Charleston Library Society

Music at the Library: Kate Kayaian
2019-04-25 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | SC
Kate Kayaian presents The Voice of the Cello:
Acclaimed cellist Kate Kayaian takes you on a musical journey that explores the expressive range of her beloved instrument. Hearing works by Bach, Crumb, Hovhaness and Gianopoulos, you will discover how each composer’s cultural, political, and personal circumstances helped to shape their music, and how they each found their own unique voice while writing for the same instrument. Come and be transported to Germany, Japan, Greece, Armenia and beyond! Tickets are $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers. To purchase, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Cellist Kate Kayaian is known for her stunning artistry and for her passion for communicating through music. She maintains a rigorous schedule balancing her solo and chamber music performances with her teaching and conducting positions and musical exchange projects around the world. Her 2018-2019 schedule includes recitals and concerts in Chicago, Seattle, Victoria, BC, Palm Beach, Charleston, Houston, Bermuda, and throughout the New England area.

Speaker Series: Lydia Fitzpatrick
2019-04-29 18:00 - 19:00
MON. APR 29 | 6:00PM – SPEAKER SERIES: LYDIA FITZPATRICK
The dazzling debut author, Lydia Fitzpatrick, will discuss her upcoming book Lights All Night Long, a gripping and deftly plotted narrative of family and belonging. Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Every ticket purchased will receive a $5 off coupon for the title book Lights All Night Long useable specifically at this event. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Fifteen-year-old Ilya arrives in Louisiana from his native Russia for what should be the adventure of his life: a year in America as an exchange student. The abundance of his new world the Super Walmarts and heated pools and enormous televisions is as hard to fathom as the relentless cheerfulness of his host parents. And Sadie, their beautiful and enigmatic daughter, has miraculously taken an interest in him.
But all is not right in Ilyas world: he’s consumed by the fate of his older brother Vladimir, the magnetic rebel to Ilyas dutiful wunderkind, back in their tiny Russian hometown. The two have always been close, spending their days dreaming of escaping to America. But when Ilya was tapped for the exchange, Vladimir disappeared into their towns seedy, drug-plagued underworld. Just before Ilya left, the murders of three young women rocked the towns usual calm, and Vladimir found himself in prison.
With the help of Sadie, who has secrets of her own, Ilya embarks on a mission to prove Vladimirs innocence. Piecing together the timeline of the murders and Vladimirs descent into addiction, Ilya discovers the radical lengths to which Vladimir has gone to protect hima truth he could only have learned by leaving him behind.
A rich tale of belonging and the pull of homes both native and adopted, Lights All Night Long is a spellbinding story of the fierce bond between brothers determined to find a way back to each other.
Lydia Fitzpatrick’s work has appeared in the The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, One Story, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, a fiction fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant. She graduated from Princeton University and received an MFA from the University of Michigan. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.

Speaker Series: Lydia Fenet
2019-04-30 18:00 - 19:00
The country’s leading benefit auctioneer, managing director at Christies and a CLS sell-out lecturer speaks about her first book, The Most Powerful Woman In The Room Is You. Lydia Fenet will return to CLS to discuss her new book and auction off some incredible packages for the Library Society Membership. Tickets are $35 for members and $40 for nonmembers and include a copy of Fenet’s The Most Powerful Woman in The Room Is You. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.

Lydia Fenet serves as the Managing Director and Global Director of Strategic Partnerships at Christies. In addition to her role within Christies, she has raised over half a billion dollars for over 400 non-profits worldwide as the leading benefit auctioneer in the country. Ms. Fenet has trained all of Christies benefit auctioneers for the past seven years, and travels around the country to speak to corporations and groups on The Art of Selling. Lydia’s auctioneering achievements have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Vogue, Crains, Elle, Vanity Fair, Forbes, WWD, Vogue.com, and WorkingMother.com. The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You is her first book and will be published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in Spring 2019. You can follow her auctions, antics, and anecdotes on Instagram: @LydiaFenet.
In The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You, Lydia Fenet takes you on her twenty-year journey from intern to managing director and global head of strategic partnerships at Christies Auction House. Lydia shares the revolutionary sales approach she has crafted over the years that has not only shaped her career, but helped her raise more than half a billion dollars for nonprofits around the world.
This is an approach that will empower you to sell your way to success in business and in life. For example, you’ll learn how to create your own Strike Method or signature move to help you feel confident entering any situation. Combining case studies and personal stories, Lydia also shares tips from some of the most powerful and successful women in business, fashion, journalism, sports, and the arts.
This book will show you how to take your career to the next level, whether its overcoming your fear of asking for something or bridging a wage gap. Lydia has been there and come back more powerful than ever. Inspiring and encouraging, Lydia’s hard-won advice will help you walk into any room with the confidence of a leader and motivate others to find their voice as well. Get ready to embrace your natural strengths, map your career, and take ownership of your life.

SOLD OUT – Speaker Series: Delia Owens
2019-05-03 18:00 - 19:00
Join CLS & Buxton Books as we welcome bestselling author Delia Owens as she speaks about her hit novel Where The Crawdads Sing. Owens will be introduced by bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe for this incredible lecture event. Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. Every ticket purchased will receive a $5 off coupon for the title book Where The Crawdads Sing useable specifically at this event. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
#1 New York Times Bestseller
A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick
“I cant even express how much I love this book! I didn’t want this story to end!” -Reese Witherspoon
“Painfully beautiful.” –The New York Times Book Review
“Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver.” –Bustle
For years, rumors of the Marsh Girl have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life until the unthinkable happens.
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in AfricaCry of the Kalahari, The Eye of the Elephant, and Secrets of the Savanna. She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She currently lives in Idaho, where she continues her support for the people and wildlife of Zambia. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.

