Paul Merchant, William Stafford Archivist and Special Collections Associate, will retire this month after 14 years of service to the Lewis & Clark community. Paul has served the College as a teacher, writer, and archivist, as well as a mentor and friend to many.

Paul was born in Wales and studied at Cambridge, the Shakespeare Institute, and the University of Athens. Paul taught for many years at the University of Warwick and the University of Tennessee, before moving to Portland with his wife Grace and his son Luke. In Portland Paul worked with IRCO (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization), Breitenbush Press, Mountain Writers, and in the mid 1990s he became the archivist for the Estate of William Stafford. When the Stafford Archives were donated to Lewis & Clark in 2008, Paul continued to work as the Stafford Archivist at the Watzek Library Special Collections, and as an instructor for the Lewis & Clark English Department and the Northwest Writing Institute. As a member of the Special Collections staff, Paul has had a vital role as an author, editor, bibliographer, and exhibit curator. These projects have included work on William Stafford, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, western exploration, modern literature, Oregon poetry, pacifism, utopian studies, Charles Dickens, and early publications of classical literature. In 2010 Paul gifted his own Charles Dickens collection to the College, and in 2011 he gifted his extensive collection of rare British literature and classics.

As a creative writer and literary scholar, Paul is the editor and translator of Modern Poetry In Translation 4 (1968), which included the first selection of Greek poet Yannis Ritsos published in England. He is also the translator of Eleni Vakalo’s Genealogy (1971), Ritsos’ Monochords (2007), and Constantine P. Cavafy’s Twelve Poems (2010). His collection of poems Bone from a Stag’s Heart was a 1988 British Poetry Book Society Recommendation. His fourth collection of poems, Some Business of Affinity (2006), was a finalist for an Oregon Book Award. Paul also co-edited with Vince Wixon The Answers Are Inside the Mountains, Meditations on the Writing Life, and Crossing Unmarked Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation for the University of Michigan Press.

Paul’s last day with us will be August 31. Please join with us in thanking him for his outstanding service and wishing him and his family all the very best.

Curated by Associated Professor of English, Rishona Zimring and 2012 graduate, Casey Newbegin, this exhibit explores artistic responses to rapid change in the period before WWII. On display at Watzek Library, through May 2013.

Whether melancholy or effervescent, the artistic responses to the conditions of rapid change in the period before WWII are arresting in their vitality and verve, and they were everywhere. We have chosen to feature and contextualize two somewhat lesser-known visual artists in order to underscore just how compelling and vivacious the art of everyday life in the early 20th century could be. Our two featured visual artists are E. McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) and Gwen Raverat (1885-1957), both of whom worked in England, where the impact of new technologies and the consequent transformation of the landscape—both urban and rural—created a fertile friction when they met up with a long tradition of pastoral poetry and art and Romantic longings for a pre-industrial Golden Age. You will not find the art of Kauffer and Raverat drawing crowds in the grandest museums. Rather, you are likely to find it familiar because it has graced a book cover, illustrated a children’s book, or advertised an airline. Your eye will be arrested because both artists worked in or were inspired by the medium of the woodcut, with its boldness of line, its encouragement of geometric patterning, its tactility and sensuality. Both artists worked as illustrators and designers, finding opportunities to make art for London Underground posters, bus company advertisements, book jackets, set and costume designs for theatrical productions, and volumes of poetry and fairy tales. Their art is not just for museums, galleries, and isolated contemplation. It is for, and of, the everyday aesthetic experience, and embellishment, of modernity.

This exhibit resulted from a Faculty-Student Collaboration Grant administered by the Office of the Associate Dean with financial support from the President’s Strategic Initiative Fund. Faculty member Rishona Zimring, Associate Professor of English, worked with senior English major Casey Newbegin, Lewis & Clark Class of 2012, in close collaboration with Watzek Library’s Special Collections, especially Paul Merchant and Jeremy Skinner.

In her junior year, Casey enrolled in Zimring’s English 333, Major Figures: Joyce and Woolf, where she studied major novels by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Her final paper for that class examined father-daughter relationships, and she began to develop a strong interest in learning more about Woolf’s life and that of her husband, Leonard. Casey applied for and was a co-winner of the English Department’s Dixon Award, which funds research and travel for junior English majors in the summer before their senior year. Casey spent the spring of her junior year studying abroad in the Czech Republic, and used the money from the Dixon Award to fund a longer stay abroad which included an early summer expedition to the University of Sussex in England, which houses papers of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Casey not only researched unpublished materials in the archives; she also had the opportunity to develop her expertise in the visual culture of modernism, and especially Bloomsbury, by visiting museums and heritage sites in Sussex such as Monk’s House, the home of the Woolfs, and Charleston, the home of Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell.

Upon returning to LC, Casey met with Zimring to discuss collaboration on modernist materials in Special Collections, where Casey was honing her skills as an archivist through her work-study job. Zimring had been working more closely with Special Collections in recent years to develop connections between her classes on modernism and the library’s acquisition and preservation of modernist archival materials, such as important journal issues, examples of book and magazine design and illustration, and rare books from the period of the early 20th century. Casey’s archival experience at Special Collections, her interest and expertise in British modernism, and her sharp and imaginative sense of design made her an ideal partner for the exhibit’s development and realization. Meanwhile, Zimring’s ongoing research and publication in the field of British modernism kept her intensely engaged as a scholar as well as a teacher in the materials and backgrounds for the project. Zimring and Casey worked together throughout the spring semester of Casey’s senior year to research backgrounds for the exhibit and select engaging quotations. In the summer after she graduated, Casey and Zimring worked especially closely with Special Collections to create explanatory text and design the layout for the exhibit. Watzek Library generously funded Casey’s additional work during the summer.

