Content about Harry Ransom Center
The “Harry Potter” series might be over, but the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione will be a staple on children's and academics' bookshelves alike for years to come, said professor Susan Napier of Tufts University and former Japanese literature and culture professor at UT.
Napier spoke to an eager group of “Harry Potter” fans and academics on Friday at the Harry Ransom Center about the “Harry Potter” books' place in the tradition of British fantasy, its explosive fandom and the cultural implications of the series.
Editor’s note: Some portions of this interview were translated from Portuguese and Spanish.
Renowned Brazilian energy mogul Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello encouraged the U.S. to develop a green energy partnership with Brazil to increase the world’s energy sources and protect the environment in a lecture Thursday night.
World-renowned photographer Elliott Erwitt has photographed a wide variety of subjects, from major historical figures to Parisian passersby and poodles. Erwitt presented personal favorites and well-known pieces at the Harry Ransom Center on Thursday night.
Erwitt joined the Magnum Photos agency in 1953, and his photos will be archived along with other Magnum pieces at the Ransom Center.
A famous Frida Kahlo self-portrait has returned to the Harry Ransom Center after more than six months on display abroad.
The center announced the arrival of the late painter’s self-portrait Wednesday, 104 years after her birth, and said it will remain in Austin through Jan. 8.
UT loaned the portrait to exhibitions in Europe, including a retrospective dedicated to Kahlo in Berlin and Vienna, said Peter Mears, Ransom Center associate curator and department head.
Using a quarter from the pocket of his shorts, local magician Michael Kaufman enchants his audience with his nimble hands and charming humor. Like a human piggy bank, he knocked the coin into the top of his head and out it came from his mouth.
In his thick, raspy New York accent, Kaufman said that he had just what he needed in his pockets to put on a show. Playing cards, a handkerchief, a metal ring and the quarter.
Fans will get a chance to explore the incredible boredom that surrounds the Internal Revenue Service in David Foster Wallace’s posthumous novel, “The Pale King,” released three years after his death.
More than 60 people heard excerpts from the book and attended a reception in the Harry Ransom Center on Friday. The center holds an archive of Wallace’s work and notes, which will be on display in “Culture Unbound: Collecting in the Twenty-First Century” until July 31.
The Harry Ransom Center announced Monday that it acquired the papers of playwright Spalding Gray, a Rhode Island native known for his knack for expressing universal themes through deeply personal monologues and other writings.
The collection includes more than 90 of Gray’s performance notebooks and more than 100 of his private journals. It also contains audio and video of his performances and hundreds of letters. Gray died in 2004 in New York City.
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part series exploring the history and notoriety of the cocktails associated with Ernest Hemingway.