Speaker Series: Matt & Ted Lee in Conversation with Julian Van Winkle
2019-05-07 18:00 - 19:00
Join CLS as we host culinary geniuses, who just happen to be brothers, Matt and Ted Lee as they discuss their new book Hotbox. They will delight audiences with stories and tales of their “undercover” work in the cut-throat world of high-end catering while being in conversation with Pappy Van Winkle’s Julian P. Van Winkle III. Tickets for this unique event are $35 for members and $40 for nonmembers. Every ticket includes a copy of the Lee Bros. book, Hotbox. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here
Matt Lee and Ted Lee take on the competitive, wild world of high-end catering, exposing the secrets of a food business few home cooks or restaurant chefs ever experience.
Hotbox reveals the real-life drama behind cavernous event spaces and soaring white tents, where cooking conditions have more in common with a mobile army hospital than a restaurant. Known for their modern take on Southern cooking, the Lee brothers steeped themselves in the catering business for four years, learning the culture from the inside-out. Its a realm where you find eccentric characters, working in extreme conditions, who must produce magical events and instantly adapt when, for instance, the hosts toast runs a half-hour too long, a hail storm erupts, or a rolling rack of hundreds of ice cream desserts goes wheels-up.
Whether they’re dashing through black-tie fundraisers, celebrity-spotting at a Hampton’s cookout, or following a silverware crew at 3:00 a.m. in a warehouse in New Jersey, the Lee brothers guide you on a romp from the inner circle the elite team of chefs using little more than their wits and Sterno to turn out lamb shanks for eight hundred to the outer reaches of the industries that facilitate the most dazzling galas. You’ll never attend a party or entertain on your own in the same way after reading this book.

Royal Oak Foundation Presents: David Lough
2019-05-14 18:30 - 19:30
The Library Society is excited to host the Royal Oak Foundation as they present David Lough. Lough’s new book, My Darling Winston: The Letters Between Winston Churchill and His Mother (October 2018), explores the unusual—and under-appreciated—relationship between Winston Churchill and his American mother, Jennie Jerome, as revealed by the private letters that they exchanged over a period of forty years. Tickets for this event are $35 for members and $45 for nonmembers. To purchase, call 212-480-2889 or click here.
My Darling Winston
The Letters Between Winston Churchill and His Mother
“My pen wanders recklessly,” wrote Winston Churchill of the sparkling letters he exchanged with his mother, Jennie Jerome, over a period of 40 years. David Lough’s lecture, based on the first-ever edited selection of their correspondence, sheds new light on Churchill’s early emotional, intellectual and political development. Spanning from 1881 to1921, these missives follow Churchill’s life of adventure and political ambition, covering many milestones: his army service in India, time as a prisoner of war, election to Parliament, resignation after Gallipoli, and his return to politics in 1917.
His mother’s life, by contrast, follows a downward spiral: her second marriage founders and she becomes a lonely figure, moving forlornly around the country homes of her wealthy friends. Their letters disclose an intense relationship between a demanding mother and a difficult son, both gifted writers who reveal much about themselves and the time period. Churchill’s missives reveal his personality as a young child and a truculent teen, looking to his mother to fix everything—which she usually did. Jerome’s letters reveal a dynamic woman leveraging limited agency in a sexist society.
Brimming with gossip, name-dropping and chutzpah, and populated by an impressive cast of late Victorian and Edwardian characters, Mr. Lough’s lecture will enrich our understanding of Britain’s most celebrated statesman. He will offer poignant insights into Churchill’s relationship with the woman whose advice and loving encouragement set him on the path to power.
Thank you to our co-sponsor: International Churchill Society; College of Arms Foundation
David Lough read history at Oxford University, where he won first class honors. Mr. Lough then had a long and fruitful career in finance, starting in Asia and investment banking, before founding a private banking business in 1988. Mr. Lough is a former member of the London Stock Exchange and Fellow of the Chartered Securities Institute. He returned to history in his retirement and coupled it with his experience in finance to write his first book, the best-seller No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money (2015). His new book, My Darling Winston: The Letters Between Winston Churchill and His Mother (October 2018), explores the unusual—and under-appreciated—relationship between Winston Churchill and his American mother, Jennie Jerome, as revealed by the private letters that they exchanged over a period of forty years.

Drayton Hall Presents: Chef Kevin Mitchell on a Tale of Two Historic Dinners
2019-05-16 18:00 - 19:00
Kevin Mitchell, chef and scholar of southern foodways discusses history as told through his food in two historic meals presented in Charleston. Chef Mitchell will revisit the cooks, the ingredients and the inspiration for the Nat Fuller and the Drayton Hall Tribute dinners.
CLS partners with Drayton Hall for Chef Mitchell’s talk on what it was to research and create two historic dinners in tribute to the enslaved cooks of Charleston. A powerful and moving story told by food from hands of a scholar who researched their stories and work.
A remarkable conversation regarding one chef’s journey with Charleston history is planned.
Chef Mitchell’s discussion is free to all. The reception is for $10 members and $20 non-members. No door admittance can be accommodated, please RSVP HERE TO ATTEND.
This lecture is made possible by a grant from South Carolina Humanities.

