ($35 million)
Danielle Steel ($30 million)
John Grisham (tied at $25 million)
Dean Koontz (tied at $25 million)
Ken Follett ($20 million)
Janet Evanovich ($17 million)
Nicholas Sparks ($16 million)

National Book Award Finalists Announced

The National Book Foundation has named the 2008 National Book Award finalists.can Winners in each of these categories will be announced at a ceremony on November 19 in New York City. The NBA finalists are:
Fiction:The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon ; Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushnerem;Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen; Home by Marilynne Robinson; The End by Salvatore Scibona.
Nonfiction: This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust ; The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed;The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer; Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler; The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order by Joan Wickersham.
PoetryWatching the Spring Festival by Frank Bidart;Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems by Mark Doty; Creatures of a Day by Reginald Gibbons; Without Saying by Richard Howard; Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith.
Young People's Literature:Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson; The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (Atheneum);What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell;The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart; The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp .

Aravind Adiga Awarded Man Booker Prize

Aravind Adiga won the 40th Man Booker prize for his debut novel, The White Tiger. According to the New York Times, "Adiga, who lives in Mumbai, was born in India and brought up partly in Australia. He studied at Columbia and Oxford and is a former correspondent for Time magazine in India." At 33, he is the second youngest writer to win the award after Ben Okri, who was 32 when he won the 1991 Booker for The Famished Road. Michael Portillo, chairman of the panel of judges, said Adiga's novel won "because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal measure." Adiga described The White Tiger as an "attempt to catch the voice of the men you meet as you travel through India--the voice of the colossal underclass. This voice was not captured, and I wanted to do so without sentimentality or portraying them as mirthless humorless weaklings as they are usually." This year's shortlist for the Man Booker prize included The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant, The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher and A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. Portillo stated that the main criterion for the prize is: "Does this book knock my socks off? And this did."

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio Winner Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize was awarded to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a French novelist, children’s author, and essayist. The announcement followed days of literary argument over remarks by the Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary, Horace Engdahl, suggesting that American writers were influenced too much by American popular culture to qualify for the prize. Engdahl had also asserted the Europe was "the center of the literary world.” The last American writer to win the prize was Toni Morrison in 1993. The Nobel Prize Committee called Le Clézio an “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.” Last year the prize was awarded to the British author Doris Lessing. Le Clézio's novel Désert (1980)won a prize from the French Academy and established him as one of France's leading writers. His other novels include:Le procès-verbal (1963),Fever(1966),The Flood(1967),and Terra Amata(1969). Le Clézio has published collections of essays describing his long stays in Mexico and Central America. His books for children and youth include Lullaby (1980), and Balaabilou (1985). The Nobel Prize Committee stated that "the emphasis of Le Clézio’s work has increasingly moved in the direction of an exploration of the world of childhood and of his own family history. Recent works include: L’Africain(2004)and Ballaciner(2007).

2008 Thurber Prize Announced

Larry Doyle has won the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his first novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper. One judge, Firoozeh Dumas, called the book "a hilarious yet painfully accurate account of high school in all its pimply glory." Doyle is a former writer and producer of the Simpsons, a contributor to the New Yorker and an Esquire columnist. The two runners-up for the prize were Patricia Marx for Him Her Him Again the End of Him and Simon Rich for Ant Farm.

Louis L'Amour Centennial

Louis L'Amour was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore on March 22, 1908, the last of seven children. His father, Louis Charles LaMoore, was a veterarian. For the first fifteen years of his life, he lived in the farming community of Jamestown, North Dakota. As a young man, L'Amour wandered and had many adventures. He skinned cattle in west Texas, baled hay in the Pecos valley of New Mexico, worked in the mines of Arizona, California, and Nevada, and in the saw mills and lumber yards of Oregon and Washington. He also had a sporadic career as a professional boxer. His stories and characters were created from his experiences. He had a life-long love of learning. He often bragged that from 1928 until 1942 he read more than 150 non-fiction books a year. He had intended to be a poet, but he was unsuccessful. He started writing short stories. He sold a short story called Anything for a Pal to a pulp magazine and launched his writing career. His first stories were mostly adventures. After he returned from World War II, the market was interested in mysteries and westerns. L'Lamour started writing his beloved westerns. The success of the film Hondo based on his short story Gift of Cochise gave L'Amour a standing and a fan base. L'Amour won many awards, including,the Western Writers of America's Golden Spur Award for Down the Long Hills,the North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, and the Golden Saddleman Award from the Western Writers of America. In 1983, the U.S. Congress awarded L'Amour the National Gold Medal, and a year later, the Medal of Freedom. He died in 1988, and his books continue to be published and read widely.
In his memoir, Education of a Wandering Man, L'Amour wrote: "Our family was one in which everybody was constantly reading....All of us had library cards and they were always in use...Reading was as natural to us as breathing."

Old Mill Creek Boasts New Author of Photography Book

Michal McClure, a retired entrepreneur who lives in Old Mill Creek, wanted to introduce people to a mostly unknown part of Hawaii. He did so with the recent publication of his book Hawaiian Cowboys: A Photographic Journal. The book composed of 90 photographs documents the traditional and contemporary ways of Hawaiian cowboys. McClure first learned about the culture of Hawaiian cowboys on a business trip to Hawaii. McClure took 12 trips over the course of three years, several with his sons: "We'd go up into the mountains. We like to explore and hike, and that's what got us into those areas. We would see guys transporting these horses back and forth in their trailers. I had a friend who lived up there where the ranches are, and I asked him if he could introduce me one of the ranchers he knew. And that's what got me going." His sons,Brian and Chris McClure, are contributing photographers to Hawaiian Cowboys.

Author James Crumley Dead

James Crumley, a critically acclaimed crime novelist whose hard-boiled detective tales set in Montana and other Western locales were praised for both their grittiness and the lyrical quality of their prose, has died. Crumley described himself as a "bastard child of Raymond Chandler." Crumley wrote seven crime novels featuring private eyes, C.W. Sughrue and Milo Milodragovitch To tell his two detectives apart, Crumley suggested remembering that "Milo's first impulse is to help you; Sughrue's is to shoot you in the foot." The opening line to his 1978 Sughrue novel The Last Good Kiss, which many consider his best work, is considered classic:"When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon." Crumley made his literary debut in 1969 with a widely praised book, One to Count Cadence, his only nondetective novel. The novel tells the story of a group of American soldiers in the Philippines at the start of the Vietnam era.

Oprah's Latest Book Club Pick

Oprah's latest book club pick is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Oprah thinks "this book is right up there with the greatest American novels ever written." A review from O: The Oprah Magazine states: "Wroblewski's plot is dynamic--page by page compelling--and classical, evoking Hamlet, Antigone, Electra, and Orestes, as Edgar tries to avenge his father's death and his paternal uncle's new place in the affections of his mother. The scope of this book, its psychological insight and lyrical mastery, make it one of the best novels of the year." David Wroblewski grew up in rural central Wisconsin, not far from the Chequamegon National Forest, where ''The Story of Edgar Sawtelle'' is set. In an interview with Jenny Stark which appeared in ''New West'', Wroblewski described his novel " I think this novel is as a story haunted by another story—two stories in fact. The other being the Mowgli stories from Kipling. I certainly don’t consider Edgar a “retelling” of Hamlet — that implies a degree of adherence to plot structure and dramatis personae that I continually tried to subvert. I understood that the Sawtelle dogs were Edgar’s Denmark. I also knew that I wanted to draw on some of Shakespeare’s other plays, snatching bits like the witches in ''MacBeth'', or the blindness in ''Lear''. In almost all other ways, however, I let the story wander without any requirement to ever coincide with ''Hamlet'', and in fact mostly it doesn’t. The imperative was for Edgar’s present story to be compelling, everything else was a distant second....Curiously, no one ever asks about the connection to Kipling’s ''The Jungle Book'', even though it is explicitly referenced in the text. (Hamlet never is—with the single exception of the phrase “Remember me.”) If we could ask Edgar what story most closely parallels his life, he’d point to Mowgli in an instant. '' The Story of Edgar Sawtelle '' is Wroblewski's first novel.

