THE BIG READ
The Merc Celebrates Washington Square with a Big Read
The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction is proud to announce that we have received our second Big Read grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In April 2009 we will sponsor a slew of events focused on Henry James’ classic novel Washington Square.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. To date, the NEA has funded more than 500 Big Read programs nationwide, including one at the Merc this past April.
Our first Big Read centered on Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled detective story The Maltese Falcon. In our month of programming
we reached thousands of people in the New York metropolitan area. Highlights from our 2008 Big Read include our reading group
with Lee Child, a screening of John Huston’s film at The Campbell Apartment, and a live radio recording of one of Dashiell Hammett’s
short stories.
Our Washington Square Big Read promises to be just as successful and entertaining as our Maltese Falcon Big Read. The story of Washington Square focuses on heiress Catherine Sloper, whose domineering father thwarts her attempts at love and happiness with cad-about-town, Morris Townsend. Critic Donald Hall proclaimed “everybody likes Washington Square, even the denigrators of Henry James.”
Through such events as reading groups, lectures, walking tours, performances of The Heiress, and screenings of movies based on the works of Henry James, the Merc hopes to build a new audience for this emotionally subtle, yet universal novel.
The Merc is in the early planning stages for our 2009 Big Read, but we’ve already begun forging partnerships with various organizations in the Washington Square area, including the
Washington Square Association, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and the Merchant’s House Museum. Luckily, we’ve been able to enlist the help of our own Jamesian,
Jim Kraft, who has led our groups on Henry James for years. In preparation for the spring’s festivities, Jim will coordinate this Big Read for us and lead a reading group, starting this fall, on
the literature and friendship of Edith Wharton and Henry James. He will also bring his expertise on James and Washington Square to a number of Big Read programs in April 2009.
The Library is especially keen to do a Big Read for Washington Square as we transition to a new home downtown. We’ll be sending out more information as spring approaches and be sure to
check our website for updates. And please pick up a copy of Washington Square.
For more information call (212) 755-6710 or email info@mercantilelibrary.org
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. The program is designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and bring the transformative power of literature into the lives of its citizens. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment.
For more information on The Big Read, click here: www.neabigread.org
