[Libri] Reading on Sept. 20

[Prof. James Wald (der Geist, der stets verneint)]

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back! I hope the semester is off to a good start for you.
Although this is a busy time of year, we think you will be interested  
in the following event, featuring an author who has several times  
appeared here under the auspices of the Center for the Book and  
Renaissance Center.

Best,
Jim Wald


Department of German, Amherst College, Presents

Peter Wortsman:

“Telegrams of the Soul”

A reading (in English & German) of short prose by
fin-de-siècle Viennese author Peter Altenberg (1859-1919)
Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005, 4:00 pm
Porter House, Amherst College
(on the Amherst Common, next to the Lord Jeffery Inn)

Free, all welcome.  Refreshments will be served.
Peter Altenberg, also known as Richard Engländer, 1859–1919, was born  
into a well-to-do Viennese Jewish family, lived in hotels and listed  
as his official address the Café Central, Vienna’s intellectual  
clubhouse (also the sometime haunt of Leon Trotsky and his chess  
partner Vladimir Ilyich Lenin). A renowned eccentric, Altenberg  
pioneered the very notion of loose-fitting leisure attire, designed a  
line of necklaces and favored sandals, walking sticks, slivovitz and  
the company of prostitutes. His literary admirers included Karl  
Kraus, Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Robert Musil and Arthur Schnitzler.



Peter Wortsman is the author of a book of short fiction, _A Modern  
Way To Die_ (Fromm Publ. Intl., NY, 1991), a stage play, "The  
Tattooed Man Tells All" (texte, Toronto, 2000), and multiple  
translations from the German, including a critically acclaimed  
edition of Robert Musil's _Posthumous Papers of a Living Author_  
(reissued by Penguin 20th Century Classics, 1995). His short work in  
multiple modes, including fiction, prose poetry, travelogue, essay  
and translation, has been widely published in reviews and anthologies  
in the U.S. and Europe. Other translations from the German include  
_Peter Schlemiel: The Man Who Sold His Shadow_, by Adelbert von  
Chamisso. He is the recipient of the Beard’s Fund Short Story Award.


The event is co-sponsored by the Department of German, the German  
Club, the European Studies Program, the Creative Writing Center, and  
the Eastman Fund, Amherst College.  For further information, contact  
(413) 542-2312.