Crafternoon- Fresh Floral Embroidery
2019-05-18 12:00 - 14:00
April showers bring May flower embroidery samplers! Learn a few new embroidery stitches with this floral-focused class. These stitches will brighten up any botanical project. You don’t need to be experienced in embroidery to take this class, but you should be comfortable threading floss into a needle, and familiar with a few basic embroidery stitches. Each student will receive a sampler to embroider, an embroidery hoop, and a needle. All other supplies will be provided for use during the workshop. Tickets are $45 per person. To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 and speak with Anna or email asmith@charlestonlibrarysociety.org

Speaker Series: Ron Rash, J.C. Sasser, and Ray McManus
2019-05-20 18:00 - 19:00
CLS & Buxton Books are excited to host three contributors of the new book “Gather At The River” which features over 25 authors’ stories on fishing. The three authors that will be featured at this special event are Ron Rash, J.C. Sasser, and Ray McManus. All with their own accolades, this event will be interesting and impressive. Anyone with a passion for fishing will walk away with their very own copy of this impressive fishing anthology, “Gather At The River.”
Tickets are $25 for members and $30 for nonmembers and include a copy of the featured book. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
The Cherokee have a ceremony of going to water. Once a month on a night governed by the moon, they go to the river in an act of renewal and reverie. Much like baptism, it is the belief that there is a healing power to water, a sentiment shared by every soul thats ever stood waist-deep in a river watching trout rise. Gather At The River isn’t a collection of big fish stories. This is PEN/Faulkner Finalist Ron Rash writing about a 50-year-old fly reel. Its #1 New York Times Bestselling Author CJ Box explaining where he wants his ashes spread when he dies. This is an anthology about friendship, family, love and loss, and everything in between, because as Henry David Thoreau wrote, it is not really the fish they are after.
Contributors include New York Times Bestselling Authors Ace Atkins, Ron Rash, Jill McCorkle, Leigh Ann Henion, Eric Rickstad, M.O. Walsh, J.C. Sasser, Ray McManus and #1 Bestseller C.J. Box.

Music at the Library Fundraiser: Tuffus Zimbabwe & Mayor Tecklenburg
2019-05-20 18:30 - 21:00
A Special Fundraiser for the Jenkins Institute with Tuffus Zimbabwe and Mayor John Tecklenburg
Thursday, May 30th ~ 6:30 – 9:00PM
Join Saturday Night Live pianist Tuffus Zimbabwe and Mayor Tecklenburg for an evening rich in the jazz roots of the Lowcountry. Zimbabwe, the great-grandson of the Rev. Daniel Joseph Jenkins, founder of Jenkins Orphanage, and the world famous Jenkins Orphanage Band will play and tell stories with the Mayor as a special benefit for Jenkins Institute for Children.
Tickets are $50 to support this fundraiser evening. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Tuffus is a pianist and composer from the Roxbury area of Boston. He comes from a rich background of artists and musicians, most notably the musical genius Edmund Jenkins, a brilliant composer and performer in the genres of Jazz and Classical music from the early 1900s. He was internationally renowned and is remembered for his significant contributions to the development of jazz in the United States, via Charleston, South Carolina. Tuffus, a versatile composer and master musician in his own right, started piano lessons at the early age of five. His father, a teacher, and his mother, a visual artist, both armed with knowledge of their rich musical heritage, made it a point to provide Tuffus with substantial musical exposure. He began by studying classical piano, which he did for roughly two decades. At the age of 12 he explored gospel music at a local Roxbury church where he started playing piano with the mens choir.
In his early teens, Tuffus joined Berklee College of Musics City Music Program, where
he began his formal training in jazz. Here is where his skills and talents as a musician
matured. The program offered him a laboratory to develop his compositions and a forum
to perform with his peers. At 18, Tuffus received the prestigious Walter Beasley Award,
won the song writing competition at Berklees Five Week Summer Program, and was
subsequently awarded the full-tuition City Music Continuing Scholarship to study in
Berklees undergraduate program (class of 05). Here he dual-majored in Music
Business and Film Scoring while engaging in extensive studies in composition and
performance.
Tuffus composition skills landed him a spot on Liz Walkers CBS-TV morning show
where he performed his original African Breeze with the Tuffus Zimbabwe Group. One
of his original compositions was already being used weekly as the theme for this show.
Tuffus continued his education, earning his Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from
New York University.
Tuffus currently works as a keyboardist in the Saturday Night Live Band on NBC. He
also works in a number of bands such as Ron Rieds Sun Steel band and Jovol Bells
Reality.

A Conversation on Life, Love, and Food with Ann Hood & Michael Ruhlman
2019-06-01 14:00 - 15:00
Ann Hood and Michael Ruhlman both write about love and food and cooking—and each other. They will be in conversation about the writing life, the marriage of two writers , and life in and out of the kitchen. They are thrilled to return to Charleston, one of the most extraordinary food cities in the country and present this afternoon at the Charleston Library Society. Tickets are $35 for members and $40 for nonmembers. All tickets include a copy of Hood’s “Kitchen Yarns”. For tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
From her Italian American childhood through singlehood, raising and feeding a growing family, divorce, and a new marriage to food writer Michael Ruhlman, Ann Hood has long appreciated the power of a good meal. Growing up, she tasted love in her grandmother’s tomato sauce and dreamed of her mother’s special-occasion Fancy Lady Sandwiches. Later, the kitchen became the heart of Hood’s own home. She cooked pork roast to warm her first apartment, used two cups of dried basil for her first attempt at making pesto, taught her children how to make their favorite potatoes, found hope in her daughter’s omelet after a divorce, and fell in love again―with both her husband and his foolproof chicken stock.
Hood tracks her lifelong journey in the kitchen with twenty-seven heartfelt essays, each accompanied by a recipe (or a few). In “Carbonara Quest,” searching for the perfect spaghetti helped her cope with lonely nights as a flight attendant. In the award-winning essay “The Golden Silver Palate,” she recounts the history of her fail-safe dinner party recipe for Chicken Marbella―and how it did fail her when she was falling in love. Hood’s simple, comforting recipes also include her mother’s famous meatballs, hearty Italian Beef Stew, classic Indiana Fried Chicken, the perfect grilled cheese, and a deliciously summery peach pie.
With Hood’s signature humor and tenderness, Kitchen Yarns spills tales of loss and starting from scratch, family love and feasts with friends, and how the perfect meal is one that tastes like home.

