122-520: Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award , was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize , and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award . His novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on
244-420: A Ph.D. In the early 1900s, the college had a major collegiate American football program during the formation period of the soon-to-be nationwide sport (playing Navy , Princeton , Columbia and other larger schools) and an active fraternity and sorority life. The 1921 appointment of Frank Aydelotte as president began the development of the school's current academic focus, particularly with his vision for
366-672: A "Status model", whereby the point of fiction is to be Art, and also a "Contract model", whereby the point of fiction is to be Entertainment, and finds that he subscribes to both models. He praises The Recognitions , admits that he only got halfway through J R , and explains why he does not like the rest of Gaddis's novels. In 2004, Franzen published "The Discomfort Zone", a personal essay about his childhood and family life in Missouri and his love of Charles M. Schulz 's Peanuts , in The New Yorker . Susan Orlean selected it for
488-453: A "drama series project," to potentially co-star Anthony Hopkins and air on HBO. Baumbach and Franzen collaborated on the screenplay, which Baumbach would direct. In 2011, it was announced that Chris Cooper and Dianne Wiest would star in the HBO adaptation. In November 2011, it was announced that Ewan McGregor had joined the cast. In a March 7, 2012, interview, McGregor confirmed that work on
610-416: A career as a novelist. While writing his first novel, The Twenty-Seventh City , he worked as a research assistant at Harvard University 's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, coauthoring several dozen papers. In September 1987, a month after he and his wife moved to New York City, Franzen sold The Twenty-Seventh City to Farrar Straus & Giroux . The Twenty-Seventh City , published in 1988,
732-790: A degree in German in 1981. As part of his undergraduate education, he studied abroad in Germany during the 1979–80 academic year with Wayne State University 's Junior Year in Munich program. While there, he met Michael A. Martone , on whom he would later base the character Walter Berglund in Freedom . He also studied on a Fulbright Scholarship at Freie Universität Berlin in Berlin in 1981–82; he speaks fluent German. Franzen married in 1982 and moved with his wife to Somerville, Massachusetts to pursue
854-426: A fifth novel he was currently working on, although he went on to suggest that while he had a proposal there was no guarantee that what was proposed would make the final cut, saying of similar proposals for previous novels, "I look at the old proposals now, and I see the one part of them that actually got made into a book, and I think, 'How come I couldn't see that? What is all this other stuff?'". Franzen also hinted that
976-475: A former chapter of Phi Kappa Psi . A third, Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, maintained a chapter on campus from 1906 to 1991 and continues strong alumni involvement. Sororities were abandoned in the 1930s following student outrage about discrimination within the sorority system, and leading to a 79-year ban. However, in September 2012, the college announced that the ban on sororities would be reversed as of
1098-468: A grade threshold for admission to the Honors program. Uncommon for a liberal arts college, Swarthmore has an engineering program in which, at the completion of four years' work, students are granted a B.S. in engineering. Other notable programs include minors in peace and conflict studies , cognitive science and interpretation theory . Swarthmore has an undergraduate student enrollment of 1,620 (for
1220-522: A joint concert called Jamboree, which includes visiting groups from other colleges and universities. Swarthmore College students are eligible to participate in the local emergency department , the Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association. They are trained as firefighters and as emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and are qualified on both the state and national level. The fire department responds to over 200 fire calls and almost 800 EMS calls
1342-420: A lecture on autobiography and fiction, Franzen discussed four perennial questions often asked of him by audiences, all of which annoy or bother him in some way. They are: In the lecture he said of the third question in particular "This one always raises my blood pressure" and quoted Nabokov in response. In February 2010, Franzen (along with writers such as Richard Ford , Margaret Atwood , and Anne Enright )
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#17327761243491464-498: A literary manifesto in Harper's Magazine entitled " Perchance to Dream ". Referencing manifestos written by Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe , among others, Franzen grappled with the novelist's role in an advanced media culture which seemed to no longer need the novel. In the end, Franzen rejects the goal of writing a great social novel about issues and ideas, in favor of focusing on the internal lives of characters and their emotions. Given
1586-400: A magazine for French literature. An erotica magazine, ! (pronounced "bang") was briefly published in 2005 in homage to an earlier publication, Untouchables . Most of the literary magazines print approximately 500 copies, with around 100 pages. There is also a photography magazine, Pun/ctum , which features work from students and alumni. WSRN 91.5 FM is the college radio station. It has
1708-698: A mix of indie , rock , hip-hop , electronic dance , folk , world , jazz and classical music , as well as a number of radio talk shows . At one time, WSRN had a significant news department, and covered events such as the 1969 black protest movement extensively. In the 1990s, WSRN centered its programming on the immensely popular "Hank and Bernie Show", starring undergraduates Hank Hanks and Bernie Bernstein. Hank and Bernie conducted wide-ranging and entertaining interviews of sports stars and cultural icons such as Lou Piniella, Mark Grace, Jake Plummer, Greg Ostertag , Andy Karich and Mark "the Bird" Fidrych, and also engaged
1830-622: A much publicized feud with the talk show host. Franzen was born in Western Springs, Illinois , the son of Irene (née Super) and Earl T. Franzen. His father, raised in Minnesota , was the son of an immigrant from Sweden; his mother's ancestry was Eastern European. Franzen grew up in an affluent neighborhood in Webster Groves , a suburb of St. Louis , Missouri, and graduated with high honors from Swarthmore College , receiving
1952-517: A novel of social criticism, garnered considerable critical acclaim in the United States, winning both the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel was also a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award , and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (won by Richard Russo for Empire Falls ). In September 2001, The Corrections
