The Journey Through Hallowed Ground

  In honor of President’s Day and the breadth of national heritage in the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, Pulitzer-Prize winning author Tony Horwitz will be the guest speaker at an intimate reception and book talk on Saturday, February 18 in Waterford, hosted by the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area. 

  Four of Mr. Horwitz’s books have been national and New York Times  bestsellers and now, the author of the prized Confederates in the Attic  has returned to the Civil War era to tell the gripping drama of a man and a mission that changed the course of history in his new book, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the raid that Sparked the Civil War (released Oct 25, 2011).

  Please join the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership for a very special evening with Tony on Saturday, February 18 in Waterford, VA for a book talk, question and answer, book signing and intimate reception with wine and hors d'oeuvres.  Tickets are $50 with limited space and seating.

WHERE:  40138 Main Street, Waterford, VA  20197  (Private Home)

WHEN: 4:00pm – 7:00pm, Saturday, February 18, 2012 (Street Parking) 

  RESERVATIONS:  (540) 882-4929  (Space is Limited)

  Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry ruptured the union between North and South. Yet few Americans know the true story of the militant idealists who invaded Virginia before the Civil War. Now, Midnight Rising  paints Brown's uprising in vivid color, capturing a nation on the brink of explosive conflict.

  The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area is home to Harpers Ferry, WV, the site of John Brown’s raid, the largest single collection of Civil War Battle sites in the nation, as well as the homes of nine U.S. Presidents. 

    “Commemorating our national heritage, especially on President’s Day, is critical to our shared future,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president and founder of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership.  “Our nation’s history serves as an example for people around the world.  And we are enormously grateful to Tony for his eloquent and powerful writing.  His novels and his presence in Waterford help bring home the critical stories and struggles of our nation to people across the globe.  We welcome them to join us on the 18^th  and more to explore the battlefields, historic towns, and historic sites in this extraordinary National Heritage Area.  It’s only then can when people can begin to understand our shared heritage.”

  Tony’s national and New York Times  bestsellers include: A Voyage Long and Strange, Blue Latitudes, Confederates in the Attic , and Baghdad Without A Map . His other work includes “Mississippi Wood,” a documentary on PBS about Southern loggers; “The Devil May Care,” a collection of fifty tales about intrepid Americans; and contributions to State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America  and The New Gilded Age: The New Yorker Looks at the Culture of Affluence .

    He has also been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a visiting scholar at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. He lives with his wife, Geraldine Brooks and their sons, Nathaniel and Bizu, on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

  Tony is a native of Washington, D.C., and a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He worked for many years as a reporter, first in Indiana and then during a decade overseas in Australia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, mostly covering wars and conflicts as a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal . After returning to the U.S., he won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker  before becoming a full-time author.

  With 400 years of European, American and African-American heritage, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground is a National Heritage Area with a National Scenic Byway running through it.  From Gettysburg to Monticello, it’s known as the region Where America Happened™ .  It contains more history than any other region in the nation and includes: World Heritage sites, over 10,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, 49 National Heritage districts, nine Presidential homes, 13 National Park units, hundreds of African American and Native American heritage sites, 30 Historic Main Street communities, sites from the Revolutionary War, French-Indian War, War of 1812 and the largest single collection of Civil War sites in the nation.

Media Contact:

John K. Jones
_{JTHG Partnership
Director of Communications
John@JTHG.org
703.999.7579}