Klagsbrun Symposium Brings David Sedaris to Conn

“In America, if your neighbor has a Rolls-Royce, you want one, too. In England, if your neighbor has a Rolls-Royce, you want him to die in a fiery accident,” said David Sedaris during an interview with Weller Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence Blanche Boyd. The interview, which was part of the sixteenth Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium on Creative Arts and Moral Vision on Oct. 15, preceded a reading and talk with the contemporary humorist writer in Evans Hall that evening, and offered students, faculty, staff and alumni the opportunity to hear Sedaris speak in an intimate setting.

David Sedaris has become a household name, earning recognition in the early 1990s for several essay collections, including Barrel Fever, Naked and Holidays on Ice. Me Talk Pretty One Day, which was published in 2000, skyrocketed Sedaris to international fame and made him one of the preeminent voices in contemporary nonfiction. Sedaris’s self-deprecating, acerbic tone has made him a favorite among a diverse range of readers.

During the interview, Boyd focused on Sedaris’ globe-trotting lifestyle as well as how he managed to reach such depth in his work, calling it nervy. “I don’t think of it as nervy. I think all writing is equally narcissistic,” said Sedaris. “If you are writing fiction or nonfiction, doesn’t matter, the bottom line is that you want people to read it.” In addition to writing, reading plays an important role in the presentation of Sedaris’ work; his audiobook for Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim has been nominated for two Grammys, one for Best Spoken Word Album and another for Best Comedy Album.

Sedaris is one of a long line of distinguished guest speakers for the Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium on Creative Arts and Moral Vision. Previous speakers have included Michael Cunningham, Art Spiegelman and Tobias Wolff, whom Sedaris worships; he claimed that when he first started writing, he tried to sound like Tobias Wolff but ultimately failed because, “I’m not a decent person. No one has a heart like [Tobias Wolff]…If I had a church, I would read a Wolff story and then tell everyone to go.”

Created in 1989, the Daniel Klagsbrun Symposium honors the life of Daniel Klagsbrun ’86, who passed away two years after graduating from Connecticut College. His parents, Herb and Emilie, wanted to remember Dan, who they said was a “voracious reader,” and began the symposium to bring well-known writers to speak at the College every two-or-so years.

“Daniel had a wonderful four years. He absolutely loved Conn,” said Emilie Klagsbrun in a phone interview. “He made extraordinary friends, had great experiences. We wanted to do something for him in his memory. We felt it was important to remember Daniel in a positive way, and to give back to the school appreciation for the wonderful years Dan spent there.”

Rather than creating a scholarship for a single recepient, Daniel’s parents came up with the idea for a school-wide symposium. “It’s much more meaningful to have [the symposium] for the whole student body and whoever is in the local community. Over the years, the dialogues have been terrific,” Emilie said.

Professor Boyd has been instrumental in bringing writers to the College over the years. “We were very lucky to have Blanche Boyd,” said Herb. “She’s done a great job, particularly in getting some extraordinary writers and having a really good dialogue…We think it’s great that the student body has an opportunity to meet and experience some of these writers.”

“It also gives us an opportunity to revisit the school,” Herb added.

The Klagsbrun family was in attendance for Sedaris’ interview and lecture, which sold out tickets in a four-hour time span. “I loved looking at him,” Emilie said. “This is obviously a person who has gone through life with some problems that all of us have, but he has made his peace with himself.”

At 7 p.m., Sedaris took the stage in Evans, reading a few stories, at least one from his latest collection Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, and selections from his diary to a captivated audience. These anecdotes captured his keen observations and his ability to turn the mundane into the absurd, and Sedaris seemed grateful for the opportunity to test out unpublished writing.

After the reading, Sedaris spent two hours signing books, chatting with audience members and personalizing each message.

“David Sedaris was not only hilarious and heartfelt, but also incredibly personable,” said Matt Whiman ’15. “It was quite refreshing to see someone of his stature taking time to not only sign so many books, but also make sure that everyone who came up to him walked away with an experience, not just an autographed book. For some reason, Sedaris liked my pants, so we talked about them and then he drew a picture of them in my book. He also gave me a stick of string cheese that he had in a hospitality basket the school gave him. He gave me a memory that night, and I think that’s something that makes him stand apart from so many other big names.”

Many students were thrilled to have such a well-known writer visit our little school on the hill, and it will be a memory that many students carry with them after college. But we should also remember and give thanks to the Klagsbrun family for giving us the means to bring such a high-profile figure like Sedaris to campus.

“We received two beautiful letters today from students at Connecticut College expressing their appreciation for the symposium,” Emilie wrote to us in an email. “That warmed our hearts and affirmed that what we did was the most meaningful thing for Daniel’s memory.”