History Book Festival to host author presentations Sept. 27
The ninth annual History Book Festival will include 20 free author talks on different subjects Saturday, Sept. 27, in Lewes. Participating authors include Marlene Daut, Sam Kean and Chanel Cleeton, who will discuss their recent publications.
Marlene Daut is professor of French and African Diaspora Studies at Yale University. Her articles on Haitian history and culture have appeared in more than a dozen magazines, newspapers and journals including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation,
Essence and Harper’s Bazaar.
Daut will present her book, “The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe.” Although he was a source of fascination in the world of the 19th century, Henry Christophe is now one of the least-understood leaders in the history of the Americas.
Born in 1767 to an enslaved mother, he fought in the American and Haitian Revolutions, defected to the French, fought against the enslaved men and women he had just led in arms, defected back to Haiti and declared himself king. His life and legacy shaped the destiny of Haiti in ways that are still measurable today.
The community partners in support of Daut’s presentation are the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice and the Delaware Historical Society.
Also appearing Sept. 27 is Sam Kean, The New York Times bestselling author of “The Bastard Brigade,” “Caesar's Last Breath” (The Guardian's Science Book of the Year), “The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons,” “The Violinist's Thumb” and “The Disappearing
Spoon.” His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine, and he has been featured on National Public Radio.
History often neglects the tastes, textures, sounds and smells that were an intimate part of human ancestors’ lives, but a new generation of researchers is resurrecting those hidden details in an exciting new discipline called experimental archaeology. In “Dinner with King Tut,” author Sam Kean joins these experts on their adventures across the globe. He fires medieval catapults, tries ancient surgery and tattooing, builds a Roman-style road, and spins gripping tales about the lives of ancestors with vivid imagination, meticulous research and more than a few laughs along the way.
The Archaeological Society of Delaware has signed on as the community partner for Kean’s presentation.
Chanel Cleeton is a bestselling author of historical novels about Cuba, where her family lived prior to the Castro regime. Before earning her JD at the University of South Carolina, Cleeton earned degrees in international politics from Richmond American University
London and the London School of Economics.
Cleeton’s novel, “The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes,” tells a tale of one book that touches three women in three pivotal times. The women include an educator emerging after four centuries of Spanish rule, a librarian navigating life under the Castro regime, and a present-day
book dealer who faces the consequences of this history and her own. It explores how books leave a lasting influence and celebrates the ordinary individuals who safeguard them, weaving together the romantic lives of the women with historical events that span multiple generations.
The community partner in support of Cleeton’s presentation is the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild.
Founded in 2016, the History Book Festival is an independent nonprofit dedicated to building historical literacy through well-researched, well-told stories. For more information, go to historybookfestival.org.
