The Neighborhood Author Series, a program of free public lectures featuring Baltimore-based writers of books published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, will be launched this week by the university's Office of Community Affairs and the JHU Press. Speakers will include physicians, journalists, historians and photographers, who will take questions from the audience following their talks and also will sign copies of their books, which will be available for purchase.

Lectures will take place at 7:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month in the Peabody Room at the Episcopal Diocesan Center on the corner of North Charles Street and University Parkway, adjacent to the Homewood campus. Parking is available.

Neighborhood historian Gilbert Sandler will kick off the series on Dec. 11 when he discusses what life was like in Charm City when it was Small Town Baltimore. He'll reveal why the Lexington Market moved indoors, when the last Locust Point Ferry crossed the harbor, how much Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin made to play the Club Charles and numerous other details of decades gone by.

Lawrence J. Cheskin, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, will inaugurate the new year on Jan. 8 when he gives a talk based on his book Losing Weight for Good. Scheduled for the following months are Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Francis Mark Mondimore, author of Depression: The Mood Disease; Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families; and Adolescent Depression: A Guide for Parents, Feb. 12; Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Olesker, author of Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore, March 12; Michael Rogers, author of Answering Their Country's Call, April 9; and Nancy L. Mace and Peter V. Rabins, authors of The 36-Hour Day, which is considered the "bible" for families giving care to people with dementia, May 14.