Parents and new L&C students, please join us August 29 and August 30 between 1-3pm in the Watzek Library Classroom for coffee or tea and an opportunity to meet friendly library staff.

Librarians and staff will be on hand to answer your questions about the library and their experiences at Lewis & Clark.

We also invite you to take part in a library tour starting at 1, 2, or 3pm to learn about research support, our renowned special collections, and other library offerings to help students succeed.

Join us for guided tours of Watzek Library during New Student Orientation. Begin with refreshments in the library classroom on Wednesday, August 29 and Thursday, August 30 at 1, 2, and 3 pm. Come by at any of these times for an introduction to library spaces, resources, and services.

Visit the L&C New Student Orientation site for more info about the entire program of events.

Visit the Heritage Room to browse the recently acquired Karl Marlantes Collection, spanning from 1968-2011, and including typescript drafts of Matterhorn, Marlantes's Vietnam journals, and more.

Karl Marlantes was born in Seaside, Oregon in 1945. After attending high school in Seaside, Marlantes was awarded a National Merit Scholarship. He attended Yale University, where he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. Rather than studying at Oxford, Marlantes enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, and served as a lieutenant during the Vietnam War, earning the Navy Cross, two Navy Commendations for Valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten Air Medals. After returning from the War, Marlantes began writing about his experience.

His first novel, Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, was published in a small edition of 1,000 copies in 2009 by El Leon Literary Arts of Berkeley, California. With an official publication date of May 1, advanced readers copies were mailed out early in the year. Staffers at Barnes & Noble were impressed with the novel, and submitted it to a first-novel contest, which led a number of New York publishers to express interest in obtaining the rights to the book. Eventually, Grove Atlantic Press made a deal with El Leon and copies already printed but not yet distributed were issued as galleys for a El León/Grove joint revised publication, which was issued in 2010.

Matterhorn was Amazon's Book of the Month for March 2010, and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list in April 2010. It won the 2011 William E. Colby Award, was ranked #7 for Fiction in Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year (2010), and was one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year (2010). It was also an ALA Notable Book (2010), won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (2011), and won the Indies Choice Book Award (Adult Debut, 2011).

This collection includes multiple complete typescript drafts of the book Matterhorn, manuscripts of recently (2011) published non-fiction work entitled What It Is Like To Go To War, about modern veteran life upon return to the civilian world, copies of correspondence with publishers, foreign language editions of each title, and copies of various editions of both published books. The archive includes Marlantes Vietnam journals, Officer Reports, Battle Maps, and other related materials The materials in this collection range from 1968-2010.

For more information about this collection, please contact Doug Erickson, Head of Special Collections/Archivist, dme@lclark.edu

Ooh and ah over the artwork of L&C art students in the brand spankin' new Lewis & Clark Senior Art Digital Archive! The collection showcases artwork created by Lewis & Clark College Senior Studio Art Majors, from 1993-present. Included works range from sculptural installations to videos to drawings, and much much more. We encourage you to browse the archive to see for yourself why the L&C Senior artists are worthy of this Wall Street Journal stamp of approval.

Image: Beneath the Waking Life by Jarre Lyman (LC, 2011)

Mark D. Dahl has been appointed the Director of Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College. Prior to being named Interim Director in 2010, Mark served as Associate Director for Digital Initiatives and Collection Management Services. He joined Watzek Library in 2001 as Library Technology Coordinator, and also served as Assistant Director for Systems and Access Services. He has been the college liaison to the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) since 2007.

During Mark’s tenure Watzek Library has distinguished itself amongst liberal arts libraries by developing a robust program in digital initiatives and collections in partnership with students, faculty, and staff. The library received special commendation from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities for the innovative use of technologies to enrich library collections and improve services to users in the College’s 2008 accreditation report. Mark has played major roles in securing grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and Institute for Museums and Library Services (IMLS), which have helped support expanding faculty research, access to the arts, and library preservation. He regularly blogs at liberalartslibrary.blogspot.com and has published and presented widely, including a chapter on digital scholarship in a forthcoming volume from ACRL Press on Interdisciplinarity and academic libraries. In 2006, he co-authored Digital Libraries : Integrating Content and Systems (Oxford: Chandos).

Mark received a B.A. in History and Journalism, and master’s degrees in History and Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prior to arriving at Lewis & Clark he was the Systems and Technical Services Librarian at Central Oregon Community College in Bend. Mark enjoys commuting to Palatine Hill on his bike or in his running shoes 12 months per year. On the weekends, he can be found running trail ultra marathons, listening to classic country music, and spending time with his three year old son, Rowan.

Remember reading for fun? School's out, and we've chosen a slew of books for your summer reading pleasure. Check out the Diversions bookshelf or our online display for a selection of recent fiction, graphic novels, and Northwest trail guides to get you through the summer.

Image of Rick Ross reading Tina Fey from Awesome People Reading