Authors Pitts, Lance and Higginbotham to appear Sept. 28
The eighth annual History Book Festival is set for Friday to Sunday, Sept. 27 to 29, in Lewes. Live events will feature 23 distinguished authors of historical nonfiction and fiction including Leonard Pitts Jr., Rachel Lance and Adam Higginbotham.
Pitts will present his novel “54 Miles.” Set in March 1965, it tells the story of a young man who travels from Harlem to his parents’ home state of Alabama to join in the voting rights campaign, only to be brutalized on what came to be known as Bloody Sunday, when law enforcement officers attack unarmed marchers in Selma.
The Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice has partnered with HBF on the event. Joe Lawson, SDARJ member, said, “Through the craft of historical fiction, Pitts transports you to that terrifying world, not from the vantage point of the leaders but from the marchers and people who lived in Alabama at that time. Pitts’ book makes us feel forever indebted to them for the personal trials they overcame to change history and make this a better country for all people.” The Delaware Historical Society is also partnering on Pitts’ event.
Lance will present “Chamber Divers: The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations Forever.” Her book explores a once-classified story about the researchers who invented the cutting-edge underwater science that allowed the Allies to achieve victory on D-Day during World War II. Lance is a biomedical engineer and blast-injury specialist who works as a scientific researcher on military diving projects at Duke University. She spent several years as an engineer for the U.S. Navy, working to build specialized underwater equipment for use by Navy divers, SEALs and Marine Corps Force Recon personnel.
Higginbotham will present “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space.” The book covers the terrible demise of space shuttle Challenger Jan. 28, 1986, which resulted in the deaths of all seven passengers.
“I want to unearth the truth about events that I've lived through myself. The two books I've written so far – about Challenger and about the Chernobyl accident – were both animated by my discovery that what I thought I knew about both incidents, based on what I remembered reading in the news at the time, was sometimes wrong, and frequently told only a fraction of the real story. And in both cases, the history I discovered was far more complex and compelling than the memory I’d started with,” said Higginbottham.
Books can be purchased at each venue, or they may be bought in advance at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, the official bookseller of the History Book Festival, or at Biblion in Lewes. Authors will be available to personalize books after their presentations.
For more information on all presenting authors and their featured books, go to historybookfestival.org.
The History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty. Special thanks go to HBF’s Founding Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and production, and Browseabout Books.
