This Saturday, November 4 from 10:30 to 11:15 am join local author Katherine (Gig) Babson and Pippi her black Labrador retriever at Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street as they share their newest picture book. Hear stories from their many outdoor adventures at Dogtown, a favorite local spot of theirs on Cape Ann. The 26 Babson Boulders, which are engraved with inspirational inscriptions such as Kindness, Courage, & Never Try, Never Win are featured in their outdoor Dogtown adventures as well as Pippi’s training!
Pippi Rocks, More Stores from the Dog Blog is a charming tale of a curious, exceedingly clever Young Dog’s exploits. The antics of Pippi are non-stop in these tales of her mischievous adventures by Katherine (Gig) Babson. The book is a warm and inspiring affirmation of how a dog’s and its owner’s reciprocal love brings deep and unique meaning to their lives.
Registration is not required. All are welcome! For more information visit, sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5500.
All are welcome to the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street on Thursday, October 19 at 5:30pm for an engaging talk with local author Karin Gertsch, who will discuss her debut novel Five Wishes, a heartwarming Massachusetts-based story about history, love, and lore. All are welcome. No registration is required.
Five Wishes is about the MacInnes family, who live in a small New England town called Hamlet. Husband, Delbert MacInnes, was born and raised in Hamlet and is content to remain grounded, while his wife, Matilda, has been itching to make her dreams come true. Over the years her wish list was amended several times—her patience is wearing thin. When an unexpected event happens, Matilda learns that Delbert has kept a secret from her for decades. But, then, she’s never shared her precious secret with him. Five Wishes takes the reader on journeys from Hamlet to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, then overseas to an ancient castle in Scotland, before venturing back to the cozy Cape Cod-style home at Five Cedar Street, where a freshly-brewed cup of Darjeeling tea is waiting at the breakfast table.
Karin Gertsch is the author of Cape Ann & Vicinity: A Guide for Residents and Visitors, as well as Flora Has an Adventure, a children’s book for ages 3-8. The author is currently working on her second novel as well as a series of Flora stories for children. Karin will share about the research process for her novel, as well as the processes for researching and creating a travel guide and a children’s book.
All are welcome. No registration required. For more information, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5500.
On Thursday, August 24, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., in a lively presentation at the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street, Ellen Levy will relay the story of the Boston library group, Saturday Evening Girls, that created magnificent Arts and Crafts pottery at the turn of the last century. The story of the Saturday Evening Girls is beloved: a story of turn of the century determination and an early example of immigrant women developing useful trade skills to make a career in America. This group of women turned a reading club into the beginnings of Paul Revere Pottery.
In addition to becoming an important financier of the club, Helen Storrow would create a summer camp in Wingaersheek Beach in West Gloucester for the women, often exposing the young women to the outdoors and rural life.
Ellen will share the data and stories she gathered for her series of historical fiction books taking place in the 1910s in Massachusetts.
Event will take place at SFL @ 21 Main Street in Gloucester. Registration not required. Questions? Contact: jtravers@sawyerfreelibrary.org
This Thursday, August 3, 5:30 to 6:30 pm, the Sawyer Free Library will welcome Dan Fuller, author ofGloucester Gale: The True Story of the Swordfishing Schooner Dorcas at its 21 Main Street location in downtown Gloucester.
In “Gloucester Gale,” Dan Fuller tells the true story of Captain Joseph Silveira and the swordfishing schooner “Dorcas” during the August Gale of 1924. In this vivid narrative about men battling against a raging force of nature during the bygone age of wooden ships and harpoons, he reconstructs the events of that hurricane and the schooner “Dorcas,” the impact on the rest of the fleet out at Georges Bank, and their loved ones back in Gloucester.
Dan is a direct descendant of Captain Silveira, and this story has been part of his family’s folklore for generations. Dan has always been captivated by the sea and is an avid sport fisherman. He currently splits his time seasonally between Cape Cod Bay and Tampa Bay.
The evening is open to the public for all to enjoy. No reservations needed. Books will be available for sale and signing following the presentation.
