Tag: Charles Shields

Charles Shields, associate director of the Great Lives lecture series, is featured in an article in the Nov.10 issue of The Free Lance-Star. The article discusses Shields’ new biography, And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life and the upcoming book discussion in Fredericksburg on Thursday, Nov. 17. Read the full article.

A question-and-answer session with Shields is in Reuters‘ Book Talk. Shields answers questions about Kurt Vonnegut’s life and legacy. Read the full article.

The biography also is featured in an article in USA Today, calling Shields’ work “engaging and surprising.” Read the full article.

Today’s issue of The New York Times features a review of “And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life” by Charles J. Shields, associate director of the Great Lives lecture series. The full review is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/books/charles-j-shieldss-and-so-it-goes-on-vonnegut-review.html?_r=1.

The winner of the Great Lives contest has been determined! The FIRST person to correctly identify the faces on the display in Monroe Hall is… Jeremy Thompson.

The 17 persons featured in the display who have been the subjects of biographies and film are:

1.      Kurt Vonnegut (American novelist)

2.      Marie Curie (discoverer of radium)

3.      Madam CJ Walker (cosmetics entrepreneur)

4.      The Wright Brothers (inventors of the airplane)

5.      P. T. Barnum (circus showman)

6.      Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (first President of Turkey)

7.      Clarence Darrow (American attorney)

8.      Jackie Robinson (first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era)

9.      Noah Webster (creator of the first American dictionary)

10.     General Marquis de Lafayette (French-born general of the American Revolution)

11.     Anne Frank (diarist of her experiences as a Jewish girl in hiding)

12.     Mildred Loving and Richard Perry Loving (plaintiffs in landmark case overturning laws forbidding mixed marriages)

13.     Aaron Burr (American Revolutionary War general, later Vice President)

14.     Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women)

15.     Christopher Columbus (explorer of the New World)

All of the above will be the subjects of presentations in the Great Lives Lecture Series beginning in January 2012. As the winner, Jeremy will have his choice of either dinner for two at the Fredericksburg restaurant of his choice; or, dinner for two with the guest speaker/author of his choice in the spring Great Lives Lecture Series.

Congratulations, Jeremy.

– From Charles J. Shields, associate director of the Great Lives Lecture Series

Charles J. Shields, associate director of the Great Lives Lecture Series, has an article in the October issue of Writer’s Digest magazine. The article, “Wish You Were Here,” satirizes the supposed glamour of a published author’s life. The issue is available at http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/writers-digest-october-2011-pdf-issue/.

Shields will appear at the National Press Club’s 34th Annual Book Fair and Authors’ Night on Tuesday, November 15 in connection with his new biography, “And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life.” He also will appear at the Miami International Book Fair and at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C. in November.

The Great Lives program is sponsoring a contest to see which student can identify the greatest number of famous faces on a display in Monroe Hall. “These are all people of the past, who will each by the subject of a biographer or historian’s lecture during our 2012 season,” said Charles J. Shields, associate director.

The Great Lives/Chappell Lecture Series features approximately 18 biographers, scholars, and historians each spring to talk about the lives of influential persons from all walks of life. The student who can identify the greatest number of famous faces on the display will have his or her choice of dinner for two at a Fredericksburg restaurant, or dinner for two with a guest speaker this spring. Entries must be submitted to Shields (cshield2@umw.edu) by Wednesday, October 26 at 5 p.m.. In case of a tie, the first entry received with the highest number of correctly identified faces will be the winner.

“This is the perfect opportunity,” said Shields, “for a student to impress someone special with his or her outstanding grasp of history.”