Schedule of Events: March 23-24, 2009. ALL ARE WELCOME
2009 is the tercentenary of the birth of Samuel Johnson, one of the great writers of eighteenth-century England. The Bucknell Humanities Institute – supported by the Office of the Provost, and with additional support from the University Lectureship Committee, the Department of English, the Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library, and the Bucknell University Press – commemorates Johnson’s life and work, his contribution to the western literary tradition, to the American tradition of liberal education, and to his continuing place in the curriculum on college campuses such as Bucknell.
EXHIBIT: The Bertrand Library will feature an exhibit of Johnsonian first editions and other rare books, images, and related materials, March 2 - April 30, 2009, in the exhibit space on the lower level of the library. All are welcome to visit the exhibit during library hours.
LECTURES: On March 23, 2009 Bucknell hosts lectures on Johnson by three eminent men of letters: Christopher Ricks, Leo Damrosch, and David Ferry. ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND THE LECTURES AND RECEPTION. The lecturers: Christopher Ricks. Sarah B. Warren Professor of the Humanities and co-director of the Editorial Institute, Boston University, Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, and formerly King Edward Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Leo Damrosch. Ernest Birnbaum Professor of English, Harvard University. David Ferry. Sophie Chantal Hart Professor Emeritus of English at Wellesley College, Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Boston University, and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
SCHEDULE of LECTURES: March 23, 2009, 4.00 - 7.00 pm, BUCKNELL HALL
4.00 pm. Reception begins
4.30 pm. Michael Smyer, Provost of Bucknell University, Welcome
4.35 pm. Greg Clingham, Professor of English, Introductions
4.45 pm. Leo Damrosch, “Doctor Johnson vs Jean Jacques: Two Styles of Thinking and Being”
5.20 pm. Short Break
5.30 pm. David Ferry, Poetry Reading and Remarks on Johnson and Tolstoy
6.05 pm. Christopher Ricks, “Sound and Sense”
7.00 pm. Reception ends
FURTHER EVENTS:
March 24, 2009, 10.00 - 11.00 a.m. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS READING ROOM, ELLEN CLARKE BETRAND LIBRARY
Conversations with Christopher Ricks, Leo Damrosch, Greg Clingham, Philip Smallwood, and Adam Rounce. (Recorded event. Audience welcome.)
March 24, 2009, 12.00 noon - 2.00 pm, WILLARD SMITH LIBRARY
Informal buffet lunch for STUDENTS with Professors Ricks, Damrosch, and Ferry. Students interested in attending this lunch might send their name and e-mail to Professor Clingham at clingham@bucknell.edu
To see the brochure that has been distributed on campus click on the link below: http://www.bucknell.edu/Documents/UniversityPress/Johnson%20Humanities%20Institute%20brochure.pdf
From Richard Eskow at 
From Edmund White in the New York Times:
Congratulations to 
a series of statements, maxims if you like, both obvious and not so obvious: I do not come with timeless truths;fervour is the weapon of choice of the impotent; the black man wants to be white, the white man slaves to reach a human level. We are left with little doubt we are confronting a great deal of anger. The resentment takes us to a particular place: a zone of non-being, an extraordinary sterile and arid region, where black is not a man, and mankind is digging into its own flesh to find meaning.