Piccolo Spoleto Event – Judge Richard Gergel, Jonathan Green, and Tom Tisdale
2019-06-08 14:00 - 15:00
CLS & Buxton Books are excited to host this Piccolo Spoleto event! Join US District Judge Richard Gergel, renowned artist Jonathan Green, and Charleston playwright and lawyer Thomas S. Tisdale for a conversation on Judge Gergel’s recent best-selling book Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waites Waring. This event is free and open to the public – No ticket or reservation is needed. For any questions, please contact the Piccolo Spoleto Festival at (843) 724-7305

Speaker Series: David Stewart
2019-09-20 18:00 - 19:00
Best-selling writer, David O. Stewart, will discuss his book, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, the story of delegates closeted through a sultry summer to create a government charter that embodied the best of Americas dreams, and the worst of Americas realities. The Constitution will come alive in this lecture, and your feelings about how the nation emerged will never be the same. Tickets are $5 members, $10 guests — to purchase call 843-723-9912 or click here.
The Summer of 1787 traces the struggle at the Philadelphia Convention to create the world’s first constitutional democracy. Using the delegates’ fiery rhetoric, the book explores the conflicts and hard bargaining that invented a government to meet the crises of the not-quite-united states – huge debts, hostile neighbors, armed rebellion, and the very real prospect of dissolving into three nations or more.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The successful creation of the Constitution is a suspense story. The Summer of 1787 takes us into the sweltering room in which delegates struggled for four months to produce the flawed but enduring document that would define the nation — then and now.
George Washington presided, James Madison kept the notes, Benjamin Franklin offered wisdom and humor at crucial times. The Summer of 1787 traces the struggles within the Philadelphia Convention as the delegates hammered out the charter for the world’s first constitutional democracy. Relying on the words of the delegates themselves to explore the Convention’s sharp conflicts and hard bargaining, David O. Stewart lays out the passions and contradictions of the often painful process of writing the Constitution.
It was a desperate balancing act. Revolutionary principles required that the people have power, but could the people be trusted? Would a stronger central government leave room for the states? Would the small states accept a Congress in which seats were alloted according to population rather than to each sovereign state? And what of slavery? The supercharged debates over America’s original sin led to the most creative and most disappointing political deals of the Convention.
The room was crowded with colorful and passionate characters, some known — Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Edmund Randolph — and others largely forgotten. At different points during that sultry summer, more than half of the delegates threatened to walk out, and some actually did, but Washington’s quiet leadership and the delegates’ inspired compromises held the Convention together.
In a country continually arguing over the document’s original intent, it is fascinating to watch these powerful characters struggle toward consensus — often reluctantly — to write a flawed but living and breathing document that could evolve with the nation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
After many years as a trial and appellate lawyer, David O. Stewart became a bestselling writer of history and historical fiction. His histories have explored the writing of the Constitution, the gifts of James Madison, the outrageous western expedition and treason trial of the mysterious Aaron Burr, and the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. His histories have won the Washington Writing Award for best book of the year, the History Prize of the Society of the Cincinnati, and the William H. Prescott Award of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America.
His first novel, The Lincoln Deception, about the John Wilkes Booth Conspiracy, was called the best historical novel of 2013 by Bloomberg View. Sequels include The Wilson Deception, set at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and The Babe Ruth Deception, which follows the Babes first two years with the Yankees.

Coffee with an Author: Ruth Miller & Alec Cooley
2019-09-23 10:30 - 11:30
Local authors, Ruth Miller & Alec Cooley, discusses their walking tour guidebook to African-American history in Charleston, Slavery to Civil Rights: A Walking Tour of African-American Charleston in this new event format. The book details individuals and events that have shaped African-American history in Charleston from the 1600’s to the present. Attendees with enjoy coffee & donuts as they listen to the the lecture with the authors. To RSVP, call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
Slavery to Civil Rights: A Walking Tour of African-American Charleston is the most complete and well-researched walking tour guidebook to African-American history in Charleston, SC. Illustrated with over 45 photographs and pictures, the book details the significant individuals and events that have shaped African-American history in the city from the 1600’s to the present day.
The guidebook begins with an introduction to Charleston’s central role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade to North America. The volume continues with colorful stories and biographies that reveal a seldom told side of Charleston’s history spanning the colonial, federal, and antebellum eras, followed by Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. With sections organized geographically along two separate routes, the guidebook can be read as a traditional book or used as a companion to visit actual historic locations in downtown Charleston.

Speaker Series: Kate Quinn & Laura Kamoie
2019-10-03 18:00 - 19:00
Authors Kate Quinn & Laura Kamoie discuss their book, Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolutions Women.Describing women who stood up for themselves, Ribbons of Scarlet illuminates the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses, peasant, harlots, wives, and philosophers during the tumultuous events of the French Revolution. While the novel takes place over 200 years ago, it resonates with todays women. Tickets for this event are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
Imagine a nation of women who stop waiting for justice and take it into their own hands, flooding into the streets to demand freedom, seize equality, and mold political change like never before. Their story is ours…yet these women rose up over two hundred years ago. The story of how women fought for freedom in the French Revolution has never been more timely.
Frances war for independence is remembered for its guillotines, for its Reign of Terror, for Let them eat cake and Off with his head. What is forgotten is that it was a movement begun by women. From the royal salons to the streets of Paris they rose up and became a force to be reckoned with. They donned tricolor rosettes instead of pink hats, they took to the streets with pikes instead of signs, they raised their voices in womens-only political clubs instead of Facebook groups–and they realized how strong they were.
France would never be the same. Neither would the world.
Six of the leading female authors of historical womens fiction bring you the story of the French Revolution, told for the first time from the voices and words of the women who shaped it, and who worked to resist it. The call for feminist storytelling has never been stronger, and that begins with history–when we see how women of the past, of various political stripes, spoke up for their beliefs, female rights, racial rights, and voting rights, yet were faced with the same misogyny, slut-shaming, and go back to the kitchen mentality that women face today. Hear their stories, set among the mirrors of Versailles and the stones of the Bastille, and hear your own.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
LAURA KAMOIE is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. Shes always been fascinated by the people, stories, and physical presence of the past, which led her to a lifetime of historical and archaeological study and training. She holds a doctoral degree in early American history from The College of William and Mary, published two non-fiction books on early America, and most recently held the position of Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy before transitioning to a full-time career writing genre fiction. She is the author of AMERICA’S FIRST DAUGHTER and MY DEAR HAMILTON, co-authored with Stephanie Dray, allowing her the exciting opportunity to combine her love of history with her passion for storytelling. Laura lives among the colonial charm of Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and two daughters.
KATE QUINN is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of The Alice Network. She attended Boston University, where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. A lifelong history buff, she has written seven historical novels, including the bestselling “The Alice Network,” the Empress of Rome Saga, and the Borgia Chronicle. All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in San Diego.

