Friends of the UNCG Libraries

Note that in order to accommodate more guests, the lecture has been moved to the Jackson Library Reading Room on the first floor of the building, rather than the Hodges Reading Room on the second floor.

Bill Snider, former editor of the Greensboro News & Record, died in late January at his home at Well-Spring. Along with his wife Flo, Bill was a long-time member of the Friends of the UNCG Libraries, and his papers reside in our Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives. A native of Salisbury who came to Greensboro in 1951, Bill was an editor of the Greensboro newspaper during the turbulent 1960s, and together with several others formed a group that his friend and colleague Ned Cline called “the core that held Greensboro together during the civil rights era.” Bill was one of the last of this group to pass away, and he retained his concern and love for the people of Greensboro and of North Carolina long after his retirement from the paper in 1982, writing books and columns in the Sunday edition. With Bill’s encouragement and support, the News & Record has been a long-time friend of the UNCG Libraries, helping recruit journalists and other speakers f...

The Freshman Seminar Program at UNCG is pleased to sponsor Charles Dickens: 200 Years of being "The Inimitable" by Dr. Elliot Engel on Tuesday, February 21 at 3 p.m. in Jackson Library on the UNCG campus. With the program, Dr. Elliot Engel brings to life the extraordinary genius of the man many critics recognize as the greatest novelist in our language. Using anecdotes, analysis, and large doses of humor, Professor Engel will reveal Dickens' fascinating business acumen that was every bit as creative as his literary imagination. The program is free and open to all, but seating is limited. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, Dr. Engel now lives in Raleigh, where he has taught at the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, and Duke University. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at UCLA. While at UCLA he won that university’s Outstanding Teacher Award. Dr. Engel has written ten books published in England, Japan, and the United St...

Matthew Pearl’s first three novels, The Dante Club , The Poe Shadow and The Last Dickens have been translated into more than thirty languages and have more than one million copies in print combined. Because of his authorship of The Last Dickens about the publication of The Mystery of Edwin Drood , Pearl's appearance is made in conjunction with UNCG's “A Dickens of a Celebration.” The appearance is sponsored by the University Libraries and the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at UNCG. Critics have likened Pearl to E. L. Doctorow, and he has been described as “at the very forefront of contemporary novelists” (Caleb Carr), “sparkling with erudition” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times), and “the shining star of literary fiction” (Dan Brown). With his new novel THE TECHNOLOGISTS, Pearl expands his repertoire to bring the same suspense to nineteenth-century science that he did to three of literary history’s greatest mysteries. In nineteenth-century Boston, a war exists between...

You are invited to join us for the Friends of the UNCG Libraries annual dinner on March 28, when we will welcome Dr. William R. Ferris(above) and Mr. Logie Meachum(below) in a celebration of blues music to support the University Libraries at UNCG. For more, see the University's news release .

Charles Dickens was born in 1812. UNCG is celebrating the bicentennial of his birth with a series of programs sponsored by the University Libraries, the English Department, the Freshman Seminar Program, the Atlantic World Research Network, the Friends of the UNCG Libraries, the Greensboro Public Library and others. Books by and about Dickens abound, with more than 900 titles in the UNCG library catalog alone. Some of these are highlighted at the GRAB A BOOK display near the Circulation Desk in Jackson Library during Feburary , and may be checked out. In addition to his own work, there are numerous biographies, books of criticism, and studies of Dickens on subjects ranging from criminology and prisons to psychology, history, travel, theatre, cinema, journalism, and parent-child relations. We invite you to choose from among these selections and others in our book collection, and visit "Windows to the World: The Immortal Works of Charles Dickens," now on exhibit in the Hodges...

February — A Dickens of a Celebration (Bicentennial celebration of the birth of Charles Dickens) Monday, February 6 - Book Discussion of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, led by Hepsie Roskelly , English, Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library, 4 p.m. Free Tuesday, February 7 - Dickens's 200 th Birthday Party/favorite readings, sponsored by the English Department, Humanities Faculty Lounge, 3rd Floor, Moore Hall of Humanities and Research Administration 2-4 p.m. Tuesday, February 21 - "Charles Dickens Presented by Dr. Elliot Engel ," sponsored by the Freshman Seminar Program of the College of Arts & Science, Jackson Library, 3 p.m. Free. Thursday, March 1 - Matthew Pearl, author of The Technologists , and The Last Dickens , Virginia Dare Room, Alumni House. 7 p.m. Free. Friday, March 2 — “Saving the Hansen House” documentary film screening, co-sponsored by the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at the Greensboro Historical Museum, 7:30 p.m. Free Wednesda...