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September 2005
Scrabble Club
Book Group
Guest Speaker: Megan Marshall
The Bible In Crisis: A Weekend with John Dominic Crossan
Fundamentalism has recently achieved unprecedented political influence with its simplistic literal reading of selected texts. Dr. John Dominic Crossan, a former monk and priest, and others of like stature bring to sacred texts the tools of history, literary criticism, anthropology, archeology and other disciplines. This weekend with Dr. Crossan is a refresher course in the best modern scholarship on the New Testament Gospels and on the Bible as a whole, and a guide to the wisest application of Biblical texts to current issues--conducted by a master teacher/lecturer who believes that the Bible and the sacred texts of other religions are embedded at the heart of every contemporary crisis from Middle Eastern politics to the validity of science to the nature of marriage to personal sexual morality. Dr. Crossan is the author of more than 20 books on the New Testament, of which four are national religious bestsellers. A selection of his books are available for circulation at the Athenĉum, and will also be available for purchase and signing following the lectures. [Schedule and ticketing information]
The Bentley Lecture Series is co-presented with the
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Book Sale Preview Night
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October 2005
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Book Sale
Guest Speaker: Margot Livesey
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Scrabble Club
Thursday, Oct. 6, 7:00 PM
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Book Group
Fall Class Series: "Understanding Islam: Going Beyond the Headlines," Session 1 of 2
Writers' Group
Saturday, Oct. 15, 2:00 PM The centerpiece of our fall programming will be a 2-week mini-course on one of the most important topics of our time, led by a world-class scholar: the subject is "Understanding Islam: Going Beyond the Headlines," and our speaker will be Ali Asani, Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Culture at Harvard. Professor Asani holds a joint appointment between the departments of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and the Study of Religion. He also serves on the faculty of the Dept. of Sanskrit and Indian Studies and offers instruction in a variety of languages such as Urdu/Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati and Swahili as well as courses on various aspects of the Islamic tradition. In addition to his specialization in the Muslim literatures of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Prof. Asani is also interested in Shiism, Sufism and popular or folk forms of Muslim devotional life, and Muslim communities in the West. His many books include The Bujh Niranjan: An Ismaili Mystical Poem; The Harvard Collection of Ismaili Literature in Indic Literatures: A Descriptive Catalog and Finding Aid; and Celebrating Muhammad: Images of the Prophet in Muslim Devotional Poetry. Among his numerous scholarly journal and encyclopedia articles is "Pluralism, Intolerance and the Quran," American Scholar (Jan. 2002). He also serves on the advisory board of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and was recently awarded the Harvard Foundation medal for promoting intercultural and racial understanding at Harvard and in the nation. The first lecture in the series will occur on Saturday, October 15, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The topic will be "What Is Islam? Who Is a Muslim? : A Framework for Understanding Contemporary Expressions of Faith in Muslim Societies." The second lecture will take place on Saturday, October 22, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and will focus on "Movements of Reform and Revival in Contemporary Muslim Societies: Causes and Manifestations." Discussion will follow each of the lectures.
Scrabble Club
Fall Class Series: "Understanding Islam: Going Beyond the Headlines," Session 2 of 2
Community Forum
Wednesday, Oct. 26, 7:00 PM Members and guests are welcome to share their own work or listen and discuss the writing of other participants. Group led by J.D. Scrimgeour.
Guest Speaker: June Beisch
Thursday, Oct. 27, 7:00 PM Cambridge poet June Beisch will read from her volume of poems entitled Fatherless Woman, winner of the 2004 Cape Cod Literary Press Poetry Prize. Beisch is an adjunct lecturer at Emerson College and works as a Poet in the Schools in Stoneham & Belmont. A former journalist and interviewer for WGBH, her essays, poems, and literary criticism have appeared widely in numerous publications.
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November 2005
Scrabble Club
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Book Group
White Murder and White Lead
Guest Speaker: Charlotte Gordon
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December 2005
Guest speaker: Lawrence Buell
Ralph Waldo Emerson was America's first public intellectual and the first to articulate to a general audience the implications of what it meant culturally, politically, and philosophically to be American and to consider in practical terms what the United States' role in the world should be. According to the Warren-Brooks Prize jury, "In an elegant, clear-speaking style, notably free of pretentious academic jargon, Dr. Buell cogently assesses Emerson's radically original contributions to fields of thought as disparate as science, politics, religion, philosophy, literature and social action."
Scrabble Club
Scrabble Club
Book Group
Holiday Open House
Please join us for the opening reception of our new exhibit The Charm of the Book Cover: American Decorative Bindings, 1890-1910 featuring stunning examples from the Athenĉum collection and private holdings of guest curator and member Elaine von Bruns.
Children are invited to make an ornament and listen to author, illustrator, and Athenĉum member Katy Bratun read her story The Gingerbread Mouse. Copies of her book will be available for sale and signing.
Scrabble Club
Scrabble Club
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January 2006
Scrabble Club
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Benjamin Franklin Tercentary Celebration
Guest Speaker: Robert Allison Tuesday, Jan. 17, 7:00 PM Robert Allison, Chairman of the Department of History at Suffolk University and author of A Short History of Boston and editor of American Eras: The Revolutionary Era 1754-1783 and American Eras: Development of a Nation 1783-1815 will lecture at the Athenĉum on the very date of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin. The continuing influence of Franklin's multi-faceted genius-as writer, journalist, inventor, founder of public institutions (including America's first subscription library), and statesman-will be discussed. Wine and cheese reception begins at 6:15 PM. Members $5, Non-Members $8
Scrabble Club
Quakers in Early Salem and New England This lecture is presented in conjunction with Historic Salem.
Scrabble Club
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February 2006
Winter Class Series, Session 1 of 12
The course will occur on Wednesday evenings from February 1 until April 19.
Scrabble Club
Winter Class Series, Session 2 of 12
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Winter Class Series, Session 3 of 12
Scrabble Club
Reading by J.D. Scrimgeour
Winter Class Series, Session 4 of 12
Writers' Group
Environmentalism in Massachusetts
Despite 35 years of environmental regulation, Massachusetts has yet to come to grips with persistent and worsening environmental problems. Water withdrawal permits are granted without regard for consequences such as the depletion of the Ipswich and other rivers. Sewering and other projects are approved without regard for overdevelopment, sprawl and destruction of critical resources such as Plum Island and Nantucket. The states list of impaired waters grows longer each year as discharge permit requirements are ignored. And no coherent approach has been taken to meeting energy needs in a manner consistent with environmental protection. It is disingenuous to blame the federal government when our state has the ability to solve such problems. Our speakers will discuss these challenges, what is being done to address them, and what more needs to be done at state and local levels. Michael Baram is Professor of Environmental Law at Boston University Law School and a legal volunteer at the Conservation Law Foundation. John Pike is a recently retired partner at Ropes & Gray and a legal volunteer at the Conservation Law Foundation. Peter Shelley is Vice President, Conservation Law Foundation, and Director of CLFs Massachusetts Advocacy Center.
