April 9, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:  Susan Annett, Principal Librarian, Public Services, (310) 458-8640
                 susan.annett@smgov.net

"Isherwood in Context," a presentation by experts on Christopher Isherwood and Weimar Germany, takes place on Saturday, April 17, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. at the Montana Ave. Branch Library, 1704 Montana Ave. This presentation launches Santa Monica Citywide Reads, a community reading program, which features Isherwood's The Berlin Stories.  A diverse and prolific author, the British-born Isherwood is best known as the writer behind the popular musical Cabaret, based on his tales of Weimar Berlin. Sue Hodson, Curator of Literary Manuscripts at The Huntington Library, offers an overview of Isherwood's life and works, emphasizing his youthful Berlin experiences, the real people behind characters like Sally Bowles, and his friendship with authors W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and E. M. Forster.

Timothy Benson, Curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gives an illustrated talk that explores Isherwood's Berlin through the eyes of contemporary artists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz, who gave expression to the bustling metropolis and political tension that marked Berlin between the two world wars.

Carola Kaplan, Professor of English at California State University, Pomona, presents "Isherwood in Hollywood: Where the Wandering Stopped," focusing on the author's life, his literary and other writings, and his search for spiritual fulfillment during his years in America that culminated in his masterful portrait of life in mid-century Southern California in the novel, A Single Man.

Santa Monica Citywide Reads events are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Santa Monica Public Library 458-8600, or visit www.smpl.org/cwr.

.