Chapters Bookstore Welcomes Cornelia Brooke Gilder
Pittsfield, Mass. - Chapters Bookstore will host Cornelia Brooke Gilder, author of Hawthorn'es Lenox to the event room for a slide show and discussion on Thursday December 11, 2008 at 6PM.This book is story of the cultivated community that drew Hawthorne from Salem, Massachusetts to Lenox in 1850. The cast of characters - the talented and hospitable Sedgwick family, Fanny Kemble, Caroline Sturgis Tappan and Samuel and Anna Ward - were member of a network of friends who arranged and supported the Hawthornes' move to the Berkshires. The histories of these families and their houses in Lenox are combined with captivating watercolors depicting everyday life by Hawthorne's chief benefactor, the artistic Caroline Tappan and her daughter Ellen of Tanglewood.
Slip into the fascinating social scene Nathaniel Hawthorne encountered in the drawing rooms and on the croquet lawns of Lenox’s country retreats. Nurturing the lively exchange of ideas on everything from art to abolition, Lenox’s cottages played host to a community that enlightened a nation.
A lifelong Berkshire resident, Cornelia Brooke Gilder was educated at Vassar College and Cambridge University. She was a co curator of " A Walk in the Country: Inness and the Berkshires" at the Clark Art Institute in 2005. Her book Houses of the Berkshires 1870-1930, co authored with Richard S. Jackson, Jr. was named an honor book by Historic New England.
This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
