Maine Humanities Council

• 1Winter Weekend 2009
• 2News from the MHC
• 3Grants and Events
• 4What We’re Reading
• 5Quote of the Month

“In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its veracity.”

— Time Regained
Marcel Proust

1. Winter Weekend 2009

The 12th annual Winter Weekend tackled Tolstoy’s War and Peace in the new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. As in previous years, the program combined stimulating lectures by academic specialists, lively small-group discussions, and an opportunity to take part in a community of almost 150 readers from Maine and beyond. Participants were transported—by their reading and by a spectacular meal—far from snowy Maine, to a panorama of early 19th-century Russian settings: the palaces of St. Petersburg, the battlefields at Austerlitz and Borodino, the estates of the elite in the vast countryside. The talented chefs from Bowdoin Dining Services prepared borscht, caviar, pickled mushrooms, smoked seafood, and beef stroganoff to evoke these environs through smell and taste.

Justin Weir of Harvard University opened the program with “Love and War in War and Peace,” in which he discussed dichotomies of truth and fiction, history and novelistic convention, dancing and death. Building on the war/death and peace/dancing theme, our own Charles Calhoun reflected on the death of Prince Andrei, and Colby professor Sheila McCarthy offered a close reading of the three dance scenes in the novel, linking them to the three levels of art that Tolstoy delineates in his 1890 treatise “What Is Art?” Raffael Scheck, who also teaches at Colby, exposed some historical context in his talk, “N is for Napoleon.” Winter Weekends are always interdisciplinary; this year, we were lucky to have James Morgan, a close friend and colleague at The Opera Company of Boston of the late Sarah Caldwell, present a brief history of Prokofiev’s War and Peace opera.

Jokes about the heft—both intellectual and physical—of the book could be heard throughout the weekend. Many participants recalled the head-turning and conversation-stopping effects of carrying or mentioning War and Peace in public. One attested to the special attention he received from doctors when he left his copy at his bedside in the hospital. Joking aside, however, Tolstoy is a genius with few peers. His encyclopedic novel forces readers to grapple with the meaning of history and the power of individual actors over fate; thanks to our wonderful scholars, 150 of those readers were lucky enough to have some guidance along the way.

Thanks are also due to the sponsors of the Winter Weekend program, who generously support New Books, New Readers, and to the staff (both at Bowdoin and at the Council) who make it happen.

(And thanks, too, to Brita Zitin for this article.)

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2. MHC News

In Memory: Marli Weiner

On March 2, 2009, the MHC lost a very dear friend: Marli F. Weiner. Marli had been a chair of the MHC Board, first co-facilitator of the Literature & Medicine program and its facilitator at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft and Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, and a contributor and scholar in the MHC’s teacher programs. Marli was an endowed chair of the history department at University of Maine at Orono and had a significant impact on her students, especially PhD candidates in History. Those of us who worked closely with Marli will remember her brilliant intellect, kind heart, and articulate turn of phrase.

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Leadership in a Time of Crisis: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium

In this, the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, many are revisiting the life and achievements of our 16th president. Lincoln is such a familiar figure; he graces our penny and our five dollar bill, and many schoolchildren visit the Lincoln Memorial. Everyone recognizes the stovepipe hat, the long, lanky body, the graceful orations...but who was Lincoln really, and what is his legacy?

On March 21, the Maine Humanities Council worked with the Maine Historical Society and USM’s American and New England Studies Program to hold a daylong symposium exploring Lincoln’s life and legacy. To open the program, Mayor Jill Duson of Portland read the Gettysburg Address, which set a wonderful tone. Bruce Chadwick of New Jersey City University spoke first and gave a fascinating account of Lincoln’s early years and his rise to power. Patrick Rael of Bowdoin College complemented Chadwick’s presentation with a wonderful contextual lecture explaining the balance Lincoln had to strike in his approaches to slavery and the Civil War. Following that, Elizabeth Leonard of Colby explored Lincoln’s assassination and the complex aftermath. Our last speaker, Tom Brown of the University of South Carolina, focused on Lincoln’s legacy and the iconography that shapes our present perspectives. Governor Angus King closed the program with a poignant reading of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.

