Evento

Talk & Signing with Simon Winchester

Tickets to this event will include a signed hardcover copy of The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible.*

"Winchester's latest history profiles a huge cast of eclectic characters who helped transform America from a cluster of colonies to a unified nation through the taming of the wilderness and the expansion of the country's infrastructure. The sweeping narrative is cleverly organized into five sections each corresponds to one of the classical elements (wood, earth, water, fire, metal) and focuses on a different phase of American exploration or development. Winchester masterfully evokes the excitement of the nation's early days when opportunity and possibility were manifest in uncharted mountains and new technologies while bringing each of his subjects to life. Some, like Lewis and Clark, are familiar, while others like the many topographers who set down the Mexican and Canadian boundaries are more obscure, but no less interesting. Winchester, a Brit who recently became an American citizen, also incorporates personal travel anecdotes to comment on pivotal locations. This bold decision is the key to the book's greatest achievement: conveying the large-scale narrative of unification via the small-scale experience of the individual the creation of a people by the agglomeration of persons. "Publishers Weekly

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa. Those books were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Mr. Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by her Majesty the Queen.

*Customers may choose to receive a $25 gift card in lieu of book, on the night of the event only.