"...a fear of being trapped by domesticity and baby carriages..."
This year's booklet cover is an illustration by James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960), from Pelham, New York. He was a contemporary of the Literature Club's founders, who first met more than a century ago and who might have agree with the sentiments expressed in his cartoon.
We chose this year's topic knowing well what a difficult year this was going to be.
This winter, we are foregoing the usual rounds of parties and family get-togethers in the interest of not being COVID spreaders. The days are short, it's cold and we're lonely. We are meeting on Zoom (see photo in post Dec 14 2020: Social Distancing, Masks, Quarantines). We are being consoled by writers of comedy, humor and satire, and by hearing each others' presentations.
Here's who's doing what, in the program year 2020-2021:
Laura: Betty MacDonald, Shirley Jackson, Tina Fey: Laughing While Living (Sept 16)
Frances: E.M. Delafield: Motherhood, Work, Laughter (Sept 30)
Louisa: The Writing Behind Screwball Comedies (Oct 21)
Christine: Samuel Becket plays (Oct 28)
Lori: Political Satire: Catch 22, Brave New World and Slaughterhouse 5 (Nov 18)
Diana: Bailey White (Dec 9)
Barbara: Shakespeare's Fools (Jan 6)
Joanna: Uncommon Writer: Alan Bennett (Jan 20)
Carol: James Thurber (Feb 3)
Jacqueline: Neil Simon (Feb 24)
Annual Meeting (Mar 10)
Constance: Dawn Powell (Mar 24)
Linda: Roz Chast: Existential Angst (Apr 14)
Gita: Peter Mayle (Apr 28)
Carla: Calvin Trillin (May 12)
