WAKEFIELD — On Wednesday, Oct. 18, Ilyon Woo, PhD, will deliver the second 2023 Sweetser Lecture “Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom.”
Her book of the same name is a New York Times best-seller.
The lecture begins at 7 p.m., in The Savings Bank Theater at Wakefield Memorial High School, 60 Farm St., Wakefield.
Woo’s writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and The New York Times.
She has received support for her writing from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her BA in the Humanities is from Yale College and her PhD in English from Columbia University.
Woo is also the author of “The Great Divorce: A Nineteenth-Century Mother’s Extraordinary Fight Against Her Husband, the Shakers, and Her Times.”
The third lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 1, will be a collaborative effort between historical novelists Jane Healey and William Martin. They will discuss “December ’41: FDR, Churchill, and the Fearful Days After Pearl Harbor,” respectively. They will present two separate half-hour lectures that evening and then join each other for a discussion with the audience.
Healey is the author of Dreamtown Girls and The Secret Stealer both of which have made several best-seller lists. Her works are founded in strong historical research, and she is the host of Historical Happy Hour, a monthly webinar and podcast featuring interviews with premier historical fiction authors about their latest novels.
Martin, a Boston native, graduated from Harvard University with a degree in English. He has worked as a historical research assistant and directed theater in the evening. He was a construction worker to raise money to go to Hollywood and then studied motion pictures at the University of Southern California. Martin wrote two screenplays to get into the writing business. His agent and producers suggested he should write a novel to best take advantage of his writing style.
Historical novels he has written are “Back Bay,” “Harvard Yard,” “The Lost Constitution”, “The City of Dreams,” “The Lincoln Letter,” and “Bound for Gold.”
Tickets are available at the following locations for $15 per Lecture: Sweetbay, 478 Main St., Wakefield; Whitelam Books, 610 Main St., Reading; and The Book Oasis,
311 Main St., Stoneham.
Tickets will also be available at the door the evenings of the lectures.
The Sweetser Lecture is a Wakefield tradition dating to 1881. Cornelius Sweetser, a wealthy local shoe manufacturer bequeathed to the town of Wakefield a substantial sum of money to organize a series of programs for the education and uplift of the residents of Wakefield. Any excess proceeds after expenses are expended for the benefit of needy residents of Wakefield. Recipients of his generosity in 2021 were the Wakefield Food Pantry, the Wakefield Branch of the Salvation Army, and the Mystic Valley Elder Services (Wakefield residents only).
In addition to ticket sales and the bequest of Mr. Sweetser, the Lecture Series has been supported by generous donations from the Savings Bank of Wakefield.