John Irving

Dr Harvey G. Cohen will be introducing acclaimed US author John Irving this afternoon at a special seminar at King’s.

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, when he was 26. His novels include The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Widow for One Year, and his eleventh and most recent, Until I Find You and several have been made into films. He won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2000 for The Cider House Rules – a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In addition to an original screenplay, he is also writing an adaptation of his novel The Fourth Hand and has adapted his novel A Son of the Circus as a film script – with actor Jeff Bridges in the role of the missionary.

For more details see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/news_details.php?news_id=804&year=2008

Nearer, my God, to Thee

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells gave a guest seminar this week to the University of East London on the myth of the Titanic – and especially the hymn that is widely believed to have been played by the ship’s band as the liner finally sank.

Dr Howells argued that there is very little evidence that this actually happened, but went on to explain how the myth arose why people still like to believe it.

This is, of course, only one of many myths surrounding the disaster, which took place in April 1912. Many of these are explored in Dr Howells’ published research on the disaster, which still plays a prominent part in our culture almost 100 years after the event.

Duke Ellington in his own words

Dr Harvey Cohen is speaking at the international Duke Ellington 2008 conference here in London, on Friday 23 March 2008 at 4PM. The talk is entitled “Duke Ellington In His Own Words,” and features lots of rare interview recordings with Ellington from Dr Cohen’s research at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. It also serves as a mini-preview of his forthcoming book Duke Ellington’s America (Chicago, 2008).

The conference features live music from big bands and individual jazz musicians. Tickets for students to the conference and music shows are “at least 50% off” – see the website for further details.