Alison Lurie kicks off Plantations lecture series

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alison Lurie, the F.J. Whiton Professor Emerita of American Literature at Cornell, will open the Cornell Plantations free Wednesday night lecture series with a Sept. 5 presentation, "Secret Gardens and Enchanted Forests: Nature in Children's Literature."

Also speaking in the 10-lecture series, which is open to the public and continues through Nov. 7, are biologists studying the possibility of gardening on Mars and a wine-grape grower who says New York could be the next Napa Valley.

Lurie's presentation, the fifth annual William H. and Jane Torrence Harder Lecture, will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the James Law Auditorium at the College of Veterinary Medicine and will be followed by a reception. All other Wednesday night lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. and also will be held in the James Law Auditorium. Free parking is available nearby.

The series also is offered as a one-credit Cornell course. For more information on participating in the series for course credit, send e-mail to rgl3@cornell.edu.

For information on this lecture series and other Cornell Plantations programs, visit http://www.plantations.cornell.edu/ . Check the Cornell Chronicle calendar each week for a listing of Plantations' lecturers and their topics.

Some of the upcoming lectures in Cornell Plantations' fall 2001 series include:

• Sept. 12, the 19th annual William J. Hamilton Jr. Lecture, "Plant Hunting in Turkey: From Collection to Sale," Daniel Hinkley, founder of Heronswood Nursery, Kingston, Wash.
• Sept. 19, "Rethinking the Italian Renaissance Garden Over Four Decades," Claudia Lazzaro, professor of history of art, Cornell.
• Sept. 25, "Lessons Learned From Great Gardens of the World," Catherine Mahan, landscape architect, partner, Mahan Rykiel Associates, Baltimore, Md.
• Oct. 3, the 13th annual Audrey Harkness O'Connor Lecture, "Easy-to-Grow Rock Garden Plants," Elisabeth Sheldon, Ithaca author of The Flamboyant Garden and A Proper Garden.