Author Alison Lurie's contribution to arts and letters will be celebrated with a Cornell University Library exhibit that opens Oct. 7 with a video screening followed by a reception.

The exhibit, titled "Alison Lurie: Writer at Work," opens with a screening of Foreign Affairs, a 1993 made-for-television adaptation of Lurie's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, in the Willard Straight Hall theater, Thursday, Oct. 7, at 4 p.m. The screening, co-sponsored by Cornell Cinema, will be followed by a reception in the Carl A. Kroch Library Exhibition Gallery, level 2B. Both events are free and open to the public.

Lurie will be present at both the video screening and reception, and she will sign copies of her books at the reception. The book sale and signing is co-hosted by the Cornell Campus Store and Henry Holt, Lurie's most recent publisher.

"Alison Lurie: Writer at Work" will be on view in the Kroch Library Exhibition Gallery through the end of January. Hours during the academic term are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, 1-5 p.m. The gallery will be closed Saturday, Oct. 9, during Cornell's fall break and also Nov. 25-28 during the Thanksgiving holiday. Hours also are adjusted during the university's winter break, Dec. 24-Jan. 16.

The Kroch Library exhibition documents the author's literary life, using materials drawn from Lurie's manuscripts and papers, many of which she has given to the library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. It begins with childhood photographs and examples of books she read as a child, and traces her literary career from some of her earliest published works to The Last Resort (Holt, New York, 1998), her 10th book of fiction.

For more information, call the Cornell Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at (607) 255-3530 or contact curator Lorna Knight through e-mail at lmk22@cornell.edu.