Presentation and book signing for A Face from Uranus: Correspondence Between Tedd Burr and Henry Bellamann 1943-1945.

Authors

Lenny Pinna

Document Type

Video

Publication Date

2-15-2023

Abstract

Author Lenny Pinna will give a presentation and book signing for A Face from Uranus: Correspondence Between Tedd Burr and Henry Bellamann 1943-1945. Lenny researched the Henry and Katherine Bellamann Collection to help produce this book. As part of the presentation he will donate all of the correspondence between Burr and Bellamann to the Archives.

A little bit about the book: It's 1943. As World War II commands the world's stage, nineteen year old Tedd Burr struggles with his own private battle-gender identity. After receiving a draft notice, Tedd reaches out in desperation to Henry Bellamann, author of the best-selling 1940 novel Kings Row, for advice. Tedd imagines that the author who wrote sympathetically in his novel about a boy who was "too pretty for a boy" might be able to help him in some way. And he's right. Henry responds, initiating a warm correspondence that deepens into a relationship that lasts until Henry's death in 1945. This book publishes for the first time all the letters from Tedd and Henry's correspondence.

Rachael Price, Associate Professor of English at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College writes that the book “captures with poignant clarity the experiences of a young man struggling with his genderqueer identity in the 1940s Midwest.”

Later at 7pm, Lenny Pinna will screen his film Letters to Uranus: The Hidden Life of Tedd Burr in Archives and Special Collections.

Relational Format

video recording

Recommended Citation

Pinna, Lenny, "Presentation and book signing for A Face from Uranus: Correspondence Between Tedd Burr and Henry Bellamann 1943-1945." (2023). Library Presentations. 1.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/libpresentations/1

Accessibility Status

Audio or Video Captioning