Upcoming Movies Inspired by Books

Blindness, based on the book Blindness by Nobel prize winning Jose Saramaago. Cast includes Julianne Moore and Danny Glover. Director: Fernando Meirelles. Rated R with a release date of September 26th.
Choke, based on the book Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. In 1999, Palahniuk's novel The Fight Club was made into a movie starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. The cast of Choke includes Anjelica Huston and Joel Grey. Director: Clark Gregg. Rated R with a release date of September 26.
Miracle at St. Anna based on the book Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride. McBride also wrote a well-loved memoir The Color of Water, a tribute to his Mother. The cast includes Derek Luke and Michael Ealy. Director: Academy Award nominated Spike Lee. Rated R with a release date of September 26.
Nights in Rodanthe, based on the book Nights in Rodanthe by best selling author Nicholas Sparks. Other Sparks' books have been made into movies: Message in a Bottle (1999), A Walk to Remember (2002), and The Notebook (2004). The cast of Nights in Rodanthe includes: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Christopher Meloni. Director: George C. Wolfe. Rated PG-13 with a release date of September 26.

New Agatha Christie Tapes Discovered

Dame Agatha Christie, noted mystery author, dictated numerous tapes on a Grundig Memorette machine in the mid-1960s to help write her autobiography. Matthew Prichard, Christie's grandson, found the tapes in a cardboard box at her Devon house. Before he could play them, he had to fix the machine on which the tapes were recorded. Christie can be heard musing about Miss Marple, one of her well-loved detectives: "I have now no recollection at all of writing Murder in the Vicarage. I don’t even remember why it was that I selected a new character, Miss Marple, to act as a sleuth in the case. Certainly, at the time I had no intension of continuing her for the rest of my natural life. I didn’t know then that she would become a rival to Hercule Poirot." Only one or two recordings of her voice were previously known to exist. Christie wrote 80 mysteries, most featuring either Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot. An estimated 4 billion of her novels have been sold. Her play, The Mousetrap,holds the record for the longest opening run in the world. It began at the Ambassadors Theatre in London in November 1952. After 23,000 performances, Mousetrap is still on in the West End.
The Fremont Public Library has most of her novels available for checkout. Also available are Poirot's famous cases, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and Evil Under the Sun in DVD format. Miss Marple's cases 4:50 from Paddington, The Mirror Cracked, Caribbean Mystery, and Sleeping Murder also are available for checkout. Marple's cases are either in DVD or VHS format. Agatha Christie was born 118 years ago on September 15.

Poet Louise Glück Winner of 2008 Wallace Stevens Award

Louise Glück has won the 2008 Wallace Stevens Award, which is sponsored by the Academy of American Poets and recognizes "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry." Academy Chancellor Robert Pinsky said that Glück "sometimes uses language so plain it can almost seem like someone is speaking to you spontaneously--but it's always intensely distinguished . . . There's always a surprise in Louise's writing; in every turn, every sentence, every line, something goes somewhere a little different, or very different, from where you thought it would." Glück, a Pulitzer Prize Winner, has published several collections of poetry, including: Firstborn, The House on Marshland, Descending Figure, The Triumph of Achilles, Ararat, The Wild Iris, Meadowlands, The First Five Books of Poems, Vita Nova, The Seven Ages, and Averno. Glück also has written a book of essays, Proofs and Theories. In the fall of 2003, she replaced Billy Collins as the Library of Congress's twelfth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Currently, Glück is a writer in residence at Yale University.

2008 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Awarded to Maxine Hong Kingston

The National Book Foundation is awarding its 2008 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Maxine Hong Kingston for her "outstanding achievements as a writer of fiction, memoir, and nonfiction." Kingston's works are: The Woman Warrior, China Men, The Fifth Book of Peace, and Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. The Foundation is also honoring Barney Rosset, head of Grove Press and the Evergreen Review, with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the Foundation, said, "This year's distinguished honorees broke new ground in American literary publishing. Kingston exposed the great story of American immigration to a new, rich blend of fiction, memory, folk-tale and political idea. Rosset opened a door to brash concepts about reading in America, letting controversial literary work speak for itself."
Scott Turow will announce the 2008 National Book Award finalists on October 15 at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. Turow, a Chicago attorney, has written: One L, Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, Pleading Guilty, The Laws of Our Fathers, Personal Injuries, Reversible Errors, Ordinary Heroes, and Ultimate Punishment. A partner in the national firm of Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal, he has given much time to pro bono cases. He has been appointed to a number of public bodies. Currently, Turow is a member of the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission.

2008 Man Booker Prize Shortlist

The shortlisted titles for the 2008 Man Booker Prize, which "promotes the finest in fiction," are:
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga;
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry;
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh;
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant;
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher;
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
This year the judges are Michael Portillo, former MP and cabinet minister; Alex Clark, editor of Granta; Louise Doughty, novelist; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar's bookshops; and Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV and radio broadcaster. In a statement, Portillo, the jury chair, called the shortlisted novels "intensely readable, each of them an extraordinary example of imagination and narrative. These fine page-turning stories nonetheless raise highly thought-provoking ideas and issues. These books are in every case both ambitious and approachable." Two of the titles--A Fraction of the Whole and The White Tiger--are first novels. This year some of the talk about the finalists focused on the omission of several major titles, particularly Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence. The Guardian quoted Portillo as saying, "In the opinion of [the judges] taken together, Salman Rushdie's was not one of the top six books for us. We didn't have a huge debate about it." The winning title will be chosen and announced Tuesday, October 14.

Stephanie Meyer's Midnight Sun "On Hold"

Stephanie Meyer's latest book Midnight Sun has been put on hold "indefinitely." A rough draft had been leaked and appeared online. Meyer posted a message about the leak on her Web site: "I think it is important for everybody to understand that what happened was a huge violation of my rights as an author, not to mention me as a human being. As the author of the Twilight Saga, I control the copyright and it is up to the owner of the copyright to decide when the books should be made public."
Midnight Sun will tell the story of Twilight, the first book in Meyer’s series, from the perspective of Edward, a vampire and love interest of heroine Bella. Meyer wrote that she would prefer her fans not read the unfinished draft, but she has posted the entire leaked draft on her site. Currently no decisions have been made regarding the publication of Midnight Sun.
A film adaptation of Twilight arrives in theaters November 21.

Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Awarded to Novelist Herman Wouk

The Library of Congress is bestowing its first Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Writing of Fiction to Herman Wouk, for his "extraordinary contributions to American letters and his dedication to, as he has said, 'the enduring power of the novel." Librarian of Congress James H. Billington will present the award to Wouk on September 10 in Washington, D.C. Wouk will read from his writings.
Wouk was among the first group of recipients of the Library's Living Legend Award. He is donating his literary diaries, remaining manuscripts and correspondence to the Library. The Library currently holds the manuscripts of five Wouk novels, including The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Wouk's novels are available at the Fremont Public Library; call 847-918-225 or reserve them online.

