The community is invited to join the Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library and the Tennessee Williams Tribute as they welcome Dr. Ralph Voss, guest speaker at the Sept. 10 Table Talk. Voss, this year’s recipient of the Tribute’s third Tennessee Williams Distinguished Scholar’s Medal, will look at Williams’s far-reaching impact as a dramatist in his presentation, “From Columbus to the World: America’s Greatest Playwright.”
Voss, whose career spans 40 years with teaching stints in Kansas, Texas, Utah, Georgia and Alabama, retired after 31 years as an English professor at the University of Alabama.
The author of several books, Voss is well-placed to discuss the importance of Williams in American and world literature. He was the co-director of a University of Alabama symposium honoring Tennessee Williams, which brought together leading experts to assess the playwright’s work.
Following the symposium, he edited “Magical Muse: Millennial Essays on Tennessee Williams,” which included insights from two previous winners of the Tennessee Williams Tribute Distinguished Scholar’s Medal: Dr. Kenneth Holditch and Dr. Colby Kullman.
Voss noted in the introduction to the collection that one of Williams’s great achievements, comparable to that of Faulkner, was making “southern settings and characters vibrant with universal appeal.”
“The magical muse of Tennessee Williams,” noted Voss, “made him remarkably successful at what he called ‘the great magical trick of human existence … snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting.'”
“Our collaboration with the Tennessee Williams Tribute is now in its fifth year,” noted Friends member Jo Shumake. “This partnership has been very rewarding, and we are excited to host yet another distinguished and thought-provoking scholar.”
Table Talks is presented on Wednesdays in September at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 Seventh St. N. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. for those wishing to bring their lunch and socialize before the program begins at noon or enjoy the Tennessee Williams memorabilia collection of posters, playbills and photos located on the library’s first floor. The Friends will serve iced tea.
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