Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

• :: Texas Book Festival Panel
• :: Audio About Miller Exhibition
• :: The Rude Mechanicals
• :: Insider's Perspective 

 

Playwrights Tony Kushner and Steven Dietz discuss legacy of Arthur Miller

In conjunction with the exhibition Rehearsing the American Dream: Arthur Miller’s Theater, Tony Kushner and Steven Dietz discussed Miller’s continuing influence as an artist, activist, and intellectual. VIEW PHOTOS and learn more about the event.

Ransom Center holds archive of newest Nobel Laureate

The Ransom Center holds the archive of Doris Lessing, the recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. Acquired in 1999, Lessing's archive includes typescripts, manuscripts, and galley proofs for several of her major works. Items from Lessing’s archive are on view at the Center through November 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. LEARN MORE.

The Ransom Center and the Texas Book Festival present a panel on the anthology Literary Austin to kick off this year’s festival. Editor Don Graham states in his introduction to the book that “just about everybody’s Austin appears in these pages.” LISTEN to the contributors describe “their” Austin and what about Austin inspires literary creativity.

T. H. White classic to be reissued

The New York Review of Books is reissuing T. H. White's classic The Goshawk, White's account of training a wild hawk and the relationship that develops between the two. The Ransom Center holds a significant portion of White's archive. VIEW PHOTOS and learn more about the White archive.

Ransom Center now accepting fellowship applications

The Ransom Center announces its 2008-2009 research fellowship program, which awards approximately 50 fellowships annually to support scholarly research projects in all areas of the humanities. The application deadline is February 1, 2008. LEARN about the application process.

Through December 30

Dress Up: Portrait and Performance in Victorian Photography

Dress Up explores Victorian culture through the period’s fascination with the then new medium of photography. The Victorians embraced the blending of fiction with fact, so portrait and genre photographs of the period often reveal vivid artifice and unconcealed theatricality. The 150 works in this exhibition are drawn exclusively from the Harry Ransom Center’s photography collections.  VIEW a slideshow and listen to Curator David Coleman and University of Texas at Austin English Professor Elizabeth Richmond-Garza discuss Victorian culture on KUT’s Aielli Unleashed.

Rehearsing the American Dream: Arthur Miller’s Theater

As the first exhibition organized from Arthur Miller’s entire archive, Rehearsing the American Dream: Arthur Miller’s Theater offers insights on the author of such plays as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. The exhibition demonstrates Miller’s active engagement with his era and examines his work as an activist and intellectual, his plays in performance, and his legacy. LISTEN to Curator Charlotte Canning discuss the exhibition and some of her favorite items in it. 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 7 P.M.
JESSEN AUDITORIUM, HOMER RAINEY HALL
PANEL The Ransom Center and the Texas Book Festival present a panel on the anthology Literary Austin to kick off the festival. Panelists, including moderator Stephen Harrigan, Robert Draper, Literary Austin editor Don Graham, Bill Minutaglio, Karen Olsson, John Spong, and Marion Winick, discuss writing and their contributions to the anthology. LEARN MORE.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, NOON
HOUSE CHAMBER, TEXAS STATE CAPITOL
READING Carl Bernstein, whose Watergate papers are at the Ransom Center, reads from and discusses his latest book A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. A book signing follows. Co-sponsored by the Texas Book Festival.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 7 P.M.
LECTURE Jennifer Green-Lewis, Associate Professor of English at George Washington University, presents “Performing Identity: The Strange Theater of Victorian Portrait Photography.”

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, NOON
READING Poetry on the Plaza: Sub/Versive. VIEW the full Poetry on the Plaza schedule.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 7 P.M.
READING Celebrated poets Dara Wier and James Tate, whose archives are housed at the Ransom Center, read poems, new and old. This program is part of the Ransom Center’s Signatures Series, designed to focus attention on recent archival acquisitions.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 7 P.M.
LECTURE Hermione Lee, biographer and Professor of English at New College, Oxford, discusses her recent biography of Edith Wharton. Co-sponsored by British Studies.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 7 P.M.
LECTURE For the 2007 Stanley Burnshaw Lecture, Christopher Ricks, Professor of Humanities and Co-Director of the Editorial Institute at Boston University, presents “Shakespearean Jealousies: T. S. Eliot and Othello.” Co-sponsored by British Studies.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 8 P.M.*
OFF CENTER, 2211-A Hidalgo Street
PERFORMANCE The Rude Mechanicals’ Kirk Lynn and Professor of Theatre and Dance Charlotte Canning discuss collaboration between playwrights and directors. A performance of scenes from The Method Gun, a work in progress inspired by acting teacher Stella Adler, follows. You can reserve tickets by emailing tickets@rudemechs.com. There is a limit of 4 tickets per email.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 7 P.M.
LECTURE In “Beckett’s Library and Manuscripts,” Mark Nixon of Reading University and Dirk Van Hulle of the University of Antwerp discuss the global diaspora of Samuel Beckett manuscripts. Co-sponsored by the Department of English.

**CANCELLED**
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 3 P.M.
PERFORMANCE Claude Beauclair performs La Dernière Bande, the French version of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape.

*Tickets required

The Ransom Center in Literature

This excerpt from Collecting the Imagination: The First Fifty Years of the Ransom Center highlights the Center’s status in some literary circles. FIND OUT what novels and poems mention or refer to the Ransom Center.