NY Times Article: "Online, R U Really Reading?"

Motoko Rich, writing in the New York Times on July 27 asks “Online, R U Really Reading?” In his article, Rich discusses our current "passionate debate about just what it means to read in the digital age. The discussion is playing out among educational policy makers and reading experts around the world, and within groups like the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books. But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager... who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write." What do you think?

Rights to John Steinbeck's work returned to Penguin

A federal appeals court has overturned a 2006 decision that awarded rights to 10 John Steinbeck titles to the author's son and granddaughter. The new decision returns the rights to Steinbeck's publisher, Penguin. Penguin issued the following statement: "As John Steinbeck’s publisher for over 60 years, we are tremendously gratified by the Second Circuit’s decision. We are pleased that Penguin Group (USA) remains John Steinbeck’s publisher for generations to come. We look forward to continuing to work with all the people involved who share Steinbeck’s distinguished legacy and to further expanding the audience for Steinbeck’s seminal works.” Penguin, which in 1994 entered into a publishing contract with Steinbeck's third wife, Elaine Steinbeck (who died in 2003), will now revert to publishing the 10 titles--nine novels and one play--as per that 1994 agreement. The titles are: Cup of Gold; The Pastures of Heaven; The Red Pony; To a God Unknown; Tortilla Flat; In Dubious Battle; Of Mice and Men; Of Mice and Men (the play); The Long Valley; and The Grapes of Wrath.

Two New Books by Chicago Area Authors

Peter Ferry's debut novel Travel Writing features a protagonist named Peter Ferry. Like the author, the character is a textbook writer and teacher of creative writing. The novel is set in the North Shore; Ferry knows the area well. He is a retired teacher of creative writing at Lake Forest High School who lives in Evanston.
Early in the book, Ferry confidently says "We intend to sell a few books." Hope his protagonist's claim comes true for the author.

Chicago mystery writer Marcus Sakey's third novel, Good People, is set in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. When the Reeds attempt to put out a fire in a downstairs apartment, money starts spilling from the walls. They happily keep the money, later discovering that it was stolen. And then their adventures begin. Sakey won the 2007 Strand Magazine Critics Award for best first novel for The Blade Itself.

2008 Hugo Awards

The winners of the 2008 Hugo Awards, chosen by members of the World Science Fiction Society, are:

Novel: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Novella: "All Seated on the Ground" by Connie Willis
Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang
Short Story: "Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear
Non-fiction Book: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher

2008 RITA Awards Sponsored by Romance Writers of America

The following are the award winners:
First Book: Dead Girls Are Easy by Terri Garey
Contemporary Series Romance: Snowbound by Janice Johnson
Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure: Treasure by Helen Brenna Contemporary Single Title Romance: Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins
Historical Romance: Lessons of Desire by Madeline Hunter
Inspirational Romance: A Touch of Grace by Linda Goodnight Novel with Strong Romantic Elements: Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
Paranormal Romance: Lover Revealed by J.R. Ward
Regency Historical Romance: The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn
Romance Novella: "Born in My Heart" in Like Mother, Like Daughter by Jennifer Greene
Romantic Suspense: Ice Blue by Anne Stuart
Young Adult Romance: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Books Into New Movies

The Dying Animal by Philip Roth has been adapted into a film, Elegy, starring Academy Award nominee Penélope Cruz and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley. Roth is a Pulitizer Prize winner.

Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is a new film starring Emma Thompson. There also is a TV mini series starring Jeremy Irons which came out in 1981. Waugh's novel is poignant tale of lost innocence. Time Magazine included the novel in its list of "All Time 100".

Nobel Prize Winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Dead

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose works condemned the suffering caused by the Soviet Communism, died at 89 years of age in his beloved Russia. His works include: A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The First Circle, The Cancer Ward and the Gulag Archipelago. The latter, a detailed description of the Soviet labor camp system, was the reason for his expulsion from the Soviet Union. Following the collapse of the Soviet government, Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia. He criticized what he described as its spiritual decline. Later, he saw President Vladimir V. Putin as a restorer of Russia’s greatness. More than 30 million of his books have been sold worldwide and translated into some 40 languages. In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Solzhenitsyn did not travel to Stockholm to accept the prize for fear that the Soviet authorities would prevent him from returning. He lived courageously, believing “it is within the power of writers and artists to do much more: to defeat the lie!”

2008 Edgar Award Winners--Fiction

The Mystery Writers of America give the Edgar Awards to honor the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction. The awards began in 1954 and are named in honor of Edgar Allan Poe.

The fiction winners are: for best novel, Christine Falls by Benjamin Black; for best first novel by an American Author, In the Woods by Tana French; for best paperback original, Queenpin by Megan Abbot. The Fremont Public Library District has copies of these books.

Meet Max Allan Collins at Warren Newport Library, Saturday, August 2, 10 am

Max Allan Collins will be at Warren Newport Library on Sat., Aug. 2, at 10a.m. His latest book is Red Sky in Morning. Collins is most known for his graphic novel Road to Perdition which was made into a movie starring Tom Hanks. Call the library at 847-244-5150 or register online at www.wnpl.info.
From wikipedia: "Max Allan Collins (born March 3, 1948) is a prolific American mystery writer who has been called "mystery's Renaissance man". He has written novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, short stories, movie novelizations and historical fiction. He wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition , created the comic book private eye Ms. Tree, and took over writing the Dick Tracy comic strip from creator Chester Gould."

New Poet Laureate of the United States

Kay Ryan, "known for her sly, compact poems that revel in wordplay and internal rhymes," has been named the 16th poet laureate of the U.S., according to the New York Times. "I so didn't want to be a poet," said Ryan, who has published six poetry collections. "I came from sort of a self-contained people who didn't believe in public exposure, and public investigation of the heart was rather repugnant to me. I couldn't resist. It was in a strange way taking over my mind. My mind was on its own finding things and rhyming things. I was getting diseased. She has no definite plans for her new position, but might like to "celebrate the Library of Congress . . . maybe I'll issue library cards to everyone." Grove Press, which has published three of her collections--Elephant Rocks, Say Uncle and The Niagara River--said that it will publish New and Selected Poems by the new poet laureate.


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Musings on Memoirs and Some Upcoming Fiction

Recently there has been much discussion on the veracity of memoirs. David Sedaris, I think, says it best: "A memoir is the last place you'd expect to find the truth."
His latest book is When You Are Engulfed in Flames. The Fremont Public Library has 5 copies of the book, one of which is a best seller copy. The library also has the book on CD.
Some upcoming fiction for the months of July and August: Lawrence Block's Hit and Run; Edna Buchanan's Legally Dead; Ethan Canin's America, America; Tana French's The Likeness; Nora Roberts' Tribute; Stephen Coonts' Assassin; Stephen Frey's Forced Out; Faye Kellerman's The Mercedes Coffin; Kathy Reichs' Devil Bones. You may place holds on these titles, and some may be available in large print. Contact the library staff at 847-918-3225.