Reception begins at 7:00 PM. |
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March 2006
Winter Class Series, Session 5 of 12
Scrabble Club
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Bartlett's Familiar Shakespeare One of the most notable Shakespeare scholars of our time - Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and American Literature and Language and of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard - will discuss Shakespeare's unequalled quotability and the wisdom that lies beneath his many memorable lines. Dr. Garber is the author of 4 books on Shakespeare (as well as many books on other subjects), including the highly praised Shakespeare After All (2004), which earned Garber the Phi Beta Kappa Society's Christian Gauss Award in 2005 and has been described as a "magisterial work of criticism, authoritative and engaging, based on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over the past thirty years. Richly informed by Shakespearean scholarship of the latter half of the twentieth century, this book offers passionate and revealing readings of all thirty-eight of Shakespeare's plays. . . ; a landmark work that enlarges our understanding of the most celebrated writer of all time." Reception begins at 6:00 PM.
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Winter Class Series, Session 6 of 12 Wednesday, March 8, 7:00 PM Jane Austen's World Through History, Literature, and Film with Dr. Maura Henry.
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Winter Class Series, Session 7 of 12
Scrabble Club
Winter Class Series, Session 8 of 12
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Come on a trail ride with a real cowgirl!
Reading by Timothy Kenslea
Dr.Kenslea is a history teacher at Norwell High School in Norwell, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University, earned masters and doctoral degrees in history at Boston College, and edited high school and college textbooks for many years.
Winter Class Series, Session 9 of 12
Scrabble Club
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April 2006
Winter Class Series, Session 10 of 12
Scrabble Club
The Leadership of George Washington Acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Washington's Crossing, a chronicle of a pivotal moment in American history when George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas 1776, and not only saved the Revolution, but gave it new meaning. Dr. Fischer will discuss his research on George Washington and share new findings. Dr. Fischer is University Professor and Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University, and author of several noted books, including Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement, The Great Wave: Price Movements in Modern History, Paul Revere's Ride, and Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. He is co-editor, with James M. McPherson, of the Pivotal Moments in American History series published by Oxford University press. He received an AB at Princeton University and PhD at Johns Hopkins University. He lives with his family in Wayland, Massachusetts and Mt. Desert Island in Maine.
Lecture Tickets: Members $20; Non-members $25; Students $10
Winter Class Series, Session 11 of 12
Writers' Group
Scrabble Club
Annual Easter Egg Hunt
Winter Class Series, Session 12 of 12
Scrabble Club
Having Breakfasted, Dined, & Supp'd on Politics After a successful career as a sea captain, Richard Derby Jr. entered Massachusetts politics at the onset of the American Revolution, and remained in public service throughout the war. Join us to hear the story of this unknown member of the famous Derby Family of 18th Century Salem. Emily A. Murphy, Park Ranger, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, and PhD Candidate in American Studies at Boston University, will discuss political activities and influence of leading Salem merchant family, the Derbys. This lecture is co-presented by the Athenĉum and Salem Maritime NHS, and supported by funding from an Albright-Wirth Grant from the National Parks Foundation.
Writers' Group
Community Poetry Read-in
Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Athenĉum! Members and guests are invited to bring along a favorite poem (or two) to read to the group. Light refreshments at 7:00 p.m. Readings begin at 7:30 p.m.
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May 2006
Annual Meeting
Scrabble Club
Scrabble Club
Scrabble Club
Building & Grounds Work Day
Please bring along your own tools if you have them. Recommended items include: work gloves, rakes, pruning shears, small hand saws, chain saws, shovels, edgers, tarps for hauling debris, etc. We welcome contributions of split hostas to plant in the border areas also.
Night of Rare Books
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June 2006
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**Scrabble Club meets every Thursday at 7:00 p.m.**
Annual Garden Party
Poetry Reading by Jean Monahan | Return to Top | |||
July 2006
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**Scrabble Club meets Thursdays July 6, 13, and 27th at 7:00 p.m.**
Salem Summer Jam [View Poster] Eli's All-Stars and guest singer Mary Ann Lanier will perform jazz and pop classics on Thursday evening, July 20 on the porch overlooking the garden at The Salem Athenĉum, 337 Essex Street, Salem. Individuals, families and groups are invited to bring picnics and blankets at 6:30 p.m., then enjoy the music beginning at 7:30 p.m. In case of rain the concert will be held indoors. Dr. Eli Newberger, bandleader, tuba, and keyboard, was the founding pianist and tubaist of the New Black Eagles Jazz Band and has been named best traditional jazz tuba player by a variety of music publications. He has had a distinguished career as a pediatrician and expert on the causes and prevention of child abuse and family violence. Mary Ann Lanier, vocalist, performs music ranging from opera to choral masterworks to popular songs to jazz. She has sung with Opera Aperta, Masterworks Chorale, Fine Arts Chorale, Boston Vocal Artists, and the MIT Wind Ensemble. She is a founding member of the American Classics concert series. Bob Winter, piano, has been pianist for The Boston Pops under John Williams and Keith Lockhart. Professor of piano at Berklee College of Music, he has made many solo, ensemble, and orchestra recordings and has performed with such musicians as Henry Mancini, Mel Torme, Stan Getz, and Luciano Pavarotti. Ted Casher on tenor sax, clarinet, and vocals, has toured with the Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw orchestras. He is also a prolific jazz composer and arranger. Dan Fox, on trombone, has also performed on trumpet, electric bass, and drums. Co-founder of the Made in the Shade Music groups, he has toured with the Gene Krupa Orchestra. Tickets are $20 per person for members; $25 per person for non-members, children under 16 are free. Call The Athenĉum at 978-744-2540 for reservations.
