A Friends of the Library event — Join the Friends!
Monday, May 7, 2007, 7 p.m.
List Art Center Auditorium, Brown University
Following Professor Brombert’s talk, a reception and book signing will be held in the John Hay Library. Guests will have an opportunity to visit the Yoken Archives located on the 3rd floor of the John Hay Library. Professor Brombert’s visit to Brown is part of the Mel and Cindy Yoken Cultural Series.
A specialist in French and comparative literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, Professor Brombert was chairman of the Department of Romance Languages at Yale, then a member of the Princeton University faculty from 1975 to his retirement in 1999. Raised and educated in Paris, Professor Brombert came to the United States in 1941. His publications include The Intellectual Hero: Studies in the French Novel, 1880-1955, The Hidden Reader, In Praise of Antiheroes, Trains of Thought and books on Stendahl, Flaubert and Hugo, as well as many articles in edited volumes and scholarly journals. He is a former president of MLA (Modern Language Association).
For further information contact fol@brown.edu

Lownes Room, John Hay Library
April 26 – May 4
Selections from the H. Adrian Smith Collection of Conjuring and Magicana, focusing on early, scarce works. The exhibit will specifically feature works with hand-colored frontispiece illustrations, depicting magicians performing a wide variety of magic tricks. The exhibition is mounted to coincide with this year’s Wilmeth lecture, “When Deception Becomes Magic,” by Jim Steinmeyer on April 26 at 7pm in List Auditorium.
John Hay Library hours are Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. The Lownes Room is open for viewing when in not in use for classes or seminars.
For more information contact Rosemary_Cullen@brown.edu

A Friends of the Library event — Join the Friends!
Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 7 p.m. in List Auditorium.
Reception and book signing at the John Hay Library following the lecture.
The innovative magicians of the past took mistakes of perception, optical illusions and psychological assumptions, turning them into wonders for their audiences. The history of magic offers examples of magicians who understood this formula–from Professor Pepper’s creations of ghosts on a London stage to the sleight-of-hand specialists in American vaudeville. Magicians are famous for keeping secrets, but Jim Steinmeyer offers a unique backstage look at magic, discussing not “how” it works but “why” it works. Drawing upon his research and experience in the field, and demonstrating several classic effects in magic, Jim Steinmeyer points out that the great magicians were able to allow audiences to deceive themselves.
The author of the bestselling “Hiding the Elephant,” “The Glorious Deception,” “Art and Artifice,” and many books written for magicians on the history and techniques of magic, Jim Steinmeyer is well known for his creations and innovations. He’s created the illusions for many leading Broadway shows, from “Beauty and the Beast” to “Mary Poppins,” and has developed wonders for the performances of Doug Henning, Siegfried and Roy, Orson Welles, Ricky Jay and David Copperfield. He is one of the organizers of the highly-regarded Los Angeles Conference on Magic History, where he has recreated many of otherwise lost or forgotten stage illusions. His latest book, published this fall by Carroll and Graf, is not about magic but still about “wonders,” a biography of Charles Fort, the American author who invented the supernatural. He lives in Los Angeles. For more information see www.jimsteinmeyer.com

The Swearer Center for Public Service invites Brown students, faculty, and staff to attend the Inauguration of the Brown Community Organizing Archive.
This collection will be held at the John Hay Library and will serve as a permanent and dynamic record of Brown’s role in encouraging and nurturing generations of community organizers and activists and also provide a resource for scholars and practitioners.
John Hay Library, Reading Room
20 Prospect Street
Brown University
Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 5:00pm
Light refreshment to follow
The inaugural ceremony will include remarks by David Kertzer, University Provost, Alumni representatives Jim Dickson and Ken Galdston, Professor Marion Orr, and Swearer Center Director, Roger Nozaki.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to: Amy_Doyle@brown.edu
If you have materials that you would think might be of interest to the archive, please contact: Gerald_Gaidmore@brown.edu

In partnership with the Office of the Dean of the College, the Brown University Library is pleased to announce the winners of the Library’s first annual Undergraduate Research Awards: Lindsey Gurin and co-researchers Sarah Grover and Natasha Bronn. The awards recognize excellence in undergraduate research projects that make creative and extensive use of the Brown University Library’s collections including, print resources, databases, primary resources, and materials in all media.
More info: http://brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/ugresearchaward.html