The 1920’s are often seen as a golden age of literature and art. On our side of the Atlantic, there was Greenwich Village, the physical home of much of the intellectual and artistic ferment in America in the 20’s. This is your last week to catch the Harry Ransom Center's free exhibition, “The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door: A Portal to Bohemia, 1920-1925” focusing on a bookshop owned by Frank Shay in Greenwich Village in the early 1920’s, located at 4 Christopher Street. The exhibit features a wooden interior door for “Frank Shay’s Bookshop” that was signed by 242 writers, literary bigwigs and assorted cultural figures of the era. more ›

On Tuesday, The Austin Bat Cave is hosting a screening of the film Ice Storm with Rick Moody, upon whose novel the Ang Lee film is based, all of which follows a discussion of the book with Moody and Evan Smith. The event takes place at the Blanton Auditorium, will also feature cocktails, and costs fifty bucks. more ›

The Harry Ransom Center has acquired novelist J.M. Coetzee’s archives (at an estimated $1.5 million), making him the ninth Nobel laureate to be housed at the HRC -- a lofty list that includes T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Doris Lessing. The archives contain over 150 boxes and filing cabinets of journals, manuscripts (including two Man Booker Prize winning novels: Life & Times of Michael K and Disgrace), as well as letter correspondence, interviews, digital and audiovisual materials, and family photographs covering a fifty-year career. more ›

Like a band of Wilburys, five Magnum photographers and one writer have set out on a road trip to capture American in its various states. Tackling issues related to border politics, teens, and water, the group is traveling from Texas to Cali (last stop Oakland), in an effort to break away from Magnum's all-seeing global vision to document our region of the world in a more personal and experimental manner. more ›

Itching to discuss books with someone other than your normal book club? Or maybe you're not looking to ditch the book group, but just want to see what else is out there. A little harmless philandering for the bibliophile. Whatever the case may be, the Austin Public Library, in cooperation with the Harry Ransom Center, has just the thing to satisfy all your literary urges. more ›

Harry Ransom Center's annual Research Fellowships in the Humanities, which funds some 50 assorted scholarly endeavors, is now accepting applications for the 2010-2011 academic year. The program provides stipends of up to three months ($3,000 per month), with additional funds provided for travel. Applicants must either be post-dos or "independent scholars with a substantial record of scholarly achievement." For an idea of the vast range of possible topics you might pitch, past topics have included: "The Rise of the British Detective Novel," "Photography on the Border: Picturing and Constructing the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands," and "A True Account of the Design, and Advantages of the South-Sea Trade: Profits, Propaganda, and the Peace Preliminaries of 1711." [Fellowships] more ›

Everyone’s favorite Donnie Darko shout-out author, Graham Greene, has apparently had a hidden work unearthed by a Greene scholar named Francois Gallix, who was doing time here at the Harry Ransom Center. Right here in Austin. Over a year ago, but whatever. To some of us, this is still big news. more ›

Playwright and filmmaker David Mamet is returning to UT this Thursday—oddly enough, a year and a day after his last appearance on campus—for a chat with UT Austin President William Powers Jr. more ›

The Harry Ransom Center will present a very special holiday performance of the Dylan Thomas story A Child's Christmas In Wales this evening at 7pm. The story, which paints the story of the December holiday through the lens of childhood innocence and joy, was written in 1955 and is easily one of Thomas' most tenderly nostalgic pieces. more ›

Tonight at Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall, pianist Richard Dowling will perform French composer Maurice Ravel's Trio for piano, violin, and cello, accompanied by Miró String Quartet first violinist Daniel Ching and cellist Amy Levine of the Laurel Piano Trio. This is the first time this version of Trio has been performed, so you don't want to miss it. more ›

Just this year alone, at the ripe young age of 50, they managed to acquire the archive of acclaimed British author Jim Crace, letters from Tennessee Williams and John Steinbeck, and an ancient Bible written in parallel in Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic. more ›

The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin gives out about 50 fellowships each year to post-doctorates and independent scholars for research projects "in all areas of the humanities." The funding includes a handsome $3,000 monthly stipend (up to 4 months), plus travel stipends. Applications are now being accepted; the deadline is February 2, 2009. HRC also notes that priority goes to proposals that incorporate the Center's collections, so you'd do well to take a stroll around their impressive collections before coming up with a research topic. [Harry Ransom Center Fellowships] more ›

The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin today announced two impressive acquisitions to its already massive collection: letters from cherished American playwright Tennessee Williams and equally cherished American novelist John Steinbeck. more ›

In tandem with its current exhibit, "On the Road with the Beats," the Harry Ransom Center is presenting a month-long Beat Film Series at the Alamo Ritz. more ›

The Harry Ransom Center is not exactly known for its parties. No beverages, pens, or even white paper are allowed in their reading room. We have to give them credit for this event, however, It's unorthodox, it's ambitious, it has just the right alchemy between '50's-era jazzbo "hipsters" and the modern-day sort, and it might end up being the most amazing literary event in Austin this year. more ›

