Books, celebrations and a poet laureate: the Friends plan a busy fall

Lecture: Remembering our past, envisioning our future: Memorial Library at 50

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Memorial Library, director Ken Frazier will present an illustrated history of how UW-Madison finally came to build its own twentieth-century research library at the corner of State and Lake. Fifty years, two additions, and 3 million volumes later, the university libraries are developing a renewed vision of what it means to be a great research library in a new era.

Exhibit: Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Wisconsin's largest library

September 8-November 1
Memorial Library Lobby

University Archives will present an exhibit of images documenting the opening of Memorial Library. After a lengthy construction process with several setbacks, including a partial collapse of steel girders in early 1951, Memorial Library finally opened Sept. 17, 1953. Library patrons found a work in progress: many light fixtures were not in place, and the system of pneumatic tubes and conveyor belts to move books was not installed. Memorial Library’s opening ended a long and painful process of seeking a separate building large enough to hold the main University library collections. Finally, the University would not have to “run an 80-cow farm with a 20-stall barn,” in the words of President E. B. Fred. At its opening, the building housed approximately 600,000 volumes with a capacity of 1.5 million.

Exhibit: Notes from the Stone-Paved Path: Meditations on North India

This exhibit, pairing photographs with books, is the result of a year that photographer Lewis Koch lived and worked in a Tibetan community near Dharamsala in north India. As Koch notes, "Each impression, each image, each page of text is, by definition, a highly edited subjective view of a real place or idea... Both quote from a larger context." The exhibit is in conjunction with the 32nd Annual Conference on South Asia, October 24–26, 2003. For more information, visit: http://www.wisc.edu/southasia

Book Party for A Literary Feast: Recipes and Writings by American Women Authors from History

Celebrate the launching of A Literary Feast, a cookbook compiled by a group of members from the Friends, that uses literary excerpts to describe menus and meal preparation in addition to recipes. The cookbook highlights fiction and nonfiction pieces from books such as Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s The American Woman’s Home. The recipes were selected from the William B. Cairns Collection of American Women Writers held in Special Collections. Other recipes were selected from the historical cookbook collection at Steenbock Library, the Wisconsin Historical Society and family collections.

Felix: a Series of New Writing

This event will bring together editors and contributors from the Milwaukee poetry journal Traverse and the Chicago journals Conundrum and Antennae, who will read their work and participate in a discussion about little magazines. The program will also highlight the vast Little Magazines (Sukov) Collection housed in the Department of Special Collections.

This is the first in a series of events named for Felix Pollak (1909-1987), a poet and former curator of the Department of Special Collections, who played an important role in the creation of the library’s collection of Little Magazines. This program is being organized by Barry Osborne and David Pavelich.

Poetry Reading

Billy Collins, United States Poet Laureate
Wednesday, October 22, 7 p.m.
Memorial Union Auditorium

Billy Collins, the nation’s poet laureate, will present a poetry reading, followed by audience questions and a book signing. In June 2001, Collins was named the United States Poet Laureate 2001-'03. He is the author of seven poetry collections, three of which have broken sales records for poetry. His work has been published in The New Yorker, The American Scholar, and Paris Review. Collins is a Guggenheim Fellow and a professor of English. According to The New York Times, Collins is “a charming public reader, who can pack auditoriums.”

This event is being hosted by UW–Madison Libraries and the Friends, and supported by gifts from private donors.

largest used book sale in wisconsin

October 22 - 25
Room 116, Memorial Library

Books for the sale are donated primarily by faculty, staff, students and Madison-area residents. Among the subjects covered by the books available: American studies, fiction, foreign languages, cooking, physical and biological sciences, computer science, government, political science, law, education, fine arts, self-help, reference, business, social sciences, religion, philosophy, women's studies, and history. Money from the sales helps fund an annual lecture series, special purchases for the library collections, and a visiting scholar support program.

All sales are open to the public. For more information on donating materials to sell, visit the Friends' book sales page.

Book sale hours:

Preview Sale ($5 entry)
Wednesday, Oct, 22, 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. (No entry fee)

Regular Sale
Thursday, Oct. 23, 10:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 24, 10:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.

$2-a-Bag Sale (Bring Your Own Bag)
Saturday, Oct. 25, 10:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

All sales are held in 116 Memorial Library.

Musings about Libraries and Life

Michael Cart, former director, Beverly Hills Public Library
Thursday, November 13 - 4:30 p.m.
Special Collections, 976 Memorial Library
Reception to follow

Author, editor, columnist, and former library director Michael Cart, will speak about the imperative importance of libraries and librarians to life and civilization. His context will be his recently published anthology In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians that includes stories by leading writers of the 20th century including John Cheever, Jorge Luis Borges, Alice Munro, and others. Their sometimes iconoclastic, often affectionate, and occasionally stereotypical views of libraries and librarians offer opportunity for thoughtful discussion and occasional alarm.

Highlights in the History of the UW-Madison Libraries

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