Shakespeare Guild to Welcome Authors Paul Dickson, Thomas Keith and Susannah Carson, Spring 2013

After memorable conversations with such fascinating guests as the New Yorker's John Lahr (September 17), Hunter College's IRENE DASH (October 22), the McCarter Theatre's Nagle Jackson (November 19), Columbia University's JAMES SHAPIRO (December 17), and The Lion King's Julie Taymor (January 28), The Shakespeare Guild now looks forward to evenings in Manhattan's National Arts Club that will focus on three engaging authors: PAUL DICKSON, THOMAS KEITH, and SUSANNAH CARSON. These events will be followed in May by a fourth gathering that will take us to another venerable institution, The Players, and place the spotlight on EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER, a celebrity portrait painter who has been compared to the legendary John Singer Sargent.

Paul Dickson Brings 'Words from the White House'

Monday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m.
National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South
No Charge, but Reservations Advised

How many familiar words and phrases can be traced to the Executive Mansion in our nation's capital? What lexicographer PAUL DICKSON has to report will both amuse and surprise you. Acclaimed for his authoritative BASEBALL DICTIONARY, now in its third edition, Mr. Dickson has also treated us to such delights as THE CONGRESS DICTIONARY: The Ways and Meanings of Capitol Hill, JOURNALESE: A Dictionary for Deciphering the News, LABELS FOR LOCALS: What to Call People from Abilene to Zimbabwe, and DRUNK: The Definitive Drinker's Dictionary. A former editor for Merriam-Webster, Mr. Dickson has appeared frequently on All Things Considered and other NPR programs, and he was a periodic contributor to the late William Safire's popular "On Language" column for the New York Times Magazine. WORDS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE has been featured in The Washington Post, and Mr. Dickson has talked about it in a National Press Club presentation that was telecast over C-SPAN's weekend Book TV service. Copies of the volume will be on hand for purchase and inscription following what promises to be a lively conversation between Mr. Dickson and Shakespeare Guild president John Andrews.

A Tennessee Williams Birthday Gathering

Tuesday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m.
National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South
No Charge, but Reservations Advised

This date marks the 102nd birthday of a playwright whose evocative dialogue has been compared to that of such immortals as Chekhov and Shakespeare. THOMAS LANIER "TENNESSEE" WILLIAMS (1911-1983) enriched our repertory not only with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which is currently riveting Broadway audiences with Scarlett Johanson in the role of Maggie, and The Glass Menagerie, which is earning critical plaudits at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, but with classics like A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real, Orpheus Descending, Summer and Smoke, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Night of the Iguana, and The Rose Tattoo. To discuss Williams' rich legacy, we're pleased to welcome THOMAS KEITH, one of today's leading interpreters of the playwright's dramatic and literary work. A theater professor at Pace University, Mr. Keith has edited more than a dozen Williams titles for New Directions, among them his last full-length play, A House Not Meant to Stand, and three collections of previously unpublished one-act scripts. A selection of Mr. Keith's books will be available for purchase and inscription.

Susannah Carson on 'Living with Shakespeare'

Monday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m.
National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South
No Charge, but Reservations Advised

"There is no God but God, and his name is William Shakespeare." So asserts Harold Bloom in his foreword to LIVING WITH SHAKESPEARE, a new anthology by SUSANNAH CARSON. A Yale-educated writer who now lives in London, Ms. Carson has compiled observations and personal reminiscences by more than three dozen luminaries, among them authors Isabel Allende, Margaret Drabble, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jane Smiley, filmmakers Ralph Fiennes and Julie Taymor, and actors F. Murray Abraham, Brian Cox, James Earl Jones, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Sher, and Harriet Walter. What these and other contributors share is a conviction that "we live in Shakespeare's world," an environment that has been "fine-tuned for us" by a poet whose vision is so potent "that it's difficult to conceive who we would be" if he'd never existed. Published in time to mark the 449th celebration of Shakespeare's birth, Ms. Carson's book will be on display, and she'll be happy to inscribe copies for those who wish to purchase them.

Visit www.shakesguild.org for more information about these and other offerings, among them our May 23 gathering with EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER, whose depictions of Tony Bennett, Jose Ferrer, Katharine Hepburn, Christopher Plummer, Tom Wolfe, and other notables are among the most admired works in repositories such as the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.