College of Charleston’s award-winning archivist and novelist Harlan Greene will present a lecture on the life of author, adventurer and literary trailblazer Harry Hervey on Jan. 30, 2018. The program will be held in room 227 of the Addlestone Library beginning at 12 p.m.

Harlan Greene is head of Special Collections in Addlestone Library.

Harlan Greene is head of Special Collections in Addlestone Library.

From Charleston to Cambodia, and from Broadway to Hollywood and beyond, Hervey defied his critics and his times to live his life openly as a gay man breaking taboos in his novels, travelogues, plays and films.

Greene’s new book The Damned Don’t Cry: They Just Disappear is a portrait of the life and works of Hervey.

Greene is also the author of the novels Why We Never Danced the Charleston, What the Dead Remember, and The German Officer’s Boy. His nonfiction books and essays cover literary, African American, Jewish, gay, and South Carolina Lowcountry topics. He currently serves as the head of the College of Charleston’s Special Collections.

The event kicks off “Narrating Charleston on the Margins,” the spring 2018 Faculty Lecture Series exploring the often overlooked ways Charlestonians have defined themselves. The series is produced by the College of Charleston Friends of the Library and the Honors College.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.