Published: Feb. 10, 1998

Popular music and cultural critic Greil Marcus will give a public lecture Thursday, Feb. 19, at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In the lecture, titled “Prophecy in the American Voice -- John Winthrop, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Allen Ginsberg,” Marcus will address the prophetic strain in American political rhetoric.

The talk, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Old Main Chapel, is free and open to the public.

Best known for his work as a popular music critic, Marcus also has written extensively on literature, art, movies and politics.

His acclaimed books include “Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music” (1975, 4th revised edition 1995), “Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession” (1991), “Ranters and Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-1992” (1993) and “Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes” (1997).

Marcus, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., also has worked as an editor, columnist and staff writer with a number of newspapers and magazines since the late 1960s, including Rolling Stone, Artforum and Village Voice. He has published articles and essays with journals such as Representations, Esquire, Threepenny Review and Der Spiegel.

In addition to his voluminous critical writing, Marcus is a highly regarded public speaker. He has never previously given a talk at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder.

The lecture and a 3-hour seminar with Marcus for students and faculty are sponsored by the American Studies Program and the PresidentÂ’s Fund for the Humanities.