Humanities Programming for The Mount 2022

FAIN: ZPP-283402-22

Edith Wharton Restoration, Inc. (Lenox, MA 01240-0974)
Anne K. Schuyler (Project Director: May 2021 to present)

Resumption of full-time, on-site literary and history programming.

The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home, is seeking funding to resume full-time on-site humanities programming in 2022, following two years of reduced programming, attendance, and income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will also continue to host online events as we did during the pandemic because it has allowed us to reach new, more diverse audiences. The Mount’s 2022 humanities programing will strengthen our core activities with a new focus on issues of racial justice, gender equality, and immigration. Our major goals are to: • Relate our interpretation of Edith Wharton to the present day by using her life and writings as the framework for conversations about class, gender, religion, ethnicity, and race. • Engage audiences with the literature of our own time, with a focus on writers who explore contemporary experience from underrepresented perspectives. • Present scholars and writers who interpret history from new or previously untold points of view.

Associated Products

2022 Summer Lecture by Grace M. Cho (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture by Grace M. Cho
Abstract: Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia.
Author: Grace M. Cho
Date: 07/11/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/2022-summer-lecture-by-grace-m-cho/
Primary URL Description: Link to access the recording of the lecture.

2022 Summer Lecture with Victoria Kastner (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture with Victoria Kastner
Abstract: Victoria Kastner‘s new biography—featuring over 150 archival images and full-color photographs printed throughout—introduces Julia Morgan as a pioneering architect and a captivating individual. This compelling biography draws on interviews, letters, and Morgan’s diaries, including never-before-seen reflections on faith, art, and her life experiences. Morgan’s friendship with Hearst, her passion for California’s landscape, her struggles with familial dementia, and her devotion to architecture reveal her to have been a singularly brilliant and determined artist.
Author: Victoria Kastner
Date: 07/18/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/2022-summer-lecture-with/
Primary URL Description: Link to access the lecture.

2022 Summer Lecture with Luma Mufleh (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture with Luma Mufleh
Abstract: It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh—a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan—stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join. The players, 11- and 12-year-olds from Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, soon welcomed her as coach of their ragtag but fiercely competitive group. Drawn into their lives, Mufleh learned that few of her players, all local public school students, could read a single word. She asks, “Where was the America that took me in? That protected me? How can I get these kids to that America?” Learning America traces the story of how Mufleh grew a group of kids into a soccer team and then into a nationally acclaimed network of schools for refugee children.
Author: Luma Mufleh
Date: 07/25/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/lecture/2022-summer-lecture-with-luma-mufleh/
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

2022 Summer Lecture with Dr. Ravi Shankar (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture with Dr. Ravi Shankar
Abstract: “I became another statistic of NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg’s infamous stop-and-frisk policing, later deemed unconstitutional by [a] US District Court judge…At the time, I was a tenured associate professor of English at a state university in Connecticut, a married homeowner, and a father…I sued the city for racial discrimination and police misconduct, winning a modest settlement…The next time I was arrested, I was not so lucky. Nor was I guiltless.” So begins Indian American poet, editor, translator, and professor Ravi Shankar’s much anticipated memoir, Correctional.
Author: Dr. Ravi Shankar
Date: 08/01/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/2022-summer-lecture-with-dr-ravi-shankar/
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

2022 Summer Lecture with Susan Branson (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture with Susan Branson
Abstract: In Scientific Americans, Susan Branson explores the place of science and technology in American efforts to achieve cultural independence from Europe and America’s nation building in the early republic and antebellum eras. This engaging tour of scientific education and practices among ordinary citizens charts the development of nationalism and national identity alongside roads, rails, and machines.
Author: Susan Branson
Date: 08/08/2023
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/lecture/2022-summer-lecture-with-susan-branson/
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

