CALENDAR OF EVENTSSt. John’s College
August September October November 2010
Lectures
Theatre
Concerts
Classes
Seminars
Art Exhibitions
calendarLectures
Friday night lectures are held in the Francis
Scott Key Auditorium at 8:15 p.m.
August 27 “The Beginning of the Beginning:
Reflections on Cartesian Method,” by Pamela
Kraus, dean of St. John’s College, Annapolis
September 3 “Does Beauty Have a Place in
Liberal Education?” by Dan Harrell, St. John’s
tutor
September 10 “Some Reflections on the
Phenomenon of the Beautiful,” by Jim Carey,
St. John’s tutor
September 17 “On Reading the U.S.
Constitution as a Great Book,” by William
Braithwaite, St. John’s tutor
September 24 “Dialectic, Virtue and
Recollection in Plato’s Meno,” by Larry Berns,
St. John’s tutor emeritus
October 1 “Hearing the Irrational: Music and
the Development of the Modern Concept of
Number,” by Peter Pesic, St. John’s tutor
October 15 “Tears of the Hero, Gilgamesh
and Aeneas: Experiences with Translation,” by
David Ferry, Sophie Chantal Hart Professor
Emeritus of English at Wellesley College
October 22 Topic to be announced, by
Richard McComb, St. John’s tutor
November 12 “The Tocquevillean Moment,”
by Wilfred McClay, SunTrust Chair of
Humanities, University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga
Concerts
These concerts will be held in the Francis Scott
Key Auditorium at 8:15 p.m.
October 29 St. John’s College Concert Series
presents acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt, who
will perform Franz Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B
minor and music of Schumann, Mompou, and
Chopin. In addition to his international
concerts, Pratt has performed at the White
House and on national television and radio
programs.
November 19 St. John’s College Concert
Series presents “The Happy Journey: An
American Music Celebration,” performed by
the Western Wind, a vocal sextet devoted to a
wide range of a capella music. The sextet will
perform early American folk music, spirituals,
new American music, pop and jazz.
All events are held at
St. John’s College
60 College Avenue
Annapolis, Maryland
All events are free and
open to the public unless
otherwise noted.
MEEt thE AuthOr:
DAN OkrENt
During his 40-year career, Daniel Okrent
founded the award-winning New England
Monthly and was chief editor of the
monthly Life. He was an editor at Knopf,
Viking, and Harcourt. He was also the
first public editor of the New York Times.
Okrent has appeared on television, in
documentaries, and even in a speaking
role in a Woody Allen film, Sweet and
Lowdown. Okrent will talk about his new
book on Prohibition, Last Call, at the
Caritas Society’s “Meet the Authors.”
Q: Novelist Kevin Baker in Publishers
Weekly describes you as “one of our
most interesting and eclectic writers of
nonfiction over the past 25 years.” Do
you agree? Why?
DO: It would be awfully vain of me to
endorse Baker’s comment, but I’m certainly flattered by it. One of
the blessings of writing books is being able to write about
whatever interests me, and I guess my tastes are fairly eclectic—
or, some might say, eccentric!
Q: Any especially remarkable epiphanies while researching Last
Call? What surprised you about this period in American history?
DO: What was most surprising—out of hundreds of surprises—
was coming to understand the breadth of the coalition that
supported passage of the 18th Amendment. It stretched from the
Ku Klux Klan (which was motivated by its intense xenophobia) to
the Industrial Workers of the World (who believed alcohol to be
a tool used by capitalists to suppress the working classes), and
attracted the women’s
suffrage movement, the
Progressive Party, and
many other reform
groups along the way.
Q: Any memorable
individuals you met
during the course of your
research?
DO: Three in particular:
Wayne B. Wheeler, the
political genius who
engineered the
enactment of the 18th
Amendment; Mabel
Walker Willebrandt, undoubtedly the
most powerful woman in the country
during her eight years as assistant
attorney general in charge of
Prohibition enforcement; and Pauline
Morton Sabin, an heiress, socialite, and
Republican Party dignitary whose
vocal, visible, and ardent support for
Repeal made the entire Repeal cause
respectable.