2074-881: A plethora of misogynistic , racist , and homophobic jokes and slurs as well as pornographic images and evidence of hazing . Students responded by calling for the college's administration to immediately terminate all fraternity leases on campus, staging a sit-in at the Phi Psi house until the demands were met. Both Delta Upsilon and Phi Psi announced their voluntary disbandment on April 30, 2019. President Valerie Smith subsequently announced on May 10, 2019, that Greek letter organizations were no longer allowed at Swarthmore. Swarthmore's athletic department has 22 varsity intercollegiate sports teams including badminton , baseball , basketball , cross country , field hockey , golf , lacrosse , soccer , softball , swimming , tennis , track and field , and volleyball . The football team
2196-413: A room with Todd Field, Jonathan Franzen and Daniel Craig bashing out the story. They're extremely interesting people." Purity was a relative commercial disappointment compared to Franzen's two previous novels, selling only 255,476 copies, compared to 1.15 million copies of Freedom and 1.6 million copies of The Corrections . On November 13, 2020, Franzen's publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux announced
2318-437: A rundown of words that were not used quite correctly in stories from that week's workshop. (I still remember him explaining to us the difference between cement and concrete.) At the same time, he was eminently supportive and sympathetic; I don't remember those corrections ever feeling condescending." For the 1992 class, Franzen invited David Foster Wallace to be a guest judge of the workshop pieces. Franzen's The Corrections ,
2440-673: A very limited-run science fiction/fantasy magazine published by Psi Phi, formerly known as Swarthmore Warders of Imaginative Literature (SWIL); Remappings (formerly " CelebrASIAN "), published by the Swarthmore Asian Organization; Alchemy , a collection of academic writings published by the Swarthmore Writing Associates; Mjumbe , published by the Swarthmore African-American Student Society; and
2562-731: Is 40 percent. Swarthmore is a charter member of the Centennial Conference , a group of private colleges in Pennsylvania and Maryland and is a member of NCAA Division III . The men's basketball team is currently coached by Landry Kosmalski who was named Division III's National Coach of the Year in 2020. In the 2018–19 season, the Garnet reached the NCAA Division III Championship Game for
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#17327761243492684-408: Is accessed by 56% of the student body, and the average financial aid award was $ 50,361 during the 2017–18 year. Swarthmore has the eleventh largest endowment per undergraduate in the country. Operating revenue for the 2016 fiscal year was $ 148,086,000, over 50% of which was provided by the endowment. Swarthmore ended a $ 230 million capital campaign on October 6, 2006, when President Bloom declared
2806-732: Is also affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania through the Quaker Consortium , which allows students to cross-register for classes at all four institutions. Alumni include six Nobel Prize winners, 13 MacArthur Foundation fellows, as well as winners of the Tony Awards , Grammy Awards , Academy Awards and Emmy Awards , and the Guggenheim Fellowship . The name "Swarthmore" has its roots in early Quaker history. In England, Swarthmoor Hall near
2928-540: Is and sets out to uncover his identity. The narrative stretches from contemporary America to South America to East Germany before the collapse of the Berlin Wall , and hinges on the mystery of Pip's family history and her relationship with a charismatic hacker and whistleblower. In 2016, Daily Variety reported that the novel was in the process of being adapted into a 20-hour limited series for Showtime by Todd Field who would share writing duties with Franzen and
3050-632: Is commissioned to open a new restaurant. Simultaneously impulsive and a workaholic, Denise begins affairs with both her boss and his wife, and though the restaurant is successful, she is fired when the affairs are uncovered. Flashbacks to her childhood show her responding to her repressed upbringing by beginning an affair with one of her father's subordinates, a married railroad signals worker. As Alfred's condition worsens, Enid attempts to manipulate all of her children into going to St. Jude for Christmas, with increasing desperation. Initially only Gary (without his wife or children) and Denise are present, while Chip
3172-495: Is delayed by a violent political conflict in Lithuania, eventually arriving late after being attacked and robbed of all his savings. Denise inadvertently discovers that her father had known of her teenaged affair with his subordinate, and had kept his knowledge a secret to protect her privacy, at great personal cost. After a disastrous Christmas morning together, the three children are dismayed by their father's condition, and Alfred
3294-410: Is expanded into a 20–30-page paper by the end of the seminar. At the end of their final year, Honors students take oral and written examinations conducted by outside experts in their field. Usually one student in each discipline is awarded "Highest Honors"; others are either awarded "High Honors" or "Honors"; rarely, a student is denied Honors altogether by the outside examiner. Each department usually has
3416-516: Is finally moved into a nursing home. Following the Christmas gathering, Chip stays in the Midwest, eventually starting a family with Alfred's doctor. Denise moves away from Philadelphia, and while Gary undergoes no drastic changes, Enid's newfound freedom from her husband causes her to be happier and less critical of her children's lives. According to Book Marks , based on American publications,
3538-400: Is not an autobiography. Franzen said in an interview that "the most important experience of my life ... is the experience of growing up in the Midwest with the particular parents I had. I feel as if they couldn’t fully speak for themselves. I feel as if their experience—by which I mean their values, their experience of being alive, of being born at the beginning of the century and dying towards
3660-594: Is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as a college under the Religious Society of Friends . By 1906, Swarthmore had dropped its religious affiliation and officially became non-sectarian . Swarthmore is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution. It is a member of the Tri-College Consortium, a cooperative academic arrangement with Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College . Swarthmore
3782-457: Is part of a novel that he hoped will be out in the summer of 2015. On November 17, 2014, The New York Times Artsbeat Blog reported that the novel, titled Purity , would be out in September. Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, described Purity as a multigenerational American epic that spans decades and continents. The story centers on a young woman named Purity Tyler, or Pip, who doesn't know who her father
