Rooted in the beguiling times of Twain’s Gilded Age, Strong Passions recounts the true story of a tumultuous marriage and the divorce trial that riveted the nation, offering a shocking glimpse into the private world of New York’s powerful and privileged elite. Barbara Weisberg presents the chaotic courtroom and panoply of witnesses who provided contradictory and often salacious testimony. She then asks us to be the jury, deciding each spouse’s guilt and thepossibility of a just resolution. Social history at its most intimate, Strong Passions charts a trial’s twists and turns to portray a family and country in turmoil as they faced conflicts over women’s changing roles, male custody of children, and men’s power―financial and otherwise―over wives.

In-Person Event: $10 for non-members, free for MTH&M Members (please login to access your discount). REGISTER HERE.

A copy of Strong Passions is included with full admission and will be signed by the author at the event.
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About the Author:

Barbara Weisberg is the author of Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism. She earned her M.Phil. in American Studies at Yale University and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Brooklyn College, where she was awarded the MacArthur Scholarship in Poetry on the nomination of Allen Ginsberg. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, Biographers International, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Authors Guild.

About the Moderator:

Bill Shaffer is the author of The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Father’s Disgraced Descendant and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism and Baranger Motion Displays: 55 Moving Scenes of Love, Courtship and Surrender. Shaffer has also been published on designobserver.com and Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum online. He holds an M.A., History of Design and Curatorial Studies from Parsons, The New School.