Marilyn Johnson, best-selling author of This Book Is Overdue! and The Dead Beat, will visit Oak Park as the 2014 Barbara Ballinger Lecture presenter on Friday, Oct. 24, at the Main Library, 834 Lake St., Oak Park. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a reception and book signing in the Main Library Art Gallery. At the event, Oak Park independent bookstore The Book Table will sell Johnson’s works, including her latest title for pre-release purchase.
Johnson has a penchant for the unsung people who preserve our cultural memory. In This Book Is Overdue! she upends the notion that librarians are obsolete in our digital age, and in The Dead Beat she explores the golden age of obituary writers in a time when newspapers are dying.
In her latest work, Lives in Ruins (Harper; Nov. 11), Johnson turns her trademark narrative perception and wit to the unglamorous, workaday archeologists who sift through the detritus of the past to explore our own connections with those who came before us—working not only in romantic landscapes like Greece or Machu Picchu, but more often in urban construction sites, forgotten graveyards, and even underwater.
Each year the Barbara Ballinger Lecture brings an accomplished author to speak in Oak Park. Hosted by the Friends of the Oak Park Public Library, this public event is free, honoring Ms. Ballinger and her 32 years of library service in Oak Park, including 24 years as head librarian. To learn more, visit oppl.org/ballinger
About Oak Park Public Library
Founded as a public library in 1903, Oak Park Public Library serves 53,000 residents in west suburban Chicago, offering cardholders access to a combined collection of 1.4 million unique titles and 7.9 million volumes through membership in SWAN, a multi-type library consortium. Through three buildings, a website, and a custom app, the library offers physical and digital fiction and nonfiction titles, as well as audiobooks, movies, music, video games, magazines, newspapers, public computers, free WiFi, local historic information, and photo archives. With a staff of approximately 125 employees, the library also provides opportunities for learning at all ages, dedicated spaces for community to connect, and a unique collection of permanent artwork, including pieces by local artists. To learn more, visit oppl.org