Q: Were you compelled at any point
to make Last Call a work of fiction?
DO: Not for a second. Fiction could
never be as bizarre as the true story
of Prohibition! If I had a character in a
novel buying a prescription for
“medicinal alcohol” for $3 from his
physician, taking it to the pharmacy
and for another $3 purchasing a pint
of brand name whiskey, I don’t think
you’d believe me. Yet millions of
Americans did exactly that throughout the 14 years of
Prohibition.
Q: Is the world of printed books and magazines approaching
extinction, to be replaced by electronic readers? Will this change
the way authors write and readers read?
DO: I think it is—though not by the e-readers that we use today,
which resemble what’s coming in the next decade about as much
as a chisel and stone tablet resemble a modern printing press.
But the economic argument is overwhelmingly stacked against
print: if you believe even remotely in the efficiency of markets,
eliminating the physical costs of manufacturing and distribution is
just too strong a force to resist. But what won’t disappear are the
words, sentences, paragraphs, thoughts, ideas, and arguments that
are the substance of printed communications. Physical books will
remain for those who treasure them, but they’ll be
correspondingly expensive. I think it’ll be similar to taste in boats:
if you have enough money, you’ll always be able to buy a wooden
sloop—but if you want to get from one place to another, you’ll
get a motor.
Q: What’s on your summer reading list?
DO: Among many other books, believe it or not, The Brothers
Karamazov, which I’ve never read. Now, if I had only gone to
St. John’s....
The Caritas Society presents “Meet the Authors.” November 14, Francis
Scott Key Auditorium, 4 p.m. See “Special Events” for details.
ph
oto
by
ma
rt
ha
st
ew
art
NEW ANNAPOLiS DEAN
PAMELA krAuS WELCOMES thE
COMMuNity tO CAMPuS
when she taught philosophy at catholic University in the
1980s, pamela Kraus occasionally attended Friday night lectures
at st. John’s. she didn’t imagine then that two decades later she
would be chosen by her colleagues to be dean. as dean
ms. Kraus delivers the opening lecture for the academic year
and selects the slate of Friday night lecturers.
ms. Kraus, who became a tutor at st. John’s in 1985, is the
second woman to serve as dean of the college. “pamela will be
an outstanding dean. one of the advantages this college enjoys
is the opportunity to appoint a dean from within the college
who knows the college best. i have had the good fortune of
teaching with her when i was a rookie president many years
ago, and i have continued to learn from her since,” says
president christopher Nelson.
as dean ms. Kraus warmly welcomes the greater
annapolis community on campus. “i’ve met people who,
when they see the undergraduate reading list, tell me they
wish they had attended st. John’s,” says Kraus. “here
community members can read and discuss great works of
philosophy, literature, history, and science through saturday
seminars, the continuing education & Fine arts program,
and the Graduate institute of Liberal education. i find that
there is a hunger for this kind of education. people who
are busy in both ordinary and extraordinary jobs want to
know more, read more.”
ms. Kraus is entering the first year of her five-year term as
dean. she holds doctoral degrees from the catholic
University of america.
Annapolis Dean Pamela Kraus delivers the opening lecture ofthe academic year August 27, Francis Scott Key Auditorium,8:15 p.m.
NOtED POEt SPEAkS At St. JOhN’S
author, translator and poet David Ferry will deliver the annual
steiner Lecture at st. John’s college on Friday, october 15.
he will speak on “tears of the hero, Gilgamesh and aeneas:
experiences with translation.” on wednesday, october 13,
he will also give a public reading of his poetry (time to be
announced).
David Ferry is the author of Of No Country I Know: New and
Selected Poems and Translations, winner of the 2000 rebekah
Johnson bobbitt National prize for poetry, the Library of
congress, and the academy of american poets’ Lenore
marshall poetry prize. he is the translator of Gilgamesh (1992),
The Odes of Horace (1998), The Eclogues of Virgil (1999), The
Epistles of Horace (2001), and The Georgics of Virgil (2005),
all published by Farrar, straus and Giroux. he is currently
completing a new book of poems and is translating Virgil’s
Aeneid and horace’s Satires.