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Sickness in Salem: Medical and Social Origins of the Witchcraft Hysteria Saturday July 22, 3:00 PM The Witch House Family Program Series presents a lecture by Sue Kallmes on disease in colonial America. Ms. Kallmes, who lectures regularly on the North Shore about early medicine, is an historic guide at the Peabody Essex Museum. The lecture will be held at the Athenĉum and is free and open to the all. In conjunction with the lecture, Revolutionary War reenactors will be stationed at the Witch House to provide demonstrations on various aspects of colonial life, including colonial medicine. Guided and self-guided tours of the Witch House will be available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for $1.00 for Salem residents. Call 978-744-8815 for more details. | Return to Top | |||
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August 2006
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**Scrabble Club meets Thursdays Aug 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31th at 7:00 p.m.**
September 2006
Reading and Slide Presentation by Emmy Award-winning author The Salem Athenĉum will host an author talk by Salem resident Kelly Tyler-Lewis, author of The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackletons Ross Sea Party. The program will include a presentation of photographs of her research trips to key locations, including Antarctica. Books will be available for sale and signing. In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed south aboard the Endurance into the Weddell Sea intent to make the first-ever crossing of Antarctica. Aboard the Aurora, the 28 men comprising his supply party made for the Ross Sea at the opposite end of the continent where they mobilized to build a lifeline of food and fuel depots to supply Shackletons epic 1,700-mile crossing. Tragically, the Aurora broke free of her moorings in a gale. The 10 men stranded ashore were woefully ill-equipped to complete their mission, yet vowed to carry on in the face of impossible odds. In her first book, The Lost Men, Kelly Tyler-Lewis sheds light on this untold adventure and brings their story to The Athenĉum along with a presentation of photographs from her research travels with the National Science Foundation Artists and Writers Program in Antarctica where she visited locales frequented by the Ross Sea party as well as Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. From 2002-2004 she was a visiting scholar of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University and is currently a senior member of Wolfson College, Cambridge. As a writer and producer, Ms. Tyler-Lewis received an Emmy Award in 2003 for Best Historical Documentary for Shackletons Voyage of Endurance, a two-hour special broadcast on the PBS series NOVA. The program was also nominated for the Emmy for Best Documentary. Tickets are $10, $5 for Athenĉum members, free for students. |
 Kelly Tyler-Lewis photo by Page Teahan |
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Jane Austen Discussion Group -----
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A Passage to India: An Exploration into the British Empire in India Through History, Literature, and Film 6-Week Course Beginning Monday September 18th, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Registration Required By August 28 Dr. Maura Henry, who offered the popular course Jane Austens World, last spring returns to explore the issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, cultural exchange, and mythologies of the other" as they emerge from Britains colonization of India. In addition to historical accounts of the British in India, various works of literature, such as the novels of E. M. Forster, and films that depict this vexed relationship will be studied. Dr. Henry has been a lecturer in Harvards History and Literature Department and in the Harvard Extension School and is now Assistant Professor of History at Holyoke Community College, and a faculty member with the Teachers as Scholars program in Boston. The course will be held Mondays from 7 to 9 p.m. through October 30. Class does not meet on October 9, in observance of Columbus Day. Tuition is $175 / $145 for Athenĉum members. Registration by August 28 is required. Please call 978-744-2540 or email info@salemathenaeum.net to register. -----
Writers' Group
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Loyal Princes Last spring, Emily A. Murphy delighted Athenĉum members with her lecture on Richard Derby, Junior and his role in the American Revolution. This lecture continues the Derby family saga by examining the activities of Richard Junior's sister, Martha, who fled with her husband, John Prince, to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1774. Although they were Loyalists, they kept close ties to their family members in Salem as well as to the Derby family shipping empire. Ms. Murphy is a Park Ranger at Salem Maritime National Historic Site and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in American Studies at Boston University. Her dissertation, with a working title of "American Medici: The Derby Family and Their Rise to Power in the British Atlantic World," examines the sea-faring and mercantile enterprises of the Derbys as well as their cultural influence and participation in public life. She writes and lectures frequently on Early American history and among her publications for the National Parks Service are a walking tour, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Salem, and a booklet, Merchants, Clerks, Citizens, and Soldiers: a History of the Second Corps of Cadets. She received a B.A. from St. John's College and an M.A. in American Studies from Pennsylvania State University. In 1996 she was awarded the honor of writing a commemorative history for her alma mater titled A Complete and Generous Education: 300 Years of Liberal Arts, St. John's College, Annapolis. Tickets are $10, $5 for Athenĉum members, free for students. ----- |
 Emily A. Murphy |
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Jane Austen Discussion Group -----
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Annual Book Sale Saturday, September 30, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Everyone welcome to hunt for reading treasure in the Garden of the Athenĉum! Donations accepted during normal library hours through September 23rd.
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October 2006
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Writers' Group
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Samuel Beckett Centennial with Robert Scanlan Friday, October 6, 7 p.m. Samuel Beckett, author of Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, and many other works, was the most revolutionary playwright of the 20th century. On this 100th anniversary of Beckett's birth, the Athenĉum is pleased to welcome Robert Scanlan, Visiting Lecturer on dramaturgy and theater history in the English Department at Harvard University, who will discuss Beckett's contributions to theatre and the challenge of directing his work. Dr. Scanlan was for many years the Literary Director of the American Repertory Theatre, where he headed the Dramaturgy Program for the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. From 1978 to 1989, Dr. Scanlan was Director of the Drama Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He directs frequently in America and abroad, winning in 1995 the Boston Theatre Award for Outstanding Director. Directing credits include Samson Agonistes, with Claire Bloom and John Neville at the 92nd Street Y in New York; his own stage adaptation of The Inferno of Dante in Rober Pinsky's translation; An Evening of Beckett and Beckett Trio in the ART Fall Festival. As a past president of Poets' Theatre and a member of its board of directors, he directed the world premiere presentation of Beckett's Stirrings Still (with David Warrilow). Tickets are $10, $5 for Athenĉum members, free for students.
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 Robert Scanlan |
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Jane Austen Discussion Group -----
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Sing-Along featuring Jen Strom Muscian and Salem resident Jen Strom will lead a sing-along featuring classic childrens favorites, rhythm games and finger plays. Strom will bring her guitar, fiddle and a variety of other instruments. This special afternoon is for families and children of all ages, and is free and open to the public. All are welcome! Classically trained on violin, Strom also plays in traditional fiddle styles including Irish, Canadian and Cape Breton. She participates in the Salem Country Dances and has performed at the Irish Connections Festival and Salem Maritime Festival, as well as at the New Years Rockport Eve celebrations. While at The Athenĉum, families will also have an opportunity to see the current exhibit, Once Upon a Time: ABCs to Cinderella, now in its final weeks. -----
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Writers' Group
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Free introductory session for Chinese Language Course An introductory session is scheduled, free to all interested persons, from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 21st, at the Athenĉum. A native speaker of Mandarin, Mr. Benjamin Yong Wang, will serve as instructor. He is the owner of Salem Oriental Gallery at 178 Essex Street. There will be 10 sessions on subsequent Saturdays at the same time, beginning October 28th. Subsequent semesters may be scheduled to further advance the level of the students. 10 sessions are $140 for members and $165 for non-members. -----
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Spanish Language Discussion Group -----
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Jane Austen Discussion Group -----
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Mozart Sesquicentennial Celebration featuring The Parker String Quartet Friday, October 27, 7:00 p.m. Please join us at the Athenĉum for an evening of champagne, canapes and Mozart in the company of the renowned Parker String Quartet.
