First Class of Scholars and Writers Begins September 13

Premiere Intellectual Forum at The New York Public Library Opens

On Monday, September 13, the fifteen Fellows appointed to The New York Public Library's eagerly awaited Center for Scholars and Writers, in the landmark Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, will begin their residency for the academic year 1999-2000. Awarded coveted positions that will allow them time to create and write in the cerebral quiet of the Library, they will come from across the United States, and from England, Austria, and Italy. Each Fellow's office will be outfitted with Internet computers linked to the Library's superfast fiber optic network. And the first in a series of "class" photographs will be taken to commemorate the occasion.

On this morning, they will be introduced to some of the people responsible for bringing them to the Library -- the eminent historian Peter Gay, the Center's Director and Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale Univer-sity; Library President Paul LeClerc; and Library Trustee Dorothy Cullman and her husband Lewis B. Cullman, whose leadership gift of $10 million in honor of Brooke Russell Astor turned the idea of forming such a center into a reality. The Cullmans are among the City's most significant philanthropists and have formed a particular bond with The New York Public Library with gifts totalling $30 million.

In addition to the Cullmans' gift, the Center was made possible by major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which provided a total of $3.4 million in funding to the project. An initial gift in 1996 permitted the Library to devote a year to develop a prototype of its program. In 1998, a generous commitment of $3 million in endowment support as well as initial operating support was received. A major gift was also received from The Estate of Charles J. Liebman; the Center's auditorium will be named the Margaret Liebman Berger Forum in honor of Mr. Liebman's sister. Other significant gifts were received from Sue Ann and John Weinberg, and The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation. Construction funds for the renovation were provided by the City of New York, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone.

"From the first day I arrived here, I knew that one of the most significant things to be done was to encourage the Library's evolution as an important intellectual center in New York," said President Paul LeClerc. "The Cullmans' enthusiasm and support has, together with our other donors, made it possible for us to sponsor each writer with a significant stipend, a fine space in which to work, and the use of our extraordinary collections to allow their imaginations full rein. At the same time, stimulation from the proximity of other fine minds amid the vibrancy of New York City should provide an ideal forum for provocative discourse and ideas, leading to new written works. We are extraordinarily fortunate that the renowned scholar Peter Gay did us the honor of agreeing to head the project."

The attractive Center was designed by Davis Brody Bond, principal architect Lewis Davis, the firm responsible for all recent renovations to the Fifth Avenue Library. It is located in a spacious suite of rooms that mirror the Library's splendid Trustees Room on the other side of the building. In the office area, there is a light, airy feeling from the glass walls, which come with shades that may be used for privacy. In the middle is comfortable seating where the Fellows will gather to discuss ideas, or simply enjoy one another's company. There is also a small area containing basic reference works for common use.

"Like many good ideas, the idea of bringing scholars and imaginative writers to the source, one of the world's great libraries, was essentially simple," said Peter Gay. "Carrying it through was something else. Our first year's class will, I trust, consider themselves pioneers in a great, and I hope long-lived, experiment, and I look forward not just to what they will turn out, but also to what they can teach us. It should be fascinating."

"My husband and I found the concept hard to resist," said Dorothy Cullman. "In the Center, Paul LeClerc and Library Trustee Robert Darnton had a vision for a space in which writers and scholars could pursue their work under ideal conditions, expanding the public view of the Library into a living, archival entity.
The Center for Scholars and Writers reflects what The New York Public Library has stood for over the past 100 years. Under the brilliant leadership of Peter Gay, the Center will help to move the Library into the year 2000 with a renewed sense of mission."

Director's Fellows
Three Director's Fellows were named by Professor Gay: Ada Louise Huxtable, the independent writer and architecture critic; Marion Kaplan, Professor of History at Queens College New York, and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; and Francine Prose, the independent writer of fiction and essays. The additional twelve Fellows were named by a distinguished panel after a rigorous selection process, and include university-based scholars, novelists, critics, a doctor, and a musician. The Fellows will work at the Library on a daily basis during their tenure, using collections from all corners of the institution, but primarily from the humanities area. Their subjects of study range from maps and merchant travels to racial attitudes and public health. Each will receive a stipend of $50,000 for one academic year.

The Fellows
The names of the other twelve Center Fellows are: Sven Beckert, Assistant Professor of History, Harvard University; Paul Berman, writer, New York City; D. Graham Burnett, former Mellon Fellow in History, Columbia University, and Assistant Professor in the Honors College at the University of Oklahoma; Kathleen Cleaver, Visiting Assistant Professor, History and American Studies, Yale University; Pamela Clemit, Reader in English Studies, University of Durham, U.K.; Andrew Delbanco, Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; Gregory K. Dreicer, on the faculty of the Center for New Design in the Parsons School of Design; Christian Fleck, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Graz, Austria; Anthony Holden, writer, London, U.K.; Allen Kurzweil, novelist, Massachusetts; Howard Markel, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and Director, Historical Center for the Health Sciences, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Harvey Sachs, writer, Italy.

The New York Public Library and the American Council of Learned Societies have formed a collaborative program to award joint fellowships each cycle. This year, a joint fellowship was awarded to Andrew Delbanco.

Lectures
The authors, whose finished works will eventually reside in the Library's stacks, will participate in programs for the general public. These may include lectures, symposia, or readings, to be held in the Center's adjacent forum. The Center for Scholars and Writers' first series of programs, the W.W. Norton Lectures: "The Publishing Business," featuring Jason Epstein, has been planned in the Library's Celeste Bartos Forum on the ground floor beginning on October 7.

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thoerenz: pro: 09-10-99
last revised: 11-4-99