Ferry’s other awards include the sixtieth Fellowship of the
academy of american poets, the teasdale prize for poetry,
the John simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the ingram
merrill award, and the william arrowsmith translation prize
from aGNi magazine. he is a Fellow of the american academy
of arts and sciences. he has received an academy award for
Literature from the american academy of arts and Letters, and
is an honorary Fellow of the academy of american poets.
he is the sophie chantal hart professor emeritus of english
at wellesley college and a Visiting Lecturer in creative writing
at boston University.
the andrew steiner Visiting scholar program was established in
1992 by family and friends to honor the memory of andrew
steiner, a class of 1963 alumnus.
The annual Steiner Lecture takes place at 8:15 p.m. October 15 inthe Francis Scott Key Auditorium. The poetry reading is also free andopen to the public; check the college website(www.stjohnscollege.edu) for details.
ph
oto
by
pa
tr
icia
Dem
pse
y
Special Event
November 14 Three celebrated authors take
the stage to discuss their works, followed by a
book signing and reception at “Meet the
Authors,” sponsored by the Caritas Society of
St. John’s College. New York Times best-selling
author Helen Simonson captures British village
life in her acclaimed novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last
Stand. Carl Hoffman, author of a daring “slum”
travel memoir, Lunatic Express, journeyed the
globe via the most perilous transportation he
could find. And Daniel Okrent, a former New
York Times editor, gives an eye-opening account
of Prohibition in his book, Last Call.
Admission is $35 at the door, $30 if purchased
by November 7. To purchase online visit
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/events/AN/
caritas_book.shtml. Proceeds benefit student
financial aid. Parking is free in the State Garage
at Calvert and St. John’s streets. There is
handicapped parking on campus. For more
information contact Lesal Kilcrease at 410-757-
2640 or [email protected].
“Meet the Authors” will be held in the Francis
Scott Key Auditorium, at 4 p.m.
Caritas Society Events
Founded in 1969, Caritas Society volunteers
raise funds to assist St. John’s undergraduates
who encounter unanticipated financial hardship.
The organization also holds fundraisers, special
events and luncheon programs at the college
for members and their guests. For membership
information (annual membership:
$30; life membership: $250) contact
Joan Arnold at 443-223-8411.
For reservations to Caritas
fundraisers and other special
events, make checks payable to
Caritas Society, P.O. Box 2800,
Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Phone
reservations, accepted until three
days prior to events, may be
phoned to Shirley St. Martin at
419-571-9711.
September 23 Membership Tea. Prospective
members are cordially invited to the home of
St. John’s College President Christopher Nelson
from 3-5 p.m. Member reservations are strongly
suggested. To request invitations for guests,
contact Joan Arnold at 443-223-8411 before
September 15.
October 21 Luncheon. David Fogle, professor
emeritus, University of Maryland School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation, will
speak on the restoration of the ancestral home
of the Lords Baltimore in North Yorkshire,
England. Members and their guests are
welcome. Francis Scott Key Auditorium lobby at
11:30 a.m. Cost: $20.
November 14 “Meet the Authors.” (See listing
under Special Event for more information).
Seminars and Fine Arts
Workshops
September 11 Fall Continuing Education &
Fine Arts classes begin. For more information
on CEFA’s new weekend programs, and
semester-long seminars and fine arts
workshops, contact Molly Burnett at 410-626-
2881 or [email protected]. Classes are
open to individuals 18 or older. Fee.
September 15 Executive Seminars begin.
“Love and Friendship” is the theme of this
year’s Executive Seminar program, which begins
in Annapolis on September 15 and September
28. Other sessions are held in Washington,
Baltimore, and Easton. Please visit
www.stjohnscollege.edu (under Outreach/
Annapolis Executive Seminars) for information
On Campus:
Conversation
Courtyard and
Gardens
“St. John’s students love to
sit outside and converse
about their classes,” says
Jeff Black, St. John’s tutor
and chair of the Campus
Planning Committee. The
setting for these outdoor
talks will be a newly
renovated conversation
courtyard and garden on
the quad between
McDowell and Humphries
halls. This summer the
familiar quad is being
refreshed with repaired
stone benches, landscaping,
and a grove of honey
locust trees. The project,
designed by Nelson Byrd
Woltz Landscape
Architects of
Charlottesville, Va., is part
of the college’s long-term,
comprehensive master
plan.
author helen simonson
ph
oto
© N
iNa
sU
biN
and registration or contact
[email protected] or call 410-295-5544.
