[Libri] Amherst's Millionth and Merrill Symposium

[der Geist, der stets verneint]

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Celebrating One Million Volumes:  The Amherst College Library Reaches a
Milestone 
April 23-24, 2004 

Program of Events 

Friday, April 23, 2004

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. - All-Student Reception - Friendly Periodicals Reading
Room 
        (Music by AK junior's fantastical jazz machine)

3:45 - 4:00 p.m. - Bell Music - Stearns Steeple Carillon
        Robert Barney, Director of Music, Trinity Episcopal Church,
Concord Mass. 

4:00 p.m. - Amherst College Library - Celebrating One Million Volumes:
Ceremonies and Presentation - The Robert Frost Library.

This includes a Welcome by Willis E. Bridegam, Librarian of the College;
"Blackberries for Amelia" poem by Richard Wilbur '42 and Poet Laureate
of the US 1987-88 and Frost Library Fellow 1989  (and present at the
dedication of the Frost Library); Remarks by Frederick T. Griffiths,
Associate Dean of the Faculty and Class of 1880 Professor of Greek and
Professor of Women's and Gender Studies; description of the Millionth
Acquisitions by Willis  E. Bridegam; the Presentation of the Principal
Millionth Acquisition by Samuel B. Ellen port '65,  Chairman of the
Friends of the Amherst College Library; and Address by William H.
Pritchard '53, Henry Clay Folger Professor of English and Closing
Remarks by Frederick T. Griffiths and Willis E. Bridegam.

5:15 p.m. - Reception and exhibition in the Archives and Special
Collections.  Demonstrations of electronic resources in the Barbara and
Frederick S. Lane '36 Room, Level A of the Robert Frost Library.

Saturday, April 24, 2004

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 pomp. - "Remembering James Merrill at Amherst"  Prune
Lecture Hall, Room 115 Fayerweather Hall.  Reception and Exhibition
Following, in the Archives and Special Collections, Robert Frost
Library.

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Remembering James Merrill at Amherst

As part of its Millionth Volume festivities, the Amherst College Library
will hold a symposium honoring the memory and literary work of one of
Amherst's extraordinary alumni, the poet James I. Merrill.  Remembering
James Merrill at Amherst will take place on Saturday afternoon, April
24, 2004 from 2-4 p.m. in the  Prune Lecture Hall (Room 115) in
Fayerweather.  

Local and national writers and scholars will commemorate Merrill's life
and work.  Merrill's nephew, the poet and writer Robin Magowan, will
speak about Merrill's year teaching at Amherst, 1955-56, and his novel
The Seraglio.  Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur will recall his friendship
with Merrill and speak of Amherst College in the 1940s.  Jack Angstrom,
Merrill's bibliographer, will speak about his early publications.
Langdon Hammer, Merrill's official biographer, will provide the context
of Merrill's life at Amherst.  Writer and poet Stephen Censer, Merrill's
literary executor and editor, with a forthcoming collection of
Merrill's letters, will consider Merrill's youthful writing, especially
the poetry, prose and letters written while he was an undergraduate at
Amherst, 1943-47.  Daniel Hall, the poet who was the first Fellow to
live and write in Merrill's apartment in Stonington, Connecticut, and
who is now director of the Creative Writing Center at Amherst, will
moderate the panel discussion.  Members of the audience, especially
those who knew Merrill or know his work, are encouraged to participate
in the discussion.

The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by
a reception in the Archive and Special Collections in the Robert Frost
Library, where Merrill's books, letters, manuscripts and memorabilia and
the works of symposium participants will be on display.

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Daria D'Arienzo
Head of Archives and Special Collections
Amherst College Library
P.O. Box 5000
Amherst, MA  01002-5000

(413) 542-2299
FAX:  (413) 542-2692

ddarienzo at amherst.edu

http://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/