June 14, 2011, Filed Under: AuthorsScience fiction writer Bruce Sterling donates collection of materials to Ransom Center American science fiction writer Bruce Sterling has donated a collection of materials to the Ransom Center. Sterling, an alumnus of the University, is known as one of the co-founders of the “cyberpunk” movement in the 1980s, with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, and others. In Sterling’s introduction to Mirrorshades:… read more
June 9, 2011, Filed Under: Theatre + Performing ArtsVivien Leigh takes a mad turn in "A Streetcar Named Desire" The Harry Ransom Center kicks off the Tennessee Williams Film Series tonight with Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. The series runs on some Thursdays through July 21 and features films highlighted in the current exhibition, Becoming Tennessee Williams, which runs through July… read more
June 7, 2011, Filed Under: Exhibitions + Events, Theatre + Performing ArtsIn the galleries: Tennessee Williams interviews… Tennessee Williams The first major production of a Tennessee Williams play, Battle of Angels (1940), was a complete failure and scandal. The play was poorly received; one critic compared watching the play to being “dunked in mire.” Boston City Council members called for the play to be censored, and it ran for… read more
June 1, 2011, Filed Under: Exhibitions + Events, PhotographyWe got our postcards today… Last month, the Ransom Center participated in and helped to sponsor an experimental documentary project from Magnum Photos called “Postcards From America.” The trip has now finished, topped off by a pop-up exhibition and reception at the Starline Social Club in Oakland. The show was terrific, and images from the… read more
May 31, 2011, Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Exhibitions + EventsIn the galleries: Bob Woodward’s typed notes about his meeting with Deep Throat Between 1972 and 1976, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke one of the biggest stories in American politics. Beginning with their investigation of a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex, Woodward and Bernstein uncovered a series of crimes that eventually led to the indictments of… read more
May 26, 2011, Filed Under: Exhibitions + Events, Theatre + Performing ArtsIn the galleries: Tennessee Williams tinkers with his Southern image In 1938, Tennessee Williams entered Candles to the Sun in a competition sponsored by the Dramatists Guild in New York City. Williams wrote Candles to the Sun, a play about striking coal miners and the powerlessness of the individual against the collective consciousness, at a time when his sister Rose’s… read more
