Join us for cocktails and conversation 3:30-5:30 on Saturday, November 18 as we launch award-winning author Benjamin Taylor’s extraordinary biography about the life and work of Willa Cather.

—3:30-4pm: Arrivals and refreshments
—4-4:30pm: A reading by and conversation with Benjamin Taylor led by Cassandra Csencsitz
and followed by a brief Q&A
—4:30-5:30pm: Cash bar and complimentary canapés

To RSVP, email cassandra@gotham.restaurant
Reserve for dinner following here:

Read the rave New York Times review!

ABOUT CHASING BRIGHT MEDUSAS

A tender biography of one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century and an elegant exploration of artistic endurance, as told by a lifelong lover of Willa Cather’s work. 

The story of Willa Cather is defined by a lifetime of determination, struggle, and gradual emergence. Some show their full powers early, yet Cather was the opposite—she took her time and transformed herself by stages. The writer who leapt to the forefront of American letters with O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918) was already well into middle age. Through years of provincial journalism in Nebraska, brief spells of teaching, and editorial work on magazines, she persevered in pursuit of the ultimate goal—literary immortality.



Unlike Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald, her idealism was unironic, and she stood alone among the great modern authors—at odds with the fashionable attitudes of her time. Combining intricate analysis with an empathetic, lyrical voice, Benjamin Taylor uncovers the reality of Cather’s artistic development, from modest beginnings to the triumphs of her mature years. His book is simultaneously an homage to her character, a warm consideration of her work, and a case being made to read Cather with renewed vigor.

“Taylor provides a remarkably revealing account of the life and creative output of Willa Cather...Taylor’s connection of Cather’s personal life and her literary inventions is consistently astute, and the exuberant force of her imagination emerges vividly...the author presents a rewarding and perceptive portrait, providing a valuable assessment of Cather’s intriguing character and the enduring importance of her oeuvre. Keen, insightful commentary on a literary master.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"Willa Cather ‘was her own raw material,’ Benjamin Taylor tells us in his sober, elegant, and compact life of his heroine. Taylor’s graceful insight and wit, alive in every sentence, pay tribute to Cather’s style and to the truthfulness of her vision. Chasing Bright Medusas is a love letter from one writer to another, offering an intimate, inside view of the living art.”
– Rosanna Warren, author of Max Jacob: A Life in Art and Letters

“Chasing Bright Medusas is a loving appreciation of Willa Cather’s belated genius, her sense of who she was, and the writer she was destined to be—strong in execution, simple, and sure. This book is a graceful portrait of an unusual woman, a passionate humanist who bucked the trends of the times.” 
— Brenda Wineapple, author of The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation

“From what he calls ‘a debt of love,’ Benjamin Taylor has produced a swift, sure-footed, immensely pleasurable biography. His Cather is at once an adamant antimodernist and an intrepid experimenter, an idealist of America and a chronicler of its darknesses. His passionate readings make clear that she is, above all, one of our greatest writers.”
– Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness

“Willa Cather was a great American writer. She was also a formidable and complicated woman. Benjamin Taylor knows just when to assert, when to question, and when to suggest. His elegant biography cuts away the clutter. He brings a storyteller’s breadth and a critic’s precision to Cather’s life and art.” 
– Margo Jefferson, author of Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir

“This should be required reading for anyone interested in ancient philosophy.”

—John Sellars, author of The Pocket Epicurean

Join us for cocktails and conversation 3:30-5:30 on Saturday, September 23 as we explore the book
that has taken the classics world by storm with author Jean-Manuel Roubineau and Gwenda-lin Grewal, the Onassis Lecturer in Ancient Greek Thought and Language at the New School for Social Research.

3:30-4pm: Arrivals and refreshments
4-4:30pm: A reading by and conversation with author Jean-Manuel Roubineau and Gwenda-lin Grewal followed by a brief Q&A
4:30-5:30pm: Cocktails & canapés*

*The canapés are our compliments alongside the cash bar. We recommend making a reservation should you want to stay for dinner after the event

To RSVP, email cassandra@gotham.restaurant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Emma.Paolini@oup.com
Publicist: Emma Paolini                                                  

THE DANGEROUS LIFE AND IDEAS OF

DIOGENES THE CYNIC

By Jean-Manuel Roubineau

Diogenes the Cynic is one of the most polarizing and enduring figures in ancient Greek philosophy. Nicknamed “The Dog” and decried by Plato as “Socrates gone mad,” he inspires curiosity and controversy even to this day. Most importantly, Diogenes was instrumental in the creation of the Cynic school of thought, an early influence to the development of Stoicism.

Equal parts history and philosophical study, Jean-Manuel Robineau’s captivating new book peels back the layers of sensationalism and scandal that have long surrounded Diogenes. In his accessible, engaging style, Robineau details the unconventional life of Diogenes, examines his unique contributions to Cynicism, and takes a modern look at a frequently-misunderstood philosopher.

Jean-Manuel Roubineau is a specialist in ancient history. He previously published Milon de Crotone ou l'Invention du Sport and Les cités grecques, winner of the European History Book Prize in 2016.

Phillip Mitsis, author of the foreword, is Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization, Professor of Classics and Hellenic Studies, and affiliated Professor of Philosophy and Medieval and Renaissance Studies at New York University.

Gwenda-lin Grewal is the Onassis Lecturer in Ancient Greek Thought and Language at the New School for Social Research. Her ecent publications include Fashion | Sense: On Philosophy and Fashion (Bloomsbury, 2022) and Thinking of Death in Plato’s Euthydemus: A Close Reading and New Translation (Oxford University Press, 2022).