January 16-21, 2022: Winter Retreat – The Imagination of Charles Dickens, Lochsa Lodge, ID, click here for details
January 9-14, 2022: Winter Retreat – The Winter Encampments of Lewis & Clark, Lochsa Lodge, ID, click here for details
Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb
January 24-29, 2021
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Thoreau’s Walden & Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
January 17-22, 2021
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Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb
January 10-15, 2021
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Winter Retreat: The Imagination of Charles Dickens
January 18-23, 2020
There may be better novelists in the English language, but there is no greater writer than Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Forget the plots. Dickens’ capacity to explore the gritty underworld of mid-nineteenth century London, his comic genius, his indictments of the British legal system, his sympathy for those exploited or left behind by the industrial revolution, and the sheer exuberance of his use of the English language, make him unique among all writers. His great characters—Pickwick, Uriah Heep, Mr. Micawber, Jaggers, Miss Havisham, Mrs. Jellyby, &c.—have risen out of the pages of his books to become permanent residents in the human imagination.
We’ll read just four of his fifteen novels: The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and Bleak House. Each of them is magnificent in its own way. The retreat will include a special Dickens feast: potato and leek soup, roast turkey, British Christmas pudding, mince pie with clotted cream, and several types of punch.
Clay writes: “There is, for me, no greater joy than spending an evening in the reading Zone with Dickens. There is something uncanny, brilliantly whimsical, tragicomic, and deeply life affirming in Dickens’ prose. I cannot wait to explore his genius with old friends and new at Lochsa Lodge.”
Clay recommends the Norton Critical Editions of Bleak House, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations.
Winter Retreat: Exploring the Space Program
January 12-17, 2020
The moon landing in July 1969 was one of the handful of greatest moments in the history of human civilization. And it was just the beginning.
The literature of the US, Soviet, and now Chinese space programs (1957-2019) is outstanding. Clay is most interested in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs, beginning with Alan Shepard’s 15-minute sub-orbital mission in May 1961, through Apollo 11, to the last moon landing in December 1972 (Apollo 17). We’ll pay particular attention to the breathtaking Apollo 8 mission (December 1968, culminating in the reading of the first eight verses of Genesis from lunar orbit), without neglecting humankind’s first step on the moon or Apollo 13’s heroics in April 1970. We’ll spend some time talking about Skylab, the Shuttle, the International Space Station, Mars landings, and probes to the edges of the solar system—and beyond.
We’ll read Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff (and analyze the film); Norman Mailer’s Of a Fire on the Moon, Craig Nelson’s Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, Jeffrey Kluger’s Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon; and Robert Poole’s Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth. A list of films to watch and additional reading will be available to those who register.
We’ll fire off a few multi-stage rockets and celebrate around the outdoor fire pit with Clay’s trademarked Tang Space Punch.
January 17-22 • Lochsa Lodge, ID
Some of the best writing in the English language comes from the pen of poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare. Many people feel intimidated by Shakespeare, perhaps because of their high school encounters with Julius Caesar or Romeo and Juliet. Clay’s approach is to demystify Shakespeare, to teach participants how to read Shakespeare with joy, confidence, and discernment. Although Clay is often regarded as a historian, his actual training, at the University of Minnesota and Oxford, was in English Literature, the Renaissance, Shakespeare, John Donne, and John Milton. All of his degrees are in English. With the help of the best film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, Clay will guide us through two plays per day, plus some sonnets, and related poetry by his personal favorite John Donne. You will be amazed by the level of joy, laughter, and unpretentious literary satisfaction you experience in this humanities retreat. Clay has taught Shakespeare at Pomona College, the law school of the University of North Dakota, the University of Vermont, and Bismarck State College.
Learn more and view the full itinerary.
This retreat is hosted by Odyssey Tours with Clay Jenkinson.
Odyssey Tours is a division of Bek, Inc.
Becky Cawley • telephone: (208) 791-8721 • bek@odytours.net
January 10-15 • Lochsa Lodge, ID
The purpose of these retreats is to explore Henry David Thoreau’s great challenge that the purpose of life is “to live deliberately.” We learn together the art of true conversation about books, ideas, books, history, current events, and the wayward progress of the American experiment. You do not have to be a scholar to participate. These are not academic discussions, much less lectures. Clay’s purpose is to provide a playful, safe, relaxed, and congenial atmosphere at one of the most beautiful resorts in the Rocky Mountain West for several days of satisfactions, including conversation.
Learn more and view the full itinerary.
This retreat is hosted by Odyssey Tours with Clay Jenkinson.
Odyssey Tours is a division of Bek, Inc.
Becky Cawley • telephone: (208) 791-8721 • bek@odytours.net
Some of the best writing of our time is about American Indian history and culture. This retreat will give you a chance to read really remarkable books by and about American Indian history, spirituality, sovereignty, and a view of life distinct from the mainstream of American civilization. In view of the renewal of the “Indian Wars” in the American West, most recently on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, conversations will be rich, nuanced, rigorous, civil, potentially life-changing, and at times troubling. Clay will help you explore how your understanding of the American West was shaped by such mythologizers as Theodore Roosevelt, Frederic Remington, Owen Wister, and of course Buffalo Bill Cody. Warm up by reading Wooden Leg’s outstanding autobiography.
For more information, visit Odyssey Tours online or contact Becky Cawley: (208) 791-8721 or bek@odytours.net
