The Mount’s Summer Lectures

Arts and culture traditionally take one day off each week – Monday. What’s a visitor to do in the Berkshires? The Mount’s Summer Lectures at the home of famous author Edith Wharton bring noted speakers from around the world to discuss a wide variety of topics on eight consecutive Monday afternoons. All speakers are published novelists, professors, and filmmakers, among others. This summer’s subjects are equally, if not more, intriguing; i.e. biographies of remarkable personalities such as the Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Voltaire’s mistress Emilie Du Châtelet, the fashionable Marie Antoinette, and world-class garden designer Norah Lindsay.

The choice of speakers is a very dynamic process. They are invited based on The Mount’s staff’s our own research on recent publications and recommendations by visitors. This year is the 16th series, and it’s especially interesting that all speakers donate their time to assist The Mount.

Lectures take place at 4pm. Don’t forget to stay for the question and answer session, to meet the author, perhaps buy the book, and munch on scones, and sip iced tea. The series is a step back in time, when life was civilized and formal, yet it’s quite alright to wear jeans and flip flops and looks like everyone else in the Berkshires. Check the complete schedule at www.edithwharton.org.