News Release

Renowned author E.L. Doctorow will discuss "Literature and Religion" during the G. Harry Pouder Memorial Lecture at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6, in Shriver Hall Auditorium on the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Doctorow is twice-winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the National Book Award, the National Humanities Medal and the William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of nine novels, including his recent works City of God, Billy Bathgate and Ragtime. A collection of his screenplays based on his adaptations of his novels Ragtime, Loon Lake and The Book of Daniel, was published this year by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Doctorow is the Lewis and Loretta Glucksman Professor in American Letters at New York University. Additional background is available at http://www.nyu.edu/fas/Faculty/DoctorowE.html.

Since 1978, the G. Harry Pouder Memorial Lecture, focusing on American or English literature, has honored the late executive vice president of the Baltimore Association of Commerce, who died in 1971. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins Evening College, Pouder wrote plays and was associated with the Homewood Playshop, now known as Theatre Hopkins. Past Pouder lecturers include Leon Uris, James Michener, Tom Stoppard, William Styron, Joyce Carol Oates, Larry McMurtry, Stephen Ambrose, Richard Ford, Richard Ben Cramer and Arthur Golden.

The lecture is presented in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins University Office of the President and the Johns Hopkins University Press in celebration of its 125th anniversary. The lecture is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. For information, call 410-516- 7157.