Author Visit with Emily Franklin: "Lioness of Boston"

** EVENT MOVED TO SANDWICH TOWN HALL AUDITORIUM! **

Join Titcomb's Bookshop at the Sandwich Town Hall Auditorium,  (100 Route 6A, Sandwich, MA) as we welcome author Emily Franklin to speak to us about her new novel "The Lioness of Boston" (published April 11th 2023) on Tuesday May 23rd at 6:30pm.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED by going to the Titcombs Bookshop website at: https://www.titcombsbookshop.com/event/emily-franklin-lioness-boston. Books will be for sale at the event. Franklin will be signing books after the conversation. If you are unable to join us in person, you can order a book to be signed by the author by going to the Titcombs website by calling Titcombs directly at 508-888-2331.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

"Must-Read Book of Spring 2023"--Town & Country

A deeply evocative novel of the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, a daring visionary who created an inimitable legacy in American art and transformed the city of Boston itself.

By the time Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museum in 1903 to showcase her collection of old masters, antiques, and objects d'art, she was already well-known for scandalizing Boston's polite society. But when Isabella first arrived in Boston in 1861, she was twenty years old, newly married to a wealthy trader, and unsure of herself. Puzzled by the frosty reception she received from stuffy bluebloods, she strived to fit in. After two devastating tragedies and rejection from upper-society, Isabella discovered her spirit and cast off expectations.

Freed by travel, Isabella explores the world of art, ideas, and letters, meeting such kindred spirits as Henry James and Oscar Wilde. From London and Paris to Egypt and Asia, she develops a keen eye for paintings and objects, and meets feminists ready to transform nineteenth century thinking in the twentieth century. Isabella becomes an eccentric trailblazer, painted by John Singer Sargent in a portrait of daring décolletage, and fond of such stunts as walking a pair of lions in the Boston Public Garden.

The Lioness of Boston is a portrait of what society expected a woman's life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and was determined to live on her own terms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Emily Franklin is the author of more than twenty novels and a poetry collection, Tell Me How You Got Here. Her award-winning work has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Guernica, JAMA, and numerous literary magazines as well as featured and read aloud on NPR and named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries. A lifelong visitor to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, she lives outside of Boston with her family including two dogs large enough to be lions.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Sandwich Public Library houses a special patron reading room known as the MacKnight Room in honor Dodge MacKnight (1860 - 1950), a painter of post-impressionist watercolor landscapes. Some of MacKnight's original works are on display in this room. MacKnight's artwork can also be seen at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which also has a room named after him.

After visiting Cape Cod in 1900 to search for inspiration for painting his watercolors, Mr. Macknight purchased a house at 260 Route 6A in Sandwich, MA and called it “The Hedges.” It was here that he lived with his son, John, his French wife, Louise, and her sister, Elise Queyrel. For the final 50 years of his life, Dodge MacKnight called the town of Sandwich his home.

“A lot of his paintings are of Sandwich and Cape Cod or of the snow in New Hampshire”, said the late Barbara Gill, former Sandwich Town Archivist. Upon his death in 1950, Mr. MacKnight left much of his estate to the Sandwich Public Library with the exception of any income from the estate, which went to his sister-in-law while she was still alive.

For more information about MacKnight's unique connection to Ms. Stewart-Gardner and the Town of Sandwich, please feel free to read the information on the Stewart Gardner Museum Website: https://www.gardnermuseum.org/