thebigread.htm

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded a grant to The Huntington to host a Big Read celebration of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. The Huntington is one of 208 organizations throughout the nation that will host events related to one of 23 books from September 2008 through June 2009. The Huntington’s program will run from Sept. 27 to Nov. 2 and will include dozens of events, including public lectures, book discussions, dramatic readings, films, and musical performances.

The Big Read is an initiative of the NEA in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. It is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA’s selection of The Call of the Wild is a natural fit for The Huntington, which is the repository for Jack London’s 50,000-item archive. Highlights from the collection include the author’s Klondike diary, a first edition of The Call of the Wild, and the autographed manuscript of the classic story “To Build a Fire.” These items and more will be on display throughout the Big Read events.

"This is all about reaching out to nonreaders and readers at risk, using works in our collection to do so"

“This is all about reaching out to nonreaders and readers at risk, using works in our collection to do so,”says Sara S. “Sue” Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at The Huntington and the institution’s project director for the Big Read. The NEA has identified boys and young men as the group most at risk. Hodson says The Call of the Wild is the perfect book to entice them to read.

As was true during his life, London continues to be an extraordinarily charismatic figure who readily draws readers into his robust tales of adventure. He was himself an adventurer, who followed his own call of the wild to the Alaskan Klondike, to the South Pacific on a ship he built, and to many parts of the world as a journalist and war correspondent. London was a self-educated man who derived enormous pride from this fact. He read voraciously and was always convinced that he could learn to do anything, if he could read about it in a book.

“The Huntington is committed to continuing education, as well as to a love of reading,” says Hodson. “We can imagine few more worthwhile or rewarding endeavors than to promote the sheer enjoyment of reading through the writing of an author like Jack London. He would have loved this.” The Huntington celebration will kick off Sept. 27 with music from the Klondike performed by the Humbugs (a trio from Nevada City, Calif.) and a one-man show on Jack London by actor Michael Oakes.

“In just two years, the Big Read has grown from 10 communities to include more than 200 towns and cities nationwide,” said NEA Chair Dana Gioia. “Although each of these communities celebrates its Big Read program in its own way, one theme we consistently hear is that the Big Read is not just bringing citizens back to the joy of reading, but also reinvigorating the very idea of community.”

The organizations selected to participate in the Big Read receive grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 to promote and carry out community-based programs. The Huntington has enlisted partners whose mandate includes working with, and reaching out to, lapsed or reluctant readers. Partners include libraries, public schools, and community organizations, several of which will serve as venues for the Big Read events. They represent 10 cities in the area: Alhambra, Arcadia, Burbank, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Montebello, San Diego, San Marino, Sierra Madre, and South Pasadena.

The NEA launched the Big Read nationally in 2007. The latest Big Read grantees represent 46 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More information about The Big Read can be found at www.neabigread.org.

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