Baylor Hosts Distinguished Political Author for Albaugh Lecture

by Lillyan Baker, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
Dr. Mark Helprin, a novelist and political commentator will lead an informal discussion for the Honors Residential College lecture series at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, in the Memorial Drawing Doom of Memorial Hall on the Baylor University campus. Later that evening, Helprin will deliver a lecture for the Roy B. Albaugh Lecture presented by Phi Beta Kappa at 7 p.m. in the Barfield Drawing Room in the Bill Daniel Student Center.
Both events, which are free and open to the public, will feature Helprin leading "A Discussion in Which I Will try to Convey to you my Amazement That I Have Spent My Life and Made My Living as A Writer." Helprin will shift into foreign affairs at the Albaugh lecture by discussing "Five Questions About Iran."
"The author of works of breathtaking beauty and insight, Helprin is a rare combination in contemporary American life: a man of letters, a former adventurer and a prescient political observer," said Dr. Michael Foley, assistant professor of great texts at Baylor and chairman for the Albaugh lecture.
Helprin is known as a unique author for his accomplishment of writing various genres of books, including short stories, novels and children's books. Eleven of his have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Helprin also is a frequent political commentator for various publications nationwide and abroad including, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Criterion, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The New York Times, The National Review, American Heritage, Forbes, and ASAP. For more than 25 years, his stories and essays on politics and aesthetics have appeared in The New Yorker.
Helprin continued his love for writing and politics by receiving degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He did postgraduate work at the University of Oxford, Princeton and Columbia. As a military soldier, he has served in the British Merchant Navy, the Israeli infantry and the Israeli Air Force.
Helprin's many education, political and military accomplishments have helped him receive several awards including, Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, Aaron and Helen L. DeRoy Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich., National Jewish Book Award, the Prix de Rome and Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. He also was an adviser on Defense and Foreign Relations to presidential candidate Robert Dole
For more information, please contact Foley in the great texts program at 254-710-7284.