hartsea's blog

Today is Jane Austen's 236th birthday! In celebration of this day, I want to share with you some new Jane Austen titles that have been added to our collection (which include some nice new annotated editions):

Why Jane Austen? by Rachel M. Brownstein. King Library (2nd floor) | PR4037 .B76 2011

The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster. King Library (2nd floor) | PR4036 .C3 2011

Jane Austen: Two Centuries of Criticism by Laurence W. Mazzeno. King Library (2nd floor) | PR4037 .M34 2011

Constancy & The Ethics of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park by Joyce Kerr Tarpley. King Library (2nd floor) | PR4034.M33 T37 2010

Emma: An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism edited by George Justice. King Library (2nd floor) | PR4034 .E5 2012

Persuasion: An Annotated Edition edited by Robert Morrison. King Library (2nd floor) | PR4037 .M34 2011

It's been an interesting year for speculations and new findings about Jane Austen. Here are a couple of recent articles. Read for yourself and decide what you think of some of these findings:

Remains of Jane Austen's Steventon home unearthed

Jane Austen biographer discovers 'lost portrait'

Jane Austen 'died from arsenic poisoning'

Manuscripts Suggest Jane Austen Had A Great Editor (this one came out at the end of 2010, but people were still e-mailing it to me in 2011!)

Our second book discussion for the Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the Civil War* series will be Part Two: Choosing Sides from the anthology American's War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries edited by Edward L. Ayers. We will discuss this section of the anthology on December 8th at 4:00pm in King Library 320. Martha Schoolman, Assistant Professor of English, will be helping lead our discussion. If you would like to join the discussion, please contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy (hartsea@muohio.edu) or Kim Tully (tullykk@muohio.edu). They will register you for the discussion and arrange for you to get a free copy of the book.

If you are interested in thinking more about some of the issues that we'll be discussing, you may want to check out some relevant websites:

New York Times Civil War Blog

Hidden Patterns of the Civil War

An American Turning Point, The Civil War in Virginia

Frederick Douglass - National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

John Brown the Ablolitionist and His Legacy

Please check out our website for more information. You'll find details about the readings for Part Two: Choosing Sides, more information about the other upcoming book discussions, and links to a variety of resources.

*The Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the Civil War is a national series supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. Check out the twitter hashtag #letstalkcw to find out about other programs at other libraries!

Our first book for the Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the Civil War* book discussion will be March by Geraldine Brooks. We will discuss this book on November 10th at 4:00 in King Library 320. If you would like to join the discussion, please contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy (hartsea@muohio.edu) or Kim Tully (tullykk@muohio.edu). They will register you for the discussion and arrange for you to get a free copy of the book. The book is relatively short, but you'll still want to make sure you get a copy ASAP.

If you are interested in some background for this book, here are a couple of articles you might be like to read:

" 'March': Pictures From a Peculiar Institution" New York Times Review by Thomas Mallon. Published March 27, 2005.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Discusses Work. Interview with Geraldine Brooks shortly after she won the Pulitzer Prize. PBS NewsHour April 18, 2006.

Orpheus at the Plough: The father of “Little Women” An essay by Geraldine Brooks published in the New Yorker Jan 10, 2005.

Please check out our website for more information. You'll find details about this book, more information about the other upcoming book discussions, and links to a variety of resources.

*The Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the Civil War is a national series supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. Check out the twitter hashtag #letstalkcw to find out about other programs at other libraries!

The libraries will be co-sponsoring (along with the Miami University Humanities Center) a symposium called The American Civil War: Why Does It Still Matter? on October 22nd from 9:00-12:30 in King 320. This program is part of a series of civil war related programming this year funded by an American Library Association/National Endowment for the Arts grant.

We’ve got a great list of speakers from different Miami University departments lined up. Andrew Cayton will be giving our keynote address. We have two breakout sessions. One session is called “From Civil War to Civil Rights: The Politics of New Freedom” and will feature W. Sherman Jackson, Martin Johnson, and Nishani Frazier. The second session is called “Culture, Social Life, and Customs of Civil War America” and will feature Sara Butler, Jack White, and Kimberly Hamlin. We’ll also have presentations on local history and local resources related to the civil war. We will have a librarian from the Smith Library, a Miami University Art Museum staff member, and several Miami University librarians.

We will also have a walking tour of civil war sites on campus starting at 2:00.

You can find out more details on our website.

To coincide with this symposium our Special Collections has a fall exhibit called "The Deadliest that Ever Darkened Earth: Voices from the Civil War". We will also have a display of civil war materials on the first floor of King in the foyer starting on October 17th.

If you have any questions, you can contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy at hartsea@muohio.edu

The Glass Menagerie is part of the Theatre Department's "Masterpiece Theatre" series. It will be performed October 5th-9th. You can learn more about the performance here and buy tickets here.

It's fitting that the Theatre Department is performing Glass Menagerie now because this year is the centennial of Tennessee Williams birth. If you'd like to read more about Tennessee Williams and the celebrations this year, you may want to check out this New York Times travel article or this feature from the British newspaper The Independent.

