Bookstore Owner Jen Mason’s idea for a history book festival in Lewes has grown from a concert to a city-wide celebration featuring best-selling author James L. Swanson and more than 20 other writers and interviewers.
The new festival is the only town festival in the country devoted exclusively to fictional and non-fiction history, the organizers say.
Tickets for the October 6 keynote by Swanson, author of “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer,” are available at www.historybookfestival.org. Tickets are $10.
The day of free events is scheduled October 7 in multiple Lewes locations – author interviews, presentations and book signings Browseabout Books in Rehoboth will carry history titles in the shop and at the festival, so festivalgoers can purchase books and have them signed by the authors.
Mason developed the idea for the Lewes festival with part-time Lewes resident Ronald Collins, the Harold S. Shelfelan Distinguished Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law, who wrote 11 books.
“Because of our rich history, Lewes is the perfect location for such a festival,” said Mason, owner of biblion used books & rare finds in Lewes. “The natural beauty of Sussex County and our small town hospitality are likewise big draws for authors, making them much more willing to attend a small festival than they might otherwise be. ”
The festival will address a broad spectrum of historical subjects, but include Delaware-themed presentations. Retired Supreme Court Justice Randy J. Holland will speak on Delaware’s Destiny Determined by Lewes. Author Kim Rodgers Burdick will discuss her book “Revolutionary Delaware: Independence in the First State.”
More than 20 authors and interviewers are on the event’s schedule, including Craig Harline, whose recently published “A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation” marks the 500th anniversary of Luther nailing the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
Among the sessions offered on October 7 will be Geoffrey Stone, author of “Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Law and Religion from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century:” Christopher J. LeBron, author of “The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea:” Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, author of “The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates’ Wives, Families and Communities” Meryl Gordon, author of “Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend”, and Martin Torgoff, author of “Bop Apocalypse: Jazz, Race, the Beats and Drugs”.
The History Book Festival is non-profit formed through the Greater Lewes Foundation. The festival received a $15,000 grant from Delaware Humanities, among the largest grants given by that organization to help promote the humanities throughout Delaware. Net proceeds of the History Book Festival benefit Sussex County public libraries.
“This generous award will enable us to expand our advertising, helping us get the word out about this exciting event,” said Mason. “We could not launch this festival without this kind of community support and engagement.”