Mitchell Gallery
Unless otherwise noted all exhibits and events
take place in the Mitchell Gallery. For more
information, hours, docent tours, and event
registration, contact the Mitchell Gallery at
410-626-2556. Thanks to the support of
members, gallery programs are free and open
to the public.
“the Art of Still Life: Works from
the Baltimore Museum of Art”
August 25-October 10
September 8 Still Life Drawing Workshop.
Artist Mary Arthur will lead a still life drawing
workshop with powderless conté crayon and
heavy drawing paper amidst the “Still Life”
exhibition on view, from 7 to 9 p.m. Mitchell
Gallery membership required. Please call
410-626-2556 to register.
September 12 Opening Reception & Family
Program. Art Educator Lucinda Edinberg will
lead a tour of the “Still Life” exhibition followed
by a hands-on workshop, at 3:30 p.m.
September 15 Art Express. Art Educator
Lucinda Edinberg will give a lunchtime gallery
talk on the “Still Life” exhibition, from 12:15 to
12:45 p.m. Juice and sodas provided.
September 22 Seminar. Artist Ebby Malmgren
and St. John’s tutor Elliott Zuckerman will lead
an exhibit-related seminar, “Can a Still Life be a
Major Painting?” at 7 p.m. Space is limited and
registration is required. Please call 410-626-
2556 to register.
This exhibit is organized and circulated by
The Baltimore Museum of Art.
thE GrEAt GhOSt OF
St. JOhN’S CAMPuS
Considering that St. John’s has been, in its past, the site of both a
Revolutionary War camp and a Civil War hospital, it should
come as no surprise that as early as the 1950s students and
workers have reported seeing phantoms—and that most of the
ghosts are soldiers.
Are there still Civil War soldiers at St. John’s? Some would say
“yes”—in spirit. Humphrey’s Hall has long been reported to have
its share of the former Civil War soldiers who were held there
when it was a hospital, and nearly every freshman class is treated
to stories of former hall residents who have held séances in
order to tell the ghosts to be quiet so they can study. In the
1980s, lore has it that a student watched a Civil War cadet march
through her room on on the second floor of Pinkney Hall.
Even College Creek has its own ghosts: two lovers, one a St.
John’s College professor’s daughter and the other a Native
American student, are said to have thrown themselves into the icy
waters of the creek when the girl’s father forbade them to see
each other. They are seen strolling along the creek to this day.
Perhaps the most famous phantom on campus is the infamous
Whistler, a ghost that’s been the personal hobgoblin of security
guards on night watch since the 1970s. Whistler is said to move
at split-second speed around campus, attempting to draw the
guards on a chase by whistling “whooo, whooo” to them. “The
whistling is not unpleasant to the ear and definitely from a
human throat,” former head of security Lt. Richard Dalrymple
told former staff member Rebecca Wilson in 1982. He was
referring to several incidents over the years. “The pitch, the
timber is perfect, not high, nor low. It’s always a single sustained
note, with no undulation.” Some had a hunch it was just a
Visit us on the Web
At www.stjohnscollege.edu,
you can find detailed
information on college
events and educational
programs, download a
walking tour of campus,
and get directions, maps,
and general college news.
Visit the Graduate Institute
page to learn more about
the college’s Master of Arts
in Liberal Arts program.
Find out which books are
on the college’s reading list.
Preview Mitchell Gallery
exhibitions. Check the
operating hours for the
Greenfield Library and the
college bookstore, both
open to the public.
St. John’s College also
makes many of its facilities
available for rent for
weddings and other
special events.
Louis Favre, Still Life with Fruit and Chinese Vase, oil on canvas,
c. 1925-1930. the cone collection, formed by Dr. claribel cone
and miss etta cone of baltimore, md. bma 1950.328
September 30 Book Club. Join Mitchell
Gallery Book Club members for a tour of
“Still Life,” followed by a discussion of
Mary Gabriel’s The Art of Acquiring: A
Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone, from
2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Registration is required.
