The Wood County District Public Library’s Foundation is bringing best-selling author Erik* Larson for a talk Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. in the BGCS Performing Arts Center.
The library’s trustees learned of the event, “The Past & Its Future: Erik Larson,” this afternoon (Nov. 18) at their December meeting.
Larson is the third author and media personality booked for next year as part of the library’s 150th anniversary celebration.
Announced last month were appearances by noted British actor Paterson Joseph to discuss his debut novel “The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho” Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. in the BG library atrium and Kevin O’Connor, the Emmy-winning host of the PBS series “This Old House” on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center.
Larson is the author of nine books and one audio-only novella. Six of his books are national best sellers, which have collectively sold over 12 million copies.
His latest book, “The Demon of Unrest,” is a non-fiction thriller about the five months between Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War. Six of his books became New York Times bestsellers. Two of these, “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz” and “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania,” both hit no. 1 on the list soon after launch. His chronicle of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, “The Devil in the White City,” was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing. It lingered on various Times bestseller lists for the better part of a decade and is currently in development at Disney Studios.
“In the Garden of Beasts,” about how America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany and his daughter experienced the rising terror of Hitler’s rule, is currently in development with StudioCanal and Playtone.
At the trustees meeting, Library Director Michael Penrod said these events are only possible through the support of the foundation and other private donors. They pay most of the costs with little coming from the library’s budget.
*earlier version of this post misspelled the author’s first name.
