"Every book has its own life history...full of human stories about the people who made them, who saved them." - Professor Michael F. Suarez, S.J.

The Department of English is pleased to announce that Professor Michael F. Suarez will be visiting our campus on October 20th, 2010. Professor Suarez, a leading scholar of the history of the book and 18th-century literature, will be speaking on “The Two Futures of Book History.”

Professor Suarez is currently Director of Rare Book School, Professor of English, University Professor, and Honorary Curate of Special Collections at the University of Virginia. He hold four masters degrees (two in English and two in Theology), and a PH.D in English literature from Oxford University. Suarez is a former Marshall Scholar and recipient of research fellowships from the Radcliff Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the National Endowment forthe Humanities, the American Council of Learned Studies, and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

A former president and long-time board member of the Northeast American Society for 18th-century Studies, Professor Suarez has published an edition of Robert Dodsley’s “Collections of Poems by Several Hands,” the best-selling poetry anthology in 18th-century Britain, and the selected essays of D.F McKenzie, “Making Meaning: ‘Printers of the Mind’ and Other Essays.” He is the co-editor of “The Oxford Companion to the Book,” and “the Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume 5, 1695-1830.” He has written many articles on various aspects of 18th-century literature, satirical prints, religion, politics, and book history. Professor Suarez, who is also a Jesuit priest, has won several awards for his poetry, and his bibliography and literary criticism.

            “The most passionate and enthusiastic speaker I have ever had the pleasure to listen to,    Professor Suarez demonstrated a complete mastery of his subject during his talk...It was a breathtaking performance.” Stephen J. Gertz, Seattle PI, November 9, 2009.

This promises to be an exciting lecture by one of the most distinguished scholars in the field of book history,  Join Professor Michael F. Suarez on October 20th, 2010 at 4 pm in the Campus Reading Room on the 11th floor of Thompson Library.