New Titles from Chicago Mystery Writers

Doug M. Cummings, Every Secret Crime, a Reno McCarthy Novel:
"Sometimes....secrets are the real crime...When the son of celebrity attorneys is murdered in the upscale Chicago suburb of Falcon Ridge, police make an arrest within hours. But Chicago TV reporter Reno McCarthy thinks they've closed the case too soon. As the body count begins to rise, Reno discovers a community steeped in corruption and greed, a startling link to secrets of the past, and a psychopath lurking in the shadows...." Cummings is a former award winning WGN radio crime and breaking news reporter. His first book is Deader by the Lake. For more information, see his website www.dougmcummings.com

Libby Fischer Hellman, Easy Innocence:
"Removed from the gritty streets of Chicago, the residents of the North Shore sleep easily in their million dollar homes. Easily, that is, until a local girl is discovered bludgeoned to death in the woods...." Her other books are: A Shot to Die For, An Image of Death, A Picture of Guilt, and An Eye for a Murder. Hellmann has lived in the Chicago area for 30 years. When not writing fiction, she conducts training programs. See her website: www.hellmann.com

J.A. Konrath, Fuzzy Navel, Lt. Jacqueline Jack Daniels Mystery:
"A twisted murderer bent on revenge....Three vigilantes who want to silence a cop....No way to escape, nowhere to run..." Konrath's latest is his fifth mystery featuring Lt. Daniels. Check out his website for writing tips, free stuff, and his blog: www.jakonrath.com

And local writer Linda Mickey's writers' guide will be out in the near future. Set in Lake County, there are 3 books in her Kyle Shannon mystery series: Defective Goods, Greased Wheels, and Horse Power. For her writing and publishing tips and her blog, check out her website: www.lindamickey.com

Remember that Fremont Public Library staff can help you find these authors' works...and much more!

Author Visits About Chicagoland

Stephen J. Cannell will read from his novel, At First Sight, Barnes and Noble, Old Orchard in Skokie on Thursday, July 10th at 7:30 p.m. Call 847-676-2230.
Salman Rushdie will read from his new novel, The Enchantress of Florence, on Thursday, July 10th at 6 p.m. at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. Call 312-747-4396.
James Rollins talks about his latest SIGMA Force novel, The Last Oracle, on Wednesday, July 16 at 1:00 p.m. at the Warren Newport Public Library in Gurnee. Rollins wrote the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Call 847-244-5150.
Max Allan Collins will discuss his latest book Red Sky in Morning on Saturday, August 2 at 10 a.m. at the Warren Newport Public Library. Call 847-244-5150

Author Aleksandar Hemon and The Lazarus Project

In the May 2008 issue of North Shore magazine, Northwestern professor Aleksandar Hemon, winner of MacArthur genius grant in 2004, discusses his new book, The Lazarus Project. In the interview, he answers the question of the origin of Lazarus Averbuch's story:
"I came across it in the book by Walter Roth and Joe Kraus called An Accidental Anarchist, which very concisely and grippingly lays out the Averbuch story. The true story, however, is rather different from what you can find in my book. What interested me in the Averbuch story was its sadness, on the one hand, and, on the other, the pictures of the dead Lazarus, which are unbearably cruel and incredibly affecting."
Hemon’s book is partially based on the life of Lazarus Averbuch. On March 2, 1908, nineteen-year-old Lazarus Averbuch, a recent Jewish immigrant from Russia to Chicago, knocked on the front door of the house of George Shippy, the chief of Chicago police. When Shippy came to the door, Averbuch offered him what he said was an important letter. Instead of taking the letter, Shippy shot Averbuch twice, killing him. When Shippy released a statement casting Averbuch as a would-be anarchist assassin and agent of foreign political operatives, he all but set off a city and a country already simmering with ethnic and political tensions. Now, in the twenty-first century, a young writer in Chicago, Brik, becomes obsessed with Lazarusas story — what really happened, and why? In order to understand Averbuch, Brik and his friend Rora retrace Averbuch's path across Eastern Europe
From a Washington Post Review "The Lazarus Project, the masterful new novel from the Bosnian-American writer Aleksandar Hemon, opens with a passage that recalls the invocations of epic poetry: 'The time and place,' Hemon tells us, 'are the only things I am certain of: March 2, 1908, Chicago. Beyond that is the haze of history and pain, and now I plunge.' Which muses Hemon invoked in writing this troubling, funny and redemptive..."
The Fremont Public Library has 2 copies of the book, one a regular circulating copy (3 weeks) and one a bestseller browsing copy (one week, cannot be renewed or reserved.

Summer Reading Program

Our summer reading program starts Monday, June 9. The theme is Get in the Game: Read. Adults can sign up at the Public Services Desk. At sign up, you will receive a Frisbee. For your convenience, parents also can sign up at the Youth Services Desk. Children sign up at the Youth Services Desk. All adult participants are asked to read or listen to 5 books of their choice, complete a reading log, and return the log to the Public Services Desk. We have a book display featuring books related to our theme as well as a suggested list of books. All adult participants who complete a log are eligible for grand prizes. Let the games begin!

Last Blog on Big Read

We hope that everyone who participated in our Big Read enjoyed the book selection, My Antonia by Willa Cather, the Big Read materials, the book discussions, and the programs. Please visit the Big Read website to read more about the Big Read. There also is a survey open to participants.

Fremont Reads Blog will continue...information about the library's fiction collection, book reviews, and other book notes will be featured.

Last Big Read Event at Library

The film Willa Cather: The Road is All will be shown on Monday, May 19 at the Fremont Public Library. It will start at 7:00 p.m. All ages are welcome; there is no need to register. The film is a 2005 PBS program, part of the American Masters series. It runs 90 minutes and it is not rated. It tells the life story of Willa Cather, hightlighting the influences of the Nebraska frontier on her work.

Mark Dvorak in Concert Monday, May 12, 7:00 pm

Mark has been called "one of a vanishing breed", a modern day troubadour who has never stopped performing, writing, and recording. His most recent CD, Every Step of the Way, features 10 well-crafted and poignant originals and was hailed as one of Waterbug's outstanding releases of 2006. Dvorak has been called a folk singer's folk singer who has an encyclopedic knowledge of traditional songs and is a superb guitarist and banjo picker. Dvorak continues to be a member of the faculty of Chicago's Old Town of Folk Music. Dvorak also is a member of WeaverMania! a musical tribute to the Weavers.
No one spins a yarn or sings an old timey song with more skill and respect than Mark Dvorak. He's a builder of the folk world, in Chicago, the region, and the continent.--Bill's Blues
One of a vanishing breed...Although all of us benefit from the tradition, Dvorak is one of the few who keep it alive.--Utah Phillips
A modern day troubadour and Chicago folk treasure...equal parts Big Bill Broonzy, Win Stracke and Art Thieme---Chicago Second Sunday.
From his website www.markdvorak.com

Come here him play here at the library on Monday, May 12, at 7:00 p.m. All ages are welcome. Hear his music at www.markdvorak.com

Lee Murdock Concert on Monday, May 5, 7:00p.m.