Jonathan Franzen - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-611: Is part of the collection. The SCPC states that "Well over fifty percent of all the holdings in the Peace Collection concern women's activism around the world." The SCPC was started when Lucy Biddle Lewis , a member of the board of managers, discovered that Addams was burning her old papers, and convinced her to donate them instead to the Friends Historical Library. After World War II , the librarian at Princeton University , Julian P. Boyd , appraised
4026-469: Is set in Franzen's hometown, St. Louis, and deals with the city's fall from grace, St. Louis having been the "fourth city" in the 1870s. This sprawling novel was warmly received and established Franzen as an author to watch. In a conversation with novelist Donald Antrim for Bomb Magazine , Franzen described The Twenty-Seventh City as "a conversation with the literary figures of my parents' generation[,]
4148-554: The New York Times said it was "warmer than anything he's yet written, wider in its human sympathies, weightier of image and intellect." According to the Times Literary Supplement : Crossroads is largely free from the vices to which Franzen's previous work has been addicted: the self-conscious topicality; the show-off sophistication; the formal heavy-handedness. It retains many of his familiar virtues:
4270-879: The Arab Spring ; and unfurling how media conglomerates influence politics in their quest for profits." Franzen published his third essay collection, The End of the End of the Earth: Essays , in November 2018. According to advance press for the book, the collection "gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, [and] Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes—both human and literary—that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at
4392-452: The postmodernism of his earlier novels and towards literary realism . In a conversation with novelist Donald Antrim for Bomb , Franzen said of this stylistic change, "Simply to write a book that wasn't dressed up in a swashbuckling, Pynchon -sized megaplot was enormously difficult." Critics pointed out many similarities between Franzen's childhood in St. Louis and the novel, but the work
4514-534: The "...material from his new (reportedly massive) novel" was "as buoyant and compelling as ever" and "marked by his familiar undercurrent of tragedy". Franzen read "an extended clip from the second chapter." On September 9, 2010, Franzen appeared on Fresh Air to discuss Freedom in the wake of its release. Franzen has drawn what he describes as a "feminist critique" for the attention that male authors receive over female authors—a critique he supports. Franzen also discussed his friendship with David Foster Wallace and
4636-489: The "schmaltzy" books selected in the past. As a result, Oprah Winfrey rescinded her invitation to him to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show . Entertainment Weekly put The Corrections on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "Forget all the Oprah hoo-ha: Franzen's 2001 doorstop of a domestic drama teaches that, yes, you can go home again. But you might not want to." With The Corrections , Franzen moved away from
4758-602: The 2000 American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) National Championship Tournament and was awarded "Best New School". Dennis Cheng '01 was awarded the prestigious "Spirit of AMTA" award in 2000. Swarthmore's team placed second at the 2001 AMTA National Championship Tournament. The Swarthmore Mock Trial program has also won numerous accolades and boasted a team of over 25 members for the 2013–2014 season. The 2010–2011 competitive season resulted in all three teams competing at Regional Championships, two teams going on to Opening Round Championships, and one team qualifying and competing at
4880-671: The 2011 National Championships held in Des Moines , Iowa, where the team placed 15th in their division. Other successes included placing first at the Philadelphia Regional competition in February 2011, and winning the University of Massachusetts Amherst's invitational tournament in February 2014. Until 2019, two Greek organizations existed on the campus in the form of fraternities : Delta Upsilon and local Phi Psi,
5002-467: The 2013 term, citing Title IX regulations. The four women who helped overturn the ban subsequently spearheaded the reestablishment of a Kappa Alpha Theta chapter the following spring. The announcement sparked controversy on campus; a petition seeking a referendum to continue the ban was dismissed, again citing a legal opinion that to disallow the sorority chapter would be a violation of Title IX regulations. The sorority admitted its first pledge class in
Jonathan Franzen - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-435: The 2016–2017 year) and 187 faculty members (99% with a terminal degree), for a student-faculty ratio of 8:1. The small college offers more than 600 courses per year in over 40 courses of study. Its most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: Some sources, including Greene's Guides , have termed Swarthmore one of the " Little Ivies ". In its 2025 college ranking, U.S. News & World Report ranked Swarthmore as
5246-401: The 2024–25 academic year was $ 85,802 (tuition fees were $ 65,058). The college meets 100% of admitted student demonstrated need without use of student loans, an important distinction from the many schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need, but only through loans (which must be repaid) rather than institutional grant- and scholarship-based funding (which does not require repayment). Financial aid
5368-450: The 31st highest among all college and university graduates with only a bachelor's. This puts them above larger institutions such as Vanderbilt , Brown and Johns Hopkins —ranked 70th, 33rd and 95th, respectively. Swarthmore is also ninth among liberal arts colleges alone. As a need-blind school, Swarthmore makes admission decisions and financial aid decisions independently. The cost of tuition, student activity fees, room and board for
5490-568: The Consequences" a takedown of the beloved German poet, "Nestroy and Posterity" which established that playwright's reputation in Austria to this day, and "Afterword to Heine and the Consequences"". The essays are accompanied by "Franzen's [own] plentiful, trenchant yet off-beat annotations" taking on "... Kraus' mantle-commenting on what Kraus would say (and what Franzen's opinion is) about Macs and PCs ; decrying Twitter's claim of credit for
5612-624: The Cornell Library of Science and Engineering, and the Underhill Music and Dance Library) and seven other specialized collections. Friends Historical Library was established in 1871 to collect, preserve and make available archival, manuscript , printed and visual records concerning the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) from their origins mid-seventeenth century to the present. Besides the focus on Quaker history,
5734-533: The Honors program based on his experience as a Rhodes Scholar . During World War II , Swarthmore was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program , which offered students a path to a U.S. Navy commission. Wolfgang Köhler , Hans Wallach , and Solomon Asch were noted psychologists who became professors at Swarthmore, a center for Gestalt psychology. Both Wallach, who