Speaker Series: Dr. Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessey
2019-10-04 18:00 - 19:00
Dr. Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy VP of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Saunders Director of International Center for Jefferson Studies, and Professor at the University of Virginia will be in town for the American Revolution Symposium and treats us to a lecture about his book, The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire. Tickets for this event are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The loss of America was a stunning and unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew OShaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory.
In interlinked biographical chapters, the author follows the course of the war from the perspectives of King George III, Prime Minister Lord North, military leaders including General Burgoyne, the Earl of Sandwich, and others who, for the most part, led ably and even brilliantly. Victories were frequent, and in fact the British conquered every American city at some stage of the Revolutionary War. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire.

CLS Book Club: The Furious Hours & To Kill a Mockingbird
2019-10-08 10:30 - 12:00
CLS Book Club: The Furious Hours & To Kill A Mockingbird
CLS Book Club features two books this upcoming session; Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This duo reconnects a modern classic with the mysterious pursuit of its enigmatic author. This Book Club session will be led by Jeanne Slabaugh & Lindsey Melville. Free with RSVP – to RSVP call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org

Coffee with An Author: Carol Bass
2019-10-15 10:30 - 11:30
Unfortunately, Coffee with an Author featuring Carol Bass has had to be cancelled.
Local author & poet, Carol Bass discusses her book, Ripple Effect. The book of art and poetry is a plea to S.C. not to squander and sell its rivers but to protect and respect its natural resources. Attendees will enjoy coffee & donuts as they listen to the lecture. Free with RSVP- to RSVP call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
FROM THE EDITOR: “Our rivers-our waters-are our lifelines. This book of art and poetry began as a plea to the state of South Carolina to create laws protecting its many rivers. A plea to not squander and sell its rivers on Wall Street but to protect and respect its God-given resources.”

Music at the Library: Laura Ball & Friends
2019-10-17 19:00 - 20:00
Music at the Library: Laura Ball & Friends
It seems like only Yesterday…Beatles and Bach returns for an evening of British Rock and Baroque hits Laura Ball & friends! Don’t miss this special homecoming chamber concert with your favorite UNED!TED Rock and Bach Stars. Tickets for this concert are $25 for members & $35 for nonmembers. To purchase, call 843-723-9912 or click here. This spectacular evening is generously supported by the Martello Family.

A Pre-Publication Book Launch with Karen White
2019-10-20 14:00 - 16:00
Charleston Library Society and Buxton Books host best-selling author Karen White for the launch of her newest novel The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street.
This pre-publication book launch will take place two days before the book’s official publication date, so all who attend will get to experience the magic of White’s discussion while getting exclusive access to this upcoming release! Tickets for this event are $30 for CLS members and $35 for nonmembers. All tickets purchased include a signed copy of White’s new novel, The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street and a $5 coupon for purchasing additional copies, valid ONLY at this event. Tickets can be purchased by calling 843-723-9912 or clicking here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Christmas spirit is overtaking Tradd Street with a vengeance in this festive new novel in the New York Times bestselling series by Karen White.
Melanie Trenholm should be anticipating Christmas with nothing but joy after all, it’s only the second Christmas she and her husband, Jack, will celebrate with their twin toddlers. But the ongoing excavation of the centuries-old cistern in the garden of her historic Tradd Street home has been a huge millstone, both financially and aesthetically. Local students are thrilled by the possibility of unearthing more Colonial-era artifacts at the cistern, but Melanie is concerned by the ghosts connected to it that have suddenly invaded her life and her house and at least one of them is definitely not filled with holiday cheer.
And these relics aren’t the only precious artifacts for which people are searching. A past adversary is convinced there is a long-lost Revolutionary War treasure buried somewhere on the property Melanie inherited untold riches rumored to have been brought over from France by the Marquis de Lafayette himself and intended to help the Colonial war effort. It’s a treasure literally fit for a king, and there have been whispers throughout history that many have already killed and died for it. And now someone will stop at nothing to possess it even if it means destroying everything Melanie and Jack hold dear.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Karen White is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including the Tradd Street series, Dreams of Falling, The Night the Lights Went Out, Flight Patterns, The Sound of Glass, A Long Time Gone, and The Time Between. She is the coauthor of The Forgotten Room and The Glass Ocean with New York Times bestselling authors Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig. She grew up in London but now lives with her husband and two children near Atlanta, Georgia.
For any questions, please feel free to contact the Charleston Library Society at 843-723-9912.