Here's some of the reviews given to Lee Murdock and his music:
"The premier interpreter of songs and tales about the Great Lakes … Murdock's regionalist approach does the area proud." Paul-Emile Comeau, Dirty Linen Magazine
“A fine job of recreating history and holding it up to a poet’s light.”
–Sing Out! Magazine
“History, mood, wonderful arranging. Murdock’s intelligence and detail are a joy to listen to.” –George Francis Maida, WCVE Radio, Richmond, VA

And a little about Lee Murdock:
"Noted as a fluent instrumentalist on the six and twelve string guitars, Murdock combines ragtime, Irish, blues and folk styles with his flair for storytelling in songs. His musical influences span fifteen generations. Murdock began his folk career in the Chicago area in the mid 1970’s, expanding his repertoire of blues and popular music as his interest in folk music and the maritime tradition grew.
Murdock's songs create an unforgettable image of commerce and recreation as they coexist on the Great Lakes today, with huge cargo ships traversing vital shipping lanes while pleasure craft of all types and sizes share the waters along America's fourth coast. Probably the most popular Great Lakes ballad was written by Gordon Lightfoot in 1975, following The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, one of the big cargo freighters which are characteristic of the Great Lakes shipping industry. Murdock fans have discovered a treasury in his other songs about the Great Lakes, too, finding drama and inspiration in the lives of sailors and fishermen, lighthouse keepers, ghosts, shipwrecks, outlaws and everyday heroes. His focus on Great Lakes music began as a simple interest in finding the folk songs from his own local history. From the beginning, the songs he discovered have filled a void, as audiences quickly embraced these songs and asked for more. With a deeper understanding of the folk process, Lee's repertoire combines historical research and contemporary insights. Murdock's work is both documentary and also a contemporary anthem to the people who live, work and play along the Great Lakes today." from his website www.leemurdock.com

You may wish to go to Lee's website; you can listen his music. After you listen, you will want to attend Monday night's concert. His concert is for all ages to enjoy.

BookMarkers Discussion of My Antonia

The library's BookMarkers group met tonight to discuss My Antonia by Willa Cather. We spoke briefly about Willa Cather's life. Much of her work is based on her childhood experiences in Nebraska. Willa and her family, like Jim, left Virginia to travel to Nebraska by railroad. Willa was 9; Jim was 10. Willa's good friend Annie Pavelka inspired Antonia. Annie's father inspired Antonia's father. Both fathers were musicians; both could not adapt to the United States. About 2 years after Willa's family arrived at their Nebraska farm; they, like Jim and his grandparents, moved into town. Willa's Red Cloud echoed Jim's Black Hawk. We appreciated Willa's vivid description of the land, remembering how Jim described the country as "running....the whole prairie like bush burned with fire....She (Antonia) had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting....Sunflowers made a gold ribbon across the prairie." Several individuals recalled the immigrant experiences of their grandparents and great grandparents in Nebraska and other places in the Midwest. All agreed that Willa accurately described the hardships immigrants faced in adapting to their new country.
Please contact the library if you would like a staff member to facilitate your book discussion. The next facilitated discussion will be held on Wednesday, May 7 at the Mundelein Senior Center. It will start at 7:00 p.m.

Big Read Pictures

Today's Book Discussion Success

We had a lively book discussion this afternoon. We talked about several ideas and themes, including the novel's introduction, style, tone, setting, and characters. We thought that the novel gave a realistic view of the hardships faced by new immigrants and farmers on the prairie. We enjoyed Cather's vivid descriptions; we shared favorite parts of the book with one another. Everyone liked the book, and some said that reading Cather's My Antonia made them want to go back and read the American classics. The library has Cather's works and many more classics. If you don't find something on the shelf, ask a staff member to search other library catalogs.
Our next book discussion is on Tuesday, April 22, at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Discussion Questions to Consider

Our first book discussion at the library is tomorrow afternoon, April 17,starting at 2:30 p.m. Please drop in.

Here are some questions to consider:
Whose story is this novel's: Jim's or Antonia's?

Jim tells his train companion:“I didn’t have time to arrange it (his story). I simply wrote down pretty much all that her name recalls to me. I suppose it hasn’t any form." Is Jim's description accurate? What effect does Cather produce by telling her story through dramatic episodes?

What relevance does the novel have today, and what does it reveal to us about our past?

Why is Mr. Shimerda unable to adapt to his new home? Does his background and education prevent him from adapting to the harshness and solitude of Nebraska's prairie?

Upcoming Book Discussions for My Antonia by Willa Cather

There will be 2 book discussions at the library. The first one is this Thursday, April 17, at 2:30 p.m. The second one is next Tuesday, April 22, at 7:00 p.m. And the Mundelein Senior Center will host one on Wednesday, May 7, at 7:00 p.m. Readers of all ages are welcome.

Willa Cather believed that My Antonia was the "best thing I've ever done...I feel I've made a contribution to American letters in that book."

On Willa's tombstone are words from My Antonia: "That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great."

Please share your thoughts about My Antonia at our book discussions or on this blog. Contact the library if you would like to host a discussion.

Come to Willa Cather Speaks, Tonight 7:00 p.m.

Tonight, we are happy to present Betty Jean Steinshouer in her one-woman show, Willa Cather Speaks. The show starts at 7:00 p.m. and will run about 1 hour. Readers of all ages are welcome.
A little bit about Betty Jean Steinshouer: She has been portraying Willa Cather on the Chautauqua circuit for nearly 20 years. She hails originally from Missouri but now lives in Florida where she is a Fellow of the Florida Studies Institute at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. She has written 2 books: Travels with Willa Cather: Poems from the Road and Red Cloud to Cross Creek: More Poems from the Road. Steinshouer also portrays other authors, including Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Gertrude Stein, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sarah Orne Jewett, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Mr. Shimerda Speaks about Moving to Nebraska

"Standing before them (Jim Burden and his grandmother) with his hand on Antonia's shoulder, Mr. Shimerda talked in a low tone, and his daughter (Antonia) translated. He wanted us to know that they were not beggars in the old country; he made good wages, and his family was respected there. He left Bohemia with more than a thousand dollars in savings, after their passage money was paid. He had in some way lost on exchange in New York, and the railway fare to Nebraska was more than they had expected. By the time they paid Krajiek for the land, and bought his horses and oxen and some old farm machinery, they had very little money left. He wished grandmother to know, however, that he still had some money. If they could get through until spring came, they would pay a cow and chickens and plant a garden, and would do very well."
From Book One, The Shimerdas, My Antonia by Willa Cather

Jim Burden describes his first winter on the farm

"The basement kitchen seemed heavenly safe and warm in those days--like a tight little boat in a winter sea. The men were out in the fields all day, husking corn, and when they came in at noon, with long caps pulled down over their ears and their feet in red-lined overshoes, I used to think they were like Artic explorers. In the afternoon, when grandmother sat upstairs darning, or making husking-gloves, I read The Swiss Family Robinson aloud to her, and I felt that the Swiss family had no advantage over us in the way of an adventurous life. I was convinced that man's strongest antagonist is the cold. I admired the cheerful zest with which grandmother went about keeping us warm and comfortable and well-fed. She often reminded me, when she was preparing for the return of the hungry men, that this country was not like Virginia; and that here a cook had, as she said, 'very little to do with'....Our lives centered around warmth and food and the return of the men at nightfall. I used to wonder, when they came in tired from the fields, their feet numb and their hands cracked and sore, how they could do all the chores so conscientiously..."
From Book One, The Shimerdas, My Antonia by Willa Cather

Jim Burden first meets Antonia

Jim and his grandmother visited the Shimerdas, Antonia's family, the first Bohemian family to come to "this part of the country."