For more information on the Sawyer Free Library’s Author Talks and the complete schedule of summer happenings at the Library, please visit www.sawyerfreelibrary.org, call 978-325-5500, or 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester
This Thursday, July 27 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. the Sawyer Free Librarywill be presenting an author-talk with June Vail, Professor Emerita in the Department of Theater and Dance at Bowdoin College, about her book Folly Cove Sketches: Remembering Virginia Lee Burton.
Vail’s new memoir paints a warm, honest portrait of her great-aunt, Virginia Lee Burton, Author and illustrator of beloved mid-century children’s books. Burton’s beloved books, including Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and Caldecott-winner The Little House, continue to delight generations of parents, children, and librarians. Offering intimate glimpses into Burton’s wide-ranging artistic projects and everyday life, Vail vividly recounts how living with her great-aunt Jinnee in the Folly Cove, Massachusetts, community broadened her teenage perspectives and inspired some unexpected life choices.
An open Q and A will follow Vail’s informal, illustrated talk. Books will be available for sale and signing following the presentation. The event will take place at the Sawyer Free Library’s downtown location at 21 Main Street in Gloucester.
The Sawyer Free Library is excited to be presenting a series of local authors reading and sharing insight into colorful historical happenings of Gloucester this summer at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. All events are in person and open to the public. The series kicks off this Saturday, July 22 with local author and historian Wayne Soini.
Saturday, July 22, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Wayne Soini to present “An Unsuitable Lecture: Thoreau, Walden, and the Gloucester Lyceum” – An unnamed critic for the Gloucester Telegraph declared that Henry D. Thoreau’s lecture was “unique” before he took umbrage and condemned it as “not exactly suitable for a Gloucester audience.” 175 years ago, in December 1848, Thoreau auditioned his upcoming book, Walden, before an audience of Gloucester folks at the Gloucester Lyceum (today, the Legion Hall).
Wayne Soini, a local author, through the lens of Thoreau’s controversial performance in Gloucester of “Economy,” which evolved into Chapter One of his classic book, will share more about the man Henry D. Thoreau and the writing (and rewriting) of Walden.
Thursday, July 27, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., June Vail, Folly Cove Sketches: Remembering Virginia Lee– An author-talk with June Vail, Professor Emerita in the Department of Theater and Dance at Bowdoin College, about her book Folly Cove Sketches: Remembering Virginia Lee Burton. Vail’s new memoir paints a warm, honest portrait of her great-aunt, Virginia Lee Burton, Author and illustrator of beloved mid-century children’s books. Burton’s beloved books, including Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and Caldecott-winner The Little House, continue to delight generations of parents, children, and librarians. Offering intimate glimpses into Burton’s wide-ranging artistic projects and everyday life, Vail vividly recounts how living with her great-aunt Jinnee in the Folly Cove, Massachusetts, community broadened her teenage perspectives and inspired some unexpected life choices. An open Q and A will follow Vail’s informal, illustrated talk. Books will be available for sale and signing following the presentation.
Thursday, August 3, 5:30 to 6:30 pm, Dan Fuller, Gloucester Gale: The True Story of the Swordfishing Schooner Dorcas– In “Gloucester Gale,” Dan Fuller tells the true story of Captain Joseph Silveira and the swordfishing schooner “Dorcas” during the August Gale of 1924. In this vivid narrative about men battling against a raging force of nature during the bygone age of wooden ships and harpoons, he reconstructs the events of that hurricane and the schooner “Dorcas,” the impact on the rest of the fleet out at Georges Bank, and their loved ones back in Gloucester. Dan is a direct descendant of Captain Silveira, and this story has been part of his family’s folklore for generations. Dan has always been captivated by the sea and is an avid sport fisherman. He currently splits his time seasonally between Cape Cod Bay and Tampa Bay. Books will be available for sale and signing following the presentation.
Thursday, August 24, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Ellen Levy: The Saturday Evening Girls in Gloucester–Author Ellen Levy will relay the story of a Boston library group that created magnificent Arts and Crafts pottery at the turn of the last century. Supported by their benefactor, Helen Storrow, the immigrant girls vacationed at Wingaersheek Beach. In a lively presentation, Ellen will share the stories she gathered while researching for her series of historical fiction books taking place in the 1910s in Massachusetts.
