MEDIA RELEASES
ContactJessica Mackinnon
jmack@dom.edu
(708) 524-6289
Graduate Library School Presents McCusker Lecture
Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science will present author and bibliophile Nicholas A. Basbanes who will deliver the annual McCusker Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, October 13 at 6:00 p.m.. Basbanes, author of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, will discuss the culture of books and the people who collect and revere them. The lecture will be held in the Eloise Martin Recital Hall, 7900 W. Division Street, River Forest, and will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.
A finalist for the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books (Henry Holt) is in its eighth edition with more than 80,000 copies in print. A companion volume, Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture (Harper Collins) was released in 2001 and prompted Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and historian David McCullough to refer to Basbanes as our country’s “leading authority of books about books.”& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>
Basbane’s third book, Among the Gently Mad: Perspectives and Strategies for the Book-Hunter of the 21 st Century, was issued in 2002 by Henry Holt. His most recent book, A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World, was released last year by Harper Collins.
From book to book, Basbanes continues the richly anecdotal exploration of book people, places and the books they love. Many Chicagoans are featured prominently in his books, including restaurateur and philanthropist Louis I. Szathmary, fondly referred to as “Chef Louis,” who amassed an enormous collection of rare cookbooks spanning five centuries of culinary art.
Basbanes was the literary editor of the Worcester Sunday Telegram from 1978 to 1991, and for eight years after that he wrote a nationally syndicated column on books and authors. He has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, and New England Quarterly. He writes, with his wife, Constance Basbanes, a monthly review of children’s books for Literary Features Syndicate, which they established in 1993.
Basbanes is currently working on Every Book Its Reader, which includes interviews with prominent people about the books that they found most influential in their lives.
For more information about the McCusker Memorial Lecture, call (708) 524-6845.
“As a student I wanted an intimate community. As an aspiring journalist I wanted a big city. Dominican gave me both—and so much more.”
Tracy Samantha
Schmidt
2005
TIME Magazine
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