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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor="#999999" lang=EN-US link="#0000EE" vlink="#551A8B"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><br><br>FRANCIS CONVERSATION SERIES / BRANFORD MASTER'S DESSERT<br><br><b>Thursday, February 24, 8:00 p.m.<br>Branford Master's Residence, 80 High St.<br>Introduced by Anne Fadiman, Francis Writer-in-Residence</b></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:36.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#993300'>Nicholas Dawidoff on Memoir and Baseball<br></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#993300'><br></span><span style='font-size:24.0pt;color:#CC0000'><img width=350 height=233 id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CBD33A.9C506730"></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center'><br><span style='font-size:13.5pt;color:#993300'>“I've never read a memoir whose author has remained truer to his boyhood self.” <i><br><em> --Jonathan Franzen </em></i></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As Nicholas Dawidoff was losing his father to mental illness, he found a safe haven in his love for baseball. <b><span style='font-size:10.0pt'> </span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/books/review/Stephenson-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22the%20crowd%20sounds%20happy%22&st=cse">A</a></span><i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/books/review/Stephenson-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22the%20crowd%20sounds%20happy%22&st=cse"> New York Times </a></i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/books/review/Stephenson-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22the%20crowd%20sounds%20happy%22&st=cse">review</a> called <i>The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball</i> “a beautiful portrait of a wounded family.” According to Michael Pollan, it belongs on the “short shelf of great books about American boyhood.” <br><br>Dawidoff will read from and discuss his memoir, and then field questions on writing, family troubles, and baseball.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>The Yale-Readings Listserv is sponsored by the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To post announcements about poetry and fiction readings, send the full text of the announcement, including contact information, to <a href="http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/yale-readings"><span style='color:blue'>nancy.kuhl at yale.edu.</span></a> Messages sent directly to the Yale-Readings list may not be posted. <br><br>For more information about Poetry at the Beinecke Library, visit: <a href="https://beineckepoetry.wordpress.com"><span style='color:blue'>https://beineckepoetry.wordpress.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>