JCB Lunch Chat by Ted Widmer and Joyce Chaplin on Oct. 14

³The JCB Meets Entertainment Weekly² Ted Widmer Director John Carter Brown
Library WEDNESDAY, October 14, 2009 12:30 p.m.

This month saw the publication of A New Literary History of America (Harvard
University Press), a vast reference book that tells the history of the
United States through nearly 300 individual acts of creation, going back to
the first use of the word America in 1507. The result has been a surprising
popular success for a book from an academic house ­ the book climbed as high
as number 82 in the Amazon rankings, and this week it is on Entertainment
Weekly¹s ³must² list. Ted Widmer served as an editor of the volume, and the
JCB is well-represented with a number of former fellows who offered
contributions on topics ranging from the earliest mapping of the New World
to Roger Williams, the Great Awakening, Benjamin Franklin and Alexis de
Tocqueville. Join Ted and Joyce Chaplin from Harvard University as they
discuss their entries and the challenge of writing about complicated
historical figures in an abbreviated entry form.

Chancellor¹s Dining Room, Sharpe Refectory This lecture will follow our
weekly JCB Fellows luncheon, held every Wednesday of the calendar year,
summer and winter, without interruption. Lunch begins at 12 noon, the chat
at 12:30 p.m. (Buy lunch for $10 or bring your own.) Call 401-863-2725 for
more information or email: JCBL_Information@Brown.edu
<mailto:%20JCBL_Information@Brown.edu>