Writer, editor Daniel Okrent to speak at UD Library Associates annual dinner

8:28 a.m., March 25, 2015--The 2015 annual dinner of the University of Delaware Library Associates will be held on Wednesday, April 15, at Arsht Hall in Wilmington, and Daniel Okrent, the much-respected American writer and editor who served as the first public editor of The New York Times, will be the featured speaker. 

Okrent is the author of several books, most recently Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. 

Events Stories

June 5: Blue Hen 5K

University of Delaware graduates planning to attend Alumni Weekend are encouraged to register for the annual Blue Hen 5K walk and run, which will be held Sunday morning, June 5.

June 6-9: Food and culture series

The 20th annual June Lecture Series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UD in Wilmington will be held June 6-9. Titled 'June a la Carte,' this year's program focuses on great political documents, feminism, world politics and a Newark cuisine sampler.

• June 6-9: Food and culture series
• Through June 30: 'Saving White Clay Creek'
• July 22: WWE Heatwave Tour
• Through Sept. 16: Women of color in academia

Last Call served as a major source for the 2011 Ken Burns/Lynn Novick miniseries titled Prohibition. In November 2011, Last Call won the Albert J. Beveridge prize awarded by the American Historical Association for the year’s best book of American history.

Last Call is “a remarkably original account of the Prohibition era, a 14-year orgy of lawbreaking that permanently transformed American social life …. A narrative delight,” stated The New York Times Book Review.

In addition to Last Call, Okrent has published six books including Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center (2003) and Public Editor #1 (2006), which was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in history. He has appeared as an actor in two feature films, Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown and Lasse Haastron’s The Hoax. 

The evening of April 15 will begin with a hospitality hour starting at 6 p.m. followed by the dinner and program at 7 p.m. Dinner prices are $127 per person for members of the University of Delaware Library Associates and $170 per person for non-members/guests, which includes a first-year membership in the UDLA. A table of eight persons who sit together may be reserved/purchased for $1,500. 

Interested persons may contact the Office of the Vice Provost by sending an email message to UDLA@udel.edu or by calling 302-831-2231 to request a printed invitation along with the provision of name and first-class mailing address. A PDF of the invitation is available. The event is open to the public with a paid dinner reservation. 

Okrent agreed to sign copies of his books during the hospitality hour and after the dinner program. The University of Delaware Barnes and Noble Bookstore will have copies of his book, Last Call, available for purchase that evening.