Author Book Signing

AN EVENING WITH AMERICAN AUTHOR, JOURNALIST, AND PROFESSOR PAUL HENDRICKSON – JUNE 20 @ 5:00 PM

Author Paul Hendrickson

We are thrilled to welcome celebrated author Paul Hendrickson to our 13th annual Author Event on June 20 at 5:00 PM at the historic Kennebunk River Club Casino, 116 Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport. Purchase tickets online at Eventbrite.

Paul Hendrickson is an American author, journalist, and professor. His eighth book, Fighting the Night, will be published on May 7, 2024. It is an account of his father flying Black Widow night fighters on Iwo Jima in the last part of World War II. The book will come out on the twenty-first anniversary of his father’s death.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE!

He is the author of the 2011 New York Times best seller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and LostFor the 2004 book Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43, Hendrickson wrote the introduction and accompanying text. In 2003, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy. His 1996 work about Vietnam, The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost Warwas a finalist for the National Book Award. He is the recipient of writing fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lyndhurst Foundation, and the Alicia Patterson Foundation. Before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Hendrickson was a staff feature writer at the Washington Post from 1977 to 2001.

Hendrickson was born in California but grew up in the Midwest and in a Catholic seminary in the Deep South, where he studied for seven years for the missionary priesthood. This became the subject of his first book, published in 1983: Seminary: A Search. He is also the author of Looking for the Light: The Hidden Life and Art of Marion Post Wolcott, a finalist for the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award.

In 2009, Hendrickson was a joint visiting professor of documentary practice at Duke University and of American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Hendrickson has degrees in English from St. Louis University and Pennsylvania State University. He is married and has two grown sons and lives with his wife, Cecilia, outside Philadelphia.

“We are honored to have Mr. Hendrickson join us this year,” said Graves Library Executive Director Mary-Lou Boucouvalas. “We are also extremely grateful for the wonderful community support provided by our event sponsors. One hundred percent of the funds raised will support the ongoing operations of the Library.”

This special fundraiser is being underwritten by Spinnaker Trust, along with the Kennebunk River Club, Lupine Books,  Allyn and Norma Lamb, Mike and Denise Iafolla, Robert and Marjie Dennis, Mutasia, Billy and Rosemary Shore, Tom and Sarah Vander Schaaff, Kitchen Chicks Catering, the Colony Hotel, Edison Press, Hurlbutt Designs, Schooner Eleanor, SoPo Wine Company, Maine & Vine, and the Wine House on Main.

The ticket price of $75 includes an autographed copy of Fighting the Night. Tickets can be purchased at Graves Library and online through Eventbrite. Call (207) 967-2778 or visit our website at www.graveslibrary.org for more information. Seating is limited.

PROGRAM FOR THE EVENING

5:00 PM – 5:45 PM                       DOORS OPEN PROMPTLY AT 5:00 PM.   RECEPTION WITH WINE AND LIGHT REFRESHMENT

5:50 PM – 6:00 PM                       WELCOME and THANK YOU TO SPONSORS

6:00 PM – 6:10 PM                       ANNOUNCEMENT OF JOYCE BUTLER STUDENT HISTORY AWARD

6:10 PM – 6:15 PM                       INTRODUCTION OF PAUL HENDRICKSON

6:15 PM – 7:00 PM                       INTERVIEW WITH PAUL HENDRICKSON

7:00 PM – 7:30 PM                       BOOK SIGNING

MAINE AUTHOR BRUCE ROBERT COFFIN – JUNE 15 @ 2:00 PM

THE PATSY BRAY MAHONEY LECTURE SERIES PRESENTS:

Maine Author/Mystery Writer Bruce Robert Coffin will be here on Saturday, June 15 @ 2:00 pm to read from his latest novel.

Bruce Robert Coffin is the award-winning author of the Detective Byron Mysteries, co-author of The Turner and Mosley Files along with bestselling author LynDee Walker, and author of the forthcoming Detective Justice Mysteries. A former detective sergeant with more than twenty-seven years in law enforcement, he supervised all homicide and violent crime investigations for Maine’s largest city. Following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, Bruce spent four years investigating counter-terrorism cases for the FBI, earning the Director’s Award, the highest award a non-agent can receive.

When Mark Hawkins is found dead in a seedy motel, police deem it an accidental overdose. But billionaire computer genius Avery Turner suspects there might be more to the story. Her old friend was on the trail of the legendary General’s Gold, and now Avery is determined to pick up where he left off…Teaming up with Carter Mosley, a deep-sea shipwreck diver and adrenaline junkie turned social media sensation, Avery embarks on a dangerous quest for the treasure―and the truth. From Florida to Maine, and from the mountains of Virginia to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, they face treacherous gangs, man-eating sharks, and a world of deception and double-crosses.  As they navigate hidden clues and uncertain allies, Avery and Carter must outwit their deadly adversaries and unravel the mystery surrounding the General’s Gold. But in this high-stakes game, losing the treasure could cost them their lives.

Copies of the book will also be available for sale and signing after the event.  Light refreshments will be provided by the Graves Library Snack Team.  Please call the Library for more information on this event and the rest of the series (967-2778).

Parking is available along Maine Street, the North Street Fire Station Parking Lot, and Consolidated School (Route 9).  If the weather is bad, please check your local television stations for updates on our listings or send us an email to:  mlbgraves@gmail.com

The Graves Library is located at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport, Maine.  Please enter through the white door in the Parking Lot.

POP UP BOOK SIGNING – JENNA BUSH HAGER AND BARBARA BUSH – DECEMBER 9 @ 10:00 AM

We hope you will join us on Saturday, December 9 @ 10:00 am for a very special event.  Twin sisters Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush will be here at the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library, 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport, Maine and home of the “Book Cellar” to sign copies of their new book  Love Comes First.

This newest book is a celebration of growing families. In the story, two sisters wish upon a star for a sibling. Not only does their wish come true, but they also get a new baby cousin. Although the wish doesn’t turn out exactly the way the sisters imagined, they soon learn that love conquers all.

This program is free and open to the public.  Copies of the book will be for sale and signing.   Pre-Registration is Required.  Please call (207) 967-2778 to be added to the list.    Parking available at the Village Fire Station (North Street) and Consolidated School (Route 9).

Jenna Bush Hager:

An American news personality, author, and journalist. She is the co-host of Today with Hoda & Jenna, the fourth hour of NBC’s morning news program Today.   After her father’s presidency, Hager became an author, an editor-at-large for Southern Living magazine, and a television personality on NBC, being featured most prominently as a member of The Today Show as a correspondent, contributor and co-host.

Barbara Pierce Bush:

An American activist. She is Vice President, Social Impact for the NBA and co-founded the nonprofit Global Health Corps, an organization that has mobilized more than one thousand young leaders to solve some of the world’s biggest global health challenges.

 

The fraternal twins are the daughters of the 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush. They are also the granddaughters of the 41st U.S. President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush, great-granddaughters of former U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, nieces of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and first cousins of former Land Commissioner of Texas, George P. Bush.