The Marian McFadden Lecture, 31 Years On
March 26, 2009 by Reader's Connection
I moved to Indianapolis in August of 1977, experienced my first Indianapolis blizzard in January of 1978, and attended my first (and the first) Marian McFadden Lecture a couple of months later. Saul Bellow spoke that night, and he’s still my favorite McFadden.
Yes, I’ve missed some of them, so I’m not much of an authority. But I remember Bellow’s big yellow sheets of paper fluttering at the lectern. He spoke out against all manner of isms, and in favor of “lightening.”
As he wrote elsewhere,
I occasionally encounter persons who have been “lightened.” They are by no means fault-free, redeemed from error, heroes and heroines of love, or saintly characters. They have moved away from the prevailing prejudices of the century. There are more of these “lightened” persons in real life than in books, but now and then a poem or a story may emit the welcome signal . . . We have long been locked in by respectable opinion, by the prestigious sciences, by ideologies, locked in even by those modern masterpieces that have for a few decades now become a part of us. And I am speaking of that freedom to approach the marvelous which cannot be taken from us . . .
The thirty-second Marian McFadden Lecture took place this past Friday. Nicholas Sparks was our speaker, and prior to his lecture, he granted the library’s Jon Barnes a generous interview.
The McFadden Lecturers, 1978 — 2009
2009 Nicholas Sparks
2008 Eric Carle
2007 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – delivered by Mark Vonnegut
2006 Patricia Cornwell
2005 Marc Brown
2004 John Irving
2003 Louis Sachar
2002 David McCullough
2001 Tomie dePaola
2000 Doris Kearns Goodwin
1999 Judy Blume
1998 Margaret Atwood
1997 Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith
1996 Amy Tan
1995 Gary Paulsen
1994 William Styron
1993 Chris Van Allsburg
1992 Gail Godwin
1991 Maurice Sendak
1990 John Updike
1989 David Macaulay
1988 Tom Wolfe
1987 Lloyd Alexander
1986 Kurt Vonnegut
1985 Jean Fritz
1984 James Baldwin
1983 Richard Peck
1982 Gail Sheehy
1981 Scott O’Dell
1980 Norman Mailer
1979 Elaine L. Konigsburg
1978 Saul Bellow
Category Event | Tags: Marian McFadden Lectures, Nicholas Sparks, Saul Bellow
The Hudson River Museum is currently hosting Jerry Pinkney (with Gloria) for storytelling, his illustrations, drawing demonstrations and events. I would so much like to see him come to Indianapolis for a McFadden Lecture. I don’t know all the qualifications and whether he has done enough “original” storytelling to be considered. He seems to retell folk tales in a faithful and evocative way both in words and gorgeous art, and that seems to me a very important preservation of history as the original folk tales have become “Disney-fied” and commercialized. He seems like a “roots” folk tale-teller, bringing these old tales to new generations through his own words and through illustration of folk tales re-told by others (Virginia Hamilton’s African-American folk tales come most strikingly to mind). He would be most informative and entertaining for the McFadden.