GREAT BOOKS COUNCIL
OF SAN FRANCISCO
W EEKEND OF POETRY IN TWENTY-FIRST YEAR
For 21 years, people of all walks of life have gathered
for a weekend at Westminster
Retreat, a lovely old estate near Walnut Creek, California, to enjoy
poetry. Sponsor of the event is the Great Books Council of San Francisco,
a not-for-profit affiliate of the Great Books Foundation. This year they
will discuss "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge plus poems by D. H. Lawrence, Robert Hass, Robinson Jeffers, William
Shakespeare, Billy Collins, and others. The event will take place
Saturday and Sunday November 10-11, 2007; The cost is $150 per person which
includes four meals, housing, a party, and all the reading materials.
Contact Theda or Oscar Firschein, registrars, at 650-854-3980 or oscarf1@earthlink.net.
If no response, call Brent Browning at 408-353-6340.
About the San Francisco
Great Books Council
The
Great Books Foundation was founded at the University of Chicago almost 60 years
ago by Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler. A non-profit educational organization, its
mission is to provide people of all ages the opportunity to read, discuss, and
learn from outstanding works of literature, current and past, western and
non-western.
Readings
may be ancient or modern, but must be worth careful reading and provoke
questions of interpretation that group discussion will help to illuminate. Participants must have read the selection and
are discouraged from bringing up other works or extraneous matters until
later. Everyone’s opinion is respected,
newcomer and veteran alike.
The
San Francisco council coordinates over 40 book groups throughout Northern
California, publishes a newsletter, Reading Matters, provides leader
training, helps start new book groups, and sponsors literary events in scenic
locations. To learn more or join a
group, log onto www.greatbooks-sf.com
or contact SFGB president Kay White of Novato at (4150382-1927 or kaycleveland@aol.com.