5856-848: The Internet. Their eldest son, Gary, is a successful but increasingly depressive and alcoholic banker living in Philadelphia with his wife, Caroline, and their three young sons. When Enid attempts to persuade Gary to bring his family to St. Jude for Christmas, Caroline is reluctant, and turns Gary's sons against him and Enid, worsening his depressive tendencies. In return, Gary attempts to force his parents to move to Philadelphia so that Alfred may undergo an experimental neurological treatment that he and Denise learn about. Also living in Philadelphia, their youngest child Denise finds growing success as an executive chef despite Enid's disapproval, and
5978-476: The Oprah logo on the cover dissuaded men from reading the book: I had some hope of actually reaching a male audience and I've heard more than one reader in signing lines now at bookstores say "If I hadn't heard you, I would have been put off by the fact that it is an Oprah pick. I figure those books are for women. I would never touch it." Those are male readers speaking. I see this as my book, my creation. Soon afterward, Franzen's invitation to appear on Oprah's show
6100-546: The September/October 2008 issue of MIT Technology Review . In 2012 he published Farther Away , a collection of essays dealing with such topics as his love of birds, his friendship with David Foster Wallace , and his thoughts on technology. In 2013, Franzen published The Kraus Project . It consists of three major essays by the "Perennially ... impossible to translate" Austrian "playwright, poet, social commentator and satirical genius" Karl Kraus – ""Heine and
6222-547: The Spring of 2013. A further non-binding referendum was later distributed, but by then the controversy had cooled: Of the six items on the referendum, only one passed, which asked "Do you support admitting students of all genders to sororities and fraternities?" No action was taken on the referendum. In April 2019, two student publications, Voices and The Phoenix , published leaked minutes from Swarthmore's chapter of Phi Psi dating from 2013 to 2016. The 116-page document contained
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#17327761243496344-606: The Swarthmore community in discussions on campus issues and current events. Upwards of 90 percent of the Swarthmore community would tune in to the Hank and Bernie Show and many members of the surrounding villages and towns would also listen and call in. Many archived recordings of musical and spoken word performances exist, such as the once-annual Swarthmore Folk Festival. Today WSRN focuses virtually exclusively on entertainment, though it has covered significant news developments such as
6466-477: The United States as measured by the percentage of graduates who went on to earn Ph.D.s between 2013 and 2022. In 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013, Swarthmore was named the #1 "Best Value" private college by The Princeton Review . Overall selection criteria included more than 30 factors in three areas: academics, costs and financial aid. Swarthmore was also placed on The Princeton Review 's Financial Aid Honor Roll along with twelve other institutions for receiving
6588-596: The United States. The majority of the buildings housing classrooms and department offices are located to the north of Parrish, as are Kyle and Woolman dormitories. McCabe Library is to the east of Parrish, as are the dorms Willets, Mertz, Worth, The Lodges, Alice Paul and David Kemp. To the west are the dorms Wharton, Dana, Hallowell and Danawell, along with the Scott Amphitheater, an open wooded outdoor amphitheater, in which graduations and college collections (meetings) are held. The Crum Woods extend westward from
6710-641: The admitted students are among the first generation in their family to attend college" and "Of the admitted students attending high schools reporting class rank, 94 percent are in the top decile". The class of 2022 admissions statistics have been fully released, where 13,012 applicants resulted in 1013 admits for an admit rate of 7.78%. In 2012, The Princeton Review gave Swarthmore a 99 out of 99 on their Admissions Selectivity Rating. At Swarthmore, 15% of earners of undergraduate degrees immediately enter graduate or professional school, and, within five years of graduation, 75% of alumni enter these programs. Alumni of
6832-779: The already-existing online publication The Daily Gazette . In May 2018, The Daily Gazette , which had been published since 1996, merged with The Phoenix . There are a number of magazines at Swarthmore, most of which are published semi-annually at the end of each semester. One is Spike , Swarthmore's humor magazine, founded in 1993. The others are literary magazines, including Nacht , which publishes long-form non-fiction, fiction, poetry and artwork; Small Craft Warnings , which publishes poetry, fiction and artwork; Scarlet Letters , which publishes women's literature; Enie , for Spanish literature; Visibility Zine , for literature and art by historically marginalized groups; OURstory , for literature relating to diversity issues; Bug-Eyed Magazine ,
6954-760: The athletic cuts in 2000 and the effects of the September 11 attacks on campus. War News Radio and The Sudan Radio Project (formerly the Darfur Radio Project) do broadcast news on WSRN, however. Currently, the longest running show in WSRN's lineup is "Oído al Tambor", which focuses on news and music from Latin America . The show has been running non-stop, on Sundays from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., since September 2006. After its members graduated in December 2009,
7076-551: The blackboard: "truth" and "beauty," and told his students that these were the goals of fiction. Haslett describes Franzen's classroom manner as "serious." "He meant what he said and didn't suffer fools gladly." But this seriousness was leavened by a "great relish for words and writing," adds Kathleen Lawton-Trask '96, a 1994 workshop student who is now a writer and high school English teacher. "People who teach fiction workshops aren't always starry-eyed about writing, but he was. He read our stories so closely that he often started class with
7198-617: The book received "positive" reviews based on thirteen critic reviews, with six being "rave" and four being "positive" and three being "mixed". The Daily Telegraph reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": Daily Telegraph , Guardian , Times , Observer , Sunday Times , and Independent On Sunday reviews under "Love It" and Sunday Telegraph and New Statesman reviews under "Pretty Good" and Independent , Spectator , and TLS reviews under "Ok". Globally, Complete Review saying on
7320-673: The book's challenging narrative, which moves through time and cuts forwards and back": that would be "difficult to sustain in a series and challenging for viewers to follow, hampering the potential show's accessibility." In September 2019, The Corrections was voted sixteenth in a list of the 100 best books of the twenty-first century so far by writers and critics of the Guardian newspaper. On June 8, 2009, Franzen published an excerpt from Freedom , his novel in progress, in The New Yorker . The excerpt, titled "Good Neighbors", concerned