Program: The Quartet has been hailed by The Washington Post as "a quartet that propels the music irresistibly but with extraordinary grace and flexibility." They have quickly established themselves as a dynamic young chamber ensemble since their founding in May of 2002. In March 2005, The Quartet was chosen as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York. Only three months later, the group was awarded First Prize, a recording prize, and the Mozart Prize at the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France, along with over twenty performance prize engagements through Europe. Featured engagements during the 2005-6 season include The Quartet's critically acclaimed New York debut at Carnegie Hall, about wich The New York Times raved that the performance "set the group apart as something extraordinary." The Parker String Quartet was recently selected for the prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program at the New England Conservatory of Music, where the group was founded and also where it was selected in 2002 and 2003 as the NECs Honors Ensemble, resulting in annual recitals in Jordan Hall, as well as numerous outreach concerts in the Boston area. Currently, the Quartet is coached by Paul Katz at NEC, and other coaches have included Martha Strongin Katz, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Paul Katz, and Lucy Stoltzman. All of the quartet's members are presently pursuing graduate degrees in performance and chamber music at the New England Conservatory. The Parker String Quartet is Daniel Chong (violin), Karen Kim (violin), Jessica Bodner (viola), and Kee-Hyun Kim (cello). For more information, see their website http://www.parkerquartet.com/. Tickets: Members $50 --- Non-members $60 -----
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 The Parker String Quartet |
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November 2006
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Chinese Language Course Benjamin Yong Wang, a native speaker of Mandarin, leads a 10-session course beginning November 4th. The class will meet Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Subsequent semesters may be scheduled to further advance the level of the students. Cost is $140 for members and $165 for non-members.
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Spanish Language Discussion Group
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Writers' Group
Tuesday, November 7, 7:00 p.m. Members and guests are welcome to share their own work or listen and discuss the writing of other participants. Group led by J.D. Scrimgeour. -----
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Jane Austen Discussion Group -----
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Reading by Matthew Pearl Join us for a reading by acclaimed writer, Matthew Pearl. His debut novel, The Dante Club, has been an international bestseller translated into more than 30 languages. His highly anticipated second novel, The Poe Shadow is another New York Times and international bestseller. Copies of both books will be available for sale and signing. Matthew Pearl graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude in English and American Literature in 1997 and Yale Law School in 2000. He has taught literature and creative writing at Harvard University and Emerson College. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is now at work on his third novel. Tickets are $10, $5 for Athenĉum members, free for students. -----
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Writers' Group
Tuesday, November 21, 7:00 p.m. Members and guests are welcome to share their own work or listen and discuss the writing of other participants. Group led by J.D. Scrimgeour. -----
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Reading by Joseph Taylor Local writer and Athenĉum member Joseph Taylor will read from his collection of essays, including several that have won prizes in the writing competition at the Marblehead Festival of the Arts. His subjects cover a wide variety of themes and voices in pop culture and in the serious realities of living. Taylor has also published poetry, and a play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates that premiered at the Peabody Essex Museum, as well as Op-ed and magazine literary pieces. Before coming to Salem, Taylor had a career in mental health and teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Tickets are $5 and free for Athenĉum members and students. -----
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Nathaniel Hawthorne as Romantic Traveler Lawrence Buell, the Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard, will talk about one of the many paradoxes in Hawthorne's life and career. Despite his justifiable self-definition as a New England writer, and the regional cast of most of his fiction, Hawthorne was also a compulsive vicarious traveler who in his own offbeat writerly way can be seen as continuing the tradition of his patrilineal Salemite ancestors, who "followed the sea" (as he puts it in "The Custom House"). Pondering this paradox may also help us understand some of the other mysteries about Hawthorne, several of which Dr. Buell will discuss. Hawthorne's reflections on Transcendentalism are included in a new book, The American Transcendentalists: Essential Writings, edited by Lawrence Buell, who is considered by his peers to be an eminent scholar and "probably the most distinguished living authority on Emersons literary circle, the American Transcendentalists according to Daniel W. Howe, Rhodes Professor of American History emeritus, Oxford University. Dr. Buell's previous book, Emerson, examines Hawthorne's friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, America's first public intellectual and the first to articulate to a general audience the implications of what it meant culturually, politically, and philosophically to be American and to consider in practical terms what the United States' role in the world should be. Emerson won both the Robert Penn Warren-Cleanth Brooks Award for Outstanding Literary Criticism and the Christian Gauss Award of Phi Beta Kappa. Tickets are $10, $5 for Athenĉum members, and free for students.
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December 2006
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Writers' Group
Tuesday, December 5, 7:00 p.m. Members and guests are welcome to share their own work or listen and discuss the writing of other participants. Group led by J.D. Scrimgeour. -----
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Open House and Reception for the New Exhibit Sunday, December 10, 2 to 4 p.m. Members and guests are welcome to join us for this family friendly event to celebrate the opening of the new exhibit: "What They Were Reading: Popular Books of the Social Library, 1760-1810." We've taken down and opened the books in the Wendt Room and have they got stories to tell! Events will include a children's activity and a story reading. -----
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Writers' Group
Tuesday, December 19, 7:00 p.m. Members and guests are welcome to share their own work or listen and discuss the writing of other participants. Group led by J.D. Scrimgeour.
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January 2007
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Jane Austen Discussion Group Wednesday, January 10, 7:00 p.m. This discussion group has completed Austen's oeuvre and will continue with a new author, Emily Bronte, and Wuthering Heights. All are welcome to join. Copies are available at the Athenĉum. The group meets every two weeks. Bring your ideas for a new name for the group! -----
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Masterpieces of Modern Irish Literature
Course begins Thursday, January 11, 7:30 p.m. Join Dr. Sue Weaver Schopf and your Athenĉum friends for the new course, Masterpieces of Modern Irish Literature. The course will examine works by Irelands greatest writers, primarily from the 20th century. Despite eight centuries of British rule, acute poverty, and violent struggles between Catholics and Protestants, Orangemen and Free-Staters, Ireland has produced four Nobel Prize winners. The course will consider how writers have dealt with this history; how the country has been depicted by both insiders and outsiders; and how Irish identity has been represented and stereotyped. Readings will include poems by Thomas Moore, James Clarence Mangan, William Butler Years, and Seamus Heaney; fiction by Edith Somerville/Martin Ross; James Joyce, and William Trevor; and plays by J.M. Synge, Lady Gregory, Brendan Behan, Sean OCasey, Brian Friel, and Martin McDonagh. Dr. Sue Weaver Schopf is Assistant Dean, Director of the Master of Liberal Arts Program, and Senior Research Advisor in the Humanities in Harvards Division of Continuing Education, where she also lectures on English and American literature. Dr. Schopf is also a trustee of the Salem Athenĉum and chair of the Education Committee. The course begins January 11th and will meet at the Athenĉum on Thursdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. through March 15th. Tuition is $275 / $240 for Athenĉum members. Advance registration required. Contact Jean Marie at 978-744-2540 to register or for more information.
