….and elsewhere as well. The Anthologist, latest novel from Nicholson Baker ’79, is drawing plaudits on all sides, including the two below from the daily and Sunday New Y0rk Times, which also will show you what Nick looks like these days,via photo and drawing:
www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/books/10maslin.html
www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/books/review/Orr-t.html
Nick gave a reading Thursday night at Philadelphia’s Free Library,and, while he might be slightly prejudiced, his classmate, Temple University librarian Jonathan LeBreton, who was there, reported that “Nick was marvelous: cadenced, modulated and simply gripping.” The novel is about a poet named Paul Chowder–which should be reason enough to read it–and while seemingly it could not be more different than last year’s controversial Human Smoke, in which Baker trained a pacifist lens on the run-up to World War II, at least one reviewer forecasts an “uncomfortable stir in literary circles.”
Haverfordians in or near locations below can catch Nick’s reading and talk about the book on these dates:
Sept. 16, San Francisco, CA, Mechanics’ Institute, 12:30 pm
Also Sept. 16, Corte Madera, CA, Book Passage , 7 pm
Sept. 23, Manchester Center, VT, Northshire Bookstore, 7 pm
Sept. 24, Portsmouth, NH, River Run Bookstore, 7 pm
Oct. 1, Belfast, ME, Longfellow Books, 7 pm
Haverblog hears New York and Washington appearances are in the works for Nick , so stay tuned.
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Haverford’s most recent alumni employee appointment didn’t make it into our recent blog entry about the 33 HC grads now employed here, which is a shame since both employee and position are noteworthy. Emily Higgs ’08 has joined the College as Quaker Affairs Program Coordinator, having spent the year since her graduation working for the Friends’ office at the United Nations.
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In the case of Dr. Darwin Pockop ’51, the eminent scientist and expert on mesenchymal stem cells, who walked across the Commencement stage 57 years before Emily Higgs, his scientific opinions are more sought after than ever. Dr. Prockop, now director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Texas A&M’s Health Science Center, was asked to comment on a recent controversy about a drug called Prochymal, which many hoped would be able to treat a life-threatening complication of bone marrow transplantation. Prochymal is obtained from stem cells from the bone marrow of healthy young adults.
After initial promising reasults, the last two clinical trials of Prochymal were unsuccessful. Reporters sought out Prockop, who was not involved in the trials,and he verified the difficulties in figuring out how these cells work. “Understanding it well enough to translate to the clinic–that’s the hurdle we’re at,” Prockop, who majored in philosophy here before earning an MD and a Ph.D. in biochemistry, responded to press inquiries late last week.
—Greg Kannerstein ’63