The latest program in the “John Quinn Lecture Series,” a joint collaboration between the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library and the Heidelberg University English Department, will feature a virtual panel discussion on censorship and banned books on Wednesday, March 15 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. 

Tiffin native John Quinn fought against censorship for much of his professional career. He was caught in a constant battle between the avant-garde writers of the early 1920s and the laws he knew he would be hopeless to defend against. His legacy continues to inspire those who fight against censorship at all levels of government and society. A virtual panel will discuss Quinn’s legacy and apply it to the current battle against censorship. 

Panelists will include Judy Smith, owner of the Pan Yan Bookstore in downtown Tiffin, Erin VanLaningham, Professor of English at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, Holly Eberle, Teen Librarian at the Algonquin Area Public Library District in Illinois, and Autumn Koors Foltz, a junior at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Heidelberg University’s Dr. Barry Devine will serve as the host for this event. Dr. Devine is a specialist in the works of James Joyce and Irish modernism and is a contributor to the new The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses, a 100th anniversary edition of Joyce’s novel.

Registration is required by visiting https://bit.ly/TSPLQuinnReg. This event will be recorded. Recordings of past events in the John Quinn Lecture Series can be found at t.ly/yDSu. For more information, please visit www.tiffinsenecalibrary.org or call 419-447-3751.

John Quinn was born in Tiffin, Ohio, in 1870. He grew to international fame as a lawyer and collector of literature and art. At the time of his death in 1924, Quinn had amassed the largest collection of modern art in the world. He was also famous for providing legal advice and services to many modernist authors including James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, and William Butler Yeats.