The Southern Quarterly journal celebrated the centennial with a special summer issue. We have access to this journal through our Humanities International Complete database. You can click on this link, click on Humanities International Complete, and then click on Vol. 48 Issue 4 - Summer2011 to find the issue.

We also have several books (and one film) about The Glass Menagerie and about Tennessee Williams:

The Glass Menagerie, a film version on vhs available in the Instructional Material Center

The Glass menagerie: An American Memory by Delma E. Presley. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3545.I5365 G5365 1990

Magical Muse: Millennial Essays on Tennessee Williams edited by Ralph F. Voss. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3545.I5365 Z756 2002

The Influence of Tennessee Williams: Essays on Fifteen American Playwrights edited by Philip C. Kolin. King Library (2nd floor) | PS352 .I54 2008

New Selected Essays: Where I Live by Tennessee Williams. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3545.I5365 A6 2009

Tennessee Williams edited by Brenda Murphy. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3545.I5365 Z8445 2011

This year's Banned Books Week will take place between September 24th and October 1st. You can find out about some of the events planned around the country and get helpful information at the Banned Books Week website. Something that might be of special interest is the Virtual Read-Out taking place on YouTube.

King Library is celebrating with a display on the first floor of King in the foyer of the library. This year's theme is about censorship and book banning from an international perspective. You can read a couple of articles about international book banning here and here.

If you are interested in seeing books that are featured in this year's display (and from past displays as well), please check out our GoodReads page below.

As the United States prepares to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, you might be interested in finding some novels that examine how different people have reacted to the events of 9/11:

A Dangerous Age: A Novel by Ellen Gilchrist. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3557.I34258 D36 2008

The Future of Love: A Novel by Shirley Abbott. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3601.B393 F88 2008

Falling Man: A Novel by Don DeLillo. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3554.E4425 F36 2007

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country: A Novel by Ken Kalfus. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3561.A416524 D57 2006

The Days of Awe by Hugh Nissenson. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3564.I8 D39 2005

The Writing on the Wall: A Novel by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3569.C567 W75 2005

In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman. King Folio | PN6727.S6 I5 2004

Windows on the World: A Novel by Frʹedʹeric Beigbeder. King Library (2nd floor) | PQ2662.E43 W56 2004

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Hamilton Library | PS3606.O38 E97 2005

If you are interested in learning more about how fiction has been changed by 9/11, you might be interested in a recent work of literary criticism called Literature after 9/11 edited by Ann Keniston and Jeanne Follansbee Quinn (King Library (2nd floor) | PS231.S47 L57 2008).

Philip Levine has been appointed the U.S.'s 18th Poet Laureate. You can read the announcement and a brief bio of him here. In this announcement Librarian of Congress James H. Billington explains Levine's gift: "Philip Levine is one of America’s great narrative poets. His plainspoken lyricism has, for half a century, championed the art of telling ‘The Simple Truth’—about working in a Detroit auto factory, as he has, and about the hard work we do to make sense of our lives." You can read a recent article about him in the NYT times, as well as see a selection of his poems.

If these selections pique your interest, we have several of his collections available at the library. Here's a short list of some of the titles we have:

Selected Poems. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3562.E9 A6 1984

So Ask: Essays, Conversations, and Interviews. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3562.E9 Z475 2002

A History of my Befuddlement. King Library (2nd floor) | PN1101 .L485 2009

News of the World: Poems. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3562.E9 N48 2009

Stranger to Nothing: Selected Poems. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3562.E9 S77 2006

On the Edge & Over: Poems, Old, Lost & New. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3562.E9 A6 1976

A Walk with Tom Jefferson: Poems. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3562.E9 W35 1988

Miami University Libraries has been awarded a "Let’s Talk About It: The Civil War” reading and discussion program grant. This grant is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

This discussion program will take place between October and May of next year. We will be reading several books about the Civil War, including March by Geraldine Brooks (King Library (2nd floor) | PR9619.3.B7153 M37 2005) and Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson (King Library (2nd floor) | E474.65 .M48 2002). There will also be a kick-off symposium (sponsored by the Humanities Center) where we will highlight relevant library collections, hear from local scholars, and learn about local history. Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the start of the program.

Tea Obreht won the Orange Prize for her novel The Tiger's Wife. We have a copy of this book at King Library, though unsurprisingly it is currently checked out. The call number for this book is PS3615.B73 T54 2011, and you can request it. You might also want to try to request it from OhioLINK, since many libraries across the state have copies.

We also have most of the other titles that were shortlisted this year for the Orange Prize:

Room by Emma Donoghue. King Library (2nd floor) | PR6054.O547 R66 2010

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna. King Library (2nd floor) | PR6106.O766 M46 2010

Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson. We don't own this title yet, but we soon will.

Great House by Nicole Krauss. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3611.R38 G74 2010

Annabel by Kathleen Winter. We don't own this title yet, but it is available through OhioLINK.