2022 Summer Lecture with Chad Williams (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture with Chad Williams
Abstract: For nearly two decades, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted to write what he believed would be the definitive history of the African American experience in World War I. In this lecture, Chad Williams explores Du Bois’s complex relationship with the history and legacy of World War I and what it reveals about the struggle for democracy, racial justice and peace in the 20th century.
Author: Chad Williams
Date: 08/15/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/lecture/2022-summer-lecture-with-chad-williams/
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

2022 Summer Lecture with Ann McCutchan (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture with Ann McCutchan
Abstract: Ann McCutchan‘s The Life She Wished to Live paints a lively portrait of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and the Florida landscape and people that inspired her. Rawlings was a tough, passionate, and independent woman who refused the early-twentieth-century conventions of her upbringing. Determined to forge a literary career beyond those limitations, she found her voice in the remote hardscrabble life of Cross Creek, Florida. Between hunting alligator and managing an orange grove, Rawlings employed her sensitive eye, sharp ear for dialogue, and philosophical spirit to bring to life an unknown corner of America in vivid, tender detail―a feat that earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1938.
Author: Ann McCutchan
Date: 08/22/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/lecture/2022-summer-lecture-with-ann-mccutchan/
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

2022 Summer Lecture with Kati Marton (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 2022 Summer Lecture with Kati Marton
Abstract: In this “masterpiece of discernment and insight” (The New York Times Book Review), acclaimed biographer Kati Marton sets out to pierce the mystery of Angela Merkel’s unlikely ascent. With unparalleled access to the chancellor’s inner circle and a trove of records only recently come to light, she uncovers the unique political genius and secret to Merkel’s success. No modern leader so ably confronted Russian aggression, enacted daring social policies, and calmly unified an entire continent in an era with countries becoming more divided. Merkel cleverly outmaneuvered strongmen like Putin and Trump and weathered surprisingly complicated relationships with allies like Obama and Macron.
Author: Kati Marton
Date: 08/29/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/lecture/2022-summer-lecture-with-kati-marton/
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Vanya Rose (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Vanya Rose
Abstract: In January 2022, we celebrated Edith Wharton’s birthday commemorating her literary legacy. Screenwriter/director Vanya Rose joined us to discuss her film WOMAN IN CAR, inspired by Wharton’s 1912 novel, The Reef.
Author: Vanya Rose
Date: 01/08/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/beyond-the-writing-of-fiction-with-vanya-rose/
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Dr. Rebecca Hall (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Dr. Rebecca Hall
Abstract: In celebration of Black History Month, Dr. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery, joined the program to discuss the inspiration and making of her book, Wake. The accepted history of slave revolts tells her that enslaved women took a back seat. But she feels the need to look deeper. Her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain’s logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the “negro burying ground” uncovered in Manhattan. She finds women warriors everywhere. Using in-depth archival research and the measured use of historical imagination, Dr. Hall brings to life the women who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage and the women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York.
Author: Dr. Rebecca Hall
Date: 02/24/2022
Location: online
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/beyond-the-writing-of-fiction-with-dr-rebecca-hall/
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Annabel Abbs (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Annabel Abbs
Abstract: We were joined for Women’s History month with author Annabel Abbs discussing Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women–a beautifully written mediation on connection with the outdoors through the simple act of walking. Her footsteps follow Georgia O’Keefe, Nan Shepherd, Gwen John, Daphne du Maurier, and Simone de Beauvoir.
Author: Annabel Abbs
Date: 03/22/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/beyond-the-writing-of-fiction-with-annabel-abbs/
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Adra Collins & Darrel Alejandro Holnes (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Adra Collins & Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Abstract: In April, our craft installment focused on Ars Poetica. We were joined by our panelists Arda Collins and Darrel Alejandro Holnes–about the elusive and inspired craft of poetry writing.
Author: Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Author: Adra Collins
Date: 04/12/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/non-fiction/beyond-the-writing-of-fiction-series-with-adra-collins-darrel-alejandro-holnes-with-courtney-maum/
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Fernando Sdrigotti (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Beyond the Writing of Fiction with Fernando Sdrigotti
Abstract: We concluded our virtual craft series, with moderator/author Courtney Maum, in May–short story month–with the writer, translator, and cultural critic Fernando Sdrigotti who writes in Spanish and English. His most recent collection, Jolts, was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.
Author: Fernando Sdrigotti
Date: 05/25/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/non-fiction/beyond-the-writing-of-fiction-with-fernando-sdrigotti/
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Library Conversations: Wharton's Awakeners (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Library Conversations: Wharton's Awakeners
Abstract: In this conversation, The Mount’s Director of Interpretation Anne Schuyler, Librarian Nynke Dorhout, and Research Assistant Nick Hudson lead a thought-provoking exploration of Wharton’s library, focusing on the authors that inspired her. From her childhood books on Greek mythology and Dante to well-worn volumes of Shakespeare and Emerson, these are the authors she called the “great awakeners.” They survey not only what the books tell us about her intellectual development, but also how they continued to influence her throughout her career.
Author: Anne Schuyler
Date: 02/03/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://www.edithwharton.org/prerecorded/library-conversations-whartons-awakeners/
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