Speaker Series: Lary Bloom
2019-10-24 18:00 - 19:00
Sol LeWitt, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, upended traditional practices of how art is made and marketed. A key figure in minimalism and conceptualism, he proclaimed that the work of the mind is much more important than that of the hand. Lary Blooms biography, Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas is an absorbing chronicle that brings understanding to this important artist and his iconic work. Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, upended traditional practices of how art is made and marketed. A key figure in minimalism and conceptualism, he proclaimed that the work of the mind is much more important than that of the hand. For his site-specific workwall drawings and sculpture in dozens of countrieshe created the idea and basic plan and then hired young artists to install the pieces. Though typically enormous and intricate, the physical works held no value. The worth was in the pieces of paper that certified and described them. LeWitt championed and financially supported colleagues, including women artists brushed aside by the bullies of a male-dominated profession. Yet the man himself has remained an enigma, as he refused to participate in the culture of celebrity. Lary Bloom’s book draws on personal recollections of LeWitt, whom he knew in the last years of the artist’s life, as well as LeWitt’s letters and papers and over one hundred original interviews with his friends and colleagues, including Chuck Close, Ingrid Sischy, Philip Glass, Adrian Piper, Jan Dibbets, and Carl Andre. This absorbing chronicle brings new information to our understanding of this important artist, linking the extraordinary arc of his life to his iconic work. Includes 28 illustrations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
LARY BLOOM has authored or co-authored ten books including The Writer Within, The Test of Our Times, with Tom Ridge, and Letters from Nuremberg, with Christopher Dodd. He has taught writing at Yale University, Fairfield University, Trinity College, and Wesleyan University. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Speaker Series: Patricia Schultz
2019-10-25 18:00 - 19:00
Patricia Schultz curates the world. When she published the original 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, she created not only a new kind of travel book, but also a new way of thinking about our experiences and interests. Her new book, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: The World as You’ve Never Seen It Before, takes us on a visual journey of the best the world has to offer. Join Schultz for this profound lecture transforming how we can see a world filled with beauty and wonder. Tickets for this lecture are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Now Schultz captivates our hearts in the same compelling way her original book spoke to our minds. Moving from eloquent word to breathtaking image, she takes us on a visual journey of the best the world has to offer, and as we turn the pages and pore over these images, we feel it all: joy, curiosity, awe, passion, nostalgia (if we’ve been there), inspiration (because we want to go), and a profound and transforming sense of how lucky we are to live in a world filled with such beauty and wonder to see tributaries of mist curling over the Great Wall, elephants grazing on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, the sun setting on the wild coast of Donegal, masked whirling dancers at a festival in Bhutan.
The book itself is a thing of beauty, an oversize feast of more than 1,000 all-new photographs and 544 pages, every spread and page designed to showcase these mesmerizing photographs and hold just enough of Schultz’s lively text that we know why it is were looking at them. It is a perfect gift for every traveler, every fan of the original, every dreamer whose Instagram feed is filled with pictures of places near and far.

Royal Oak Foundation Presents: Sonia Purnell
2019-10-30 18:30 - 19:30
Best-selling author, Sonia Purnell will reveal the captivating story of WWII spy Virginia Hall, one of the greatest spies in American and English history, whose story remains untold while discussing her recent book, A Woman of No Importance. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was strictly forbidden, Hall coordinated a spy network to report on German troop movements, arranged equipment parachute drops, and recruited and trained guerrilla units to ambush the enemy. Tickets for this lecture are $35 for members and $45 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, call 212-480-2889 ext. 201 or click here. CLS Member Code: CLS19
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent command: “She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her.” This spy was Virginia Hall, a young socialite from Baltimore, who, after being rejected from the Foreign Service because of her gender and prosthetic leg, talked her way into the SOE, the WWII British spy organization dubbed Churchill’s “ministry of ungentlemanly warfare.” Hall, known as the “Madonna of the Resistance,” was one of the greatest spies in American and English history, yet her full story remains untold.
At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Hall coordinated a network of spies to report on German troop movements, arranged equipment parachute drops for Resistance fighters, and recruited and trained guerrilla units to ambush enemy convoys and blow up bridges and railroads. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, she refused orders to evacuate. She finally escaped in a death-defying climb over of the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates imprisoned or executed. But, she plunged back into the field with the American OSS secret service, directing partisan armies to back up the Allied forces landing at Normandy. King George VI awarded her the OBE in 1943 and she received the Distinguished Service Cross from the US in 1946, the only American woman to receive this honor.
Best-selling author, Sonia Purnell will reveal the captivating story of a formidable, yet shockingly overlooked, heroine whose fierce persistence helped win a world war. Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to the Purnell’s meticulously researched upcoming book A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II (April 2019) and has attached actress Daisy Ridley to star as Virginia Hall.

Speaker Series: Heath Hardage Lee
2019-11-04 18:00 - 19:00
In a page-turning work of narrative non-fiction, Heath Hardage Lee tells the true story of the fierce band of women who battled Washington and Hanoi to bring their husbands home from the jungles of Vietnam. Lees The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home is certain to intrigue everyone. Tickets for this lecture are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The true story of the fierce band of women who battled Washington and Hanoi to bring their husbands home from the jungles of Vietnam.
On February 12, 1973, one hundred and sixteen men who, just six years earlier, had been high flying Navy and Air Force pilots, shuffled, limped, or were carried off a huge military transport plane at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. These American servicemen had endured years of brutal torture, kept shackled and starving in solitary confinement, in rat-infested, mosquito-laden prisons, the worst of which was The Hanoi Hilton.
Months later, the first Vietnam POWs to return home would learn that their rescuers were their wives, a group of women that included Jane Denton, Sybil Stockdale, Louise Mulligan, Andrea Rander, Phyllis Galanti, and Helene Knapp. These women, who formed The National League of Families, would never have called themselves feminists, but they had become the POW and MIAs most fervent advocates, going to extraordinary lengths to facilitate their husbands freedom and to account for missing military men by relentlessly lobbying government leaders, conducting a savvy media campaign, conducting covert meetings with antiwar activists, and most astonishingly, helping to code secret letters to their imprisoned husbands.
In a page-turning work of narrative non-fiction, Heath Hardage Lee tells the story of these remarkable women for the first time. The League of Wives is certain to be on everyones must-read list.

