Nicholas Basbanes—an award-winning investigative reporter, literary editor, lecturer, and nationally syndicated columnist—will give a talk about his most recent book, On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History, on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Goucher College’s Kelley Lecture Hall.
Basbanes is the author of nine works of cultural history, with a particular emphasis on various aspects of books, book history, and book culture. His first major publication, A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, was a 1995 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction and was named a New York Times notable book of the year.
This past May, On Paper was named one of three finalists for the 2014 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction by the American Library Association. In its announcement, the organization said of the book, “Combining crisp technical explanations with vivid historical and contemporary profiles, Basbanes unfolds the two-thousand-year story of paper, revealing in the process that paper is nothing less than an embodiment of humanity.”
Basbanes’ lecture at Goucher is free and open to the public, and no tickets are necessary. Contact April Oettinger, associate professor of art history and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, at 410-337-6496 or april.oettinger@goucher.edu for more information.
This event is sponsored by the Irwin C. Schroedl, Jr. Lecture in the Decorative Arts and Material Culture and the Goucher College Department of Art & Art History.