Library Conversations: The Natural World (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Library Conversations: The Natural World
Abstract: All her life, Edith Wharton felt what she called a “deep joy of communion with the earth,” from her youthful country rambles to an obsessive love of gardening in later life. In this session, led by The Mount’s Director of Interpretation Anne Schuyler, and Librarian Nynke Dorhout, survey works in Wharton’s library devoted to the natural world, from her many gardening books to works on astronomy and science. Wharton’s markings give a glimpse of her garden aesthetic as well as the practical concerns of a country gardener.
Author: Anne Schuyler
Date: 04/07/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/698416952/a995663a67
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

Library Conversations: Surprises (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Library Conversations: Surprises
Abstract: In this conversation, The Mount’s director of interpretation, Anne Schuyler, and librarian, Nynke Dorhout, are joined by special guest Sheila Liming, author of What a Library Means to a Woman and the scholar responsible for digitizing Wharton’s library. They explore some of the more unusual books in the collection, ones that show her interest in non-European traditions and perhaps the quirkier aspects of her intellectual curiosity.
Author: Sheila Liming
Author: Anne Schuyler
Date: 03/03/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/684505960/391639e4bb
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Library Conversations: The Gods Arrive (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Library Conversations: The Gods Arrive
Abstract: Director of Interpretation Anne Schuyler provides context for and leads a discussion of The Gods Arrive (1932), sequel to Hudson River Bracketed (1929).
Author: Anne Schuyler
Date: 03/17/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/690321336/97dd07e685
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Library Conversations: The Glimpses of The Moon (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Library Conversations: The Glimpses of The Moon
Abstract: Director of Interpretation, Anne Schuyler, provides context and leads discussion of Wharton's novel The Glimpses of the Moon (1922).
Author: Anne Schuyler
Date: 02/17/2022
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/679343249/e18aa06064
Primary URL Description: Link to access discussion recording.

Lesage Collection Interview with Jean-Claude Lesage (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Lesage Collection Interview with Jean-Claude Lesage
Writer: Jean-Claude Lesage
Director: François Maillart
Producer: Robert Oakes
Abstract: Scholar Claudine Lesage conducted extensive research on Edith Wharton's time in France, the contents of which were posthumously published in Edith Wharton in France (2011). Claudine had collected a variety of objects and documents of relevance to Wharton's French life, which were donated to The Mount by Claudine's husband Jean-Claude. In this video, Jean-Claude talks of Claudine's research journey, as well as some of her more interesting discoveries.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErS_IkDoN2U
Primary URL Description: Link to access the video.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Web

Rediscovering Frank Hoppin (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Rediscovering Frank Hoppin
Abstract: Historians Richard Guy Wilson and Paul Miller discuss the works and impact of The Mount's primary architect, Francis L.V. Hoppin, whose photo albums have been acquired by The Mount.
Author: Paul Miller
Author: Richard Guy Wilson
Date: 08/12/2022
Location: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/753150141/dcfa9eb08a
Primary URL Description: Link to access lecture recording.

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