Accompanying the current exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center, Beat Voices delves further into the doings of Peter Orlovsky, Diane di Prima, William S. Burroughs, and Alfred Leslie. The production's four brief plays run Sat-Sun @1 & 3pm until the exhibition closes on August 3. // The rock opera Speeding Motorcycle at Zach Scott Theater is based on the work of Daniel Johnston and tells the tale of Joe the Boxer's unrequited love for an undertaker's girlfriend. We're betting it won't disappoint. Through March 23, Thu-Sat @8pm / Sun @2:30pm. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Austinist. more ›

Haven't had enough of Valentine's Day yet? Ever secretly wanted to take a date to the Harry Ransom Center, but went for $2 Tecates at some hipster dive instead? This Friday, for one night only, the HRC is heading to the Eastside, celebrating love, the birth of hip, and the "starving, hysterical, naked" visions of the Beat Generation. Sounds hot. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Austinist. more ›

Playwright and filmmaker David Mamet will appear at UT's Hogg Auditorium on Monday, February 4th for a discussion of his work with the Austin Chronicle's Robert Faires. The event is the first of several appearances by Mamet at UT in conjunction with the acquisition of his archives by the Harry Ransom Center. more ›

Score one more for the acquisitions team at the Harry Ransom Center. Yesterday morning, the UT facility announced that it had purchased the papers of Tim O'Brien, American novelist and resident of Central Texas. O'Brien teaches at Texas State University in San Marcos. more ›

Image from Arthur Miller Collection, Harry Ransom Center Rehearsing the American Dream: Arthur Miller’s TheatreSeptember 4 - December 30Harry Ransom Center (21st & Guadaloupe)free, hours vary[info]Sometimes we think we could spend a lifetime sorting through the treasure trove of historical documents and materials in the Harry Ransom Center. From the Gutenberg Bible to the Watergate papers, from the first-ever photograph to love poems written by Ernest Hemingway from the trenches of World War I, the... more ›

Usually, street closures around the Capitol hail the arrival of one of Austin's many street festivals, where you can listen to a wishy-washy blues-rocker do his best to channel Stevie Ray Vaughn while you eat a turkey leg amongst a sea of fanny-packed families and homemade jewelry vendors. But once a year it means it's Texas Book Festival time. As literary events go in this town, it is the big one. For two days... more ›

As far as ghosts and ghoulies go, we know that Austin has spooky entertainment options coming out the yin-yang, not to mention the standard trick-or-treating action. However, it has been brought to our attention that it is no longer socially acceptable for 20 to 30-somethings to beg candy off their neighbors (we have no shame), and our sexy bumblebee/sexy heart surgeon/sexy bottle of pepto bismol costumes are looking a little shabby this season. So... more ›

You probably know by now that perennial badass Robert De Niro donated his complete collection of film-related materials to the Harry Ransom Center in 2006, including annotated scripts and research materials from his character studies (that's right, De Niro is totally an anthropologist.) One of the main reasons De Niro chose the acclaimed University of Texas vault-of-goodness that is the Harry Ransom Center is because he knew that the materials would be available for students... more ›

On Thursday, a scholar named Randolph Lewis, of the University of Oklahoma, comes to the Harry Ransom Center to speak. Resolved: The recent explosion of documentary film has not helped the genre at all, instead causing it to conform to televisual norms, and pushing its filmmakers to use less "literary imagination" in their creative processes. We guess that means that in order to get on board with this argument, you kind of have to believe... more ›

If, like us, you thought that Marie Antoinette might have been a hell of a lot better as a silent movie, consider Orphans of the Storm (1921), screening tonight for free at the Harry Ransom Center as part of the Silent Silver Screens Series. Starring the lovely and incandescent Gish sisters (that's Lillian on the left and Dorothy there on the right), Orphans follows the odyssey of devoted French sisters Henriette and Louise. When... more ›

We're always trying to extol the value of having the Harry Ransom Center right here in town. They keep so many valuable treasures safe, yet make them readily available to the Austin community. Who else is going to keep your authentic Raging Bull boxing trunks so "just-off De Niro" fresh for an eternity? Well, it was only a matter of time before the HRC got mad props from New York's poshest periodical: The New Yorker.... more ›

THURSDAY [24] theatre • Rubber Repertory presents A Thought in Three Parts at The Vortex (8pm) music • Emissions From the Monolith Fest at Emo's music • Small Stars, Sounds Under Radio at Stubb's music • DJ Qbert, DJ Craze, DJ Klever, Table Manners Crew at The Parish music • Winovino, Bourbon Legends, Jett Mullens, Jaime Thomas at Beerland music • Morrissey Pre-Party with Andy Rourke! at The Mohawk music • Gulf of Mexico,... more ›

We were excited to find out that we no longer have to rely on walking our dog by at night to see the inside of those cool old houses near Duval St. because this Saturday, they will be open to the public as part of the Heritage Society of Austin’s 15th Annual Homes Tour. This year’s theme is “Duval Street in the 20’s,” and six of those beauties will be part of a walking... more ›