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Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853

Whale of a day: 70 KU, area residents to read 'Moby-Dick' in marathon, Oct. 3

LAWRENCE -- At 8 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3, Haskell Springer, University of Kansas English professor, will step up to a microphone in front of Wescoe Hall, open the American classic novel, "Moby-Dick," and begin a 24-hour marathon reading that will continue until 8 a.m. Thursday.

Springer will be followed by Elizabeth Schultz, KU professor emerita of English, who organized this marathon reading and a similar one in 1991. Schultz has recruited 70 people from KU and the Lawrence community to read every 20 minutes until dawn breaks over Fraser Hall as the story concludes with Ishmael arriving safely on Wescoe Beach. The beach is a figurative term derived from students gathering and sunning on the expanse of steps across the front entrance of Wescoe Hall.

October marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Melville's classic story that follows a Captain Ahab's obsession with the great white whale that took his leg. Schultz and Springer are both renowned Melville scholars.

"We join celebrants across the land in our reading of this novel which continues to illuminate our lives and our times," Schultz said, noting it has relevance to the Sept. 11 diasters.

"I think there is no other work in American literature that better helps us to understand our situation following the disasters." The book can be read on two levels. "One is a narrative of a fanatic terrorist striking a great living being and the other is the story of a survivor who attempts to ask why it happened and how to construct a good and meaningful life after the disaster," Schultz said.

She encouraged the public as well as the campus community to just enjoy hearing other people read. "The great novels of the 19th century were all read aloud," Schultz noted of a bygone tradition. "With an author as poetic as Melville, it's thrilling to hear his words read aloud."

Schultz organized the first KU reading marathon in 1991 on the anniversary of Melville's death, also at Wescoe Beach. In 1991, Queequeg, a Polynesian harpoonist in "Moby Dick," appeared among those gathered to listen to the readers, Schultz said. Although the identity of Queequeg remains a mystery, Schultz believes a faculty member impersonated Queequeg in 1991 and may appear this year also.

The 70 readers signed up for KU's 2001 marathon reading include  • 16 readers from the English department, including two retired faculty members and at least six graduate teaching assistants.
 • 20 students, including nine graduate students many of whom are signed up to read in the wee hours of the morning.
 • 10 repeaters -- people who read in the 1991 marathon, including Schultz and Springer
 • 4 husband-and-wife readers

The youngest reader is Rance Graham-Bailey, a Central Junior High School ninth-grader, who signed up to read at 8 p.m. He is the son of Maryemma Graham, KU English professor, who will also be reading. In 1991, when James Carothers, interim assistant provost and English professor, read at midnight as he will again this year, his wife, Beverly, brought pizza to the readers gathered at Wescoe Hall. James Bogan, distinguished professor of the arts and humanities from the University of Missouri-Rolla and KU alumnus, will be arriving late Oct. 3 and will stand by as an alternate reader. Schultz stayed awake through the entire 23 hour and 40-minute reading in 1991 and hopes to do the same this year. She concludes the reading at 7:40 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 4.

A full list of scheduled readers is below:

Moby-Dick Readers

 •+12 midnight J. Theodore "Ted" Johnson Jr., retired professor of French and Italian
 •+12:20 a.m. Jim Carothers,interim assistant provost
 •*12:40 a.m. Mark Hennessey , Lawrence
 •1 a.m. Shena Wolf, senior, Waterville
 •1:20 a.m. John Terry, senior, Stilwell
 •*1:40 a.m. Sara Mitchell, junior, Omaha, Neb.
 •*2 a.m. Holly Worthen, senior, McPherson
 •2:20 a.m. Matt Candelaria, doctoral GTA in English, Denver
 •2:40 a.m. John Bruni, doctoral GTA in English, Blue Bell, Pa.
 •3 a.m. Shawn Thomson, doctoral GTA in English, Lawrence
 •3:20 a.m. Amy Cummins, doctoral GTA in English, Lawrence
 •3:40 a.m. Mark Scoggins, graduate GTA in English, Tulsa
 •*4 a.m. Sara Pike, senior, Topeka
 •4:20 a.m. Laurie Ward, director of Kansas Land Trust, KU alumna
 •*4:40 a.m. Ben Burton, senior and Student Senate Executive Committee Chair, Wanamassa, N.J.
 •5 a.m. Jocelyn Kitchen, special education paraprofessional, Cordley Elementary School
 •5:20 a.m. Tony Corbeill, associate professor, classics
 •+5:40 a.m. David Hann, coordinator, Center for Research
 •6 a.m. Jim McCrary, Lawrence poet, KU alumnus
 •6:20 a.m. Roy Gridley, retired faculty, English
 •+6:40 a.m. Boog Highberger, Lawrence attorney, KU alumnus
 •7 a.m. Karen Ornesorge, Lawrence
 •7:20 a.m. Haskell Springer
 •7:40 a.m. Beth Schultz