7442-636: The book, Franzen became the first American author to appear on the cover of Time magazine since Stephen King in 2000. Franzen appeared alongside the headline "Great American Novelist". He discussed the implications of the Time coverage, and the reasoning behind the title of Freedom in an interview in Manchester, England, in October 2010. On September 17, 2010, Oprah Winfrey announced that Jonathan Franzen's Freedom would be an Oprah book club selection,
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#17327761243497564-439: The consensus "Not quite a consensus, though all grant he is a gifted writer. Most are very enthusiastic, some positively enraptured". According to John Leonard , the novel explores the generation gap and the grasp of one generation on another in a way that reminds you of "why you read serious fiction in the first place". The novel won the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize ,
7686-503: The construction of new buildings: Sharples Dining Hall in 1964, Worth Health Center in 1965, the Dana/Hallowell Residence Halls in 1967, and Lang Music Building in 1973. They also saw a 1967 review of the college initiated by President Courtney Smith, a black protest movement, in which African-American students conducted an eight-day sit-in in the admissions office in 1969 to demand increased black enrollment –
7808-425: The cover of Time magazine alongside the headline " Great American Novelist ". Franzen's latest novel Crossroads was published in 2021, and is the first in a projected trilogy. Franzen has contributed to The New Yorker magazine since 1994. His 1996 Harper's essay " Perchance to Dream " bemoaned the state of contemporary literature. Oprah Winfrey's book club selection in 2001 of The Corrections led to
7930-558: The decade's best-selling works of literary fiction. At the National Book Award ceremony, Franzen said "I'd also like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her enthusiasm and advocacy on behalf of The Corrections ." Following the success of The Corrections and the publication of The Discomfort Zone and How to Be Alone , Franzen began work on his next novel. In the interim, he published two short stories in The New Yorker : "Breakup Stories", published November 8, 2004, concerned
8052-467: The director would definitely be helming The Corrections . Around this time, it was rumored that the cast would include Judi Dench as the family matriarch Enid, along with Brad Pitt , Tim Robbins and Naomi Watts as her three children. In January 2007, Variety wrote that Hare was still at work on the film's screenplay. In September 2011, it was announced that Rudin and the screenwriter and director Noah Baumbach were preparing The Corrections as
8174-455: The disintegration of four relationships; and "Two's Company", published May 23, 2005, concerned a couple who write for TV, then split up. In 2011, it was announced that Franzen would write a multi-part television adaptation of The Corrections in collaboration with The Squid and the Whale director Noah Baumbach for HBO. HBO has since passed on Corrections , citing "difficulty" in "adapting
8296-547: The end of 2007, the Swarthmore Board of Managers approved the decision for the college to eliminate student loans from all financial aid packages. Instead, additional aid scholarships are granted. The campus consists of 425 acres (1.72 km ), based on a north–south axis anchored by Parrish Hall, which houses numerous administrative offices and student lounges, as well as two floors of student housing. The fourth floor houses campus radio station WSRN-FM as well as
8418-472: The end of it, that whole American experience they had—[is] part of me. One of my enterprises in the book is to memorialize that experience, to give it real life and form." The novel also focuses on topics such as the multi-generational transmission of family dysfunction and the waste inherent in today's consumer economy, and each of the characters "embody the conflicting consciousnesses and the personal and social dramas of our era." Influenced by Franzen's life,
8540-622: The family’s affairs often leads to tension with her children. The middle son, Chip, is an unemployed academic living in New York City following his firing due to a sexual relationship with a student. Living on borrowed money from his sister, Denise, Chip works obsessively on a screenplay, but finds no success or motivation to pay off his debts. Eventually, Chip takes a job from his girlfriend's estranged husband Gitanas, an affable but corrupt Lithuanian government official, later moving to Vilnius and working to defraud American investors over
8662-411: The film rights to The Corrections for Paramount Pictures . The rights still have not yet been turned into a completed film. In 2002, the film was said to be in pre-production , with Stephen Daldry attached to direct and dramatist David Hare working on the screenplay. In October 2002, Franzen gave Entertainment Weekly a wish list for the cast of the film, saying, "If they told me Gene Hackman
8784-709: The film was "about a week" in and noted that both Dianne Wiest and Maggie Gyllenhaal were among the cast members. But on May 1, 2012, HBO decided not to pick up the pilot for a full series. In January 2015, the BBC broadcast a 15-part radio dramatization of the work. The series of 15-minute episodes, adapted by Marcy Kahan and directed by Emma Harding , also starred Richard Schiff ( The West Wing ), Maggie Steed ( The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus ), Colin Stinton ( Rush , The Bourne Ultimatum ) and Julian Rhind-Tutt ( Lucy , Rush , Notting Hill ). The series
8906-557: The first of the last season of The Oprah Winfrey Show . On December 6, 2010, he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote Freedom where they discussed that book and the controversy over his reservations about her picking The Corrections and what that would entail. Franzen has stated the writing of Freedom was influenced by the death of his close friend and fellow novelist David Foster Wallace. In an interview with Portland Monthly on December 18, 2012, Franzen revealed that he currently had "a four-page, single-spaced proposal" for
9028-774: The first time but lost to the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh 96–82. The 2019–20 team began the season 26–0 and were the last unbeaten team remaining out of all of Division I, II and III. The Garnet were ranked No. 1 in the nation by D3hoops.com for the entirety of the season, becoming the first team to be ranked at the top of that poll from start to finish. Swarthmore has won 26 Centennial Conference team championships and claims four national championships in men's lacrosse in 1900, 1904, 1905 and 1910, four national championships in men's tennis in 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1990, two men's tennis doubles national championships in 1976 and 1985, and two individual championships in women's track and field in 2016 and 2023. The Swarthmore Phoenix has been
