NEWS

Dates extended for library exhibit on U.S. literary expatriates in Paris

CHAPEL HILL -- The exhibit "Geniuses Together: Literary Expatriates in Paris from Gertrude Stein and James Joyce to Samuel Beckett and the Beats," will remain open longer than originally planned, until Sept. 10.

The free exhibit is on display in the Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room, on the second floor of Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wilson opens from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

Showcasing the lives and work of English-speaking authors including those in the title, as well as James Baldwin, William Burroughs, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway and others, the free exhibit explores a key time and place in the development of English literature, said Dr. Charles McNamara, curator of the Rare Book Collection, which presented the exhibit.

More than 50 original copies of landmark books displayed include one of the first 100 copies of "Ulysses," signed by Joyce. Photographs include portraits of authors, publishers and bookstore owners, as well as environmental shots of their activities in Paris from 1919 through the 1960s. Placards describe their lives and culture and explain their flight to Paris, taken at times when they thought their own country was not as open to some of their ideas and activities as they might like.

"Paris experienced two major waves of expatriate activity," McNamara said. The first, in the 20 years after World War I, included the Stein, Joyce, Ezra Pound, Hemingway and Henry Miller.

The second, after World War II, featured holdovers from the first wave, including Beckett, and new writers including African-Americans Richard Wright and Baldwin and beat writers Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a UNC alumnus.

"The exhibit focuses not only on the expatriates, but also on the environment in which they lived and worked," McNamara said. "The stories of the writers are inextricably interwoven with those of the small English-language publishers, periodicals and bookstores that grew up after both world wars."

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Contacts: Dr. Charles McNamara, 962-1143; Dr. Linda Wagner-Martin, professor, 962-8756