Villa Aurora and USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library will host a celebration to honor the exiled novelist's 125th birthday in July. The Sept. 16 event recreates the Feuchtwangers' 1953 literary salon, in which Lion read aloud from his novel-in-progress, Die Jüdin von Toledo. In addition to readings by Villa Aurora writer-in-residence Klaus Modick and a screening of Albrecht Joseph's film, Lion Feuchtwanger, USC Libraries Senior Associate Dean and Feuchtwanger Librarian Marje Schuetze-Coburn will share remarks.
8 p.m. Sept. 16, 2009 at Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades. RSVP at (310) 573-3603 by September 14.
Here's Villa Aurora's press release for the event:
“Celebrating Lion Feuchtwanger!”
Villa Aurora and USC’s Feuchtwanger Memorial Library present an evening honoring German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of his birthday this year. The celebration will take place at Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades on September 16, 2009 at 8 pm.
Marje Schuetze-Coburn, Senior Associate Dean and Feuchtwanger Librarian at the USC Libraries will provide insights into Feuchtwanger’s life and work. Following Schuetze-Coburn’s introduction will be a reading in English from the author’s historical novel Raquel (Die Jüdin von Toledo), set in 12th century Spain, by Villa Aurora writer-in-residence Klaus Modick. The screening of a documentary film by Albrecht Joseph portraying Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta in their house in Pacific Palisades in the late 1950s will afford rare insights into their private life and the author’s writing process and projects. An exhibition featuring congratulations by Feuchtwanger’s esteemed contemporaries, gathered from a birthday book presented to the author in 1944, will compliment the program.
During the evening, guests will be offered the opportunity to receive a copy of USC Libraries’ 2009 publication Against the Eternal Yesterday: Essays Commemorating the Legacy of Lion Feuchtwanger and will be presented with a copy of one of the author’s novels. To attend this program, please RSVP by phone at (310) 573 3603 by September 14. Attending guests are required to take the shuttle service to Villa Aurora. It runs from street parking on Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks N / E of Pacific Coast Highway as early as 7 pm at the day of the event, September 16.
This program is made possible by the USC Libraries and Villa Aurora’s primary funder, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.
Villa Aurora, with its unique émigré history, is an artist residence and historic landmark located in the former home of exiled German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger. To promote and foster German-American cultural exchange and to remember the European exiles that settled in Southern California, Villa Aurora offers a variety of salon style arts and cultural programs, including public lectures, concerts, screenings and performances.
USC’s Feuchtwanger Memorial Library preserves Lion Feuchtwanger’s manuscripts, personal correspondence, memorabilia, and invaluable rare book collection. One of the most extensive archives on the German-speaking émigrés who settled in Southern California during and after the Nazi period, the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library also houses unique archival collections of other prominent members of this German émigré community including Marta Feuchtwanger, Hanns Eisler, Felix Guggenheim , Heinrich Mann and Ludwig Marcuse.