The Johns Hopkins Gazette: April 15, 2002
April 15, 2002
VOL. 31, NO. 30

  

'Memoirs of a Geisha' Author to Deliver Pouder Lecture

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Arthur Golden (pictured at right), author of the best-selling novel Memoirs of a Geisha, will deliver the G. Harry Pouder Memorial Lecture at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16, in Homewood's Shriver Hall Auditorium.

Golden's talk, "Memoirs of a Geisha: The Making of a Novel," will focus on his writing the 60-year tale--told in the form of a memoir--of Sayuri's sale to a geisha house at age 9 and her transformation into one of Japan's most celebrated geishas. Golden traces Sayuri's life from her childhood of poverty to her mastery of the arts of dance and music, makeup and the competition for te solicitude of prominent and wealthy men.

Golden, whose parents published The Chattanooga Times and his uncle, The New York Times, received his degree in art history from Harvard, a master's degree in Japanese history from Columbia University and a master's in English from Boston University. He learned the details of the life of a geisha from Mineko Iwasaki, a retired Kyoto geisha.

Since 1978, the G. Harry Pouder Memorial Lecture, focusing on American or English literature, has honored the executive vice president of the Baltimore Association of Commerce, who died in 1971. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins Evening College, Pouder wrote plays and was associated with the Homewood Playshop. Past Pouder lecturers include Leon Uris, James Michener, Tom Stoppard, William Styron, Joyce Carol Oates, Larry McMurtry, Stephen Ambrose and Richard Ford.

The lecture is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. For information, call 410-516-7157.


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