At 10.45am on Friday, Michael Hill, the president of Chautauqua Institution, was sitting four rows back from the stage as Salman Rushdie was being introduced as a headline speaker in the cultural center’s summer programme.
It should have been a joyous occasion for more than 1,000 people in the hall, and for Hill personally. Rushdie had spoken at the institution only one other time previously, and as the event began, Hill reflected on how closely the novelist’s struggles and convictions mirrored Chautauqua’s own.
