LAKEPORT >> The NEA Big Read features keynote speaker Dr. Jonah Raskin’s presentation “Jack London: Genius Lives” at the Mendocino College Lake Center on Sunday. The program is billed as “a look back at the life and the work of Jack London,” who wrote 50 books including “The Call of the Wild.” London died 100 years ago on Nov. 22, 1916 at his ranch in Sonoma County. Raskin holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in England and is the author of 14 books including “A Terrible Beauty: The Wilderness of American Literature.”
As a Fulbright professor, he taught American literature at the University of Antwerp and the University of Ghent. From 1985-2005 he was the book critic for The Santa Rosa Press Democrat. He reviews books for The San Francisco Chronicle and writes for the Rag Blog and Swans. Among his other books are “James McGrath: in A Class By Himself,” “Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War,” and “Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating and Drinking Wine in California.” Raskin has published six poetry chapbooks including “Rock ‘n’ Roll Women: Portraits of a Generation.”
The Sunday lecture will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. at the college campus, located at 2565 Parallel Drive in Lakeport.
NEA Big Read events will occur around Lake County all through October.
Ben Cox-Frankenfield will talk about living with a wolf hybrid. In 1993 Cox-Frankenfield and his wife Patty adopted a rescue wolf-dog hybrid they named Pretty Girl and who lived with them 12 years. This free program takes place at Lakeport Library on Saturday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
On Saturday Victoria Brandon, a member of the Sierra Club, will present a discussion of the importance of respecting and preserving wild spaces, nature and the environment with examples from the novel The Call of the Wild from 2 to 3 p.m. at Redbud Library, 14785 Burns Valley Road in Clearlake.
Tune in to a radio call-in discussion of The Call of the Wild on KPFZ 88.1 FM. Susan Krones’ Bookends program live from the KPFZ studio will feature a call-in book discussion with county librarian Christopher Veach on Saturday from 4 to 5 p.m.
Local professor and literacy coordinator Virginia Devries will reminisce about her adventures living off the land and the sea, off the grid in the Alaskan frontier, followed by a discussion of The Call of the Wild at Lakeport Library, 1425 N. High St., on Oct. 26 from 2 to 3 p.m.
For more information about the NEA Big Read, visit neabigread.org. Downloadable copies of The Call of the Wild are available through the Big Read website.
The Lake County Library is on the internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at Facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary.