"I saw a sort of shed, thatched with the same wine-coloured grass that grew everywhere. Near it tilted a shattered windmill frame, that had no wheel. We drove up to this skeleton to tie our horses, and then I saw a door and a window sunk deep in the draw-bank. The door stood open, and a woman and a girl of fourteen ran out and looked up at us hopefully...Antonia (her eyes) were big and warm and full of light, like the sun shining on brown pools in the wood. Her skin was brown, too, and in her cheeks she had a glow of rich, dark colour. Her brown hair was curly and wild-looking....Antonia came up to me and held out her hand coaxingly. In a moment, we were running up the steep drawside together...When we reached the level and could see the gold tree-tops, I pointed toward them, and Antonia laughed and squeezed my hand as if to tell me how glad she was I had come....We went with Mr. Shimerda back to the dugout, where grandmother was waiting for me. Before I got into the wagon, he took a book out of his pocket, opened it, and showed me a page with two alphabets, one English and the other Bohemian. He placed this book in my grandmother's hands, looked at her entreatingly, and said, with an earnestness which I shall never forget, 'Te-e-ach, te-e-ach my An-tonia!'" From Book One, The Shimerdas, My Antonia by Willa Cather

Cather's language

"I slipped from under the buffalo hide,got up on my knees and peered over the side of the wagon. There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made. No, there was nothing but land--slightly undulating." Jim Burden describing Nebraska, Book One, My Antonia by Willa Cather.

Willa Cather Foundation

About the Cather Foundation

The Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation (Cather Foundation) was founded in 1955, through the efforts of a small group of volunteers in Red Cloud, Nebraska, led by Mildred R. Bennett. Today the Foundation is directed by a thirty-member Board of Governors that includes nationally recognized scholars, teachers, and business and professional people from throughout the United States. The Cather Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting understanding and appreciation of the life, time, settings, and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather.

For the first 20 years of its existence, the Cather Foundation concentrated on preserving and restoring sites important to the life and works of Willa Cather. Today, six of the restored properties are owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society, but managed by the Cather Foundation. These sites are the Garber Bank Building, the Cather Childhood Home, the Grace Episcopal Church, the St. Juliana Catholic Church, the Burlington Depot, and the Pavelka farm, located fourteen miles north of Red Cloud. In addition, the Cather Foundation owns and manages the 1885 Red Cloud Opera House, the Baptist Church, the Harling House, and the Moon Block. Taken together, the Cather Foundation historic site has the largest number of national historic designated buildings devoted to one author in the United States. In addition, the Cather Foundation owns and manages the Cather Memorial Prairie, a 608 acre tract of unbroken prairie located five miles from Red Cloud.

The Cather Foundation offices are presently located in the newly restored 1885 Red Cloud Opera House. A bookstore within the Opera House carries all of Cather's works as well as many books written by others about Willa Cather. Art and educational exhibits regularly hang in the GALLERY, located on the main level of the Opera House. Both town and country tours of sites related to Cather are available; for more information, please contact us or review our visitor's guide. The Foundation also holds a Spring Conference annually in Red Cloud. Symposiums, international seminars, and workshops related to Cather's works are regularly held in Nebraska and throughout the world.

For more information about international seminars and workshops, visit the news and events page on the foundation's website, www.willacather.org,or call the Cather Foundation at 1-866-731-7304

Homestead

Bohemian and Swedish Immigrants

"The three novels that Willa Cather wrote between 1913 and 1918--O Pioneers! The Song of the Lark, and My Antonia -- center on immigrant female artists from Sweden and Bohemia: Alexandra Bergson, Thea Kronborg, and Antonia Shimerda. Between 1850 and 1950, some 50 million Europeans left their homelands--mostly for North America. What motivated so many thousands of Bohemians and Swedes to immigrate to Nebraska?
Bohemia
Bohemia is a former kingdom bounded by Germany, Poland, Austria, and Moravia. In 1918, Bohemia became the core of the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia. On January, 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia was split into 2 independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic is the former province of Bohemia. My Antonia begins in 1883, when Bohemia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A growing Czech nationalism led to ethnic tension between the Czech speaking population of Bohemia and their German-speaking rulers. Such divisions encouraged many Bohemians to immigrate to the Great Plains. Many Bohemian immigrants had education, money, and respect in their homeland. Coming to America--where they were lonely, poor, and often manipulated--was simply too much to bear for many men and women who, like Mr. Shimerda, "died from a broken heart." Between 1856 and 1914, over 50,000 Czechs moved to Nebraska.
Sweden
Between 1845 and 1865, severe crop failures and poverty in Sweden--due partly to large population growth--caused the first spike in Swedish immigration. By 1890, approximately 478,000 Swedes had immigrated to America. Religious persecution, personal misfortune, failing farms, and unfair employment practices led other Swedes to leave. After the Civil War, Swedish settlements expanded from Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota, to the Great Plains of Kansas and Nebraska. Between 1845 and 1930, over 1.2 million Swedes migrated to America.
My Antonia accurately reflects some of the difficulties faced by immigrant pioneers, although the novel should not be read as a history book. For example, many early immigrants had to survive without wood. Even after the railroad connected Hastings to Red Cloud in 1878, the transportation and price of lumber remained too expensive for most families. Sod houses (see photos on previous blog) attracted snakes and other varmints. Dirt floors and leaking roofs made these homes especially unwelcoming during rainstorms and blizzards. Most families replaced them as they earned enough money."
From The Big Read Teacher's Guide

Willa Cather Archive

Explore Willa Cather's world by visiting the Willa Cather Archive at http://cather.unl.edu/gallery/index.html

This gallery presents over 600 images of Cather and Cather-related subjects from the Archives and Special Collections of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. You may search through the detailed annotations of all the images, or you may browse by following one of the links below. If you are interested in getting permission to use an image in a publication, please see the UNL Archives and Special Collections's Regulations and Use page.

Have fun!

My Antonia Audio Guide Part 1 and Part 2!

Willa Cather Tourism Video

The Homestead Movement

"In 1862, Congress passed and President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. The act provided 160 acres to the head of a household, or to an applicant at least 21years old, including former slaves, single women and immigrants. The homesteader had to pay a minimal application fee, live on the land for five years and make improvements, such as cultivating a farm and building a house. The applicant had to be a U.S. citizen (or declared candidate for citizenship) who had never borne arms against the United States. Thus, Confederate soldiers could not apply.
The Union Pacific Railroad was chartered on July 1, 1862, when President Lincoln selected a route that would pass through Kansas and Nebraska. When the Union Pacific met up with the Central Pacific railroad in 1869, the transcontinental railroad made transportation more affordable. The federal government gave railroad companies large amounts of land to provide incentives for more development. These companies then advertised the sale of cheap land in foreign countries, which often led to unrealistic expectations among non-English-speaking immigrants. These changes--along with the 1862 Morrill Act authorizing land grant colleges to educate farmers--led thousands of eastern Americans and even more Europeans to move to Nebraska and Kansas.
For all its virtues, homesteading had a tragic side. Native Americans were pushed aside as the homesteading wave moved westward. Land fraud was common, especially as non-English-speaking families tried to negotiate with native born businessmen or farmers. Large companies applied for multiple homesteads, each one signed for by a company representative until sufficient acreage was amassed for large-scale ranching.
Failure was a constant companion. As the homesteaders moved westward into the dry plains, 160 acres was insufficient for a family farm. The land was not always cooperative, and heads of families--like Mr. Schimerda (Antonia's father) and Willa Cather's father--were not always successful farmers. Over 60% of homestead applicants never stayed the required five years to get their deed.
The Homestead Act and the transcontinental railroad were benchmarks of American history. By the end of the 19th century, over half a million homestead farmers had claimed more than 80 million acres of America. The West was forever changed by the settlement of families who left their native countries for a chance to obtain land to call their own."
From the Big Read Teacher's Guide

