|
Beryl Markham’s West with the Night selected as
One Book One Union finalist
LINCOLN—Beryl Markham’s West with the
Night has been selected as the finalist for One Book One Union, the
college’s campus-wide reading program. Sponsored for the second year by
Union’s Ella Johnson Crandall Memorial Library, library staff read and
reviewed more than 50 books recommended by faculty and staff before selecting
Markham’s book.
Told in her own words, West with the Night tells the story of a
young British woman raised in colonial East Africa. The
book has been described as an adventure story, a portrait of the
African landscape painted in words, and a first-hand account of British
life in colonial East Africa before World War II. An unconventional woman
who was both a horse trainer and a pilot, Beryl Markham appears equally
comfortable in the rustic environment of the African natives as well as
hobnobbing with the elite of colonial society. At the same time she is a
free spirit who lives life entirely on her own terms.
Ernest Hemmingway described her writing this way:
“As it is she has written so well, and
marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt
that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on
the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pigpen. But she
can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers.”
The library staff challenged faculty,
staff and students on campus to finish reading the book by the beginning of
the spring semester to participate in discussion groups and special events
that are now taking place. See a schedule of events below, or visit the
library events page on Union’s Web site for updates on One Book One Union
events.
Copies of West with the Night are available on reserve at the Union
College Library. The book may also be borrowed from Lincoln City Public
Libraries.
Last year’s One Book One Union featured
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul
Gawande.
2006 One Book One Union Events
All events held in the Union College Library classroom #121
| Jan. 18 |
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. |
“West with the Night as Literature.”
Book discussion led by Mike Mennard |
Jan. 25
Jan. 26 |
12-1 p.m..; 4-5 p.m.
12:30-1:30 p.m.; 4-5 p.m. |
World Without Walls: Beryl Markham’s
African Memoir (Video) |
| Feb. 1 |
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. |
“West with the Night: a Pilot’s
Perspective.” Book Discussion led by Rich Carlson |
| Feb. 23 |
10:30 a.m. |
“African Wildlife, Poaching and Tourism,” a
presentation by Stephanie Arne,
Henry Doorly Zoo (open to community members) |
|
