Menu

Author Events

AUTHOR TALK WITH LOCAL AUTHOR ANDY YOUNG – MAY 21 @ 5:30 PM

 

LIFE IN 600 WORDS BY ANDY YOUNG

Back by popular demand, our friend and author Andy Young will be here at Graves Library on Wednesday, May 21 @ 5:30 pm to read from his new collection of stories, Life in 600 Words.

Mr. Young is a familiar face at Kennebunk High School, where he is in his 24th year as a teacher of English and literacy. Before that, he worked as a play-by-play announcer for several minor-league professional baseball and hockey teams. Young has done everything from digging ditches and washing dishes to selling athletic footwear and Christmas trees (though not at the same time). He and his three children live in Cumberland.

Copies of Andy’s new book will be for sale and signing at the event.  Please call the Library for further details 207-967-2778.

The Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library is located at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport, Maine.

AN EVENING WITH HISTORIAN RICK ATKINSON AND SUSAN SWAIN – JUNE 19 @ 5:00 PM

LOUIS T. GRAVES MEMORIAL PUBLIC LIBRARY

~ ANNUAL AUTHOR EVENT ~

JUNE 19 @ 5:00 PM AT THE KENNEBUNK RIVER CLUB

The Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library Board of Trustees invites you to an evening with Pulitzer Prize winning author, historian and journalist, Rick Atkinson as he discusses the newest volume in his Revolution Trilogy, The Fate of the Day, with Susan Swain, recently retired co-Chief Executive Officer, President and board member of C-SPAN.

The Annual Summer Author Event will be held Thursday, June 19 at the Kennebunk River Club, 116 Ocean Avenue, Kennebunkport. Doors open at 5:00 PM for cocktails and appetizers with the program beginning promptly at 5:45 PM. As the library’s largest annual fundraiser, the event supports the library’s essential operations and celebrates the community’s commitment to ideas, featuring nationally recognized authors and speakers.

“Rick Atkinson takes his place among the greatest of all historians. This superb second volume in his Revolution Trilogy is that rare narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Familiar characters become dimensional and complicated, new ones burst to life vividly, and the battles and struggles that created our country now have clarity and meaning.” —KEN BURNS

Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the beginning of America’s war for independence, Atkinson’s THE FATE OF THE DAY: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 is the second volume of his landmark Revolution Trilogy following, The British Are Coming. Atkinson’s brilliant account of the lethal conflict between the Americans and the British offers not only deeply researched and spectacularly dramatic history, but also a new perspective on the demands that a democracy makes on its citizens.

Atkinson has produced a remarkable oeuvre of bestselling history that includes the Liberation Trilogy (the first volume, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943, received the Pulitzer in History), The Long Gray Line, Crusade, In the Company of Soldiers.

Atkinson will be interviewed by Susan Swain, who audiences will recognize from her decades of work with C-SPAN, where she helped launch BookTV and American History TV in addition to holding key responsibilities with day-to-day operations as co-Chief Executive Officer of C-SPAN, the nation’s eighth largest cable television network.

This event has sold out. To be added to the waitlist please call 207-967-2778.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Attendees receive a copy of THE FATE OF THE DAY with the purchase of two event tickets, to be given at the event.

Sponsors include: Spinnaker Trust, Kennebunk River Club, the Colony Hotel, Kitchen Chicks Catering, Robert and Marjorie Dennis, Michael and Victoria Donaghy, Allyn and Norma Lamb, Paul Mahoney, Tom and Sarah Vander Schaaff, Maine & Vine, Hurlbutt Designs, Edison Press, Mark and Victoria Lamarre, Tom Stone and Lisa Coppola, Greg and Heather Taggart, Kennebunkport Resort Collection, Homer Family Foundation, William and Cynthia Weidner, Kennebunk Savings Bank, Chris and Terri Stevens, Daytrip Society, and Schooner Eleanor.

AUTHOR EVENT – DAVID ROHDE – NOVEMBER 9 @ 4:00 PM

We are pleased to welcome Pulitzer Prize Winning Author and Maine native David Rohde to the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library on Saturday, November 9 @ 4:00 p.m. Mr. Rohde will be interviewed by author and associate editor for the Washington Post, David Maraniss. Rohde’s book (published August 2024), Where Tyranny Begins: The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War Against Democracy will be featured in the discussion. 

A suggested donation of $25 would be appreciated. Please stop by the Library or call (207) 967-2778 to reserve your seat. You may also purchase your ticket through our website (www.graveslibrary.org/support).  A wine and cheese reception and book signing will follow. The Library is located at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport, Maine. Parking is available at Consolidated School (School Street) or the Village Fire Station (North Street). 

A ride shuttle will be provided by Kennebunkport Recreation from Consolidated School from 3:15 to 3:45 p.m. and return from 6:00 to 6:30 pm after the program.

 

David S. Rohde is an investigative journalist and American author. He is the former news director for The New Yorker and now serves as Senior Executive Editor, National Security for NBC News. While a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, he won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1996 for his coverage of the Srebrenica massacre. From 2002 to 2005, he was co-chief of the New York Times’ South Asia Bureau. He later contributed to the newspaper’s team coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan that received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, and was a finalist in his own right in the category in 2010. He is also a global affairs analyst for CNN.

While in Afghanistan, Rohde was kidnapped by members of the Taliban in November 2008 but managed to escape in June 2009 after seven months of captivity. His publications include  Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe’s Worst Massacre Since World War II; A Safe Area: Srebrenica – Europe’s Worst Massacre Since the Holocaust, 1997;  A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides; In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America’s “Deep State” and Where Tyranny Begins: The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War Against Democracy.

David Maraniss is a New York Times bestselling author and associate editor at The Washington Post. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times. Among his bestselling books are biographies of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Roberto Clemente, Jim Thorpe and Vince Lombardi, and a trilogy about the 1960s. He currently lives in Washington D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin.