Paulette:

It is up to you whether you would like to go hear him talk and get an autographed
copy.

Thanks for offering.

Frances

Paulette Schwarting wrote:

> Should we go to this and get an autographed copy?  or just order from Amazon?
>
> Paulette
>
> Gregg Kimball wrote:
>
> > Dear VA-Histers,
> >
> > I would like to invite you to the next in the Library of Virginia's noon
> > book talks.  On Wednesday, May 14, 2003, Jon Kukla will speak on his new
> > book, A Wilderness so Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of
> > America, published by Alfred A. Knopf.  Adherents to this email group
> > will know Jon through his insightful posts to the list on a variety of
> > subjects.  Long-time Library of Virginia staffers remember his
> > successful stint as head of the Library's publications program.  He also
> > has served as the director of the Historic New Orleans Collection and is
> > currently director of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation.  The book
> > will be available in the Library Shop and a book-signing in the lobby
> > will follow the lecture.
> >
> > Early reviews of A Wilderness so Immense highlight its graceful style
> > and broad sweep.  Publishers Weekly summed it up thusly: "This is now
> > the book to read of the growing crop of works on the Louisiana Purchase
> > in this bicentennial year. . . . Kukla offers up a splendid, beautifully
> > written narrative focused tightly on the complex historic origins of the
> > Purchase and on the diplomacy that pulled it off. . . . Rarely does a
> > work of history combine grace of writing with such broad authority."
> >
> > In a saga that stretches from Paris and Madrid to Haiti, Virginia, New
> > York, and New Orleans, Dr. Kukla shows how rivalries over the
> > Mississippi River and its vast watershed brought France, Spain, Great
> > Britain, and the United States to the brink of war and shaped the
> > destiny of the new American Republic. We encounter American
> > leaders--Jefferson and Jay, Monroe and Pickering among them--clashing
> > over the opening of the West and its implications for sectional balance
> > of power. We see these disagreements nearly derailing the Constitutional
> > Convention of 1787 and spawning a series of separatist conspiracies long
> > before the dispute over slavery in the territory set the stage for the
> > Missouri Compromise and the Civil War.  Interweaving the stories of
> > ordinary settlers and imperial decision-makers, Kukla depicts a world of
> > revolutionary intrigue that transformed a small and precarious union
> > into a world power--all without bloodshed and for about four cents an
> > acre.
> >
> > Gregg D. Kimball
> > Director of Publications
> >   and Educational Services
> > Library of Virginia
> > 804/692-3722
> > [log in to unmask]
> > Support the Library of Virginia
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
> --
> Paulette Schwarting
> Associate Director for Library Services
> Virginia Historical Society
> P.O. Box 7311
> Richmond, Virginia 23221-0311
> [log in to unmask]
> (804)342-9688
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html

--
Frances S. Pollard
Director
Library Services
Virginia Historical Society
P.O. Box 7311
Richmond, VA  23221-0311

Tel: (804) 342-9686
Email: [log in to unmask]

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
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