The Mount Announces Summer Author Series
LENOX, Mass. — The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home, announces the full lineup of the 2025 Summer Author Series and In Conversation.
This year, the series features an expanded roster of literary luminaries reflecting diverse disciplines and perspectives. Susan Wissler, The Mount's executive director, shares,
"For over three decades, The Mount has been a beacon for thought-provoking discussions, and this year is no exception. Inspired by Edith Wharton's passion for ideas and love of good conversation, we invite the Berkshire community to join us for enriching talks and discussions with the literary giants and innovative thinkers shaping our world today," Susan Wissler, the Mount's executive director said.
Tickets are now on sale. Prices are $27 for Mount Members and $32 for the General Public. All talks in the Tuesday Summer Author Series are free for students, teachers, and children under 18.
Tickets are available at edithwharton.org and 413-551-5111.
2025 Summer Author Series: July 7 – August 26
Since 1993, the Summer Author Series has brought award-winning authors to The Mount. The Series highlights recent publications in the genres of memoir and biography, presenting exciting new research and ideas. This year's series theme is Trailblazers. This year, The Mount will host eight authors.
MICHELLE YOUNG
"The Art of Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland"
Monday, July 7, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, July 8, 11:00 AM
Based on newly discovered archives, "The Art Spy" chronicles the brave actions of Rose Valland, a French art curator and Resistance spy embedded within the Parisian art-looting headquarters. A veritable female "Monuments Man,” Valland saved thousands of works of art during the Nazi occupation of France. Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist, author, and professor whose writing and photography have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Hyperallergic, The Forward, and Narratively. She is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is a Professor of Architecture.
ANDREW LIPMAN
“Squanto: A Native Odyssey"
Monday, July 14, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, July 15, 11:00 AM
In "Squanto", prize-winning historian Andrew Lipman draws from a wide range of evidence and newly uncovered sources to explore the mysteries that still surround the life of this important historical figure. Lipman reconstructs Squanto's upbringing, his transatlantic odyssey, his career as an interpreter, his surprising downfall, and his enigmatic death. The result is a fresh look at an epic life that ended right when many Americans think their story begins. Andrew Lipman is Associate Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University. His first book, The Saltwater Frontier, won the Bancroft Prize in American History. He lives in New York City.
SUSAN MORRISON
"Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live"
Monday, July 21, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, July 22, 11:00 AM
"Lorne" takes readers behind the scenes of Lorne Michaels' relentless, 50-year journey to build and sustain Saturday Night Live—a cultural institution that has come to define American comedy. Morrison details the fascinating challenges Michaels has faced putting the show together every week, balancing the excesses of creative genius while keeping the team functioning under immense pressure. Susan Morrison is the articles editor of The New Yorker. She is the former editor-in-chief of the New York Observer and an original editor of SPY Magazine.
TESS CHAKKALAKAL
"A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt"
Monday, July 28, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, July 29, 11:00 AM
Tess Chakkalakal gives readers the first comprehensive biography of this underappreciated literary figure—the first Black writer whose stories appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and whose books were published by Houghton Mifflin. Through his work as a writer, critic, and speaker, Chesnutt broke into an all-white literary establishment, crossing racial barriers and transforming the publishing world. Tess Chakkalakal teaches African American and American Literature at Bowdoin College. Her writing has appeared in The New England Quarterly, J19, American Literary History, and many others. She is the author of Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America and co-editor of Jim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs and Imperium in Imperio: A Critical Edition.
DAVA SOBEL
Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of "The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit the Path for Women in Science".
Monday, August 4, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, August 5, 11:00 AM
"Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name," writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science: Physics and Chemistry. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it as a professor of physics at the Sorbonne and has endured as an inspiration for generations of young women all over the world to pursue science. Dava Sobel is the author of the international bestseller Longitude, the bestselling Pulitzer Prize finalist Galileo's Daughter, The Planets, A More Perfect Heaven, And the Sun Stood Still, and The Glass Universe, and coauthor of The Illustrated Longitude. She is the recipient of the Individual Public Service Award from the National Science Board, the Bradford Washburn Award, the Kumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors.
LAURENCE BERGREEN
"Jules Verne and the Invention of the Future"
Monday, August 11, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, August 12, 11:00 AM
Widely considered the "father of science fiction," Jules Verne stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. His novels—including such revered classics as Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth—not only thrilled and entertained but also predicted innovations and technological advancements that, in time, would become everyday realities. Laurence Bergreen is an award-winning biographer, historian, and chronicler of exploration. His books include In Search of a Kingdom about Francis Drake's voyage of discovery; Columbus: The Four Voyages, a New York Times bestseller; Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu; bestselling Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe.
AMY READING
"The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker"
Monday, August 18, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, August 19, 11:00 AM
Katharine S. White transformed The New Yorker into a literary powerhouse, building the magazine's prestigious legacy and transforming the 20th-century literary landscape, particularly for women writers. Based on years of scrupulous research, The World She Edited is a rare and deeply intimate portrait of the ways that White nurtured a momentous amount of literary talent that propelled writers to great literary heights.
