When I was a graduate student in English literature at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., I spent a great deal of time in the college library. The origin of this habit was twofold: First, I had no discernible social life, and the library was a pleasant spot. Second, graduate study in English requires a lot of reading.
Now, reading is a good thing: On this point, we can agree. However, there is more to life than just words on the page. There is, moreover, more to literature than just words on a page. And somewhere between finishing “Moby-Dick” and starting “Song of the Lark,” I chanced to attend an event featuring an author talking about his work.
The author was Richard Wilbur, the marvelous poet, and the evening was a revelation to me. I sat in the Old Main auditorium and let the poet’s rich baritone cadences wash over me, rinsing away ordinary thoughts and petty cares.
Before that night, I thought I knew Wilbur’s work; I didn’t. Not really. Hearing him read his poems was like being present just as he was writing them. The lines seemed completely surprising yet utterly inevitable. It was a performance, but it also felt like a collaboration. We were creating these poems together.
Literature is written in solitude and best appreciated that way too. Yet there is an in-between stage, a kind of halfway house, for written work, and that is the public address by an author. Such events constitute the living bridge between the book and the reader.
All of this is by way of urging you to come hear E.L. Doctorow a week from Sunday — Nov. 4 — at 10 a.m. at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Doctorow, author of novels such as “The Book of Daniel,” “Ragtime” and “The March,” will receive the 2007 Chicago Tribune Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement. Ticket information is available at www.chfes tival.org or by calling 312-494-9509.
I don’t know what he will say, but I do know this: If you attend, you will never forget Doctorow’s visit to Chicago. In the years to come, when you read Doctorow’s work, you will remember, and realize anew just how dynamic literature really is.
I hope to see you there.
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jikeller@tribune.com
