The 2015 Library Lions Select Inspiring NYPL Collection Items and More For New Pop-Up Display

OCTOBER 14, 2015 – The New York Public Library’s 2015 class of Library Lions will share collection items that inspire them in a new pop-up display set to open on Saturday, Oct. 17.

This year’s class of Lions – playwright and author Alan Bennett, dancer and choreographer Judith Jamison, author and illustrator Maira Kalman, novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard, and activist and journalist Gloria Steinem – will have their selections displayed in the McGraw Rotunda on the third floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The free display – “Sources of Inspiration: Celebrating the 2015 Library Lions” – will be up for the public through Nov. 1.

The Lion guest curators each chose two items – one that inspires them from the Library’s collections, and one that is directly connected to their body of work (some of these also came from the Library’s collections). The items include:

• Alan Bennett: An annotated typescript of his play History Boys from the Library for the Performing Arts and Nabokov’s annotated copy of Kafka’s Metamorphosis from the Berg Collection  
• Judith Jamison: Video footage of her performance with Mikhail Baryshnikov from the Library for the Performing Arts and Jack Kerouac's notes and a hand-drawn map that he used as preparatory material for On the Road from the Berg Collection
• Maira Kalman: An illustration she created for Strunk and White's Elements of Style from her personal collection and a drawing for Madeline and the Bad Hat by Ludwig Bemelmans from the Library’s Rare Book Division
• Karl Ove Knausgaard: An excerpt (in Norwegian) from an early chapter of My Struggle from his personal collection and a rare turn-of-the-century French edition of Madame Bovary from the Spencer Collection.
• Gloria Steinem: An early edition of Ms. Magazine from her personal collection and an unpublished feminist poem by Louisa May Alcott entitled "Most Women Do Whatever They Can” from the Berg Collection.

The Lions will be honored at the Library’s annual Library Lions gala on Nov. 2. For over 30 years, the Library has celebrated individuals who have made significant contributions to New York City and to the creative community at large during its annual gala with previous honorees including the late South African President Nelson Mandela, author Elie Weisel, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and director Martin Scorcese. Margaret Atwood, Dave Eggers, Kazuo Ishiguro, Robert B. Silvers and Anna Deavere Smith were last year’s Library Lions.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

Media Contact:

Adenike Olanrewaju | adenikeolanrewaju@nypl.org

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