9150-592: The form of wind power , and in the 2002–2003 academic year it constructed its first green roof . In 2008, Swarthmore's first mascot, Phineas the Phoenix , made its debut. Swarthmore's Oxbridge tutorial -inspired Honors Program, introduced in 1922, allows students to take double-credit seminars from their third year, and they often write honors theses . Seminars are usually composed of four to eight students. Students in seminars will usually write at least three 10-page papers per seminar, and often one of these papers
9272-742: The global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we've come to expect from Franzen. Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu. The End of the End of the Earth is remarkable, provocative, and necessary." In September 2019, Franzen published an essay on climate change in The New Yorker entitled "What If We Stopped Pretending?", which generated controversy among scientists and online pundits because of its alleged pessimism. The term doomerism became popular amid
9394-530: The great sixties and seventies Postmoderns", adding in a later interview "I was a skinny, scared kid trying to write a big novel. The mask I donned was that of a rhetorically airtight, extremely smart, extremely knowledgeable middle-aged writer." Strong Motion (1992) focuses mainly on a dysfunctional family , the Hollands, and uses seismic events on the American East Coast as a metaphor for
9516-536: The highest possible rating in its ranking methodology. The college is considered by U.S. News & World Report as "most selective", with 10.7% accepted of the 9,383 applicants during the 2016–2017 admissions cycle. The number of applicants was the highest in the college's history and among the highest overall of any liberal arts college. The college saw increases in the number of underrepresented students, first-generation college students, and international students. The college reports that "Twenty-five percent of
9638-517: The holdings are a significant research collection for the regional and local history of the middle-Atlantic region of the United States and the history of American social reform. Quakers played prominent roles in almost every major reform movement in American history, including abolition , African-American history , Indian rights , women's rights , prison reform , humane treatment of the mentally ill , and temperance . The collections also reflect
9760-451: The huge success of The Corrections , this essay offers a prescient look into Franzen's goals as both a literary and commercially minded author. In 2002, Franzen published a critique of the novels of William Gaddis , entitled " Mr. Difficult ", in The New Yorker . He begins by recounting how some readers felt The Corrections was spoiled by being too high-brow in parts, and summarizes his own views of reading difficult fiction. He proposes
9882-480: The impact of Wallace's suicide on his writing process. Freedom was the subject of a highly unusual "recall" in the United Kingdom starting in early October 2010. An earlier draft of the manuscript, to which Franzen had made over 200 changes, had been published by mistake. The publisher, HarperCollins , initiated an exchange program, but thousands of books had been distributed by that time. While promoting
10004-517: The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881 or 1882. The phoenix has deep roots in Swarthmore lore. When the college's iconic Parrish Hall was gutted by fire in 1881, it was immediately rebuilt, rising, some noted, from the ashes like the bird found in Egyptian and Greek mythology . Thereafter, The Phoenix became the name of the campus newspaper. With an early staff that often numbered fewer than ten people, The Phoenix
10126-575: The influence of his childhood and adolescence on his creative life, which is then further explored in The Discomfort Zone . In September 2007, Franzen's translation of Frank Wedekind 's play Spring Awakening (German: Frühlings Erwachen ) was published. In his introduction, Franzen describes the Broadway musical version as "insipid" and "overpraised." In an interview with New York magazine, Franzen stated that he had in fact made
10248-644: The main campus, and many buildings on the forest side of the campus incorporate views of the woods. South of Parrish is the Dining Center, attached to the former Sharples dining hall, and other smaller buildings. Dormitories Palmer, Pittenger, Roberts, and the NPPR Apartments are south of the railroad station, as are the athletic facilities, while the Mary Lyon dorm is off-campus to the southwest. The college has three main libraries (McCabe Library,
10370-458: The major concerns of the next seven years." According to Yabroff, a study of The Corrections demonstrates that much of the apprehension and disquiet seen as characteristic of the Bush era and post-9/11 America predated both. In this way, the novel is both characteristic of its time and prophetic of things to come; for Yabroff, even the controversy with Oprah , which saw Franzen branded an "elitist,"
10492-441: The new novel would probably also be long, adding "I've let go of any illusion that I'm a writer of 150-page novels. I need room to let things turn around over time and see them from the whole lives of other characters, not just the single character. For better or worse, one point of view never seems to do it for me." In October 2014, during a discussion at Colgate University , Franzen read a "self-contained first-person narrative" that
10614-515: The novel, in turn, influenced it; during its writing, he said in 2002, he moved "away from an angry and frightened isolation toward an acceptance – even a celebration – of being a reader and a writer." In a Newsweek feature on American culture during the George W. Bush administration , Jennie Yabroff said that despite being released less than a year into Bush's term and before the September 11 attacks , The Corrections "anticipates almost eerily
10736-484: The papers in the SCPC's collection and found that they were of "rare historic value". One thousand six hundred and forty-seven students (colloquially referred to as "Swatties") attend Swarthmore as of 2018 . The median family income of Swatties is $ 165,500, with 53% of students coming from the top 10% highest-earning families and 18.2% from the bottom 60%. Founded in 2000, the Swarthmore mock trial team placed tenth at
10858-487: The perspectives of different family members throughout the late twentieth century, illuminating their individual lives and histories. Alfred Lambert, the patriarch, is a retired railroad engineer who has Parkinson’s disease and dementia . His declining health becomes the catalyst for the family’s reunion. His wife, Enid, is obsessed with having one final "family Christmas" before Alfred’s condition worsens. Enid’s fixation on keeping up appearances and maintaining control over
10980-418: The playwright Sir David Hare . It would star Daniel Craig as Andreas Wolf and be executive produced by Field, Franzen, Craig, Hare & Scott Rudin . However, in a February 2018 interview with The Times London, Hare said that, given the budget for Field's adaptation (170 million), he doubted it would ever be made, but added "It was one of the richest and most interesting six weeks of my life, sitting in