Speaker Series: Lynn Vincent, Sara Vladic, & James Scott
2019-11-05 18:00 - 19:00
Lynn Vincent & Sara Vladic will discuss their book, Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man, with James Scott. Vincent is a U.S. Navy veteran and New York Times best-selling author; Vladic is and award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert on the U.S.S. Indianapolis; Scott is a local best-selling author and historian. Tickets for this event are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the Philippine Sea when she is sunk by two Japanese torpedoes. For the next five nights and four days, almost three hundred miles from the nearest land, nearly nine hundred men battle injuries, sharks, dehydration, insanity, and eventually each other. Only 316 will survive.
For the first time Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own in a wonderful book that features grievous mistakes, extraordinary courage, unimaginable horror, and a cover-upas complete an account of this tragic tale as we are likely to have (The Christian Science Monitor). It begins in 1932, when Indianapolis is christened and continues through World War II, when the ship embarks on her final world-changing mission: delivering the core of the atomic bomb to the Pacific for the strike on Hiroshima.
Simply outstandingIndianapolis is a must-read a tour de force of true human drama (Booklist, starred review) that goes beyond the mens rescue to chronicle the survivors fifty-year fight for justice on behalf of their skipper, Captain Charles McVay III, who is wrongly court-martialed for the sinking. EnthrallingA gripping study of the greatest sea disaster in the history of the US Navy and its aftermath (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Indianapolis stands as both groundbreaking naval history and spellbinding narrative and brings the ship and her heroic crew back to full, vivid, unforgettable life. Vincent and Vladic have delivered an account that stands out through its crisp writing and superb researchIndianapolis is sure to hold its own for a long time (USA TODAY).

Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival
2019-11-07 18:00 - 19:00
Charleston to Charleston combines one of England’s premiere literary scene with the history and elegance of Charleston, South Carolina. This new transatlantic festival was conceived by the Charleston Library Society and The Charleston Trust in England and will take place November 7th – 10th, 2019. While Charleston to Charleston operates as an independent, self-sustaining 501(c)(3) organization, the founding organizations continue to provide advice and support for the festival. For all ticket sales, please visit charlestontocharleston.com. For event inquiries and general questions, please contact Leah Rhyne at 843-619-3000.

Greystar Business & Leadership Series: Stephen A. Schwarzman
2019-11-13 16:00 - 17:00
The Library Society is honored to host Stephen A. Schwarzman as part of the Greystar Business & Leadership Series, to speak about his recent best-seller, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence. The discussion will be moderated by Bob Faith, Chairman, Founder and CEO of Greystar. Schwarzman will share some lessons he learned during his rise as a financial leader. Dedication to excellence has been the driving force in his work and life and it has been a key to his impact on philanthropy, finance and politics. Whether you are a student, entrepreneur, philanthropist, executive, or a person looking for ways to maximize your potential, Schwarzman’s reflections will help provide the answers. Wes Fuller, Executive Managing Director of Investment Management at Greystar will introduce the series and Steve and Bob to the stage to get the evening started.
Tickets for this event are $60 and include a copy of Schwarzman’s What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence with a signed bookplate. To purchase tickets, click here or call 843-723-9912
ABOUT THE BOOK: People know who Stephen Schwarzman is at least they think they do. He’s the man who took $400,000 and co-founded Blackstone, the investment firm that manages over $500 billion (as of January 2019). He’s the CEO whose views are sought by heads of state. He’s the billionaire philanthropist who founded Schwarzman Scholars, this century’s version of the Rhodes Scholarship, in China. But behind these achievements is a man who has spent his life learning and reflecting on what it takes to achieve excellence, make an impact, and live a life of consequence.
Folding handkerchiefs in his fathers linen shop, Schwarzman dreamed of a larger life, filled with purpose and adventure. His grades and athleticism got him into Yale. After starting his career in finance with a short stint at a financial firm called DLJ, Schwarzman began working at Lehman Brothers where he ascended to run the mergers and acquisitions practice. He eventually partnered with his mentor and friend Pete Peterson to found Blackstone, vowing to create a new and different kind of financial institution.
Building Blackstone into the leading global financial institution it is today didn’t come easy. Schwarzman focused intensely on culture, hiring great talent, and establishing processes that allow the firm to systematically analyze and evaluate risk. Schwarzman’s simple mantra don’t lose money has helped Blackstone become a leading private equity and real estate investor, and manager of alternative assets for institutional investors globally. Both he and the firm are known for the rigor of their investment process, their innovative approach to deal making, the diversification of their business lines, and a conviction to be the best at everything they do.
Schwarzman is also an active philanthropist, having given away more than a billion dollars. In philanthropy, as in business, he is drawn to situations where his capital and energy can be applied to drive transformative solutions and change paradigms, notably in education. He uses the skills learned over a lifetime in finance to design, establish, and support impactful and innovative organizations and initiatives. His gifts have ranged from creating a new College of Computing at MIT for the study of artificial intelligence, to establishing a first-of-its-kind student and performing arts center at Yale, to enabling the renovation of the iconic New York Public Library, to founding the Schwarzman Scholars fellowship program at Tsinghua University in Beijing the single largest philanthropic effort in Chinas history from international donors.
Schwarzman’s story is an empowering, entertaining, and informative guide for anyone striving for greater personal impact. From deal making to investing, leadership to entrepreneurship, philanthropy to diplomacy, Schwarzman has lessons for how to think about ambition and scale, risk and opportunities, and how to achieve success through the relentless pursuit of excellence. Schwarzman not only offers readers a thoughtful reflection on all his own experiences, but in doing so provides a practical blueprint for success.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen A. Schwarzman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone, one of the worlds leading investment firms. Mr. Schwarzman is an active philanthropist with a history of supporting education, culture, and the arts, among other areas. Mr. Schwarzman holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He lives in New York City with his wife and three dogs.

