Library News »02/22/2013

Let's Talk About It, Idaho! Barbara Meldrum to lead discussion of "Home Below Hell's Canyon"

The fourth in the five-part Let’s Talk About It, Idaho! series will be held Tuesday, February 26 at 7pm in the 1912 Center. Barbara Meldrum, Professor Emerita of English at the University of Idaho, will lead a discussion of Grace E. Jordan’s “Home Below Hell’s Canyon.” In her autobiography, Jordan describes life on a remote sheep ranch in the 1930s in the Snake River Canyon south of Lewiston. Grace, her husband, Len, and their three children moved to the gorge during the Depression and become self-sufficient. Their lives were centered around family, hard work and common sense in a landscape many would consider extreme. Len Jordan would later become an Idaho governor and U.S. senator.

The book talks call attention to Idaho history as an historical milestone begins, the state’s territorial sesquicentennial year. The theme of this year’s readings and discussions, “Idaho at 150 – Sesquicentennial Days,” explores life in early Idaho and the challenges faced by people settling and developing the state. The University of Idaho Library is partnering with the Moscow Public Library to provide the talks, which bring adult readers together with humanities scholars to discuss fine literature.

The remaining program in the five part series is scheduled for March 20 when Ron McFarland will discuss We Sagebrush Folks by Annie Pike Greenwood. The programs begin at 7pm and are open to the public.