In between these presentations, participants divided into smaller groups and discussed related topics with the scholars more informally. Groups explored the Underground Railroad, the Civil War in film, and women’s roles in the Civil War. (Many thanks to Martina Duncan for this article.)

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History Camp 2009

A few years ago, Dennis Edmondson, a middle school teacher from one of the MHC’s Teaching American History programs, came up with the idea for a summer camp for high school students on the creation of Joshua Chamberlain as a hero. We have been expanding the concept a bit at a time and are delighted that MHC’s History Camp 2009 for high school students will provide two camps this year. Find a Way or Make One: The Quest for the North Pole will collaborate with the Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College from July 13 to 17. Immigration: Perspectives for ME will collaborate with Museum LA and take place in Lewiston in the old Bates Mill from July 27 to 31. More information and an application will be coming soon to the MHC website.

 

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The Born to Read book list for April features child care and early education. In this list, a young elephant afraid of his first day at preschool finds there is nothing to fear, parents and children engage in their daily activities while children are in care, and Mr. Rogers describes how children experience day care.

 

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Podcast Update

If you weren’t able to attend Winter Weekend, or came and want to revisit some of your memories, you can listen to the talks on the MHC’s podcast page.

 

 

 

 

 

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3. Grants and Events

Grant-Funded Events

Events funded by MHC grants include a Winter Harbor-based series of documentaries about emerging artists in Waldoboro; re-enactors in York providing insight into French and Anglo conflict in Maine; the Maine African Film Festival in Portland; and more.

Recent Grants

$1,000 to the Maine State Archives, Augusta, for Maine National History Day 2009
Maine History Day is an annual educational competition for all Maine students in grades 6 through 12. Each year, students prepare papers, exhibits, documentaries, performances, or web sites that explore a broad historical theme. This year’s theme is “The Individual in History.”

$962.55 to the Cape Elizabeth Historical Preservation Society, Cape Elizabeth, for I Remember Cape Elizabeth: Senior Stories, Extraordinary Memories
Writing, photographs, and oral histories used to preserve individual memories of Cape Elizabeth create this community exhibit.

$500 to the University of Maine at Presque Isle, Presque Isle, for Foreign Language Day
During Foreign Language Day, students participate in mini-lessons in language and culture taught by native speakers or speakers who have lived in the country. Folk or ethnic dance is also a component.

$500 to Schoodic Arts for All, Winter Harbor, for Art in the 21st Century
This grant will fund a film series and discussion celebrating creativity and extraordinary art and artists.

$500 to the Bethel Historical Society, Bethel, for Celebrating Western Maine History
This program is a series of lectures/discussions commemorating the 200th birthday of Hannibal Hamlin (born on Paris Hill) and the 50th anniversary of Sunday River Skiway, among other milestones.

$500 to the Museums of Old York, York, for Southern Maine in the Seventeenth Century
Scholars and re-enactors will lead two public programs, part of a four-program series exploring experiences and perspectives of Native, English, and French people in 17th-century Maine.

$500 to SPACE Gallery, Portland, for Food+Farm: Ted Ames Discussion
An evening with Ted Ames, Maine lobsterman and MacArthur Genius Grant winner, who discusses his research into collapsing fish populations using oral histories collected from Maine fishermen. Included will be a screening of Cecily Pingree’s short film Fishing Voices: Insight into the Future.

$500 to the Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston, for Dance in Context: Building Informed Audiences
Dance writer Debra Cash will conduct a three-week residency, writing in-depth program notes, providing pre-performance lectures, moderating post-performance discussions, and offering a course on Dance in Context.

$312 to the Choral Art Society, Portland, for Pre-Concert Lecture, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah
Renowned composer Elliott Schwartz will present a pre-concert lecture regarding Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah at Merrill Auditorium.

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4. What We’re Reading

This list of book recommendations from MHC staff includes Stone Soup; Everywhere Babies; Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life; and The Way We Live Now.

 

 

 

 

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5. Quote of the Month

“I wish I had written on my evaluation my delight in the TONE of the weekend—the graciousness of all the hosting Council and the excellent and thoughtfully topic-related meal, and most particularly the manner of the addresses ... I came away so invigorated, so eager, yes, to plunge back in and finish the book, but to explore further all sorts of avenues.”

—from a Winter Weekend 2009 attendee

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