Speaker Series: Roxana Robinson
2019-11-18 18:00 - 19:00
In Dawson’s Fall, a novel based on the lives of Roxana Robinsons great-grandparents, we see America at its most fragile time. Set in 1889, in Charleston, S.C., Robinsons tale covers her family’s journals and letters with a novelists narrative grace, and spans the life of her tragic hero, Frank Dawson, editor of the Charleston News and Courier, as he attempts to navigate the country’s new political and moral landscape. Tickets for this event are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. To purchase, call 843-723-9912 or click here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A cinematic Reconstruction-era drama of violence and fraught moral reckoning
In Dawson’s Fall, a novel based on the lives of Roxana Robinsons great-grandparents, we see America at its most fragile, fraught, and malleable. Set in 1889, in Charleston, South Carolina, Robinsons tale weaves her family’s journal entries and letters with a novelists narrative grace, and spans the life of her tragic hero, Frank Dawson, as he attempts to navigate the country’s new political, social, and moral landscape.
Dawson, a man of fierce opinions, came to this country as a young Englishman to fight for the Confederacy in a war he understood as a conflict over states rights. He later became the editor of the Charleston News and Courier, finding a platform of real influence in the editorial column and emerging as a voice of the New South. With his wife and two children, he tried to lead a life that adhered to his staunch principles: equal rights, rule of law, and nonviolence, unswayed by the caprices of popular opinion. But he couldn’t control the political whims of his readers. As he wrangled diligently in his columns with questions of citizenship, equality, justice, and slavery, his newspaper rapidly lost readership, and he was plagued by financial worries. Nor could Dawson control the whims of the heart: his Swiss governess became embroiled in a tense affair with a drunkard doctor, which threatened to stain his family’s reputation. In the end, Dawson, a man in many ways representative of the country at this time, was felled by the very violence he vehemently opposed.

Coffee with An Author: Leigh Jones Handal
2019-11-19 10:30 - 11:30
Local author & tour guide, Leigh Jones Handal discusses her book, Lost Charleston. The book of art and photography explores the history of lost pieces of our beautiful city, Charleston. Attendees will enjoy coffee & donuts as they listen to the lecture. Free with RSVP- to RSVP call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org
ABOUT THE BOOK: The miracle of Charleston is that despite the very worst that man and nature has thrown at it–from earthquakes to hurricanes, great fires to Civil War bombardment–so much of the city has been preserved. Lost Charleston shows what else could have been on display for tourists to visit had events been otherwise. Using classic archive images, Charleston’s greatest architectural and cultural losses are documented in chronological order from 1861 through to 2018.
Apart from the grand buildings there are also elements of Charleston life precious to Charlestonians that have disappeared over time, many of which will still resonate with the local community. These include beloved local restaurants, annual festivals, the fishing fleet that DuBose Heyward wrote about in his novel Porgy, a famed local football team, trolley cars, and the Piggly Wiggly store. Plus there’s the Jenkins Orphanage Band whose dance moves gave the city its most famous export: The Charleston!
A native South Carolinian, Leigh Jones Handal has been an avid student of Low Country history since she was a Brownie Scout. She is co-editor of the City of Charleston’s official Tour Guide Training Manual and organized Historic Charleston Foundation’s annual spring house-and-garden tours for 13 years, as well as the Preservation Society of Charleston’s Fall home tours. A graduate of the College of Charleston, Leigh has been a licensed tour guide for more than 20 years. She appears regularly to talk about local history on television network, Lowcountry Live.

Royal Oak Foundation Presents: Angus Haldane
2019-11-19 18:30 - 19:30
Art consultant and popular Royal Oak speaker Angus Haldane will illustrate the lives of notorious 17th-century mistresses, faithful wives, and creative figures who set the English court aflame with their intrigue, brazen manipulation and talent. He will discuss the stories, vanities, gossip and political maneuvers behind their portraits and examine how the depictions of them as seductresses and sirens should be viewed through the filter of their roles and achievements. Tickets for this event are $35 for members and $45 for nonmembers. To purchase tickets, please call 212-480-2889 ext. 201 or click here. CLS Member Code: CLS19
Harlot or Housewife?
17th-Century Women at the English Royal Court
Powerful women have been regarded with fear and perceived as skilful manipulators ever since Pandora opened her box, Eve persuaded Adam to sample some fruit, and Cleopatra rolled out of a carpet at the feet of Caesar. English playwright and poet John Dryden may have hoped in 1661 for a world in which “every father govern’d as a King,” but reality for 17th century Restoration England women of the royal household was not easy. The court was hedonistic and dangerous. Cleavage and a quick wit were weapons to be employed for advancement and royal mistresses were often capable strategists, who invisibly influenced society. They were portrayed in portraits as either virtuous or lascivious—extreme ends of the moral spectrum.
One of the most strategically astute mistresses and the favourite of Charles II was Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, who was infamous for performing a sex act on a 14th-century mummified corpse of a bishop. Despite being deemed a “harlot”, she is rarely depicted in portraits as a seductress, but rather as a humble shepherdess or a religious figure. Frances Teresa Stuart, later Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, who seemed to have achieved the impossible in resisting the sexual advances of the King, is depicted as Diana the virgin huntress. Nell Gwynne, who worked as a scantily clad orange seller to theatre audiences before crescendoing to a royal mistress, is frequently depicted with fully exposed breasts. The court of Charles II was extravagant, sensuous and treacherous, but it was also a place where ambitious female poets, artists, preachers (who sometimes preached naked) and actors, among others could excel.
Art consultant and popular Royal Oak speaker Angus Haldane will illustrate the lives of notorious mistresses, faithful wives, and creative figures who set the court aflame with their intrigue, brazen manipulation and talent. Mr. Haldane will discuss the stories, vanities, gossip and political manoeuvres behind their portraits and examine how the depictions of them as seductresses and sirens should be viewed through the filter of their roles and achievements.
