Just in time for Tuesday's election, join us for a reading and book-signing with local author, William Hazelgrove for his new book, exploring the life of Edith Wilson--MADAM PRESIDENT.
After President Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke in the fall of 1919, his wife, First Lady Edith Wilson, began to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of the Executive Office. Mrs. Wilson had had little formal education and had only been married to President Wilson for four years; yet, in the tenuous peace following the end of World War I, Mrs. Wilson assumed the authority of the office of the president, reading all correspondence intended for her bedridden husband and assuming his role for seventeen long months. Though her Oval Office presence was acknowledged in Washington, D.C. circles at the timeone senator called her "the Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man" her legacy as "First Woman President" is now largely forgotten.
William Elliott Hazelgrove is the author of ten books. His books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly and Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, Junior Library Guild Selections, ALA Editors Choice Award, and optioned for the movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today and other publications. He has been the subject of interviews in NPR's All Things Considered along with features in The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Richmond Times Dispatch, USA Today, People, Channel 11, NBC, WBEZ, WGN. Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson has been optioned by Storyline Entertainment for the movies. Forging a President How the West Created Teddy Roosevelt will be out May 2017. He runs a political cultural blog, The View From Hemingway's Attic.More information at http://www.williamhazelgrove.