11102-402: The project completed, three months ahead of schedule. The campaign, christened the "Meaning of Swarthmore", had been underway officially since the fall of 2001. Out of the college's alumni, 87% participated in the effort. Swarthmore's endowment at the end of the 2019 fiscal year was $ 2.13 billion. Endowment per student was $ 1,370,157 for the same year, one of the highest rates in the country. At
11224-474: The publication of Franzen's new novel, Crossroads , the first volume in a trilogy titled A Key to All Mythologies. Crossroads was published October 5, 2021. The novel received mostly favorable reviews, with a cumulative "Positive" rating at the review aggregator website Book Marks , based on 48 book reviews from mainstream literary critics. Bookforum called it Franzen's "finest novel yet," his "greatest and most perfect novel," and Dwight Garner of
11346-422: The quakes that occur in family life (as Franzen put it, "I imagined static lives being disrupted from without—literally shaken. I imagined violent scenes that would strip away the veneer and get people shouting angry moral truths at each other."). A ' systems novel ', the key 'systems' of Strong Motion according to Franzen are "... the systems of science and religion—two violently opposing systems of making sense in
11468-572: The response to the piece. A Sierra Club interview with Franzen, from January 2019 further explores Franzen's feelings about climate change and action. In an interview with Transatlantica conducted in March 2018, Franzen mentioned that he had just started work on a new novel, having recently sold it to publishers on the basis of a three-page proposal. Later that year, in a profile piece for The New York Times Magazine in June 2018, Franzen confirmed that he
11590-568: The robust characterization; the escalating comedy; the virtuosic command of narrative rhythm. Critics especially praised the character of Marion, whom Garner called "one of the glorious characters in recent American fiction." The novel is about a pastor, his wife, and four children. It's split into two sections called 'Advent' and 'Easter.' Writing for The Nation , Rumaan Alam says "in Crossroads , every plotline leads to God." In 1996, while still working on The Corrections , Franzen published
11712-613: The school earn graduate degrees most commonly at institutions that include Harvard University , the University of Pennsylvania , Yale University , Princeton University , Brown University , the University of Cambridge , Columbia University and the University of Chicago . At graduate programs, the most common fields for Swarthmore graduates to enter are math & physical sciences, humanities, social sciences, life sciences and engineering. PayScale reports that Swarthmore graduates have an average starting salary of $ 70,800 and an average mid-career salary of $ 142,900, making their salaries
11834-430: The show's concept was revived by the show "Rayuela", which has been running since September 2009. The collegiate a cappella groups include Sixteen Feet, the college's oldest group (founded in 1981), as well as its first and only all-male group. Grapevine is its corresponding all-female group (founded in 1983), and Mixed Company is a co-ed group. Essence of Soul is the college's all-black group. The youngest group, OffBeat
11956-925: The significant role Friends played in the development of science, technology, education and business in Britain and America. The library also maintains the Swarthmore College Archives and the papers of the Swarthmore Historical Society. Within the archives is what was formerly known as the Jane Addams Peace Collection and later called the Swarthmore College Peace Collection (SCPC). The SCPC includes papers from Jane Addams ' collection and material from over 59 countries. The Nobel Peace Prize , awarded to Addams,
12078-663: The sit-in abruptly ended after Smith's death from a heart attack on January 16 – and the establishment of both a Black Cultural Center (1970) and Women's Resource Center (1974). The Environmental Studies program and the Intercultural Center were established in 1992, and in 1993 the Lang Performing Arts Center was opened; the Kohlberg Hall was then established in 1996. In 1999 the college began purchasing renewable energy credits in
12200-405: The subsequent volume of The Best American Essays . Since The Corrections Franzen has published How to Be Alone (2002), a collection of essays including "Perchance To Dream", and The Discomfort Zone (2006), a memoir. How To Be Alone is essentially an apologia for reading, articulating Franzen's uncomfortable relationship with the place of fiction in contemporary society. It also probes
12322-543: The third-best liberal arts college in the nation, behind Williams and Amherst Since the inception of the U.S. News rankings, Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore are the only colleges to have been ranked for the number one liberal arts college. Swarthmore has been ranked the number one liberal arts college in the country six times. In its 2019 ranking of 650 U.S. colleges, universities and service academies, Forbes magazine ranked Swarthmore twenty-fifth. Swarthmore ranked third among all institutions of higher education in
12444-519: The three great books of my generation." In 2009, the website The Millions polled 48 writers, critics, and editors, including Joshua Ferris , Sam Anderson, and Lorin Stein ; the panel voted The Corrections the best novel since 2000 "by a landslide". The novel was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in 2001. Franzen caused some controversy when he publicly expressed his ambivalence at the club, having chosen his novel due to its inevitable association with
12566-520: The town of Ulverston , Cumbria , (previously in Lancashire ), was the home of Thomas and Margaret Fell in 1652 when George Fox , (1624–1691), fresh from his epiphany atop Pendle Hill in 1651, came to visit. The visitation turned into a long association, as Fox persuaded the couple of his views. Swarthmore was used for the first meetings of what became known as the Religious Society of Friends (later colloquially labeled "The Quakers"). The college
12688-510: The translation for Swarthmore College's theater department for $ 50 in 1986 and that it had sat in a drawer for 20 years since. After the Broadway show stirred up so much interest, Franzen said he was inspired to publish it because "I knew it was a good translation, better than anything else out there." Franzen published a social commentary on cell phones, sentimentality, and the decline of public space, "I Just Called To Say I Love You" (2008), in
12810-551: The trials and tribulations of a couple in St. Paul, Minnesota . On May 31, 2010, a second excerpt — titled "Agreeable" — was published, also in The New Yorker . On October 16, 2009, Franzen made an appearance alongside David Bezmozgis at the New Yorker Festival at the Cedar Lake Theatre, reading a portion of his forthcoming novel. Sam Allard, writing for North By Northwestern about the event, said that
