Bestselling Author Tracy Kidder Opens 2009 Wooster Forum Series

Popular writer to discuss "Mountains Beyond Mountains" Sept. 9 in McGaw Chapel

WOOSTER, Ohio - Tracy Kidder, bestselling author, journalist, and essayist, will discuss "Mountains Beyond Mountains," at the opening lecture of the 2009 Wooster Forum on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at The College of Wooster. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in McGaw Chapel (340 E. University St.).

The title of Kidder's lecture comes from his highly influential 2003 book, which provides an insightful look into two global health crises - tuberculosis and AIDS - through the eyes of a dedicated physician determined to improve the health of some of the world's poorest people. The book focuses on Dr. Paul Farmer, a compassionate advocate for the poor who established clinics and hospitals and helped to stem the tide of new HIV and TB infections in Haiti. He also founded Zanmi Lasante (Creole for Partners in Health), a non-governmental organization and the only health-care provider in the Plateau Central in Haiti.

Kidder's other bestselling books include The Soul of a New Machine (1982), which won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for its probing insight into the world of high-tech corporate America, House (1985), Among Schoolchildren (1989), Old Friends (1993) and Home Town (1999). He is noted for his ability to reveal general insights into human nature through his books about personal and intimate aspects of individual lives. This statement is revealed in My Detachment, a compelling account of his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, and Strength in What Remains, the story of a young man who survives the horrors of genocide in Burundi and immigrates to the United States to attend medical school.

Kidder was born in New York City in 1945. He earned a B.A. from Harvard and served as a lieutenant in Vietnam, where he received a Bronze Star. Following the war, he obtained his MA from the University of Iowa. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Granta, and The New York Times.

The next Wooster Forum event will be held Tuesday, Sept. 22, when Nicholas Kristof, author of Half the Sky, will speak about the oppression of women in third-world countries. Additional information about the Wooster Forum is available by phone (330-263-2132) or e-mail.