Reading With Robin Presents: Heather Webb, Lauren Willig, and Sarah Penner | A Fundraiser for Operation Hope and Pequot Library

March 21 at 7:00 p.m.

In partnership with Robin Kall of Reading with Robin, Pequot Library is pleased to welcome bestselling authors, Lauren Willig, Heather Webb, and Sarah Penner, for an engaging conversation moderated by Robin. Proceeds from this fundraiser will benefit Operation Hope and Pequot Library.
 

VIP REGISTRATION + MINGLING: $75 | Includes priority seating, exclusive VIP reception meet and greet with the authors at 6:00 p.m., light bites and wine, book signing, and Meet the Author talk

GENERAL ADMISSION REGISTRATION: $20 | Includes Meet the Author talk only (arrive starting at 6:45 p.m.)

Click here to purchase your tickets!

Tickets will also be available at the door.

Tickets are non-refundable but transferrable, no exceptions.

Books will be for sale by our friends at the Fairfield University Bookstore, and only copies purchased this evening will be signed.

Please note: The Library's current Under the Arches program brochure listed an incorrect time for this event. The program will take place at 7:00 p.m. 

This week, we're celebrating some seminal figures in the library's history, with more to come next month in honor of founder Virginia Marquand Monroe's birthday; in fact, mark your calendars for a special Out of the Vault | Founder's Day on April 27 at 2 p.m. 

Our adult and children/YA book picks follow the "library" theme.

EXHIBITION CONNECTION

Miss Josephine S. Heydrick (1873-1960) served as Pequot Librarian's first official librarian. The library opened to the public for borrowing books in April of 1894, and she was hired in June at a salary of $50.00 per month. She received her degree from the Pratt Institute of Library Science.

Along with the regular duties of librarianship, Heydrick maintained a busy correspondence with book dealers of the day. For example, she corresponded with Charles Eliot Goodspeed of Goodspeed’s Book Shop, which he founded in 1898 at Beacon and Somerset streets in Boston. The shop developed a following for its thoughtful selection of books, prints, autographs, and maps.

In 1904, Goodspeed offered Heydrick a collection of editions of The New-England Primer at a discounted price of $400 for the lot. Heydrick agreed to purchase this important collection, some of which is featured in our current exhibition, Alphabets, Bedtime Stories, and Cautionary Tales: Children's Books and the Shaping of American Identity. We'll also display an expanded selection of these primers in advance of our program, The New England Primer: A Digital Conversation with Dr. Kyle Roberts and Laura Wasowicz on March 30 at 5:30. 

In 1917, Heydrick, then in her early 40s, married the Rev. William Henry Holman, minister of Southport Congregational Church, also mentioned in the above letter. A bibliophile, he served as an advisor to Pequot Library founders Virginia and Elbert Monroe and philanthropist Mary Catherine Hull Wakeman. Rev. Holman was 65, and Josephine was his third wife. She resigned from her position as librarian after the wedding and took up the duties of a married woman.

We highlighted Heydrick in our 2022 exhibition, "[Her]story: Women's Roles Through History." Click here to view the virtual exhibition.

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