Author: Lee Anne Titangos
Twain aficionados celebrate
“Publication of the first of Mark Twain’s long-awaited, three-volume autobiography was celebrated with gusto Wednesday night (Nov. 17) at a campus gala marked by reverence, irreverence and fun, as well as by heart-wrenching and guffaw-producing recitals of his work.
‘The Autobiography of Mark Twain’ was published on Monday, 100 years after his death, according to his specifications and The Bancroft Library’s Mark Twain Papers and Project editing team. Although already busy with the next volume of the autobiography, most of the editors were on hand for the event, modestly accepting congratulations and talking Twain, Twain and more Twain.
At The Bancroft, a crowd of 200-plus, which included a few celebrities and famous authors, investigated displays of Twain manuscripts and handwritten musings and watched a short, black-and-white video clip of actor Val Kilmer transformed into Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens.
The group then ambled over to the nearby Heyns Reading Room to listen to readings of select Twain writings by actress Rita Moreno; authors Michael Chabon, Eric Karpeles, Mary Roach and Ayelet Waldman; UC Berkeley professor-authors Robert Hass and Maxine Hong Kingston; film editor Walter Murch; library advisory board member Bob Haas and UC Berkeley Chancellor Emeritus I. Michael Heyman. Kilmer contributed via an audio recording.” –
Twain autobiography – the way he wanted it – hits stores today
“The much anticipated first volume of autobiography of legendary American author and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known by his pen name Mark Twain, lands on bookstore shelves today (Monday, Nov. 15), 100 years after his death, courtesy of editors at the Mark Twain Papers and Project at the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.
The 743-page tome is the first of three installments of the only complete, authoritative and uncensored autobiography by the author of ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’ ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and many other tales of 19th century life on the Mississippi River, family life, frog jumping in California, politics and religion.
Before Twain died, he directed that the material not be released for a century after his passing. In the book, he shares his unfiltered and often ferocious or controversial opinions and rants about people, religion, war, politics and just about anything else that crossed his mind. The 100-year delay guaranteed that those he criticized or ridiculed would not feel the sting, nor would their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. Above all, he said, it would save him from being shunned for his controversial views: ‘I am human, and nothing could persuade me to do any bad deed –or any good one –that would bring that punishment upon me.’
‘This is new in the sense that he (Twain) gets to say exactly what he wanted, how he wanted,’ said Robert Hirst, general editor of the Mark Twain Papers. ‘And now, you get to read it.'” – Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations
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Roundtable: Attacking Municipal Inequality: The NAACP and the Integration of the Oakland Fire Department
November 18th, Faculty Club
12pm
Led by Martin Schiesl, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, California State University, Los Angeles
The final Bancroft Round Table of the Fall Semester will take place on Thursday, November 18 at noon in the Lewis-Latimer Room of the Faculty Club. Martin Schiesl, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, California State University, Los Angeles, will give a talk entitled “Attacking Municipal Inequality: The NAACP and the Integration of the Oakland Fire Department, 1950 – 1955.”
Historians have generally considered Civil Rights as an issue from 1954, with the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and focused on the South and to some extent the urban areas of the Northeast. California, which looms so large in contemporary affairs, has been relatively neglected. Professor Schiesl has worked on racial issues in the Post-World War II era. He is writing a book on the NAACP in California in the years from 1930 to 1970. His examination of Oakland’s Fire Department and the effort to integrate it will serve to illuminate much about the overall dynamics of race relations in California during these critical early years. The Civil Rights movement in California, beyond its importance to the African-American community, was ultimately one of the most important factors in producing the culture out of which the Mississippi summer and the Free Speech movement would grow.
The campus community is invited to join us at this informal noontime event and learn more about this signal moment in the history of the East Bay. We also invite everyone to walk over to the Main Library after the talk to view the current display in the Brown Gallery, “Born of Struggle: 40 Years of African American Studies at UC Berkeley,” which includes many items from the Bancroft. Bancroft Round Tables aim to bring attention to the many and varied collections of our Library.
Congresswoman Doris Matsui visits campus and its Matsui programs
“When Congressman Robert Matsui (D-California) died in 2005, a significant part of his legacy was entrusted to UC Berkeley. In 2007, the Robert T. Matsui Center on Politics and Public Service was established at the Institute of Governmental Studies(IGS), and his collection of papers was donated to The Bancroft Library.
On Oct. 29, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-California) came to the campus for a first-hand look at the Matsui program and archive.
Ethan Rarick, Matsui Center director, said the congresswoman visited the center to learn more about the program. “The mission of the center is to involve undergraduates in politics and in public policy,” said Rarick. The center offers internship programs at the local, state, and federal level and brings public figures, including elected and governmental officials, to campus.
This week, two events showcase the Center’s efforts: At 4 p.m. Nov. 1 at 109 Moses Hall, Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Field Poll, will provide an election-eve update, reporting on the latest polling numbers. Then on Nov. 2, the IGS Matsui Center election-night party begins at 5 p.m. at 109 Moses, where the campus community is invited to watch the returns on the big-screen TV. Pizza will be served and an expert panel will discuss what’s happening nationally and in California. Panelists include David Chai, former deputy press secretary for President Clinton; Jack Citrin, IGS director; and Max Neiman, IGS senior research fellow.