Photos of and Information about Sod Houses

The sod house or "soddy" was a corollary to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the United States and Canada. The prairie lacked standard building materials such as wood or stone; however, sod from thickly-rooted prairie grass was abundant. Prairie grass had a much thicker, tougher root structure than modern landscaping grass. Construction of a sod house involved cutting patches of sod in rectangles, often 2'×1'×6" (600×300×150mm) long, and piling them into walls. Builders employed a variety of roofing methods. Sod houses could accommodate normal doors and windows. The resulting structure was a well-insulated but damp dwelling that was very inexpensive. Sod houses required frequent maintenance and were vulnerable to rain damage. Stucco or wood panels often protected the outer walls. Canvas or plaster often lined the interior walls. In the United States, the terms of the Homestead Act offered free farmland to settlers who built a dwelling and cultivated the land for five years. Related straw-bale construction developed in Nebraska with early baling machines and has endured as a modern building material. Sod houses achieved none of the nostalgia that log cabins gained, probably because soddies were much more subject to dirt and infestations of insects. Photos compliments of Pam McLaughlin, MLS, Reference and Genealogy Librarian,Fremont Public Library

Pick up Your Free Copies of My Antonia at the Fremont Public Library

Free copies of the classic American novel My Antonia by Willa Cather will be available at the Fremont Public Library starting Friday, February 1. Also available will be free audio guides and readers' guides. Please contact Marie Zahnle ext 3222 if you have any questions about the Big Read.

My Antonia Book Trailer!

A brief biography of Willa Cather written by the Cather Foundation

Willa Cather
Cather Foundation, www.willacather.org

“Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again”
— Willa Cather; My Ántonia
In a sense, Willa Cather’s life story is the story for the quest for truth. It is also about the pursuit of one’s art and the acquisition of fame set against a growing desire for privacy and seclusion.

Early Years: Taking Root
Although born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, in 1873 and buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in 1947, Willa Cather is commonly remembered as an inhabitant of Nebraska. During her lifetime, Cather penned dozens of novels, short stories, poems, and essays with settings ranging from the American Southwest and the Great Plains to some of the great cities of Europe. Yet when people think of Cather, generally they think of the Nebraska prairie, its pioneer inhabitants, and the small town of Red Cloud, Nebraska, where Cather grew up.
Despite Cather’s Nebraska renown, she is recognized almost universally. Her works have transcended the limits of regionalism. They affected the entire course of American literature. On the international stage, too, Cather has assumed a place among literary giants.
As a child, Cather moved with her family (including mother, father, three siblings, maternal grandmother Rachel Boak and two of her grandchildren, and the family’s hired girl Margie Anderson and her brother Enoch) to Webster County, Nebraska, where Cather’s paternal grandparents, William and Caroline, and her Uncle George and Aunt Franc were already homesteading. The year was 1883; Willa was just nine years old.
Cather’s parents baptized her Wilella but she (as well as others) called herself “Willa” and had gave herself the middle name “Love” after the family physician who delivered her. Later, Cather would change her birth date from December 7, 1873, to December 7, 1876. Her entire life Cather either become person she wanted to be, or else she convinced others that she already was. (Her incorrect birth date is even on her tombstone.)
Cather alighted with her family at the Red Cloud train depot and drove sixteen miles by team and wagon to the country. family then stopped at the home of Cather’s grandparents, where they would live for the next year. Cather’s first impressions of the prairie filled her with awe and fear:“This country was mostly wild pasture and as naked as the back of your hand,” she said later. “I was little and homesick and lonely and my mother was homesick and nobody paid any attention to us. So the country and I had it out together and by the end of the first autumn, that shaggy grass country had gripped me with a passion I have never been able to shake.”
This was at a time when the conditions in most parts of Nebraska could have been described as “harsh,” and life away from town could be extremely lonesome. However, living in such conditions afforded young Cather an opportunity to meet and gather information from a variety of immigrants and pioneers who spoke languages different from her own. Cather listened to these stories and stockpiled the details, not knowing she would later be using them in some of her novels.
In the winter of their first year, Cather attended a one-room school house. A year later, the family moved to Red Cloud—in part so the children could receive a better education at the town’s school.
At that time, Red Cloud sustained a fairly bustling population of about 2,500 inhabitants, more than double what it is today. Eight passenger trains and several grain trains passed through Red Cloud daily, and a horse-drawn streetcar transferred passengers to and from the local train depot. The Red Cloud Opera House, built in 1885, hosted a number of speakers, performers, and plays, and it was here that Cather developed her love for the stage.
Cather’s parents rented a house on Third and Cedar streets in Red Cloud. Her neighbors, the Wieners, permitted Cather to borrow books from their extensive personal library. Cather also encountered the French language for the first time, as Mrs. Wiener read her French novels and interpreted them as she went along. Cather’s other neighbors, the Miners, quickly became her closest friends. For the first time Cather heard serious music in the Miner house. She would often listen to Mrs. Miner—a talented musician—play the piano. Later, in one of her most famous novels, My Ántonia, Cather would describe the atmosphere in the Miner home as being “like a party” every Saturday night.
Cather also met the Miner’s hired girl, Annie Sadilek. Sadilek, an immigrant from Bohemia, had moved to Nebraska with her family. Previously she had been living in a dugout before moving into town. Annie later served as the model and inspiration for My Ántonia.
As the years passed in Red Cloud, Cather continued to explore the countryside and meet new people. She defied traditional norms by wanting to be a surgeon, which she thought only men were allowed to do. She cropped her hair short, referred to herself as “Willie,” William, or “Wm” Cather, M.D., and adopted a generally male form of dress. She also befriended two of the local doctors.
In 1890, at the age of sixteen, Cather finally graduated from Red Cloud high school. Only two other students graduated that year; all three were required to write a graduation speech, and in June Cather delivered her oration on the stage of the Red Cloud Opera House. Shortly thereafter, she bolted for the state university and greater things awaiting her.

Entering the University
Shortly after graduating from high school Cather left for the University of Nebraska in Lincoln where she hoped to become a surgeon. That changed when one of her professors published one of her essays in a local newspaper. Cather later recalled it was at that moment she decided to become a writer.
Cather’s spent five years at the University. (Her first year was spent in the University’s prepatory school). Having just arrived from a small town, she took full advantage of her newly-found opportunities. As a sophomore, she accepted the literary editorship of the student newspaper, the Hesperian. A year later she accepted the position of the Hesperian’s managing editor. She also served as literary editor of the Sombrero (1894) and editor of her class yearbook (1895). Other activities included participation in debates and theatrical plays and working for two local newspapers, the Courier and the Nebraska State Journal. Cather had a column in one of the newspapers, and for the other she reviewed stage productions.
Cather, like so many recent college graduates, was uncertain about her future following graduation. She returned to Red Cloud and was unhappy. Eventually, she received a job offer for the position of editor of a new (soon to be major with Cather’s help) American periodical. Almost immediately, she packed her belongs and departed for Pittsburgh in order to take charge of the Home Monthly magazine.

