July 10: Two Programs

July 10 at noon:  Prostitution in Old Wheeling

Dr. Barbara Howe, former director of WVU’s Center for Women’s Studies, will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling on Tuesday, July 10 at noon to present “Cyprians and Courtesans, Murder and Mayhem,” a look at prostitution in Wheeling from 1830-1865, examining the lives of women who were often forced into prostitution because of poverty. During the Civil War, city officials struggled to control prostitution in a city full of soldiers. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

July 10 6:30 PM: Mt de Chantal Documentary World Premier

Dr. Barbara Howe, former director of WVU’s Center for Women’s Studies, will be at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling on Tuesday, July 10 at 6:30 pm to talk about the new film, For Mind and Spirit: Mt de Chantal Visitation Academy, which will have its red carpet premier at the library. Funded by the National Park Service and Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation and produced by The Walkabout Company, the new film chronicles the history of the school since its founding in 1848. Dr. Barbara Howe will provide introductory remarks and the film screening will start at 7. That event will feature free popcorn and beverages. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

June 26: James Wright Tribute

On Tuesday, June 26 at noon, the Lunch With Books program at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling will host a very special event featuring poetry and music. Patrons are invited to revisit the poetry of Martins Ferry’s own Pulitzer Prize winner, James Wright, as read by David Thomas and CJ Farnsworth with musical accompaniment by guitarist Roger Hoard, plus the film, “James Wright’s Ohio.”

The multimedia tribute will feature readings of Wright's poems, "Youth," "Willy Lyons," "Two Postures beside a Fire," "Upon Hearing a Rumor That the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling, West Virginia Has Been Condemned," and "On a Phrase from Southern Ohio" "Stages on a Journey Westward," "Miners," "In Ohio," "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio," and "Beautiful Ohio." All of these poems are available online at Google Books. Mr. Hoard will provide musical interludes between the readings.

Produced by Bottom Dog Press, "James Wright's Ohio" is a docu-drama filmed largely in Martins Ferry. The film includes interviews with poets William Matthews and Stanley Kunitz, and with Wright's two wives Liberty Kovacs and Annie Wright. It includes many poem-videos of Wright's most beloved works.The film will be screened without sound and will serve as background imagery for the readings and music.

Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

The Last Mountain (film screenings on June 19 at noon and June 21 at 7 PM)

On Tuesday June 19 at noon and then on Thursday evening, June 21 at 7 pm, the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling will offer two free screenings of the film, The Last Mountain. Description from the film’s web site:  In the valleys of Appalachia, a battle is being fought over a mountain. It is a battle with severe consequences that affect every American, regardless of their social status, economic background or where they live. It is a battle that has taken many lives and continues to do so the longer it is waged. It is a battle over protecting our health and environment from the destructive power of Big Coal. The mining and burning of coal is at the epicenter of America’s struggle to balance its energy needs with environmental concerns. Nowhere is that concern greater than in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, where a small but passionate group of ordinary citizens are trying to stop Big Coal corporations, like Massey Energy, from continuing the devastating practice of Mountain Top Removal. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

Library to Host “Quiet Man” Play Readings

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the release of the beloved 1952 film, The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen and Ward Bond, Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library, in partnership with Oglebay Institute’s Towngate Theater, will present two readings of the pub-version of the play, The Quiet Man, adapted for the stage by Frank Mahon. Directed by the great John Ford, the film version was based on the same source material as the play, a short story by Irish writer Maurice Walsh first published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1933.

A screening of the original film will be offered at the library on Thursday evening, August 23, starting at 6 pm. Free popcorn and beverages will be served. The film premiered in Wheeling on Thanksgiving Day 1952 at the Victoria Theater.

The first performance of the pub-reading, a dress rehearsal, will be offered at Lunch With Books during its usual day and time on Tuesday, August 28 at noon. The second performance, a staged reading of the pub version, is scheduled for Thursday August 30 at 7 pm. A cast of seven actors from Towngate Theater will read the play. The evening performance will include music by Matt Smith and Erin Huffman of the local Irish band, Black Slaney plus free Irish style “pub grub.” Tickets for the evening performance are $10.00 and 100% of the proceeds will benefit Harmony House Children’s Advocacy Center.

As attendees will discover, the three versions of The Quiet Man (book, film and play) are very different, and the differences are intriguing. A discussion of the three versions will be offered at the library sometime after the second reading. A date and time will be announced this summer.

Playwright Frank Mahon began writing professionally for ABC TV’s Emmy Award winning series Equal Justice. He has also written for America’s Most Wanted. Maurice Walsh’s The Quiet Man, earned Mr. Mahon a nomination for a Jeff Award for Best New Adaptation (under the title The Quiet Man Tales). In 2011, he created and produced, along with Brigid Duffy, The Stone Hearth Reading Series for The Irish American Heritage Center. Mr. Mahon is currently working on a new play concerning the Irish War of Independence. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, Irish American Artists & Writers, and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

When asked permission to do the readings at the Ohio County Public Library, Mr. Mahon said “What a great compliment to have a library want to do a reading of our play.” He also promised “to let the Walsh family know right away…” as he believed it would “mean a lot to them to hear that their grandfather ("Mossie") will be back in a library.”

The Quiet Man play has been well received by audiences and critics in Mahon’s hometown of Chicago and across the country, including at the John Wayne Museum in Iowa. Maureen O’Hara herself called it “A wonderful script…” featuring “strong and interesting” characters and a “tale well told…” that “brings us into the homes and lives of the Irish living in those difficult times.”

For more information about the readings or the screening of the films, or to purchase tickets to the August 30 fundraiser, please send an email to lunchwithbooks@yahoo.com or call the library at 304-232-0244 and ask for Sean.

June 12: A Company of Boys in Blue

Dallas Pike native Mark Paul will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling on Tuesday, June 12 at noon to discuss his book, A Company of Boys in Blue - The Civil War Through the Eyes of a Soldier. Published in partnership with Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation, the book is a collection of transcribed letters and memoirs written by Mr. Paul’s great-great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Orr, who served in the Union Army. Paul added photographs, maps and illustrations to create the book. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.