Link: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/events/calendar.html#5

November 15th, Faculty Cub

In Driven Out: The Forgotten Wars Against Chinese Americans
(Random House), Jean Pfaelzer describes the systematic "ethnic
cleansing" of Chinese Americans on the West Coast. Beginning in 1848, from Tacoma to L.A., Chinese miners, merchants, launderers and field workers, prostitutes and merchants' wives were herded, sometimes at gunpoint, from their homes, sometimes to be thrown into railroad cars to ride the very tracks they had built. Pfaelzer chronicles the valiant Chinese resistance - filing the first lawsuits for reparations, buying weapons, organizing vegetable boycotts, launching the first general strike in California, and sometimes flatly refusing to leave.

All are invited to attend.

Link: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/events/calendar.html#4

October 18th, Faculty Club

San Francisco is famous for having rebuilt itself after the 1906 earthquake. In reality, San Francisco has rebuilt itself many
times, and is in a constant state of metamorphosis. James Smith, who has written the book San Francisco’s Lost Landmarks, will talk about and show images of some of the fabulous pieces of San Francisco that have been lost from sight. This Roundtable will be held at noon in the Lewis Latimer Room at the Faculty Club.

Link: http://homecoming.berkeley.edu/everyone/faculty-seminars.cfm

October 12th, Lipman Room in Barrows Hall
Led by Antony Bliss, Bancroft's Rare Books Curator

Hubert Howe Bancroft's library on Valencia Street in San Francisco was the only library of any note that did not burn down following the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. The University's purchase of the library in 1905 and subsequent transfer of its collections across the bay after the quake signaled our beginnings as a research institution. Uncover the treasures of The Bancroft Library with Bliss and hear his philosophical reflections on how rare books and manuscripts get us in touch with our humanity.

For the complete list of faculty seminars for the 2007 Homecoming Weekend, visit http://homecoming.berkeley.edu/everyone/faculty-seminars.cfm

Link: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Collections/lab_2006.html

During the 2006-2007 academic year, support from individual donors and granting agencies helped The University Library acquire critical and unique content across a broad spectrum of subject areas. The support took the form of income from endowments as well as individual gifts (both cash and books).

The Bancroft Library in particular acquired several noteworthy additions to its vast collections including -

• Archive and personal library of Thom Gunn, a celebrated poet and distinguished teacher

• Literary archive of Jessica Hagedorn, including a complete set of working drafts, final manuscripts, corrected proofs, and correspondence for all her books of poetry, her novels, screenplays, stage plays, and anthologies, as well as a complete set of correspondence

• Correspondence between Samuel Clemens and (Nevada) Senator John Jones regarding potential investment in the Paige Compositor, an automatic typesetting machine that never went into production

To view the full article, please visit http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Collections/lab_2006.html

Link: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/events/calendar.html#2

September 20th, Faculty Club

The first Bancroft Roundtable of the Fall 2007 Semester will take place on Thursday, September 20th at noon in the Lewis-Latimer Room of the Faculty Club. Donald M. Scott will present a talk about George Rippey Stewart entitled "The Man Who Named the Storms."

Wallace Stegner, that renowned scholar of the American West, once wrote that George R. Stewart "was a much more important writer than the general public knew." Like Stegner a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, Stewart invented several new types of literature, most significantly the ecological novel. He was for many years a celebrated Berkeley professor of English and served for a time as President of The Faculty Club. He led the successful battle against the 1949 loyalty oath. Independent Scholar Donald Scott, who is finishing up a biography of Dr. Stewart, will introduce us to this fabled member of Cal’s faculty.