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 lkilcrease@cbmove.com.

“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 molly.burnett@sjca.edu. 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

alice.chambers@sjca.edu 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 kathy.dulisse@sjca.edu.

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

anne.zolkower@sjca.edu.

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:calendar@stjohnscollege.edu.You 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

patricia.dempsey@sjca.edu

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 molly.burnett@sjca.edu, 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.