Rosemary Wells to Speak at Perrot

Author Rosemary Wells will speak at Perrot on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008, at 7 P.M. She will be discussing what she learned about Abraham Lincoln while researching her forthcoming book Lincoln and His Boys (publication date January 2009). Please note that this event is intended for adults and young adults.

Historians claim him as one of America’s most revered presidents. But to his rambunctious sons, Abraham Lincoln was above all a playful and loving father. Here is Lincoln as seen by two of his boys: Willie, thrilled to be on his first train trip when Lincoln was deciding to run for president; Willie and Tad barging into Cabinet meetings to lift Lincoln’s spirits in the early days of the Civil War, Tad accompanying him to Richmond just after the South’s defeat. With the war raging and the Union under siege, we see history unfolding through Willie’s eyes and then through Tad’s-- and we see Lincoln rising above his own inborn sadness and personal tragedy through his devotion to his sons. With evocative and engaging illustrations by P.J. Lynch, Rosemary Wells offers a carefully researched biography that gives us a Lincoln not frozen in time but accessible and utterly real.

Rosemary Wells is an author and illustrator of picture books and has written many novels and nonfiction books for young readers. While researching a historical novel about the Civil War, she came upon a two-hundred-word fragment by Willie Lincoln about a trip taken with his father, and the idea for Lincoln and His Sons was born. She lives in Connecticut.