For more information on the Sawyer Free Library’s Author Talks and the complete schedule of summer happenings at the Library, please visit www.sawyerfreelibrary.org, call 978-325-5500, or 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. As always, all events are free and open to the public.
SAWYER FREE LIBRARY will welcome WILLIAM SCHULZ – international human rights leader and local author – for a discussion of his latest book, REVERSING THE RIVERS: A MEMOIR OF HISTORY, HOPE, AND HUMAN RIGHTS on Thursday, July 20 at 6:30 p.m. The free event will be at the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. Register HERE.
From 1994 to 2006, William F. Schulz headed Amnesty International USA, during which he and the organization confronted some of the greatest challenges to human rights. Dr. Schulz led missions to Liberia, Tunisia, Northern Ireland, and Sudan. He also traveled tens of thousands of miles in the United States promoting human rights causes and was frequently quoted in the media.
His latest book,Reversing the Rivers: A Memoir of History, Hope and Human Rights, from Penn Press, recounts his years as head of Amnesty International through poignant stories combined with amusing anecdotes and philosophical reflection. His memoir is an engaging account of how one human rights activist faced the day-to-day realities of struggling with human rights crises while answering, “How do you retain any hope at all in humanity?”
Currently, Dr. Schulz is a Senior Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is the author of three other books on human rights, In Our Own Best Interest: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All (2001, Beacon Press); Tainted Legacy: 9/11 and the Ruin of Human Rights (2003, Nation Books); and The Coming Good Society: Why New Realities Demand New Rights (2021, Harvard University Press), co-authored with Sushma Raman. He is also the contributing editor of The Phenomenon of Torture: Readings and Commentary (2007, University of Pennsylvania Press) and The Future of Human Rights: US Policy for a New Era (2008, University of Pennsylvania Press). And in 2002, The New York Review of Books shared, “William Schulz…has done more than anyone in the American human rights movement to make human rights issues known in the United States.”
From 2006-2010 Dr. Schulz was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, specializing in human rights, and served as a consultant to various foundations, including the MacArthur Foundation, UN Foundation, Humanity United, and the Kellogg Foundation. He was appointed Adjunct Professor of Public Administration at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Policy in 2008, where he taught for eight years, and in 2013 served as Pozen Visiting Professor of Human Rights at the University of Chicago. From 2010-20 Dr. Schulz served as an Affiliated Preaching and Public Ethics Professor at Meadville Lombard Theological School. He is President Emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, which he led from 2010-16.
An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Dr. Schulz was President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations from 1985-93. He has served on the boards of People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Selection Committee, the Wellesley (College) Centers for Women, and many other organizations and currently sits on the board of the Center for Justice & Accountability.
Dr. Schulz is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College, holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Meadville/Lombard Theological School (then at the University of Chicago) as well as eight honorary degrees. He lives with his wife, the Rev. Beth Graham, also a Unitarian Universalist minister, in Gloucester, MA.
Click HERE to register for this special evening with William Schulz on July 20at 6:30 p.m. or go to the calendar page of sawyerfreelibrary.org or call 978-325-5500. Space is limited. The Sawyer Free Library is located at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester.
“I know no better book on human rights than REVERSING THE RIVERS. Schulz conducts a master class in both brilliant writing and being human.” – Sebastian Junger, author of Freedom and The Perfect Storm
As a part of May’s Memoir Month, the Sawyer Free Library is pleased to welcome local author Stella Nahatis on Thursday, May 11 at 5:30 to discuss her newly released memoir, Taxi to America: A Greek Orphan’s Adoption Journey. All are welcome to attend this special event at the Library located at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. To register click HERE or for more information, visit, sawyerfreelibrary.org.
Stella’s journey from Thessaloniki, Greece, to America begins with a pre-dawn taxi ride that she and her sister share while the coffin holding a loved one rides along in the taxi’s trunk. Orphaned and separated from her younger sister “for her own good” as the culture dictated at the time, Stella ends up being adopted by a Greek couple that had emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts. At age 11, she overcomes multiple losses and cultural differences to find a place in her new homeland while finding ways to stay connected to those she loved in Greece.