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Architects of Resistance: The Forgotten Heroes of Leslies Retreat Between the measured disobedience of the Boston Tea Party and the bloody skirmishing at Lexington and Concord came Leslies Retreat, a moment in which American patriots and British officers actually cooperated to find reasonable solutions to an impossible conflict. What made peaceful resolution possible in Salem on February 26, 1775 was the intervention of men and women committed to constitutional principle, yet hoping to avoid the winds of war. The talk will explore how the architecture of policy collapsed against the architecture of place, and forgotten figures Thomas Gage and Joseph Sprague, Alexander Leslie and Thomas Barnard struggled to hold together an empire of liberty. Dr. Kimberly Alexander is Preservationist and Curator at Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She is Vice President of Historic Salem, Inc, and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History Department at Salem State College. She has previously held the positions of Curator of the MIT Museum and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Peabody Essex Museum. Dr. Dane Morrison is Professor of Early American History at Salem State College. He is the author of A Praying People: Massachusetts Acculturation and the Failure of the Puritan Mission, 1600-1690 , editor of American Indian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues, and co-editor of Salem: Place, Myth and Memory. His current research is on the experiences of the first Americans to voyage to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Tickets are $10, $5 for Athenĉum and HSI members, and free for students.
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February 2007
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The Merciless Flames of an Imaginary Plot Salem Witchcraft and the New York Slave Conspiracy Lecture by Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Jill Lepore Monday, February 5, at 7:00 pm In 1741, thirteen black men were burned at the stake in New York City; seventeen more were hanged. All were accused of conspiring to burn the city down. New Englanders compared the executions to those in Salem in 1692. While Americans remember what happened in Salem, they've forgotten what happened in New York, which, if only in terms of the number or manner of deaths, was much worse. Lepore is a Professor of History at Harvard University, specializing in Early American studies, the cultural history of colonial, revolutionary, and antebellum America, with a particular interest in the history of print, and history of race and violence. Lepore's New York Burning: Liberty and Slavery and Conspiracy in an Eighteenth-Century City, about an alleged conspiracy of enslaved Africans in New York City in 1741, was published in 2005 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Lepore was co-founder and co-editor of Common-place (www.common-place.org), an online American history magazine. Her other books include The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity (1998), winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award; Encounters in the New World: A History in Documents (1999); A is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States (2002). She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lepores books will be available that evening at The Athenĉum for sale and signing. Admission is $10; $5 for members, and free for students.
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Athenĉum Afternoon Family Event with Corinne Demas Saturday, February 10, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Corinne Demas is author of two collections of short stories, two novels, a memoir, and numerous books for children, including Two Christmas Mice (2005), and The Disappearing Island (2000), selected by the Childrens Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education as a Best Childrens Book for the Year; Honor Book, Massachusetts Book Award; and is currently included in the 2006-2008 traveling exhibition, This is Our Land: Discovering America and the World through Original Illustrations from Childrens Books. Ms. Demas is Professor of English at Mt. Holyoke College and a Fiction Editor of The Massachusetts Review. For descriptions of all of her books, see her web site at http://www.corinnedemas.com/ Activities will include a reading by Corinne Demas of her children's book, The Littlest Matryoshka, and a Valentine craft project and cookies for all ages. Free and open to the public. Please join us and bring a friend!
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 The Littlest Matryoshka |
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March 2007
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Shakespeare Lecture featuring Stephen Greenblatt Tuesday March 6 at 7:00 p.m. Scholar, literary critic and prize-winning author of Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, Stephen Greenblatt, will present "Shakespeare and the Ethics of Authority," the 2nd Athenĉum Shakespeare Lecture. The lecture explores how Shakespeare grappled in his plays with the ethical complexities and consequences of power. Dr. Greenblatt identifies certain strategies that Shakespeare explored for dealing with the nightmare of unavoidable injustice strategies he explored most thoroughly in King Lear. Dr. Greenblatt is credited by many with founding "New Historicism." In an interview with Harvey Blume, he said, "The goal of new historicism for me - it's different for different people - is to put cultural objects in some interesting relationship to social and historical processes." This approach examines literature in its historic context and not in isolation from the world around it. Through this approach in Will in the World, Greenblatt explores the details of Shakespeare's life and surroundings and we gain insights about the possible sources of his inspiration. Dr. Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. In addition to Will in the World, he is author of Hamlet in Purgatory, co-editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, general editor of The Norton Shakespeare, and co-founder of Representations, a literary-cultural journal. Tickets are $20, $15 for members, and $5 for students. |
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Ireland in Song and Story A St. Patrick's Day Celebration at the Salem Athenĉum featuring David O'Docherty & Friends Saturday, March 17th, 7:30 pm In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, Irish native David O'Docherty will host an evening of Irish songs, tunes and anecdotes at the Athenĉum. O'Docherty is a virtuoso flute and tin whistle player whose vast musical repertoire, rich baritone voice and infectious joviality make him a masterful Irish entertainer. He is also a delightful raconteur with a vast knowledge of the history of the music and the persons and places connected to it. He will be joined by Celtic singer Michael O'Leary, fiddler Jen Strom, guitar/bouzouki player Bob Strom and singer Ziggy Hartfelder. Admission is $10 at the door. |
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April 2007
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Annual Egg Hunt
Saturday, Apr. 7, 11:00 AM Please join us for an Athenĉum family tradition. Members and friends are invited to enjoy refreshments while children hunt for sweet treasures in the garden. All ages welcome. Older children may enjoy assisting the bunny in hiding his eggs.
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Adams Lecture featuring Nathaniel Philbrick Thursday April 12 Lecture at 7:30 p.m., Champagne-Dessert Reception following Champion sailor, award-winning scholar and bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick will present the Athenĉum's 2007 Adams Lecture on his bestselling book, Mayflower. The Adams Lecture was established by The Salem Athenĉum in 2004 and is named in honor of John Adams, The Athenĉums Librarian from 1994 to 2005. Nathaniel first gained fame for his nonfiction classic In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, which familiarized modern readers with the harrowing true story behind Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; the gripping bestseller won the prestigious National Book Award in 2001. More recently he revisited the bestseller lists with Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, his fresh take on the Pilgrims' journey to Plymouth Rock. He has also penned absorbing accounts of the quest to map the Pacific Ocean (Sea of Glory) and the rich history of his beloved Nantucket, as well as several lighthearted books about sailing. The 2007 Adams Lecture is sponsored in part by Eastern Bank. Books will be available for sale and signing in partnership with Cornerstone Books of Salem. The lecture will be held at Hamilton Hall, 9 Chestnut Street, Salem. Hamilton Hall is not handicapped accessible. Please contact the Athenĉum for specific information.
Lecture only tickets are $25 at the door, $20 in advance, and $15 for members in advance. Print an invitation/reservation form here
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American Theocracy Book Discussion Group
Wednesdays, Apr. 18th and 25th, 7:30 PM Please join Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell and John Adams for a discussion of Kevin Phillips' book, American Theocracy. Phillips will give the 2007 Bentley Lecture on the issues in his book on May 6th. The discussion is free and open to the public.
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Community Poetry Read-in
Saturday, Apr. 28, 2:00 PM Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Athenĉum! Members and guests are invited to bring along a favorite poem (or two) to read to the group. Readings and light refreshments begin at 2:00 p.m.
