Family Ties: Biographies of Ancestors (and a Dad)

The event is hybrid and free of charge. An in-person reception will begin at 4:15 PM. 

Please visit here to register.

This panel discussion brings together three American subjects from different eras and professions:  George Boutwell, 19th century Massachusetts politician; A’Lelia Walker, Progressive Era business woman and arts patron; Justin Kaplan, prize-winning 20th century biographer of Twain and Whitman.  What do their biographies have in common?  Boutwell: Radical Republican and Champion of Democracy was written by a distant cousin; Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance by a great-granddaughter; and Twice Born: Finding My Father in the Margins of Biography by a daughter.  How does the “necessary entwinement”—Hester Kaplan’s phrase for the binding of biographer to subject—alter, how does it feel, when the subject is a family member?  Learn about three remarkable, impactful lives, and the writing lives of their biographer relatives.