Rep. Matsui also visited the Bancroft Library, checking in on the efforts there to inventory the extensive collection of papers her husband has donated and the progress toward creating a searchable online catalog. The collection includes documentation of legislative efforts surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement, and papers that delve into welfare reform, base closures, and reparations for Japanese-Americans sent to World War II internment camps.” – UC Berkeley News
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A Toast to Mark Twain: Tickets now on sale
Join us on November 17, 2010 for a literary event 100 years in the making as The University Library introduces a new publication from one of America’s best loved authors, Samuel Clemens. Celebrate the momentous release of “The Autobiography of Mark Twain” with a reception benefiting the Mark Twain Project.
Tickets are now on sale for $150 (a copy of the autobiography is included). Please visit http://lib.berkeley.edu/give/marktwain/ for further information.
Berkeleyside Berkeley sunset Magnes collections get new downtown Berkeley home
“Construction on a new facility to hold the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the Bancroft Library will start in a week.
UC Berkeley held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday night for the collection, which will be housed in a building at 2121 Allston Way, near Oxford Street. UC President Mark Yudof, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, and members of the Jewish community who supported the collection’s predecessor organization, the Judah L. Magnes Museum, were at the celebration.” – Frances Dinkelspiel
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Major Jewish collection to move to UC Berkeley
“The University of California, Berkeley will soon be home to one of the world’s most extensive collections of Jewish history and culture.
University officials said Monday the 10,000-piece collection will be transferred to UC Berkeley this summer from the Judah L. Magnes Museum, which is in south Berkeley.
The collection of precious music, art, rare books and historical archives will be housed in a newly renovated building in downtown Berkeley starting this fall.
The move and renovation is being paid for by $2.5 million in donations from philanthropists Warren Hellman, Tad Taube and the Koret Foundation.
The Magnes’ Western Jewish History Archives will move into the university’s Bancroft Library.” – SF Gate
Celebrating Mexico Exhibit
September 2 – January 14, 2011
The Bancroft Rotunda Gallery
10am – 4pm, Monday through Friday
The Bancroft Library’s exhibition for Fall 2010 commemorates the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain and the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Beginning with the “Grito de Dolores,” the battle cry issued by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in 1810 and culminating with the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920, the exhibit looks at the complex history that involved Mexicans across social sectors, geographic regions, professions, and even continents. The rich collection of The Bancroft Library provides an opportunity to look at these two transforming periods in Mexican history through a selection of visual and textual documents that cast light on the diverse players involved. A parallel exhibit opens September 20th at Stanford University’s Cecil H. Green Library. Please visit their website for further details.
School groups that would like to visit the exhibition are welcome, but please be aware that The Bancroft Library has limited space. Groups in the gallery need to be limited to no more than twenty students at a time. Additionally, students need to be accompanied by at least two adults from their school. We leave it to the teachers’discretion to determine how long each group may spend in the gallery. The rest of the students should remain outside of the building to wait for their turn. We do not have any available docents or guides for the exhibition, but the labels are sufficient to identify what the students are looking at. The rich and varied items on display have proved to be fascinating to all who have seen them. Parking for buses (and cars) on the Berkeley campus is almost non-existent. Buses are permitted to drop groups off at the front of The Bancroft Library, but then must drive off campus to wait until it is time to return to pick up the passengers. Please refer to http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info/directions.html for further information.
The new PBS-TV series “Great Libraries of the World”: An episode featuring The Bancroft Library
11am on Sunday, 10/3
Station KRCB, 91FM/TV22
This documentary, on the seismic renovation of The Bancroft Library, was produced by long-time Bancroft friend and supporter Chet Grycz as one of the first programs for his series on Great Libraries of the World.
Bancroft staff cooperated closely with Chet and his production term from the time we moved out of Bancroft to Allston Way in 2005 until we moved back into the splendid new building in 2008.
Roundtable: California on the Breadlines: Dorothea Lange, Paul Taylor, and the Making of a New Deal
September 16th, Faculty Club
12pm
Led by Jan Goggans, Professor, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts at UC Merced
The First Bancroft Round Table of the Fall Semester will take place on Thursday, September 16th, at noon, in the traditional Lewis-Latimer Room of the Faculty Club. Jan Goggans, a founding faculty member of University of California Merced, will give a talk about her newly published book “California on the Breadlines: Dorothea Lange, Paul Taylor, and the Making of a New Deal Narrative.”
Dorothea Lange is of course one of America’s most famous photographers, producing iconic images of Dust Bowl migrants in the fields of California. Her husband, Paul Schuster Taylor, was a UC Berkeley professor, one of the great creative sociologists of the 20th century, and her collaborator on their great work, “An American Exodus: a Record of Human Erosion.” His papers, filled with reports on the struggles of migrant workers all over the country, are among the most heavily used collections at Bancroft. The story of their developing partnership and its impact our perceptions of the history of California and “The Golden West” is both fascinating and important.
The campus community is welcome to join us at this informal noontime event. Bancroft Round Tables aim to bring to the attention of the campus community the rich resources of our Library in many diverse fields. The Taylor and Lange materials at Bancroft are among our most important collections about the modern west.