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May 2007
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Bentley Lecture featuring Kevin Phillips speaking on American Theocracy in the 21st century Sunday May 6 Lecture at 4:00 p.m., First Church in Salem The 2007 Bentley Lecture will be delivered on May 6th by nationally renowned author, radio and television commentator, Kevin Phillips. For more than three decades, Kevin Phillips' best selling books have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself. One of Phillips first books, The Emerging Republican Majority set the political strategy for Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, transforming the American political landscape for the generation that followed. After Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, Phillips was general acknowledged as the Republican party's principal electorial theoretician. In Phillips' two most recent bestsellers, American Dynasty and Wealth and Democracy, he established himself as a powerful critic of the political and economic forces that have come to rule the United States. And, now in American Theocracy, Phillips uncovers and assails the political coalition of oil, borrowed money and radical religion that he believes is driving the country to the brink of disaster. Alan Brinkley, writing in The New York Times, declares that, "American Theocracy may be the most alarming analysis of where we are and where we may be going to have appeared in many years....but unlike many of the more glib and strident political commentaries of recent years, it is extensively researched and for the most part frighteningly persuasive." Educated at Colgate, the University of Edinburgh and Harvard Law School, Phillips has been a commentator on CBS Radio and Television News and National Public Radio.
About the Bentley Lecture In conjunction with the First Church in Salem, the Athenĉum perodically presents lectures and seminars in his name in honor of Dr. Bentley's contributions to medicine, theology, Salem, and the Athenĉum itself.
Tickets Print an invitation/reservation form here
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"Useful and Ornamental Institutions:"
The Social Library and Athenĉum Movements in Salem and Beyond
Lecture by Lynda Yankaskas Tuesday May 22, 7:00 p.m. In the decades just before and after the American Revolution, residents of towns and cities across the northeastern U.S. founded subscription libraries that provided books and reading rooms to members and took an active part in civic life. Salem was at the forefront of this movement, with at least five social libraries by 1810. In fact, Salem had a social library before it had any other civic association other than a fire company. Why was a library so important to Salem residents in 1761? In this talk, Lynda Yankaskas will draw on research conducted at the Salem Athenĉum to explore the role of the library in the community (a role described by a Philadelphia library member as "useful and ornamental"), changes in membership, and changes in members' taste in books over time, especially as the Social Library transformed itself into the Athenĉum in 1810. She will also place the Social Library and Athenĉum into the broader history of the social library movement and its effects on communities and American life by examining the relationship between the Athenĉum and similar institutions in Boston, Concord, and Philadelphia, and between the Athenĉum and other organizations in Salem. Lynda Yankaskas is a Ph.D. Candidate in American History at Brandeis University and a Barra Dissertation Fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation is entitled Borrowing Culture: Social Libraries and the Shaping of American Civic Life, 1731-1851." Tickets are $10, $5 for members, free for students.
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Annual Meeting Wednesday, May 23, 7:00 PM All proprietors and subscribers welcome.
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June 2007
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Annual Garden Party Sunday June 3, 4:00 to 7:00 PM Members and their guests are invited to join us in the garden for refreshments and live music.
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Annual Book Sale Saturday June 9, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM Come find great bargains and enjoy the thrill of the hunt at the annual book sale. Bott's Court will be blocked off for the book sale and an entire block yard sale on the same day. A treasure awaits you! Donations for the book sale are gratefully accepted during library hours through June 7th.
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Summer Salon Friday June 15, 5:00 PM Paul and Lynda Hare discuss their experiences in Cuba.
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The Witch House Program Series presents Salem's Musick Secular Songs and Dances of the Puritans Presentation by Larry Young Saturday June 16, 3:00 PM Join the Witch House and the Salem Athenĉum for a musical extravaganza! Favorite local musician Larry Young, of musical groups Poor Richard's Penny, Beggar Boys, and Ye Mariners All, will present a lecture and performance of Colonial-era music. Larry Young has been researching and performing popular music of Colonial America, music of the sea, and folk music for over twenty-five years. Mr. Young, a graduate of Dartmouth who has studied music at both the Berkelee and Longy Schools of Music, has performed 17th and 18th-century pieces on authentic period instruments. He has studied Renaissance and Baroque violin practice, and takes great delight in music from the distant past. With his rich voice, elegant fiddling, and good humor, he brings this music to life for today's audience. Mr. Young will present a lecture about the music that spanned the Atlantic Ocean in Colonial times, and discuss how the Puritans viewed dance and secular music. Mr. Young vibrantly demonstrates the music of the time on period and replica instruments. The lecture will also feature a sing-a-long of "America's first folks song" called New England's Annoyances. The afternoon will end with a little audience participation as Larry teaches the group a simple 17th-century dance. Lecture is FREE and open to the public. Please call the Witch House at (978) 744-8815 for more information or email info@corwinhouse.org. This lecture is funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Salem Poetry Seminar Reading featuring J.D. Scrimgeour Monday June 18, 7:30 PM This program is part of the Salem Poetry Seminar presented by Salem State College and The Salem Athenĉum. Twelve students selected from public colleges, community colleges, and universities in Massachusetts will participate in classes in the art of writing poetry with practicing poets: Mark Doty; Charlotte Gordon; and J.D. Scrimgeour. Each participant will give a brief public reading of their work at the Athenĉum. The seminar runs from June 17-22 with readings on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings.
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Salem Poetry Seminar Reading featuring Charlotte Gordon Tuesday June 19, 7:30 PM This program is part of the Salem Poetry Seminar presented by Salem State College and The Salem Athenĉum. Twelve students selected from public colleges, community colleges, and universities in Massachusetts will participate in classes in the art of writing poetry with practicing poets: Mark Doty; Charlotte Gordon; and J.D. Scrimgeour. Each participant will give a brief public reading of their work at the Athenĉum. The seminar runs from June 17-22 with readings on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings.
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Modernism in Art, Literature, and Music What was "Modernism"? When and why did it occur as a literary and an artistic movement? Who were its leaders and against what were they rebelling? What features, if any, did Modernist literature, music, and the visual arts share? Why did Modernist expression precipitate such hostile responses from the general public? What role did World War I, the rise of technology and the modern city, internationalism, and the theories of Sigmund Freud play in the shaping of this new art? And what, ultimately, caused the demise of the Modernist ethos? This 11-week course seeks to answer all of these questions, and more, through an exploration of some of the most revolutionary works of art, fiction, poetry, and music in the Modernist canon. Among the instructors in this cross-disciplinary course will be art historian Dr. Cynthia Fowler, Associate Professor of Art at Emmanuel College in Boston and an expert on 20th-century art, who will present several lectures on Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, Dadaism, and Abstract Expressionism. Veteran Athenæum instructor and trustee Sue Weaver Schopf, Assistant Dean of Harvard University's Division of Continuing Education and Lecturer on English and American literature, will guide participants through Virginia Woolf's ground-breaking stream-of-consciousness novel Mrs. Dalloway; and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, arguably the most influential poem of the 20th century and a monument to the Modernist experiment in symbolism, collage, and polyphonic voices. The third lecturer in the course will be a musicologist, who will discuss features of Modernist music that range from the destruction of tonality to polytonality, heightened orchestral percussiveness to the inclusion of mere "noise," and will focus on key compositions such as Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps. The course will run for 11 Monday evenings, from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m., beginning September 10 and continuing on September 17 and 24; October 1, 15, 22, and 29; November 5, 19, and 26; and concluding on December 3. (*Class will not meet on the Monday holidays of October 8 and November 12.) Tuition for the course is $240 for Athenaeum members, $275 for non-members. Participants wishing to do some early reading for the course might explore Robert Hughes' Shock of the New, Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Eliot's The Waste Land Thomas Kelly's First Nights: Five Performance Premieres (specifically the chapter on Le Sacre du Printemps). View, then print and send registration form.