This story of resilience and perseverance follows Stella’s journey of becoming an “Amerikanaki” and eventually reconnecting with her sister, who had stayed in Greece with her own set of adoptive parents. Even as Stella embraces her new life and culture in America, she rebuilds her loving relationship with her sister after an eight-year separation. Later in life, the sisters take another taxi ride together, this time to recover important details of their birth parents’ life stories that mirror the determination to survive and thrive that marks their own.
Sawyer Free Library will welcome EMILY FRANKLIN—poet and award-winning author who has appeared in the New York Times and the Boston Globe—for a discussion of her new book THE LIONESS OF BOSTON on Tuesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm. The event will be at the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. Registration is required at sawyerfreelibrary.org.Please note that space is limited.
A novel of historical fiction, “The Lioness of Boston” tells about the life of daring visionary Isabella Stewart Gardner, who created an inimitable legacy in American art and transformed the city of Boston itself. It 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 terms.
A misfit who befriended other outcasts to rise into art and intellectual society, Isabella used her own collections to open the now-famous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
By the time Gardner opened her 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, newly married and unsure of herself, she was puzzled by the frosty reception she received from stuffy bluebloods.
At first, she strived to fit in. Then, following tragedy and upper-society rejection, she set out on a new path.
Franklin describes how Isabella discovers her own outspoken nature and infiltrates the Harvard intellectual world. Then, as she explores the larger world, she meets artists and kindred spirits — Henry James, Oscar Wilde and John Singer Sargent. A worldwide traveler, she attends the first Impressionist exhibit, collects a wide range of paintings and objects, and forges an important relationship with Bernard Berenson, who will become her art dealer/confidante.
Freed by travel, Isabella explores the world of art, ideas,L and letters. From London and Paris to Egypt and Asia, she develops a keen eye for paintings and objects, and meets feminists ready to transform 19th-century thinking in the 20th 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.
Franklin, whose award-winning work has appeared in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Guernica, JAMA, and numerous literary magazines, has also been featured and read aloud on NPR and was 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.
Click HERE to register. Space is limited. Questions, 978-325-5500.
“The Lioness of Boston is a captivating story of a significant woman in Boston’s history who left that city a cultural legacy to last the ages. This beautiful novel will appeal to those who love masterful historical fiction, and stories of triumphant women who leave an indelible mark.” – New York Journal of Books
The Sawyer Free Library invites you to a riveting hour online with New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger! Join us on Thursday, April 27 from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. as he discusses his newest book in the Cork O’Connor series Fox Creek and his other works.
This is a virtual event. Registration is required. Click HERE to register.
Fox Creek follows Cork O’Connor in a race against time to save his wife, a mysterious stranger, and an Ojibwe healer from bloodthirsty mercenaries. The ancient Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux has had a vision of his death. As he walks the Northwoods in solitude, he tries to prepare himself peacefully for the end of his long life. But peace is destined to elude him as hunters fill the woods seeking a woman named Dolores Morriseau, a stranger who had come to the healer for shelter and the gift of his wisdom. Meloux guides this stranger and his great niece, Cork O’Connor’s wife, to safety deep into the Boundary Waters, his home for more than a century. Meanwhile, in Aurora, Cork works feverishly to identify the hunters and the reason for their relentless pursuit, but he has little to go on. He knows only too well that with each passing hour time is running out. But his fiercest enemy in this deadly game of cat and mouse may well be his own deep self-doubt about his ability to save those he loves.
About the Author: Krueger writes a mystery series set in the north woods of Minnesota. His protagonist is Cork O’Connor, the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage—part Irish and part Ojibwe. His work has received a number of awards, including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, the Dilys Award, and the Friends of American Writers Prize.
Ordinary Grace, his stand-alone novel published in 2013, received the Edgar Award, given by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition for the best novel published in that year. The companion novel, This Tender Land, was published in September 2019 and spent nearly six months on the New York Times bestseller list. His last nine novels were all New York Times bestsellers. He’s been married for nearly fifty years to a marvelous woman who is a retired attorney. He makes his home in St. Paul, a city he dearly loves.
This is a virtual event. Registration is required. Click HERE to register.
Questions? Contact: moneill@sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5562.
Cape Ann Community 