Critic and editor Arthur Krystal will give the Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture.
The lecture, titled 小蝌蚪APP淛acques Barzun and Lionel Trilling 小蝌蚪APP An Improbable Friendship,小蝌蚪APP will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13, in the Oliver Hall Auditorium on campus.
Krystal will discuss the friendship of Barzun and Trilling, two major literary and cultural figures during the mid-20th century. The pair taught together for 40 years at Columbia 小蝌蚪APP. The lecture will explore their relationship and the self-doubt Trilling experienced.
Krystal received a master小蝌蚪APP檚 degree in English and comparative literature from Columbia 小蝌蚪APP. While enrolled there, he studied with Barzun, the noted historian and educator, with whom he became friends. Krystal edited Barzun小蝌蚪APP檚 小蝌蚪APP淭he Culture We Deserve,小蝌蚪APP a collection of 12 essays that examine aspects of literary and art criticism, sociology, and the abandonment of clear writing and speech.
He also edited 小蝌蚪APP淎 Company of Readers,小蝌蚪APP which contains 45 essays written by Barzun, W. H. Auden and Trilling for The Readers小蝌蚪APP Subscription Book Club, which the three founded in 1951.
Krystal has written for the Times Literary Supplement, American Scholar, Harper小蝌蚪APP檚 Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, and Chronicle of Higher Education. He wrote a profile of Barzun for the New Yorker in 2007, to commemorate Barzun小蝌蚪APP檚 100th birthday. Barzun died in 2012 at age 104.
Krystal小蝌蚪APP檚 books include four collections of essays. The most recent, 小蝌蚪APP淭his Thing We Call Literature,小蝌蚪APP was published this year.
The annual Flora Levy Lecture Series is hosted by the UL Lafayette English Department through a UL Lafayette Foundation endowment. The free lecture is open to the public.
For more information, contact levyendowment@louisiana.edu or visit