With the exception of the exhibition tour, all events will take place on the 6th floor. Registration will take place in front of the elevators, the keynote will be delivered in the Kislak Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, and refreshments will be served on the Moelis Reading Terrace outside the Goldstein Family Gallery, directly adjacent to the Pavilion.
4:00 - 5:00 pm
Curator-led exhibition tour of "Wise Men Fished Here: A Centennial Exhibition in Honor of the Gotham Book Mart, 1920–2020"
Kamin and Goldstein Family Galleries, 1st and 6th floors. Assemble at welcome desk on 1st floor.
4:00 - 5:30 pm
Registration
5:30 - 7:00 pm
Keynote Address
William G. Noel, Director of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Welcome
David McKnight, Director, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Kislak Center
Introduction
Andrew Thacker, Nottingham Trent University
The Pure and the Dirty: Censorship, Obscenity, and the Modern Bookshop
7:00 - 8:30 pm
Welcome Reception
All events will take place on the 6th floor, and all panel sessions in the Kislak Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion. Registration will take place in front of the elevators and refreshments will be served on the Moelis Reading Terrace outside the Goldstein Family Gallery, directly adjacent to the Pavilion.
8:30 - 9:00 am
Registration and coffee
9:00 - 10:30 am
SESSION I: Beginnings
David McKnight, Director, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Kislak Center
Welcome and Chair
Steven Rothman, Independent Scholar and Book Collector
Crossing 47th Street: Christopher Morley and the Gotham Book Mart
Jude Davies, University of Winchester
“Either a joke or a miracle”: Literary Reverence and Literary Commerce after Dreiser and Mencken Signed Bibles at the Gotham Book Mart
10:30 - 10:45 am
Coffee break
10:45 - 11:45 am
SESSION II: Modernist Publishing Plenary
David McKnight, Director, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Kislak Center
Introduction
Lise Jaillant, Arts and Humanities Research Council & Loughborough University
Publishing Modernist Poetry: From Faber to Carcanet Press
11:45 am - 1:00 pm
Lunch
See list of nearby restaurants and coffee shops. Lunch will not be provided.
1:00 - 2:30 pm
SESSION III: James Joyce, Surrealism, and the Gotham Book Mart
Sponsored by the Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium
Ann Reynolds, University of Texas at Austin
“View Listens”: A Cosmopolitan Surrealism
Matthew Affron, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Duchamp and the Bookshop Window
Paul Saint-Amour, University of Pennsylvania
‘I Liked His Gothamm Chic!’ (FW 538): Joyce and the GBM
Michael Shea, University of Pennsylvania
Chair
2:30 - 4:00 pm
SESSION IV: Mediating the Voice: Poetry Audio & Sound Studies
William J. Harris, University of Kansas
Amiri Baraka Sings the Blues: The Poet in Concert at Penn State
Chris Mustazza, University of Pennsylvania
Let the Record Reflect: Amateur Recording as Modernist Poetic Practice
Orchid Tierney, University of Pennsylvania
Is this thing on?
Chris Mustazza, University of Pennsylvania
Chair
4:00 - 4:30 pm
Coffee break
4:30 - 6:00 pm
SESSION V: The Beats
Brian Cassidy, Antiquarian Bookseller
The Gotham Howl(s): History and Bibliography
Jean-Christophe Cloutier, University of Pennsylvania
Kerouac on Auction: The Haunted Life of a Missing Manuscript
Camille Davis, University of Pennsylvania
Chair
6:15 - 7:15 pm
Polyvocal Poetry: Sound and Resound
A Performance from Randall Couch's Peal with Orchestral Maneuvers (see Special Events for details)
All events will take place on the 6th floor, and all panel sessions in the Kislak Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion. Registration will take place in front of the elevators and refreshments will be served on the Moelis Reading Terrace outside the Goldstein Family Gallery, directly adjacent to the Pavilion.
All day
Pop-up Exhibition
Downtown Gotham: The Gotham Book Mart and Independent Publishing During the Birth of Punk and Disco, 1969-1985
Brad Duncan, University of Pennsylvania, Curator
On view in the Lea Library during all coffee breaks, lunch, and the closing reception. Please note that food and drink are not permitted in Lea Library.
8:30 - 9:00 am
Registration and coffee
9:00 - 10:30 am
SESSION VI: The New York Poetry Scene
Anne Waldman, Naropa University
A Generative Rhizome
Dan Saxon, Former Publisher of Poets at Le Metro Little Magazine
Contents, Creation, and Distribution of Poets at Le Metro (Poetry and Publishing in the Sixties, 1962-1965)
Natalie Amleshi, University of Pennsylvania
Chair
10:30 - 10:45 am
Coffee break
10:45 am - 12:15 pm
SESSION VII: Out of the Box: The Gotham Collection at Penn
Camille Davis, University of Pennsylvania
Between Catalogues and Colophons: Reading the Printing History of the Gotham Book Mart
Kate Aid, University of Pennsylvania
The Edward Gorey Business, or the Coffin on the Counter
Brad Duncan, University of Pennsylvania
Downtown Gotham: The Gotham Book Mart and Independent Publishing During the Birth of Punk and Disco, 1969-1985
Jane Robbins Mize, University of Pennsylvania
Chair
12:15 - 1:30 pm
Lunch
See list of nearby restaurants and coffee shops. Lunch will not be provided.
1:30 - 3:00 pm
SESSION VIII: Modernism, Materiality, and Meaning
Michael Thurston, Smith College
Hemingway’s Paratextual Adventures: in our time
W. Scott Howard, University of Denver
“colliding phenomena”: Susan Howe’s Facing Pages and Sonic Materialisms
Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania
In Circulation: Modern Literature, Art, and the Medium of the Postcard
Kate Aid, University of Pennsylvania
Chair
3:00 - 3:15 pm
Coffee break
3:15 - 5:15 pm
SESSION IX: The Modernist Bookstore: Frances Steloff and Her Contemporaries
With a screening of Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller (Dir. Deborah Dickson, 1987, 28 min.)
Tim Murray, University of Delaware
Never a Dull Moment: Robert A. Wilson and the Phoenix Book Shop
Joshua Kotin, Princeton University
The Shakespeare and Company Project
Lynne Farrington, University of Pennsylvania
The Centaur Book Shop and Press, 1921–1942: Philadelphia's Own Modernist Bookstore
Davy Knittle, University of Pennsylvania
Chair
5:15 - 5:45 pm
SESSION X: Reflecting on the Gotham Book Mart Legacy
David McKnight, Director, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Kislak Center
Chair
6:00 - 7:00 pm
Closing Reception
