SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Calvin Trillin, author, humorist and highly regarded reporter for The New Yorker for more than 40 years, will deliver Wittenberg University’s 2003 Fred R. Leventhal Family Endowed Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center. Sponsored by the Wittenberg Series, his presentation titled “Calvin Trillin’s America” is free and open to the public.

Calvin Trillin is recognized in fields of writing that are remarkably diverse. In addition to writing for The New Yorker, he was a columnist for The Nation in the late ’70s through the mid-’80s writing what USA Today called “simply the funniest regular column in journalism.” He has also authored more than 20 books of varying themes, and his column in The Nation was nationally syndicated from 1986-1995. From 1996 to 2001, Trillin wrote a column for Time.

His books have included three comic novels, most recently the national bestseller “Tepper Isn’t Going Out,” a travel book, a collection of short stories and an account of the desegregation of the University of Georgia.

Trillin lectures widely and has appeared often as a guest on the David Letterman Show, The Tonight Show and Good Morning America. He has written and presented two one-man shows that were sell-outs at the American Place Theater in New York, both critically acclaimed. In reviewing Trillin’s Words, No Music, in 1990, New York Times theater critic Mel Gussow called Trillin “the Buster Keaton of performance humorists.”

All Wittenberg Series events are free admission thanks to contributions to the general fund, income from endowed lecture funds, student fees, cosponsors and foundations. To receive a Series poster or become a Friend of the Wittenberg Series, contact Gwendolyn Scheffel, Series coordinator at (937) 327-7918. To learn more about the Series, visit www.wittenberg.edu.