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Building Centennial Celebration Lecture Launching our program year will be Pamela Fox giving a presentation on her beautiful book, North Shore Boston Country Houses of Essex County, 1865-1930, with special attention to colonial revival architecture and the work of William G. Rantoul, architect of the Athenæum's 1907 elegant building. Pamela Wilkinson Fox is a preservation consultant and author of the award-winning Farm Town to Suburb: The History and Architecture of Weston, Massachusetts, 1830-1980. After majoring in art history at Radcliffe College (Harvard University), she studied architecture and historic preservation at Boston University, where she received a master's degree in preservation studies. Her career has included work for the Boston Landmarks Commission, Rhode Island Historical Society, and Lower Merion (PA) Township. She lives in Weston (MA), where she is a consultant to the Weston Historical Commission, a member of the Planning Board, Community Preservation Committee, and Weston Land Trust, and the president of the Weston Historical Society. It is her hope that this book will encourage preservation of the many handsome country houses that still survive on Boston's North Shore. Tickets are $20, $15 for Athenæum members. |
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October 2007
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Claire Messud, author of The Emperor’s Children Selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2006 and currently on its paperback best seller list, will read from her work. A riveting story of young thirty-somethings making their way in New York on the eve and aftermath of September 11, the novel was written while she was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and was nominated for the Booker Prize. |
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Caroline Plummer and Her Circle of Friends The Athenaeum will have an Open House from 2:00 to 4:00 on the 13th, as one of the many local institutions to which Caroline Plummer served as benefactress . The celebration is especially timely for us, since it was she who contributed the $80,000 that made the construction of our 100-year-old building possible. At 7:30 that evening, the Athenaeum will co-sponsor a lecture at the Phillips Library on the Plummer family and its philanthropic activities to be delivered by the Reverend Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church at Harvard University. This will be followed by an elegant dessert reception with popular music of 19th- century America to be performed. |
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The Cambridge Society for Early Music The Athenaeum will be the venue for 3 of its Saturday evening concerts, the first occurring on October 20. In a program entitled “The Many Faces of Mozart,” Sylvia Berry will perform a program of little-known gems and well-loved masterpieces on a Mozart-era fortepiano. Athenaeum members will enjoy a 20% discount on the Society’s already-low ticket prices, and our beautiful performance space will provide the perfect acoustics and intimate feel so suited to the delicacy of period instruments. |
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November 2007
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Teaching Atlantic History Conference Atlantic history has broadened and
internationalized our historical
perspectives of early modern era.
Through the lens of the Atlantic Ocean
system, world history and early American history from the Columbian encounter into the spread of
ideologies in the 18th and early 19th century appear more interconnected. Incorporating this perspective into our teaching will enhance the richness of the narratives and draw in more voices. Open to All - Tickets $75.00 ***Please note that the Athenĉum will be closed for this special event. Normal hours resume on Saturday, November 10th. |
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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright The author of 14 collections of poetry, Wright is considered one of our greatest living poets, and has been the recipient of the PEN/Voelcker Award, grants from the Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Born in Vienna, he has taught at Emerson College and Brandeis University. He is the son of poet James Wright; they are the only father and son ever to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. One critic has said of Franz Wright, “[he] brings the attentiveness and clarity we usually associate with Asian or imagist poetry and turns them unflinchingly toward the inner landscapes of the mind, heart, and soul, rendering self-destructive despair and life-transforming revelation with equal care.” Admission is $10, $5 for members. |  |
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Eve LaPlante, author of Salem Witch Judge In 1692, Samuel Sewall sat on the court that condemned to death more than 30 people accused of practicing witchcraft including two of his own friends. Twenty were executed before a public outcry led the governor to halt the killings. Sewall is the subject of an eagerly awaited biography by Eve LaPlante, Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall. Sewall struggled internally for years before publicly assuming "the blame and shame" for the wrongful convictions and deaths. Through his long repentance, Sewall became Americas most surprising moral hero. This program is presented by the Salem Athenĉum in collaboration with the Salem Award Foundation for Human Rights and Social Justice www.salemaward.org.
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January 2008
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Course on the American Revolution The American Revolution was one of the epochal events in world history. During this course we will discuss the causes, events, and consequences of the Revolution, consider the major figures of the Revolution and the war--Adams and Jefferson, Washington, Franklin--as well as the impact the Revolution had, and continues to have, on our own lives and the wider world. What impact did the Revolution have on slavery? On Native Americans? On the roles of women? We will consider all facets of the Revolution and the War for Independence. Instructor Professor Robert Allison is Chairman of the Dept. of History at Suffolk University, where he teaches courses on American history, Constitutional history and the history of Boston. Athenĉum members will likely recall the lecture he gave in 2006 in honor of Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday. Allison earned his PhD from Harvard University. He is the author of The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World and A Short History of Boston ; he has edited The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, as well as several volumes in the award-winning American Eras series, including The Revolutionary Era, 1754-1783 and The Development of a Nation, 1783-1815. He is an elected life member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Tuition: $175 non-members, $155 members View, then print and send registration form.
