The author of the bestselling Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West will pay a visit to Columbus to promote his newest book, After Alice.
Gregory Maguire will speak at 7:30, Oct. 29, at the Columbus Museum of Art.
After Alice is Maguire’s unique twist on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which is
Gregory Maguire
celebrating its 150th year of publication.
“There is an incredible pressure to honor the original story,” Maguire says. “When Wicked came out and it was such a success, one of the first things my agents said was, ‘let’s redo Alice in Wonderland.’ I said, ‘are you deranged?’”
Maguire eventually recovered from his reservations.
“Wicked did not negatively affect anyone’s love of Judy Garland,” Maguire says. “If anything, it made people come back to The Wizard of Oz and love it more. If something in Alice spoke to me, I should get it out in my own way. I should not be so proud as to think I could bruise a classic.”
Tickets are $20, or $18 for seniors and students. They can be purchased on Thurber House’s website: www.thurberhouse.org/gregory-maguire.html.
