Local celebrity Louis Bromfield featured at special Chautauqua event in April

Louis Bromfield was a well-known and accomplished writer, having won a Pulitzer Prize in 1927 for his novel "Early Autumn."

He had been a successful Hollywood writer. He had lived 13 years in France and visited India. He knew influential and glamorous people. But in 1938, he chose to return to the place of his childhood, Richland County, Ohio. There he established Malabar Farm and devoted his life and fortune to conservation farming.

Louis Bromfield will return to the area April 25-27 in the person of Chautauqua scholar John Dennis Anderson. Anderson will make appearances in Ashland and Malabar Farm. The visits are sponsored by Ashland Chautauqua as part of its 25th year Silver Celebration.

Thursday, April 25, Anderson will speak at 6:30 p.m. at the Ashland County Historical Society’s speaker series. His talk on Bromfield’s conservation efforts is titled “The Sinatra of the Soil” the comparison to Frank Sinatra’s fame in the 1940s indicating Bromfield’s star-power in agricultural reform. Location is the Freer Home, 1260 Center Street, Ashland. The program is free and open to the public.

Friday, April 26, at 6:30 p.m. Anderson will be joined by Chautauqua scholar Karen Vuranch for “A Cultivated Friendship,” a dramatic reading of letters between Bromfield and novelist Edith Wharton. The topic is mainly the lavish gardens they each created around their French homes, spiced with a bit of gossip about their well-known mutual acquaintances.

The program will be at the Ronk Lecture Hall, inside the College of Education on the Ashland University campus, 340 Samaritan Ave., Ashland. Use Parking Lot C on College Boulevard.

'An Evening with Louis Bromfield'

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27, Anderson will perform “An Evening with Louis Bromfield,” the traditional Chautauqua first-person monologue, followed by the traditional question-and-answser session, with questions directed first to the character and then later to the scholar. The program will be held at Malabar Farm State Park inside the barn, 4050 Bromfield Road, Lucas. Malabar Farm Foundation is providing sponsorship support.

Saturday, April 27, at 9 a.m. there will be a Coffee with the Scholar at the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce, 211 Claremont Ave. Join an informal discussion with Anderson for a behind-the-scenes look at the Chautauqua experience.

Anderson is retired as a professor of communications at Emerson College. He is a popular Chautauqua scholar, appearing most recently in Ashland Chautauqua as Ernest Hemingway in 2021. Anderson researched Bromfield and created his Bromfield monologue especially for Ashland Chautauqua in 2015.

Ashland Chautauqua’s Silver Celebration has as its theme A Trip Down Memory Lane, a tribute to popular performances in the past. In addition to Anderson, five scholars will reprise their performances July 16-20 − Karen Vuranch as Julia Child, Hasan Davis as Joe Louis, Ilene Evans as Ethel Waters, Jeremy Meier as John Dillinger and Elsa Wolff as Amelia Earhart. Up-to-date information can be found at ashlandchautauqua.org.

Ashland Chautauqua offers Ashland County and surrounding areas an opportunity to celebrate history in an educational and entertaining manner. Ashland Chautauqua is supported by Ohio Humanities, the Ohio Arts Council, the City of Ashland’s Parks & Recreation Department, Explore Ashland, local businesses and organizations and residents who want to see this vibrant celebration of history thrive. Ashland Main Street is the fiscal agent. Ashland Chautauqua programming is planned and implemented by a committee of citizen volunteers.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Louis Bromfield program highlights special Ashland Chautauqua event