The Boston Public Library is pleased to announce an exciting slate of celebrated speakers for its 2009-2010 Lowell Lecture series, World Views. This year’s series, which kicks off in October and runs through April 2010, will allow audiences to experience distant lands and cultures with five of the most important fiction, memoir, and travel writers working today. A book sale and author signing will follow each lecture. All World Views events will be held in Rabb Lecture Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street.
The World Views itinerary includes:
Paul Theroux, one of America’s foremost travel writers, will kick off the series on Tuesday, October 20. Novels are Theroux’s preferred medium, but it is travel writing that has gained him the most distinguished recognition. He has taken readers on his voyages starting with The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train through Asia (1975), and continuing with The Old Patagonian Express (1979), Sailing Through China (1984), and most recently, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (2008). In Rabb Lecture Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street at 6:00pm.
Rick Steves, who will speak on Thursday, December 3, is known to millions of readers and PBS viewers as an advocate of smart, independent travel as well as an engaging and funny speaker. As host of Rick Steves’ Europe, and author of 22 European travel books, he encourages Americans to dive deep into Europe and become «temporary locals.» His readers discover not just great cities, but cozy «back door» villages away from the tourist trampled routes. In Rabb Lecture Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street at 6:00pm.
Arthur Frommer, whose name is synonymous with travel guides, will speak on Wednesday, January 27. One of the nation’s foremost travel authorities, Frommer is the author of scores of travel books, including 30 consecutive editions of the book initially titled Europe on $5 a Day, now published as Europe on $50 a Day. The Arthur Frommer travel series is the world’s largest selling series of travel books. In Rabb Lecture Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street at 6:00pm.
Frances Mayes, who has written highly personal books are about taking chances, loving, and renovating an old Italian villa, and the «voluptuousness of Italian life, will speak on Thursday, March 11. Frances Mayes has written four marvelous, and hugely popular books: Under the Tuscan Sun, Bella Tuscany, In Tuscany, and Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style From the Heart of Italy. In Rabb Lecture Hall at the Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street at 6:00pm.
Alexander McCall Smith, best known for his internationally acclaimed No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, will close out the lectures with a talk on Thursday, April 29. Set in Gaborone, Botswana, his novels top bestseller lists throughout the world. The fifth novel in the series, The Full Cupboard of Life, received the Saga Award for Wit. The ninth book in the series is The Miracle at Speedy Motors (April 2008), and the tenth book in this series is Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (April 2009). The series has now been translated into 39 languages and
