This event is sold out. Please visit historybookfestival.org for information about the 2024 festival.

Please join us for an evening with Erik Larson, author of The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War. Larson will be in conversation with Bryan Russo.

This special History Book Festival event is produced in cooperation with the Lewes Public Library. Book sales are by Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival.

Bestselling author Erik Larson brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 and the shelling of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in 1861. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Larson offers a gripping account of a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erik Larson is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, most recently The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, which he discussed at the 2020 History Book Festival. In the Garden of Beasts, his account of an American family in pre-war Nazi Germany, is in development with Studio Canal and Playtone. Among the historical figures featured in the book is George Messersmith, American consul in Berlin, a Lewes resident who is buried at the Lewes Presbyterian Church.

Bryan Russo is an award-winning journalist, songwriter, and composer. He is the program director for Delmarva Public Media, a group of three FM radio stations that offer the coastal region a diverse menu of music, arts, culture, local news, and programming from National Public Radio.

ABOUT THE EVENT
A reservation is required to attend this event. Each reservation includes one general admission seat and a signed, hardback copy of The Demon of Unrest. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the History Book Festival and the Lewes Public Library, helping to provide free literary programming for people of all ages. Please note that reservations are limited. Visit Visit bit.ly/HBF-Larson for more information.

This event is made possible with the generous support of Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I PenFed Realty. Special thanks to our program partners for their support: the Lewes Public Library for event production and promotion; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion; and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.

An independent nonprofit organization, the History Book Festival produces an annual festival of new works about history, both historical fiction and narrative nonfiction. The festival also takes HBF authors into schools and other nonprofit community organizations and produces single author events, like this one, throughout the year. Save the date for this year's festival — September 27, 28, and 29, 2024. Learn more at HistoryBookFestival.org.

NOTE: This is an in-person event in Lewes, Delaware.