12932-670: The turn of the millennium. The novel was awarded the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002. The novel received widespread critical acclaim and was listed as one of the greatest novels of the 21st century by publications such as Time magazine and The New York Times . The Corrections revolves around the dysfunctional Lambert family and their efforts to reconcile as they face personal crises and deep-rooted emotional struggles. The novel alternates between
13054-560: The weekly student newspaper, The Phoenix . From the SEPTA Swarthmore commuter train station and the borough of Swarthmore to the south, the oak-lined Magill Walk leads north up a hill to Parrish. The campus is coterminous with the grounds of the Scott Arboretum , cited by some as a main staple of the campus's renowned beauty. In 2011, Travel + Leisure named Swarthmore one of the most beautiful college campuses in
13176-401: The world." The novel was not a financial success at the time of its publication. Franzen subsequently defended the novel in his 2010 Paris Review interview, remarking "I think they [critics and readers] may be overlooking Strong Motion a little bit." Franzen taught a fiction-writing seminar at Swarthmore in the spring of 1992 and 1994: On that first day of class, Franzen wrote two words on
13298-399: Was Jewish, and Köhler, who was not, had left Nazi Germany because of its discriminatory policies. Köhler came to Swarthmore in 1935 and served until his retirement in 1958. Wallach came in 1936, first as a researcher, also teaching from 1942 until 1975. Asch joined the faculty in 1947 and served until 1966, conducting his noted conformity experiments at Swarthmore. The 1960s and 1970s saw
13420-522: Was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize , was nominated for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award , and was shortlisted for the 2003 International Dublin Literary Award . In 2005, The Corrections was included in TIME magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923 . In 2006, Bret Easton Ellis declared the novel "one of
13542-406: Was asked by The Guardian to contribute what he believed were ten serious rules to abide by for aspiring writers. The Corrections The Corrections is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen . It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to "one last Christmas" together near
13664-446: Was controversially eliminated in 2000, along with wrestling and, initially, badminton . The Board of Managers cited lack of athletes on campus and difficulty of recruiting as reasons for terminating the programs. The department also offers a number of club sport options, including men's and women's rugby , ultimate frisbee , volleyball , fencing and squash . The participation rate of students in intercollegiate or club sports
13786-458: Was currently at work on the early stages of his sixth novel, which he speculated could be his last. "So, I may be wrong ... But somehow this new one really does feel like my last.". Subsequently, in an interview reproduced on The Millions website in April 2020, Franzen mentioned that he was "almost done" with writing this sixth novel. Crossroads: A Novel was published on October 5, 2021. During
13908-529: Was first published monthly, then moved to a bi-weekly schedule in 1894. It is now published weekly. The Phoenix first appeared online in September 1995. The newspaper is printed by Hocking News in Lancaster County. Voices was founded in 2017 as "an online news publication solely dedicated to centering marginalized voices and creating space for them to tell their own stories", in response to controversial articles about African-American protests in
14030-670: Was founded in 1864 by Deborah Fisher Wharton , along with her industrialist son, Joseph Wharton , together with a committee of members of the Hicksite Yearly Meetings of Philadelphia , New York and Baltimore . It is the only college founded by the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends: previous Quaker institutions, like nearby Haverford College , were Orthodox in their founding history. Swarthmore held its first classes in 1869 and Edward Parrish (1822–1872)
14152-431: Was founded in the fall of 2013 as a group open to all genders and identities. In addition, Chaverim is a co-ed group that includes students from the Tri-College Consortium and draws on music from cultures around the world for its repertoire. The groups, self-run as volunteer clubs with college support, travel to other schools to participate in concerts. Once every semester, all of the school's a cappella groups collaborate for
14274-429: Was going to do Alfred, I would be delighted. If they told me they had cast Cate Blanchett as [Alfred's daughter] Denise, I would be jumping up and down, even though officially I don't care what they do with the movie." In January 2005, Variety announced that, with Daldry presumably off the project, Robert Zemeckis was developing Hare's script "with an eye toward directing." In August 2005, Variety confirmed that
14396-473: Was part of BBC Radio 4 's 15 Minute Drama "classic and contemporary original drama and book dramatisations". Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( / ˈ s w ɔːr θ m ɔːr / SWORTH -mor , locally / ˈ s w ɑː θ m ɔːr / SWAHTH -mor ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania . Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore
14518-513: Was rescinded. Winfrey announced, "Jonathan Franzen will not be on the Oprah Winfrey show because he is seemingly uncomfortable and conflicted about being chosen as a book club selection. It is never my intention to make anyone uncomfortable or cause anyone conflict. We have decided to skip the dinner and we're moving on to the next book." These events gained Franzen and his novel widespread media attention. The Corrections soon became one of
14640-604: Was selected for Oprah Winfrey 's book club . Franzen initially participated in the selection, sitting down for a lengthy interview with Oprah and appearing in B-roll footage in his hometown of St. Louis (described in an essay in How To Be Alone titled "Meet Me In St. Louis"). In October 2001, however, The Oregonian printed an article in which Franzen expressed unease with the selection. In an interview on National Public Radio 's Fresh Air , he expressed his worry that
14762-473: Was symptomatic of the subsequent course of American culture, with its increasingly prominent anti-elitist strain. She argues that The Corrections stands above later novels which focus on similar themes because, unlike its successors, it addresses these themes without being "hamstrung by the 9/11 problem" which preoccupied Bush-era novels by writers such as Don DeLillo , Jay McInerney , and Jonathan Safran Foer . In August 2001, producer Scott Rudin optioned
14884-399: Was the first president. Lucretia Mott (1793–1880) and Martha Ellicott Tyson (1795–1873) were among those Friends who insisted that the new college of Swarthmore be coeducational. Edward Hicks Magill, the second president, served for 17 years. His daughter, Helen Magill , (1853–1944), was in the first class to graduate in 1873; in 1877, she was the first woman in the United States to earn
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