As part of its mission of stimulating public interest in books and reading, the Center for the Book is cooperating closely with The Learning Channel in the production of its "Great Books" series of one-hour specials about classics of world literature.
"The 'Great Books' series is based on an idea by John S. Hendricks, chairman and CEO of Discovery Communication Inc. -which owns The Learning Channel," said John Y. Cole, director of the Center for the Book. "The Center for the Book formed an advisory panel to help select books to be included in the series, and we continue to offer advice and other kinds of help. We are pleased that each program carries a separate acknowledgement, 'Produced in Cooperation with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.'"
"Great Books" began airing on The Learning Channel in 1993 with programs about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, and Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. The next programs to be aired were Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds, the fourth century B.C. classic The Art of War, by Sun Tze and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Other books to be featured include Joseph Heller's Catch- 22, Native Son by Richard Wright, Plato's The Republic, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Machiavelli's The Prince, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud, Moby Dick by Herman Melville and Homer's The Odyssey.
Filmed throughout the world, programs in the series include film clips from movies and interviews with scholars, writers, musicians, filmmakers and world leaders, thus presenting a variety of interpretations about the book and its effect on the world today. For example, actor Donald Sutherland, who narrates the series, interviews Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, Lewis Carroll biographer Morton Cohen and the president of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (Alice in Wonderland); British science fiction writer Brian Aldiss and "Star Trek's" Leonard Nimoy (War of the Worlds); and Army Gen. William Westmoreland, Vietnamese Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap and U.S. Naval War College Professor Arthur Waldron (The Art of War).
A two-day festival of films produced for the series will be aired on The Learning Channel on Sept. 14 and 15. "Great Books" is a presentation of Discovery Productions and Cronkite, Ward & Co., an independent film and television company.
New Book About Bernard Malamud to Be Discussed. On June 4, writers Alan Cheuse and Nicholas Delbanco will discuss their new book, Talking Horse: Bernard Malamud on Life and Work (Columbia University Press, 1996), in the Center for the Book's "Books & Beyond" noontime lecture series.
The talk, which is open to the public, will take place at noon in Dining Room A in the James Madison Memorial Building.
Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), author of novels including The Fixer, The Natural and The Assistant, is widely recognized as one of the most important and enduring American writers of his generation. Talking Horse, which draws heavily on the Malamud Papers in the Manuscript Division of the Library, provides unique insights into the way a master fiction writer thought about and practiced his craft. Drawing on a great deal of never- before-published work, Talking Horse includes speeches, interviews, lesson plans, essays and a series of unpublished notes and responses on the nature of fiction.
Alan Cheuse, the author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, teaches writing at George Mason University. Book commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," he also is host of the Center for the Book's "The Sound of Writing: America's Short Story Magazine of the Air," which is broadcast on more than 100 National Public Radio affiliates. The author of 16 works of fiction and nonfiction, Nicholas Delbanco teaches and directs the MFA Writing Program at the University of Michigan. Both men were close friends and colleagues of Malamud.
READ*WRITE*NOW! Center for the Book Program Officer Maurvene D. Williams represented the Library on April 26 in Springfield, Ill., as Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley launched the second year of READ*WRITE*NOW, an intergenerational program designed to improve the reading and writing skills of America's young students from preschool to sixth grade. The event was held at the Illinois State Library, home of the Illinois Center for the Book.
The new READ*WRITE*NOW! Summer Challenge project links children with a reading partner. Participating children agree to read and write 30 minutes a day, five days a week. A basic kit (for children and their reading partners) includes how-to materials, an activities book, two bookmarks and two achievement certificates.
Pizza Hut has donated pizza coupons for the 1996 summer program. Local sponsors are encouraged to develop their own incentives to reward children who complete their reading goals. With the help of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Center for the Book, the Department of Education is distributing the kit to 16,000 libraries. A letter signed by Secretary Riley, ALA Executive Director Elizabeth Martinez and Dr. Billington has been sent to the libraries, encouraging their involvement in the program. Many Reading Is Fundamental sites are also receiving kits.
For questions and copies of the kit (while the supply lasts), call the Department of Education's toll-free number: (800) USA-LEARN. Copies also may be requested via the Internet at http://www.ed.gov.
Minnesota Publishers Week. Maurvene Williams also represented the Center for the Book on April 11-13 in Minneapolis at Minnesota Publishers Week, a Minnesota Center for the Book program that celebrates the intellectual, cultural and economic contributions of the state's book publishers.
Events included an April 11 symposium, "Books in Minnesota's Future: The Digital Information Revolution and its Implications for Publishers, Writers, Booksellers, Librarians, Educators and Readers"; an all-day conference, "A Search for the Future," sponsored on April 12 by The Loft: A Place for Writing & Literature; and the Minnesota Book Awards ceremony, held on April 13 at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.
In addition, on April 13, Ms. Williams was interviewed about the Center for the Book and its activities for "All About Kids!," a weekly television series for parents and adults who work with children, produced for cable television by Metronet, the home of the Minnesota Center for the Book.