Contact Kathy Dulisse at
410-626-2530 or [email protected].
October 3 Sunday Afternoon Tour. Art
Educator Lucinda Edinberg will lead a tour
of the “Still Life” exhibition at 3 p.m.
“Of Water, Fields, and Bricks:
the Photography of A. Aubrey
Bodine” October 22-December 16
October 24 Opening Reception & Family
Program. Art Educator Lucinda Edinberg will
lead a tour of the “Water, Fields, and Bricks”
exhibition, followed by a hands-on workshop,
from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
November 10 Gallery Talk. Jennifer Bodine,
curator of the “Water, Fields, and Bricks”
exhibition, will give a slide lecture at 7 p.m.
November 14 Sunday Afternoon Tour. Art
Educator Lucinda Edinberg will lead a tour of
the “Water, Fields, and Bricks” exhibition at
3 p.m.
Maryland history Lecture
Series
These lectures, sponsored by the Friends of St.
John’s College and the Anne Arundel County
Trust for Historic Preservation,
will be held in March, April, and
May 2011. For more information,
contact Anne Zolkower at
Get St. John’s News and
Event Announcements
by E-mail
Would you prefer to get the St. John’s Calendar of Events by e-mail? Send a note withyour e-mail address to:[email protected] will be removed from themailing list for the print calendarand will instead receive thecalendar by e-mail.
the calendar of events
is published by the
communications office during
the academic year.
all events are held
at st. John’s college
60 college avenue
annapolis, maryland.
For more information call
the communications office
at 410-626-2539.
patricia Dempsey, editor
Jennifer behrens
art director
st. John’s college does not discriminate
in appointments, conditions of
employment, admissions, educational
policy, financial aid programs, athletics,
or other activities on the basis of race,
religion, age, sex, national origin, color,
disability and/or handicap, sexual
orientation, or other characteristics
protected by any applicable federal,
state or local law.
student playing a prank, Dalrymple said, “but when the college
wasn’t in session and we heard Whistler it got a little eerie.”
Many college staff are skeptical, but stories of the Whistler
continue to be told. One of the better known incidents was
reported in 1982 to Ms. Wilson by former security guard James
Bassford. Bassford told her how some years earlier he and
former security head Walter Rausch spent an evening looking
for the source of the sound. “The whistle came up from the
gym, as if it were beckoning us,” Bassford told Wilson. Halfway
to the gym the sound stopped, but 10 minutes after returning to
the quad it started up again; no one was ever found and they
suggested that someone might have been whistling through a
gym window.
There have been attempts to capture the ghost, including efforts
to cordon off areas on campus, but like the Civil War soldiers,
Whistler roams free.
–Babak Zarin (class of 2011)
ph
oto
by
th
e w
his
tLer
a. aubrey bodine, Pratt Street Dock, 1925.
P.O. Box 2800Annapolis, Maryland 21404
New Weekend Workshops for Continuing Education & Fine Arts Programs
Semester-long classes begin September 11
This fall St. John’s Continuing Education & Fine Arts Program participants can spend Saturday and Sunday in tutor-led seminars
and discuss classic works such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the poetry of Keats, Aeschylus’ Oresteia, and readings by
St. Augustine on free will. Participants can also immerse themselves in a two-day fine arts workshop on painting interiors. Taking
inspiration from the elegant 18th-century rooms at St. John’s,
participants will discover the importance of perspective, interior
lighting, and atmosphere. Each artist will create value studies to
clearly define and complete an interior painting in oil or watercolor.
The fine arts offerings also include creative writing, life drawing, clay
sculpture, and pottery.
Weekend courses meet three times over the course of one weekend:
from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m.
to noon on Sunday, followed by lunch. For more information contact
Molly Burnett at 410-626-2881 or [email protected], or visit
www.stjohnscollege.edu (click on Outreach, then Annapolis
Continuing Education). Longer classes and workshops are also
offered. Classes are open to individuals 18 and older. Fee.
Top Related