Friends of Princeton University Library Small Talk with Gene Andrew Jarrett

“From the Library of Congress to Loafing-Holt: Reliving Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Libraries”

The Friends of Princeton University Library present Gene Andrew Jarrett, the Dean of the Faculty and William S. Tod Professor of English at Princeton University. Jarrett will share the story of how remarkable libraries bookended the professional career of the legendary African American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar at the turn of the 20th century.

Libraries inspired Dunbar both as a young man and as a poet. In his mid-twenties, he overcame illnesses to work at the Library of Congress, where he built his brilliant sense of literary time and place, and where he learned that distinctive forms of art, such as music and poetry, could converge, stimulate the imagination, and move audiences. A decade later, in 1905, he published a book titled Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow, which included a poem about the “sylvan, cool retreat” called “Loafing-Holt,” or the second-floor study inside his home in Dayton, Ohio, where he prematurely passed away the following year.

Dean Jarrett will be introduced by Tera Hunter, Edwards Professor of American History; Professor of History and African American Studies; Acting Chair, Council of the Humanities; Acting Director, Program in Humanistic Studies

In-person attendance to the talk is reserved for Friends of PUL, but the virtual component (Zoom) is open to all. Registration is required: https://libcal.princeton.edu/event/10146022