UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 29, Page 7
April 29, 1993
Up and coming

'First Books' display on exhibit at library
     Works by Louisa Mae Alcott, Ray Bradbury, Langston Hughes, Sylvia
Plath and others are included in the exhibit "First Books," a collection of
the first books by more than 100 authors, on display now through Aug. 6, in
the Hugh M. Morris Library.
     The exhibition is on view from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays,
and until 8 p.m., Tuesdays, in the Special Collections Exhibition Gallery.
     Included are first editions, pamphlets and manuscripts of first books
by authors from the 18th through 20th centuries. All items in the
exhibition are drawn from the library's Special Collections.
     First books are an important and often intriguing area of collection
for individuals and institutions alike. William Cullen Bryant's initial
book, for example, was published when he was only 14 years old. Edward
Bulwer Lytton's first work was published at 17 and Nathalia Crane's when
she was only 11.
     In contrast, authors such as Wallace Stevens and William Bronk were
well into mid-career before their first books were published. In the most
extreme case, Gerard Manley Hopkins' first book was not published until
nearly 30 years after his death.
     First books often represent curious anomalies, works that seemingly
bear little or no relationship to an author's primary body of work. Brian
Moore and James M. Barrie both launched their careers with thrillers. Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow's first effort was a translation of a French grammar
textbook. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Alfred Tennyson and Malcolm Cowley all
regarded their initial efforts with some embarassment.
     First books also run the gamut from total failure to tremendous
success. Henry David Thoreau, Geroge Bernard Shaw, John Keats, Jack Kerouac
and Carl Sandburg all saw their first books greeted with little or no
attention. But, the first efforts of Mary Shelley and Truman Capote
achieved extraordinary success and helped establish them immediately as
significant authors.
     First books also may mark the beginning of a long, successful career
or represent an author's sole published work. Isaac Asimov's first book led
to over 400 more, whereas Phillis Wheatley's was her first and only
published book.
     Other authors in the University exhibit include Djuna Barnes, Edgar
Rice Burroughs, James Fenimore Cooper, Theodore Dreiser, Paul Laurence
Dunbar, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert
Frost, Kate Greenaway, Ernest Hemingway, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Washington
Irving, Henry James, Herman Melville, Marianne Moore, Howard Pyle, W.D.
Snodgrass, Gertrude Stein, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut and Virginia Woolf.
     For information, call the office of the director of libraries, at
831-2231.

E-52 theatre to offer 'Inherit the Wind'
     E-52 Student Theatre will present Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee's
classic play Inherit the Wind at 8:15 p.m., April 30, May 1, 6, 7 and 8, in
the Bacchus Theatre at the Perkins Student Center. Tickets are $4.
     This American drama is based loosely on the events of the infamous
Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, when a Tennessee high school biology teacher
was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution, which violated a
Tennessee statute prohibiting the teaching of anything contrary to the
Bible. The state sends its best prosecutor for the case, a firm believer in
the Bible, while the defense recruits an equally competent agnostic
attorney. The trial quickly collapses into a personal battle between the
two lawyers. Eloquence abounds in this fast-moving story of the small town
of Hillsboro.
     For information, call 831-6014.

Music department sponsors concerts
     The Department of Music is sponsoring three public events over the
next week, all at 8 p.m. in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont
Music Building.
     The first is "Opera Workshop 1993." Come eavesdrop on The Secret
Marriage, a love triangle set to music by Domenico Cimarosa and presented
by the opera production class of the music department.
     This event is co-directed by Melanie DeMent and Marie Robinson,
accompanied by Julie Nishimura, with narration written and performed by
Michael Foster.
     The entire opera will be presented tonight and Saturday, May 1. A
lecture and presentation of special scenes will be held Friday, April 30.
     Admission for the general public is $5, and faculty and staff with
I.D. are admitted free.
     University faculty artists and ensembles will be featured at the
second event, a free contemporary music concert on Sunday, May 2.
     Performers will include the Taggart-Grycki flute and guitar duo
performing Sonata by Lowell Liebermann; the Del'Arte Wind Quintet
performing George Rochberg's To the Dark Wood; the Mendelssohn String
Quartet performing String Quartet No. 3 by Ned Rorem; and pianist Michael
Steinberg with the Mendelssohn String Quartet performing Piano Quintet by
Alfred Schnittke.
     The final event is a free concert on Wednesday, May 5, featuring the
Delaware Brass, the University's brass quintet in residence. The quintet is
composed of Alan Hamant and Jim Hala on the trumpet; Cynthia Carr, horn;
Jay Hildebrandt, trombone; and Al Start, tuba.
     The program will include My Spirit Be Joyful by J.S. Bach, Sonatine by
Eugene Bozza and George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess Suite , which includes
"Jazzbo Brown Blues," "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "Bess You is
My Woman" and other familiar tunes.