Book Markers: 11.07.13
The Fall of the College
So what do you think went wrong at Southampton College: mere mismanagement? Perpetually insufficient funding for the redheaded stepchild of the Long Island University system? Deep-pocketed trustees failing to pony up as promised? Or was it doomed from its misguided Vietnam War-era conception as a safe haven for academically uninspired rich kids seeking to avoid the draft . . .
John A. Strong, who taught history at the campus for 33 years, has weighed in on the subject in “Running on Empty: The Rise and Fall of Southampton College, 1963-2005,” out from Excelsior Editions of the SUNY Press earlier this year. He’ll speak about the book, an extensive institutional history, on Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. at the Southampton Historical Society’s Rogers Mansion, on Meeting House Lane in Southampton Village.
Reservations with the historical society and donations at the door have been suggested. Light refreshments will be served, perhaps countervailing the weighty matters at hand. Jobs were lost. Lives were significantly altered. Just think, reader, how many people you know who came to the South Fork and didn’t leave simply because the college existed.
Hannibal’s “A Trace of Red” Reissued
Ed Hannibal, your friendly neighborhood novelist and Star contributor, now has two books reissued as paperbacks and on the shelves at BookHampton’s various locations. “Chocolate Days, Popsicle Weeks” has been joined by “A Trace of Red” thanks to the Authors Guild BackinPrint program, which publishes e-paperbacks that stand out from the crowd of self-published books of dubious quality.
Well-received by The New York Times upon its 1982 release, “A Trace of Red” is a “cold war espionage thriller set in the Manhattan ad world (with key scenes set on the East End),” Mr. Hannibal, a former ad man himself, wrote in an e-mail that went on to mention timely plot elements involving “surveillance of civilians, ‘black ops’ assassinations of ‘assets’ gone bad,” and more.
And on the timely front, the Springs novelist is also a teacher, and it’s not too late to sign up for his six-part course on the “ABCs of creative writing” starting Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Amagansett Library. The cost is $25.
“Hunting Season” at Canio’s
Mirta Ojito, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will speak at Canio’s in Sag Harbor about her new book, “Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town,” on Nov. 9 at 5 p.m. The book examines the murder of Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, who was attacked by a group of Patchogue teenagers on Nov. 8, 2008.
Ms. Ojito investigates the events surrounding the crime, beginning with the victim’s life in Ecuador and leading up to the murder, the arrests, the trial, and the aftermath. The book also profiles the teenagers, Mr. Lucero’s family in the United States and Ecuador, and members of the community. She places the crime within the larger context of the changing nature of immigration in the United States and the attitudes and stereotypes that can lead to such tragic outcomes.
A newspaper reporter since 1987, Ms. Ojito has worked for The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, and, from 1966 to 2002, The New York Times, where she was awarded a Pulitzer for a series of articles on race in America.