04/14 - Time: Lecture from 2-3:30 p.m.; Reception and book signing to follow from 3:30-5 p.m.

Author Daniel Mendelsohn: "Finding 'The Lost'"

Daniel Mendelsohn
Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities
Bard College

will discuss his book:

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (New York: Harper Collins, 2006)

Mendelsohn's book, The Lost:  A Search for Six of Six Million, is about what has been, in many ways, his life-long search for information and understanding about the fate of six of his relatives who perished at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust.

His lecture -- "Finding 'The Lost': A Journey into the History, Family, and Judaism" -- will combine a number of themes, including his story, its personal meaning, the journey, what finding those people means to Judaism, and especially "how we tell the  story once the survivors are gone."

A reception and book signing will follow the lecture, from 3:30-5 p.m.

In The Washington Post Book World, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel called The Lost "a vast, highly colored tapestry...a remarkable personal narrative, rigorous in its search for truth, at once tender and exacting." The Lost was awarded the National Book Critics' Circle Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Salon Book Award, and the American Library Association Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Jewish Literature.  In November 2007, The Lost also received the Prix Médicis Etranger in France.

Professor Mendelsohn received his Ph.D. in classics in 1994 from Princeton, where he was Mellon Fellow in the Humanities. Thereafter, he has pursued a career as a journalist, as well as a book, film, and theater critic, with articles appearing in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, Paris Review, and many other publications. He was awarded the 2002 George Jean Nathan Prize for Drama Criticism. Mendelsohn is the author of three books, including The Lost.  A recipient of a 2005 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, he is currently Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities at Bard College.

To see a printable program flyer, click here (opens as a PDF document).

This event is part of a series of campus events that look at issues pertaining to genocide. The series, entitled "Genocide: Weeks of Remembrance and Reflection," are taking place during the month of April. To see a list of all of these events, click here.

Photo credit: Matt Mendelsohn

This event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Judaic Studies Program, in collaboration with the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the School of Communication, Information and Library Science, and the School of Health and Human Services, as well as the Honors College,  and the Departments of English, Foreign Languages, Journalism, History, Media Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Social Work, and International Programs, and supported by the Office of Faculty Development.

 

 

Admission: free

Event Website: http://www.danielmendelsohn.com/

Location: Adanti Student Center Theater

Contact Information: Professor David Pettigrew, (203) 392-6778 , pettigrewd1@southernct.edu