Virtual Premiere - FOL University with Author Stacy Schiff (Recorded on 11/5/23)

In case you missed it, the FOL University with Author Stacy Schiff (recorded on 11/5/23) is now available on the Library's YouTube page.

CLICK HERE to access the video.

FOL University, the Friends of the Port Washington Library’s scholarly lecture series, features Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Stacy Schiff discussing her latest book, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, which recounts Adams’ instrumental role in triggering the events that would lead to the American Revolution. Schiff appears in conversation with John O'Connell, former President of the PWPL Board of Trustees.

Though Samuel Adams is typically overshadowed by such towering contemporaries as Washington, Jefferson, and Adams’ second cousin, John Adams, Samuel’s behind-the-scenes machinations were a crucial factor in setting in motion the wheels of revolution. Schiff enthusiastically digs through much of the limited material available on her subject. She exhaustively dissects whatever was written about him by his contemporaries, and explores the numerous politically charged essays that he submitted under pseudonyms to newspapers. Schiff provides a penetrating analysis of Samuel’s tactics and motivations, and traces his story from his unassuming and somewhat aimless roots as a failed businessman to his role as a highly influential American statesman. What is revealed is how his grounded idealism was present from the outset and remained consistent throughout his life.

Schiff’s most recent books, Cleopatra: A Life and The Witches: Salem, 1692, were both #1 bestsellers. She also is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Saint-Exupéry: A Biography, a Pulitzer finalist; and A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library (Recorded on 11/5/23)