At Penn State

Library Celebrates O'Hara Centennial
STATE COLLEGE, PA -- Professor Philip B. Eppard,
of the University of Albany, SUNY, spoke 7
November on 'The Posthumous Lives of John
O'Hara.'

Professor Eppard, who is on the faculty of the
School of Information Science and Policy, is the
editor of Critical Essays on John O'Hara and the
co-editor of many bibliographies of American
literature. He examined the different approaches
O'Hara's biographers have taken and consider how
their studies have enhanced our understanding of
O’Hara’s literary achievements and influenced his
reputation.

Novelist and short-story writer O'Hara
(1905-1970) was born in Pottsville, PA. Although
he left the state as a young man, he set five
novels and more than 50 stories in
Pennsylvania, many in a fictional town called
Gibbsville. O'Hara was a regular contributor to
The New Yorker and wrote some 400 short stories
in addition to 19 novels. Five of his novels were
made into big-budget motion pictures, including
Butterfield 8 and Pal Joey.

The lecture was sponsored by the Huck Chair for
Special Collections, the Penn State Center for
the History of the Book, and the Pennsylvania
Center for the Book. A reception will follow in
the Mann Assembly Room.

A related exhibition, 'John O’Hara: A Centennial
Exhibit' also opened on 7 November in the Special
Collections Library. Timothy Babcock, a Rare
Books and Manuscripts intern from the Syracuse
University School of Information Studies, curated
the exhibit from the John O'Hara Papers and from
our extensive holdings of O'Hara's works.

The Special Collections Library,104 Paterno
Library, is open Monday-Thursday, 8:00 a.m.-6:30
p.m.; and Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. The
exhibition will run through January 31, 2006.