On Wednesday 1 November, the English Faculty was proud to host the inaugural lecture of the Drue Heinz Professor of American Literature, Lloyd Pratt.
The lecture, titled ‘Free Reading,’ was delivered to an audience of students and academics alike, from the Faculty, the Rothermere American Institute, and the wider university. It began with a true story involving Emerson’s lesser-known essay, Nature; a failed marriage; a secret departure; and the 3.15 train to Memphis. Looking at the methods and purpose of one individual’s life-writing, the lecture focused on the ways in which a collection of diaries reveals the inward and outward life of the diarist.
An audio recording of the lecture will be made available shortly on the Faculty website.
We are particularly grateful to Mrs Drue Heinz for her attendance at the lecture, and for her ongoing work to support American literature at the University of Oxford.
