Literature
Frank Kermode (1986-1987)
Jan 20, 1987
“Are We Moderns or Post-Moderns? The Present State of the Arts” Frank Kermode was an eminent literary critic and King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge. At the time of his talk, he had written and edited 25 books of literary criticism, including books [...]
Richard Selzer (1984-1985)
Feb 11, 1985
“The Exact Location of the Soul” Richard Selzer was a surgeon-turned-writer. He was a professor of surgery at Yale University, an award-winning essayist, and the author of four books including Mortal Lessons, a book of essays on the art of surgery. In 1960, following a [...]
Ivan Illich (1983-1984)
Feb 28, 1984
“Newspeak and Computer Language” Ivan Illich was a theologian, philosopher, historian, and sociologist. Forced to leave Austria during the Second World War because of his mother’s Jewish ancestry, his family moved to Italy, where he completed school and earned a PhD in [...]
John Meisel (1983-1984)
Oct 19, 1983
“Newspeak in the Information Society” John Meisel was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University and a well-known researcher of political behaviour in Canada. From 1949 to 1979, he taught at Queen’s. Throughout his career, he studied [...]
Julian Symons (1983-1984)
Oct 18, 1983
“Freedom and Order in 1984” Julian Symons was a British crime fiction writer and poet. He founded the poetry magazine Twentieth Century Verse in 1937 and edited it for two years before turning his attention to crime novels. During his lifetime, Symons published more than 70 [...]
Han Suyin (1980-1981)
Oct 06, 1980
“The Chinese Perception of the World Today” and “Writers and Writing in China Today” Han Suyin was a well-known author and authority on Chinese literature. Her 15 works of fiction, autobiography, history and cultural analysis include A Many-Splendored Thing (1952), which [...]
Elizabeth Hardwick (1974-1975)
Jan 14, 1975
“Fame, Romance, and Money -Thoughts on Women Writers” Elizabeth Hardwick was a novelist, essayist, and outstanding literary critic and editor. Born in Kentucky in 1917, she studied at the University of Kentucky and Columbia University. She taught at Barnard College, [...]
Norman Jeffares (1967-1968)
Feb 26, 1968
“Students and Society – Some Literary Views” Norman Jeffares was one of the twentieth century’s most distinguished scholars of the poet W. B. Yeats. After Yeats’ death, Jeffares was given access to his personal papers and library, which enabled him to study the author’s [...]
Pierre Emmanuel (1960-1961)
Jan 30, 1961
“A Creative Way to Freedom” Pierre Emmanuel was a French poet, critic, and journalist. Pierre Emmanuel name was a pseudonym and his real name was Noël Mathieu. He was a professor of mathematics until 1943, when he joined the French resistance movement to the Nazi occupation [...]
C. Day Lewis (1953-1954)
Jan 30, 1954
“Notable Images of Virtue” Cecil Day Lewis was professor of poetry at the University of Oxford, a position he held from 1951 to 1956. He authored several studies of poetry as well as two books of poems including Country Comets (1928) and Overtures to Death (1938). He also [...]