This month’s collection spotlight is “From Page to Screen,” where we are featuring books that have been turned into films or television shows in the last couple of years. You can check out this display at the Collection Spotlight rack near our Perkins Library Service Desk on the first floor of Perkins. Here’s a brief selection of the titles you will find there:
You probably know that The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is now a Hulu television show, but did you also know that there was a 1990 film adaptation with scenes filmed here in Durham?
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy was adapted in 2015. It stars some familiar faces, such as Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen, and features some beautiful scenery. There was also an 1967 film adaptation.
The Price of Salt was adapted into the 2016 film Carol starring the Academy Award Winning Cate Blanchett. It was published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan but was written by Patricia Highsmith (author of the classic The Talented Mr. Ripley, which was itself adapted in the 2000 film of the same name).
I Am Not Your Negro is an interesting case because while the text is from James Baldwin, it was compiled and edited together by the filmmaker Raoul Peck. He worked with Baldwin’s published and unpublished work, selecting passages from his books, essays, letters, notes, and interviews to piece together the fulfillment of an idea of a book that Baldwin had envisioned about Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. The resulting documentary was a powerful examination of race in American and garnered a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel was adapted into a 2017 film. David Finkel is a MacArthur Fellow and Pultizer Prize winning reporter who embedded with the men of 2-16 after their deployment ended as a continuation of his work in the 2009 book The Good Soldiers.
You can find many of the films featured in our Collection Spotlight in our Lilly Library collection.
Click here, here, and here to see some of our previous Collection Spotlights.