November Dates to Remember

The library will be closed on Sunday, November 11th and Monday, November 12th for the Veterans Day holiday. The library will closed early at 1pm on Wednesday, November 21st, and remain closed on Thursday November 22nd and Friday November 23rd for Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, November 14th at 7pm, Edward Hoagland, one of America's great essayists, will speak at the library. Widely celebrated for his essays on travel and nature, Mr. Hoagland has written more than twenty books, both fiction and nonfiction. He worked at the Barnum & Bailey Circus while attending Harvard in the early 1950s and later traveled around the world writing for Harper’s, National Geographic, and other magazines. He has received two Guggenheim Fellowships and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1982, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011. He recently received the very prestigious John Burroughs Medal for his 2011 book, Sex and the River Styx. His latest book is Alaskan Travels. Join us in welcoming an American treasure.

Also in November, the Friends of the Library launch their "Sunday with Friends" winter series with Louisa Gould, a regarded maritime, portrait and travel photographer who has traveled to over 100 countries and territories. On Sunday, November 18th at 2pm at the Vineyard Haven Public Library, she will take you around the world with some iconic images and some never before released photographs. Countries that will be featured in the presentation will include Antartica, Burma, Cambodia, Morroco, Bali, India, Fiji, Vietnam, Spain, New Zealand, Egypt, Cuba. There will be time for questions, and refreshments will be served.

On Tuesday, November 20th at 7pm, the Martha's Vineyard Library Association is pleased to present the third in a series of talks by Phil Weinstein, Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English at Swarthmore College. Beginning with Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time (1925) and concluding with Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kittredge (2008), this course explores a range of American short stories. The goal of the course is not to sample the huge output in this genre, but to delve more deeply into these writers' concerns and literary procedures and to identify the characteristic voice of each. Books may be requested through your local library and a study guide is available at the front desk. This evening's program will be held at the Vineyard Haven Public Library and the text will be Raymond Carver's "Cathedral".