From Aspiring to International Author In Pittsburgh Cather took full advantage of the city’s cultural scene, despite absorbing herself in her work at the Home Monthly magazine. She attended live performances, wrote criticism for concerts and the dramatic arts for Pittsburgh’s Courier newspaper, and made numerous friends. She returned briefly to Red Cloud for a year and then accepted a job at the Pittsburgh Daily Leader in 1901. She continued to write for the Courier as well. From 1901 to 1906 Cather also taught high school.
It was also at this time that Cather met Isabelle McClung. In 1902, Cather and McClung set off on their first trip to Europe. One year later (1903) Cather’s first book, a collection of poems, appeared in the United States. It was titled April Twilights. Then, in 1905, Cather published her first collection of short stories, which she titled The Troll Garden. These stories reached the eyes of S.S. McClure, who immediately offered Cather a job at yet another influential American periodical, McClure’s Magazine.
At McClure’s, Cather became one of the most influential editors in America, printing work by leading story writers and “muckrackers” of the day. Nevertheless, running a magazine required a tremendous amount of energy, and her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge, did not appear until 1912.
Eventually, however, Cather quit her job as a magazine editor and decided to dedicate herself solely to the art of writing. Between 1913 and 1940 she published nearly all of her major works, beginning with the novel she consider her true first: O Pioneers!. It might be ironic that as a child Cather regarded the natural features of Nebraska as something to be conquered, perhaps even feared. From early on, she desired to leave Red Cloud and the state itself behind; her early short stories—especially those written during her “apprenticeship” period, such as “Paul’s Case” and “A Wagner Matinee”’—describe the Great Plains as grim and inhibitive of artistic freedom; yet by turning her attention to the people and places of her youth, Cather discovered something entirely new and beautiful. Nebraska provided the material she needed to become a truly authentic American author.
Many of Cather’s short stories and other works—novels like O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), My Ántonia (1918), One of Ours (1922), Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)—make use of real people and places. Of these works, the first section of The Song of the Lark is considered by many to be the most autobiographical.
Cather fashioned My Ántonia after the life of “Annie” (Sadilek) Pavelka, whom she befriend in Red Cloud. One of Ours she based on the life of her cousin, G. P. Cather, and the idea for Death Comes for the Archbishop came to her when she visited the Southwest and found a biography of The Life of the Right Reverend Joseph P. Machebeuf, who had been a vicar general with Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy. For Sapphira and the Slave Girl, Cather used incidents from the life of her grandmother to create part of its plot. (The story itself takes place in Back Creek Valley where Cather was born.)
In some of these works and others, Cather employed the actual buildings, streets, and citizens of Red Cloud to populate her fiction. She “borrowed” from elsewhere as well. As she once told an interviewer:“Of course Nebraska is a storehouse of literary material. Everywhere is a storehouse of literary material. If a true artist was born in a pigpen and raised in a sty, he would still find plenty of inspiration for his work. The only need is the eye to see.”
This does not mean, of course, that Cather was an unimaginative writer. However, like many authors, she was a keen observer of life. She had a talent for noticing minute details and saving them for later. It was her talent with words—not just her verisimilitude—that made her the celebrated author she was.
Also between 1913 and 1940, Cather was hounded as a celebrity. She returned to the University of Nebraska to receive her first honorary degree (a doctorate of letters) in 1917. In 1931 she became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Princeton. She continued to accept honorary degrees throughout this period. She was elected to the National Institutes of Arts and Letters in 1929 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1938. The American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded her the Howells Medal for Fiction for Death Comes for the Archbishop in 1930. She also received the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours in 1923 andthe Priz Fémina Américain for Shadows on the Rock in 1933. Cather received a Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1944. At times Cather seemed so busy she could hardly find the time to write.

Later Years
During the last six years of Cather’s life, her memory remained as vibrant as ever. She worked off and on at one more novel—this one set in one of her favorite cities in France, Avignon—but she was bothered by a pain in her right wrist. Cather asked Edith Lewis destroy the Avignon manuscript (nearly complete) when she died, and this Lewis did.
Deeply bothered by the Second World War and the death of many in her friends and family, Cather experienced moments of sadness and fatigue during these years, but as Lewis later remembered:
“The last years were not years of decline, except in the physical sense; they were years, I think, of deeper vision, of a more penetrating sense of human life and human destiny. Willa Cather read and thought a great deal during those years. Her talk never lost its wonderfully incandescent quality, its vividness and fire.”
By this time, Cather was living a mostly secluded life. Always a private person, she remained close only to a few select friends and her steady companion, Lewis. Because she was one of the most celebrated authors of her day, she had to fight for her privacy. She even turned down honorary degrees and speaking engagements in order to be left alone.
On April 24, 1947, Cather died from a cerebral hemorrhage. A private funeral was held in New York and a memorial service was carried out at Grace Episcopal Church, the church Cather joined in 1922, in Red Cloud. Cather was buried in New Hampshire.


Epilogue
Cather burned her letters and asked others to do the same. Consequently, much of her life is still a mystery. Her works, however, have never been out of the public eye.
Scholars and critics debate which of Cather’s works is her greatest. Athough Cather received the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922) in 1923, the novel is considered by many to be among her lesser works. Inspired by the life and death of Cather’s cousin, G. P. Cather, One of Ours tells the story of Claude Wheeler, a young man from Nebraska who finds meaning in his life only by fighting and dying on the battlefields of the First World War in France. Most readers—and certainly many critics and war veterans of her day—praised the novel particularly for its “evenhanded” (yet glorified) portrait of America’s role in the war. Today, many scholars, like some critics of Cather’s day, lament the novel for its less-than-accurate details of battlefield combat and its apparently glorified and “naïve” portrait of war.
Among the novels generally considered Cather’s finest are My Ántonia, A Lost Lady, The Professor’s House, and Death Comes for the Archbishop. Cather’s poems, essays, short stories, and non-fiction have become the focus of much scholarly attention as well. As Cather’s influence continues to expand around the world, the debate over which of her works is her finest seems far from settled.

Sources and Bibliography

Bohlke, Brent L. Willa Cather in Person: Interviews, Speeches, and Letters. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1986.

Cather, Willa. One of Ours. 1922. Scholarly ed. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2006.

Lewis, Edith. Willa Cather Living: A Personal Record. 1953. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1976.

Woodress, James. Willa Cather: A Literary Life. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1987.

More About the Big Read Program

1. What is the Big Read?
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents the Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities. The Fremont Public Library District will discuss Willa Cather's My Antonia. Our Big Read program will start Monday, April 14 and run through May, 2008. We are very fortunate in that the Friends of the Fremont Public Library are also supporting our Big Read celebrations.

2. Why has the Big Read program been organized?
The Big Read was created in response to the NEA report Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, which identified a critical decline in literary reading among American adults. The NEA, through the Big Read program, is working toward reversing the decline in reading.

3. How are the books selected?
A Readers Circle, a distinguished group of writers, scholars, librarians, critics, artists, and publishing professionals, help select the books. The Readers Circle includes Nancy Pearl, author and librarian, Wendell Berry, poet and novelist, Jim Lehrer, journalist and author, and Kevin Starr, historian and former California state librarian.

4. How many grants have been awarded for Big Read Programs in 2008?
Grants totally $1,598,800 have been awarded to 127 libraries, municipalities, and arts, culture, higher education, and science organizations to host Big Read programs of 16 classic novels from January-June 2008.

5. What is the NEA?
The NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. It was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, and it is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts. For more information, visit www.arts.gov.

6. What is the Institute of Museum and Library Services?
It is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums.
The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. For more information, visit www.imls.gov.

7. What is the Arts Midwest?
The Arts Midwest connects people throughout the Midwest and the world to meaningful arts opportunities, sharing creativity, knowledge, and understanding across boundaries. One of the 6 non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest has been in existence for more than 25 years. For more information, visit www.artsmidwest.org.