Labyrinth Plans No September Events; A Host of Authors Coming in October

Ellen Gilbert

Book-event goers who miss the routine appearance of newly-published authors at Labyrinth’s basement readings will have to wait another month before resuming their habit. Summer has been quiet at the Nassau Street bookstore and, due to preparations for the beginning of the academic year, there are no events scheduled through the end of September.

Starting in October, however, store co-owner Dorothea von Moltke promises “two or three events a week,” beginning on Wednesday, October 1 with an appearance by “The Edge of Sports” blog creator Dave Zirin, who will discuss his new book, A People’s History of Sports in the United States. “If there was an award for ‘Most Valuable Sportswriter,’ I would vote for Dave Zirin,” said historian and social critic Howard Zinn. “His writing combines vivid narrative, good humor, impressive knowledge of the game, and a keen awareness of the connection between sports and the world outside.”

Author and Princeton University Professor of Religion Elaine Pagels will join Rabbi Rebecca Alpert the following day, October 2, to discuss Ms. Alpert’s recently published book, Whose Torah? A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism. Ms. von Moltke described the book, for which Ms. Pagels wrote the preface, as part of a new series of books from the New Press focusing on different religions. An often-repeated quote from Whose Torah? is the line, “Jews believe in a God whose main interest was to take a bunch of rebellious slaves and set them free from oppression — who could top that?”

Anticipating the Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009, historian James MacPherson will talk about his new book, Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief, on Wednesday, October 8. The event will be presented in collaboration with Princeton University’s Department of History.

Edmund White, novelist, biographer, cultural critic, and Princeton Professor of Creative Writing, will discuss his book, Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel, on Wednesday, October 15. Ms. von Moltke described Mr. White’s descriptions of reading Rimbaud at a young age as “very personal, and very frank.”

A collection of comic strips, Get Your War On 2001-08: The Definitive Account of G. Bush’s War on Terror and its author, David Rees, will be the focus of a talk on Monday, October 20. Created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, “a time when few were willing to share any but the noblest pieties with each other,” wrote one observer, “Rees’s characters are reflections of many Americans’ true selves.”

Poet Susan Stewart will read from her new anthology, Red Rover, in an event co-sponsored by Princeton’s English Department on Tuesday, October 21. Just in time for the November Presidential election, writer Naomi Wolf, author of Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, will appear in conversation with journalist Chris Hedges on October 22. Ms von Moltke described Ms. Wolf’s book as a discussion of “how to keep American democracy vital.”

For more information, see Labyrinth’s website at www.labyrinthbooks.com.

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