Classical Pursuits provides a wonderful opportunity for inquiring minds to discuss great works of literature. Working in association with the Great Books Foundation, many of Classical Pursuits’ book discussions are led by Foundation staff members.
Classical Pursuits yearly event is a one-week summer program at University of Toronto's St. Michael's College. This immersion course closely res...
Host of the Month
If you’re in Washington, DC on Saturday, Oct. 9, amble on down to the National Mall (between 7th and 14th streets) and take in the 2004 National Book Festival. The event, now in its fourth year, is sponsored by The Library of Congress and hosted by Laura Bush.The festival, which runs from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. is a come-rain-or-shine event that’s open free to the public. More than 70 no...
Festival Pick
Visitors to Elsinore, Denmark, might be forgiven for believing that the city’s Kronborg castle found fame through William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But in fact, the castle’s reputation preceded that of the Bard’s play.Kronborg began life in the 1420s as a sort of glorified toll booth, a fortress built by King Erik of Pomerania to extract payment from ships entering or leaving t...
World Heritage Site
Metro Los Angeles has its own version of East Side/West Side and the implied rivalry between them. The West Side in this instance is Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, the abodes of LA’s creative and artistic elite, many of them in the entertainment industry. This is the geographic area where E! and People and Variety set their sights and prowl, looking for celebr...
Museum Pick
Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) is a favored province. Canadians seem to dote on the 2,200-square mile island, nudged in between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia off Canada’s east coast. It may be that Prince Edward Island does for Canadians what New England does for Americans, which is to preserve a small-scale, self-reliant, primarily rural culture in the middle of a benign, beautiful landscape...
Those of us who read travel writing and adventure novels know that much our interest in such books comes from the desire to learn about new areas and frontiers that our favorite characters’ explore. For us, a book’s lure is not just the story, character, or plot, but rather, the chance to experience an exotic land, if even through the pages of a book.
Don’t start this journey without stout shoes and a raincoat! It was October and I landed at the airport in sheeting rain. I didn’t mind because Sherlock’s London always seemed wet or foggy, and I wanted to get the atmosphere right. I was joining a group of Sherlockians to stretch our imagination in a light- hearted way as we journey to Baskerville country and back.
There is a cove on the southernmost coast of Iceland, where an old man named Jon sells fish to the local villagers. He sets out nets and traps as soon as the smallest drop of light springs onto the horizon. By early afternoon he has pulled his boat onto the shore and begun to haggle with the men and women who come to buy his catch. He does this every day of the year except Christmas. He’s been a part...
Well here’s to our third Literary Tour
issue. It’s not surprising that we return again and again to literary
travel. Literature tours encompass and invoke the sites, sounds and
smells of a favorite book, poem or author. Making them utilize all their
senses, literary tours transport travelers’ minds...
Did you know that in front of what is now the Transamerica Pyramid in downtown San Francisco, Mark Twain met a guy named Tom Sawyer?
You may not have had any idea that Jack London was born in the South of Market district of this enchanted city, but ended up moving with his spiritualist medium mother and itinerant astrologer father to Oakland where, even then, rents were cheaper.
When you vacation, do you go as a tourist or as a traveler? I daresay that most people have never asked themselves the question. But for me, there is a definite distinction between the two. When one considers travel as a possible means of bridging cultural gaps in our shrinking global village, the nuances behind these words become important. And in this post-September 11th world, the distinction...
Don’t get scared by the word “literature.” I know you may be thinking, “Literature, a high-brow term for writings usually associated with college studies and not for family fun.” Well, I think I can change your mind, at least when I comes to thinking about literary Britain. That’s because one of the main dictionary definitions of literature is “a...
When Robert Burns was born in a small thatched cottage on January 25, 1759, the event hardly caused a tremor in the fertile Ayrshire soil famous for its tasty wee spuds. However, by the time Robert died 37 years later on July 21t, 1796, he had penned more than 600 songs and poems, a legacy which was to be translated into 40 languages all the way from Urdu to Hebrew.
Two years ago, on the 100th anniversary of John Steinbeck’s birth, I found myself for the first time in the famous author’s hometown, Salinas.
Several factors presented themselves to create this opportunity. The first, I am, like Steinbeck, a California native. We are a fiercely protective lot. Secondly, I majored in Comparative Literature at Berkeley. This was providential...
If you’re in Washington, DC on Saturday, Oct. 9, amble on down to the National Mall (between 7th and 14th streets) and take in the 2004 National Book Festival. The event, now in its fourth year, is sponsored by The Library of Congress and hosted by Laura Bush.
The festival, which runs from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. is a come-rain-or-shine event that’s open free to the public. More than 70 noted writers, poets and book illustrators will be...
If you’re in Washington, DC on Saturday, Oct. 9, amble on down to the National Mall (between 7th and 14th streets) and take in the 2004 National Book Festival. The event, now in its fourth year, is sponsored by The Library of Congress and hosted by Laura Bush.
The festival, which runs from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. is a come-rain-or-shine event that’s...
Two years ago, on the 100th anniversary of John Steinbeck’s birth, I found myself for the first time in the famous author’s hometown, Salinas.
Several factors presented themselves to create this opportunity. The first, I am, like Steinbeck, a California native. We are a fiercely protective lot. Secondly, I majored in Comparative Literature at Berkeley. This was providential...
Mention the literary cafes of Paris and people often think of Les Deux Magots and the Cafe de Flore, located in the Saint Germain district of the Left Bank. Less well known, however, are the literary cafés of Montparnasse. From 1900 to 1939, this neighborhood teemed with writers and artists from all over the world; their ideas were to profoundly influence artistic and literary expression...
Visitors to Elsinore, Denmark, might be forgiven for believing that the city’s Kronborg castle found fame through William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But in fact, the castle’s reputation preceded that of the Bard’s play.
Kronborg began life in the 1420s as a sort of glorified toll booth, a fortress built by King Erik of Pomerania to extract payment from ships entering...
Classical Pursuits provides a wonderful opportunity for inquiring minds to discuss great works of literature. Working in association with the Great Books Foundation, many of Classical Pursuits’ book discussions are led by Foundation staff members.
Classical Pursuits yearly event is a one-week summer program at University of Toronto's St. Michael's College. This...
Well here’s to our third Literary Tour
issue. It’s not surprising that we return again and again to literary
travel. Literature tours encompass and invoke the sites, sounds and
smells of a favorite book, poem or author. Making them utilize all their
senses, literary tours transport travelers’ minds and bodies, opening...
When you vacation, do you go as a tourist or as a traveler? I daresay that most people have never asked themselves the question. But for me, there is a definite distinction between the two. When one considers travel as a possible means of bridging cultural gaps in our shrinking global village, the nuances behind these words become important. And in this post-September 11th world, the...
Metro Los Angeles has its own version of East Side/West Side and the implied rivalry between them. The West Side in this instance is Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, the abodes of LA’s creative and artistic elite, many of them in the entertainment industry. This is the geographic area where E! and People and Variety set their sights and prowl, looking for celebrity shenanigans.
