Upton Sinclair scholar and author Lauren Coodley will discuss her new book: The Land of Orange Groves and Jails: Upton Sinclair's California at a book signing/lecture on Saturday, March 26, 2 p.m. at Southern California Library, located at 6120 S. Vermont Avenue in L.A.
Lauren Coodley, a professor of history at Napa Valley College who has spent a decade studying Upton Sinclair’s life and writings, will discuss Sinclair’s legacy and sign her new book, Land of Orange Groves and Jails: Upton Sinclair’s California on Saturday, March 26, 2 p.m. at the Southern California Library. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. Admission to the event is free, but reservations are recommended. To RSVP and for more information, call 323-692-3435. Also check the web at www.socallib.org. The Library is located at 6120 S. Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles (between Slauson and Gage). Coodley’s appearance at the Library is one of three stops on a brief tour of Southern California. She will also lecture and sign her book on Thursday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. at the Pasadena Museum of History (470 W. Walnut St., Pasadena, 626-577-1660, ext. 10, or at www.pasadenahistory.org) and on Friday, March 25, 7 p.m. at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro (Berth 84, foot of 6th St., 310-548-7618, www.lamaritimemuseum.org). Novelist and Muckraker Novelist and muckraker Upton Sinclair, famed for his expose of Chicago’s meatpacking industry, also wrote a series of entertaining critiques of Southern California’s oil industry, movie studios, and urban sprawl—most of which still apply today. The Land of Orange Groves and Jails (published in December 2004) spans 50 years of Sinclair’s funny and fiery writings. Taken together, these plays, novels, articles, and pamphlets show how Sinclair’s personal life inspired his political activism. When neighbors in Long Beach struck oil, he wrote about the oil industry. His father’s addiction inspired an analysis of alcohol distributors. In 1934, he responded to the Depression by running for governor under the EPIC slogan, “End poverty in California.” The hard-fought campaign that followed has parallels to our current political world of vicious attack ads and allegations of voter fraud. He also was a political figure who understood popular culture better than any of his contemporaries, using movies and the power of Hollywood to give voice to his ideas. This quintessential rabble-rouser has found an advocate in Prof. Lauren Coodley. Beginning with her dissertation, Coodley has spent nearly 10 years studying Sinclair’s life and writings. She organized a panel of national Sinclair scholars at UCLA and wrote the script for a film biography. More importantly, she has rethought how we view Upton Sinclair, both as a Californian and as a writer who turned his own life experiences into political pop culture. DETAILS: Saturday, March 26, 2 p.m. at the Southern California Library, 6120 S. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, 90044 Lecture and Book Signing: Prof. Lauren Coodley discusses the life and legacy of Upton Sinclair and signs her book, Land of Orange Groves and Jails: Upton Sinclair’s California. Admission: Free Reservations: Please call 323-692-3435 Information: www.socallib.org [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/O.5XsA/8WnJAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
