
Join Dr. Ellen Knodt as she talks about how reading an author’s early manuscripts and letters can lead to discoveries of changes in the meaning of a particular work or in a change in an author’s perspective over time. Dr. Knodt’s work in the Ernest Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston and rare books archives at Princeton and Yale has resulted in discoveries of a change of one word, or in another instance, a change in one letter, creating a different perception of a narrator. Hemingway’s letters, being collected and published by the Hemingway Letters Project housed at Penn State, have similarly yielded specific insights into one of the author’s more ambiguous stories and even his political ideas.
This event is part of “Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series,” in which retired faculty members share their groundbreaking research, creative projects, and unique perspectives with the wider Penn State community and beyond.