April 9, 2002

Contact: Victor Bailey, Hall Center for the Humanities, (785) 864-4798.

Hall Center's Humanities Lecture Series continues with author of 'Longitude'

Editor's note: A photo of Dava Sobel is available via e-mail; contact kunews@ku.edu.

LAWRENCE -- A former New York Times science reporter and author will present the fourth and final installment of the 2001-2002 Humanities Lecture Series at the University of Kansas at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25, in the Kansas Union ballroom.

Dava Sobel, author of "Longitude" and "Galileo's Daughter," will discuss "Galileo's Reconciliation: Science and Faith" and will sign copies of her books immediately after the lecture.

The Hall Center also will offer two colloquia with Sobel on Friday, April 26: "Writing a Life: the Art of Biography" at 10 a.m. and "Galileo as a Working Scientist" at 1 p.m. Both events will be at the Adams Alumni Center in the Bruckmiller Room. All events are free and open to the public.

In her 30 years as a science journalist, Sobel has written for many magazines, served as contributing editor to Harvard Magazine and Omni, and co-written six books, including "Is Anyone Out There?" with astronomer Frank Drake. The PBS program "Nova" produced a television documentary called "Lost At Sea -- the Search for Longitude," which was based on Sobel's book. Granada Films created a dramatic version of the story, which aired on A&E as a four-hour, made-for-TV movie. Similar documentary and dramatic treatments of "Galileo's Daughter" are in production for "Nova" and Granada/A&E.

"Longitude," now in its 26th hardcover printing, was translated into two dozen foreign languages, became a national and international bestseller, and has won many literary prizes. Sobel based her book "Galileo's Daughter" on 124 letters to Galileo from his eldest child. Sobel translated the letters from the original Italian and used them to explain Galileo's life work. A new book, "Letters to Father," containing the full text of Galileo's daughter's correspondence in both English and Italian, was published by Walker and Co. in November 2001 and will appear as a Penguin paperback.