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Devil of Great Island Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England Lecture by Emerson Baker Tuesday, Jan.15, 7:00 PM In 1682, ten years before the Salem witch trials, the town of Great Island, New Hampshire, was plagued by mysterious events: strange, demonic noises; unexplainable movement of objects; and hundreds of stones that rained upon a local tavern and appeared at random inside its walls. Town residents blamed what they called "Lithobolia" or "the stone-throwing devil." In this lively account, Emerson Baker shows how witchcraft hysteria overtook one town and spawned copycat incidents elsewhere in New England, prefiguring the horrors of Salem. In the process, he illuminates a cross-section of colonial society and overturns many popular assumptions about witchcraft in the seventeenth century. This new book is already receiving praise. Pulitzer-prize winning historian Alan Taylor says that "with deft insights, Tad Baker illuminates a supernatural mystery from seventeenth-century New England. Thoroughly researched and clearly written, The Devil of Great Island leaves no stone unturned, revealing a popular culture of marvels and wonders. And it offers a gripping tale well told." Mary Beth Norton, author of In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, calls Baker's book "thoroughly fascinating and fascinatingly thorough." Emerson "Tad" Baker is a professor of history at Salem State College. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the history and archaeology of early New England. Most recently he was co-author of The New England KnightM, an award-winning biography of Sir William Phips, governor of Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials. He was a consultant and on-camera expert for the Emmy nominated PBS-TV series Colonial House. Baker has also discussed his research on witchcraft on such television shows as Chronicle and This Week in History. This lecture is co-presented with Historic Salem, Inc. Tickets are $10, $5 for Athenĉum and HSI members. |
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The Cambridge Society for Early Music presents The Cambridge Society for Early Music concert series returns with Asteria (Sylvia Rhyne, soprano, and Eric Redlinger, tenor and lute) performing love songs of the 14th and 15th centuries. Much of the courtly poetry from the 12th to the 15th centuries can be summed up with one phrase: "Vive Ma Dame!" The Lady, the absolute, flawless, most worth object of chivalric desire, is surely one of the most mysterious and intriguing elements of medieval art. This program explores the resonant symbolism that existed in both the secular and vernacular sacred chansons during the close of the Medieval period in Europe. The individuals who populated the courts and castles of that time were highly adapted to a dualistic existence. Their lives were marked by the utter chaos and tenuous fabric of reality, on the one hand, and the refinement and grace that accompanied the pursuit of the chivalric ideal, on the other. Winners of the 2004 Early Music America Medieval/Renaissance Competition, Asteria will shed a glimmer of light upon the passions of the age with these works of extraordinary beauty. Vive Ma Dame! Athenĉum members will enjoy a 20% discount on the Society's already-low ticket prices. For more information, please contact CSEM at http://www.csem.org/ or 617-489-2062. |
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February 2008
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Building Centennial Benefit Concert A romantic candlelight setting will provide the backdrop to an elegant champagne-and-dessert reception and a special musical program featuring flute, harp, cello, and violin.
As graduates of the Boston Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and Boston University, each member of the Amaryllis Chamber Ensemble brings a high level of musical artistry to the group. For more information about the musicians, see http://www.amaryllisboston.com/. The program will be announced shortly. |
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William Martin William Martin is the author of 8 novels, an award-winning PBS documentary, and a horror movie that is now considered a cult classic; but he is noted principally for his skillful merging of the mystery and history genres into smart, well-researched thrillers. Author of Back Bay, Harvard Yard, Cape Cod, and Annapolis Martin will discuss his latest novel, The Lost Constitution. Tickets $10, $5 for members. |
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Dan Ariely When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we're in control. But are we? Not only do we make astonishingly simple mistakes every day, but we make the same types of mistakes, says Ariely. We consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. These misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable. From drinking coffee to losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, Ariely explains how to break through these systematic patterns of thought to make better decisions. Predictably Irrational will change the way we interact with the worldone small decision at a time. "A marvelous book that is both thought-provoking and highly entertaining, ranging from the power of placebos to the pleasures of Pepsi. Ariely unmasks the subtle but powerful tricks that our minds play on us, and shows us how we can prevent being fooled." - Jerome Groopman, Recanati Chair of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and New York Times bestselling author of How Doctors Think Dan Ariely was an undergraduate at Tel Aviv University and received a Ph.D. and M.A. in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in business from Duke University. He is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT Sloan School of Management. He also holds an appointment at the MIT Media Lab where he is the head of the eRationality research group. Currently, Ariely is serving as a Visiting Professor at the Duke University, Fuqua School of Business where he is teaching a course based upon his findings in Predictably Irrational. |
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March 2008
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World War II in History and Film: The Human Front This course will explore the human experience of World War II through an interdisciplinary examination of feature films, primary sources, and recent scholarly work. The focus will be the impact of war on the ordinary person, both soldier and civilian, at the battle front and on the home front. Lectures and readings will provide historical and military context for the topics covered by the 7 films. The films will be evaluated for historical accuracy and dramatization of diverse aspects of the war and its consequences. The major theaters of World War II will figure in our study. Each 2-hour class will be followed by the viewing of a film. Dr. Donald Ostrowski is Research Advisor in the Social Sciences and Lecturer on World History, Russian History, and Introduction to History through Film and Literature in the Division of Continuing Education at Harvard University. He is the author of Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304-1589; An Interlinear Collated Edition of the Rus' Primary Chronicle, which won the Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from the Early Slavic Studies Association; and nearly 100 journal articles and reviews on various topics in the field of history. He is a winner of the Petra T. Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Prize. Tuition: $175 non-members, $155 members View, then print and send registration form.
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St. Patrick's Day Concert This ensemble of North Shore musicians brings to life the legacy of Turlough O'Carolan (1670 - 1738), the blind itinerant harpist whose instrumental compositions are among the most enduring and spirited in the Celtic tradition, joining his works with other great pieces selected from three centuries of traditional music. O'Carolan Etcetera brings its audiences many of the harper's most exquisite melodies, often joining them with 17th- and 18th-century dance tunes, and with rousing pieces from Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and New England. Their program of music transports listeners to another time and place. The group includes Herb Smooth (octave fiddle, concertina, and vocals), Trish DeCaprio (fiddle and vocals), Cindy McIntire (flute and tin whistle), and Richard Luecke (acoustic/ classical guitar and banjo). See www.ocarolanetcetera.com for more information and Quicktime sound samples. Tickets $15, $10 for Athenĉum members. |
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Shakespeare Lecture For 30 years, the British-born Packer has been the artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, which she founded, in Lenox, Massachusetts. One of the country's foremost experts on Shakespeare and theatre arts, she has been the recipient of more than 18 awards, honors, and fellowships, including the Eliot Norton Award for Continued Excellence in Theatre. She has also received Guggenheim and Bunting Fellowships for her own performance piece exploring Shakespeare's women, entitled "Women of Will: Parts, I,II, and II. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Packer was an Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed in over 20 productions for the BBC and ITV television. Since founding Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, she has directed over 50 plays and performed in several of them. Packer's 2000 book, Shakespeare's Lessons in Leadership and Management, has been repeatedly adopted by businessmen leading seminars on these subjects. She has also published a collection of Shakespeare for children, entitled Tales from Shakespeare Retold by Tina Packer. A dynamo of a human being and a captivating speaker, Packer will lecture on the challenges facing directors and actors who wish to bring Shakespeare productions to the stage. Tickets are $15, $10 for members, $5 for students. |
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Annual Egg Hunt
Saturday, March 22, 11:00 AM Please join us for an Athenĉum family tradition. Members and friends are invited to enjoy refreshments while children hunt for sweet treasures in the garden. All ages welcome. Older children may enjoy assisting the bunny in hiding his eggs.
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| Last updated: 1 Apr 2008 | ||||
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The Salem Athenĉum
337 Essex Street, Salem MA 01970
tel 978-744-2540 | fax 978-744-7536
info@salemathenaeum.net
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