The Celebrity Lecture Series

Playwright Edward Albee is introduced by Dean John Eadie and Professor Joyce Ramsay of Michigan State University. Ramsay praises Albee as “the most important American playwright who is writing today” while enumerating the playwright's many works and awards. Edward Albee begins his lecture by talking about his chaotic education that eventually led h...

Publisher, professor, novelist, and playwright Edgar Lawrence Doctorow is introduced by John Eadie, dean of the College of Arts and Letters and Alan Suits, architect and founding president of the Dean’s Community Council. Doctorow commences his lecture by addressing “how writers write,” including the importance of sentence structure within a story,...

Introductions for Mexican author Carlos Fuentes are made by Dean John Eadie of the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University and Professor George Mansour, chair person of the Department of Romance and Classical Languages. Mansour describes how Fuentes' diverse background led him to become a writer of great perspective and vision. A...

Author David Halberstam is introduced by Wendy Wilkins, dean of the College of Arts and Letters and Stephen Rachman from the Department of English at Michigan State University. Rachman summarizes Halberstam's impressive career and praises the scope and depth of his writing. David Halberstam begins his lecture by talking about current events and the...

Novelist William Kennedy is introduced by Dean John Eadie and Professor William Penn. Kennedy begins with an amusing anecdote about writing a short story for ...

Historian David McCullough is introduced by Dean Wendy Wilkins and Professor of History David Bailey. Bailey praises McCullough for the extraordinary amount of passion he puts into his writing. McCullough commences his lecture by talking about a trip he took to England to see its historical gardens that were created in the eighteenth century, and c...

Writer Jane Smiley is introduced by Dean John Eadie and Professor William Penn who discusses the underlying themes in Smiley's novels. Smiley believes that the novels she began reading at age six inspired her to become an author and showed her that she has an inner voice. Smiley discusses the role of writing plays in our society today. Writing is n...

Author and cultural theorist Susan Sontage is introduced by John Eadie and Marcelette Williams who summarizes Sontag's writing career by giving a history of her works and awards. Williams briefly meditates on what is to be the topic of Sontag's lecture, "Illness as Metaphor," commenting on the "danger" of metaphorical usage in our society. Sontag b...

Introductions for author and satirist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. are made by John Eadie and Nancy Pogel who summarizes Vonnegut's varied career. Vonnegut opens the lecture on his beginnings as an author, and transitions to address the structure of society, stating that in order to lead a "good life" one must accrue a good support system, what he terms an "...

John Eadie and William Hixson introduce political historian Garry Wills. Hixson praises the breadth of topics covered, as well as the erudition, in Wills's writing. The topic Wills discusses in his lecture is leadership and the scarcity of leaders in our society today. He enumerates four reasons why we perceive leaders as being in the past but not ...