ELYSE GRAHAM
"Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II"
Monday, August 25, 4:00 PM and Tuesday, August 26, 11:00 AM
At the start of WWII, the U.S. desperately needed an intelligence agency, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—a precursor to today's CIA—was quickly formed. To fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Drawing on personal histories, letters, and declassified OSS files, historian Elyse Graham tells the story of this small group of academics-turned-OSS spies who invented modern spycraft and helped turn the tide of World War II. Elyse Graham is a historian and professor at Stony Brook University, a flagship university in the SUNY system. She holds degrees from Princeton, Yale, and MIT, and has learned how scholars whisper, scheme, launder information, and guard secrets.
In Conversation: June 26 –August 21
In Conversation brings seasoned interviewer André Bernard, former Vice President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, together with innovative thinkers and influential voices whose contributions shape our culture today. Crossing the fields of politics, journalism, social science, and the arts, these conversations will explore fresh perspectives that spark curiosity and ignite new ways of thinking about the world and our most pressing challenges.
ADAM GOPNIK
The New Yorker Staff Writer and author of "All That Happiness Is" Thursday, June 26, 5:00 PM
Since 1986, Adam Gopnik's fiction, criticism, book reviews, essays, and foreign correspondence have helped define the voice of The New Yorker. He is also the author of numerous books, most recently "All That Happiness Is", an exploration of obsession with achievement. His solution: choose accomplishment over achievement. Accomplishments are the result of activities pursued for their own sake. In "All That Happiness Is", Gopnik explores the ways that self-directed passions or accomplishments lead to a sense of fulfillment and, ultimately, happiness.
ROBERTA. CARO
Pulitzer-prize-winning author of "The Years of Lyndon Johnson" and "The Power Broker"
Thursday, July 10, 5:00 PM
Robert A. Caro is the author of two Pulitzer Prize–winning biographies: "The Power Broker", which chronicles the life of Robert Moses, and "Master of the Senate", volume three of the series The Years of Lyndon Johnson. In this exclusive interview, Caro will delve into the process behind his in-depth, decades-long research and distinctive narrative style. Caro has won the National Book Critics Circle Award three times and has won numerous other awards, including two National Book Awards and the Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
DANZYSENNA
Author of the bestselling novel "Colored Television" Thursday, July 17, 5:00 PM
Danzy Senna is the bestselling author of six previous books, including Caucasia (1999) and New People, most recently "Colored Television", as well as a memoir, Where Did You Sleep Last Night? The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California. In this conversation, Danzy Sena and André Bernard will discuss where the novelist in the story and real-life meet—a connection that critic Dwight Garner likens to "the two halves of a black-and-white cookie, which Colored Television adroitly crumbles.”
JAYNE ANNE PHILIPS
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist for "Night Watch" Thursday, July 31, 5:00 PM
Jayne Anne Phillips is the author of Black Tickets, Fast Lanes, Machine Dreams, Shelter, MotherKind, Lark and Termite, Quiet Dell, and "Night Watch". She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bunting Fellowship, and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. Winner of an Arts and Letters Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she was inducted into the Academy in 2018. In this conversation with André Bernard, Phillips will explore the craft of interweaving history and storytelling, delving into the research, character development, and narrative depth that bring the past so vividly to life.
MEGAN MARSHALL
“After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart"
Thursday, August 14, 5:00 PM Members: $27 |Non-members: $32
Megan Marshall's books, including The Peabody Sisters and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Margaret Fuller, are treasured works of American biography. In the richly absorbing essays of "After Lives", Marshall turns her narrative gift to her own art, life, and the people in it. In each of six essays, Marshall reinvents the personal essay form as a portal to the past and its lessons for living into the future. In this conversation with André Bernard, Marshall will discuss the book's interplay between memoir and biography.
JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER
Retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and author of "Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism" Friday, August 1, 5:00 PM
In response to the rise of textualism, Justice Breyer's most recent book, "Reading the Constitution", looks back on the judicial precedent of Chief Justice John Marshall (1755–1835), who established that the Constitution must be a workable set of principles open to interpretation by subsequent generations. Most important in interpreting law, states Breyer, is to understand both the statutes as well as the consequences of deciding a case one way or another.
SUSAN GLASSER + PETER BAKER
Political correspondents and co-authors of "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021" Thursday, August 7, 5:00 PM
Renowned journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser join us for an insightful conversation touching on the national political climate and the role of journalism. Baker and Glasser offer keen observations and unparalleled expertise on the ever-changing landscape of Washington and beyond. Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times. Glasser is a staff writer for The New Yorker. This discussion, moderated by André Bernard, will attempt to unravel the complexities of modern-day power, policy, and the pursuit of truth. Don't miss this chance to hear from two of the most respected, longstanding voices in contemporary political journalism.
JUDY COLLINS
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and author of "Sometimes It's Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss, and Redemption" Thursday, August 21, 5:00 PM
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