Join host David Hartmann and fellow Columbia alumni as the book club discusses How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn; a selection by our book club host David Hartmann. 

Growing up in a mining community in rural South Wales, Huw Morgan is taught many harsh lessons - at the kitchen table, at Chapel and around the pit-head. Looking back on the hardships of his early life, where difficult days are faced with courage but the valleys swell with the sound of Welsh voices, it becomes clear that there is nowhere so green as the landscape of his own memory. An immediate bestseller on publication in 1939, How Green Was My Valley quickly became one of the best-loved novels of the twentieth century. National Book Award Winner in 1940.

Date: Thursday, May 21, 2026

Times: 6:30PM Central, 7:30PM Eastern, 4:30PM Pacific. For those in Europe the time is 12:30AM in London on May 22.

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Cost: Free

Reviews

“The reader emerges from these tense pages strangely aglow with sharing the happiness of the characters . . . The simplicity of the language and its delicately strange flavor give the book added charm.” —Chicago Tribune

"A story of exquisite distinction and vibrant interest; clear and strong as the music under the sky."—New York Times

Photo Credit: Penguin Random House, Promotional Material, Public Domain