ONLY OPEN TO UPSTATE INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS – if you wish to attend the event, email us at [email protected]
Featured Author: Derek Baxter
$25 cash at the door per person, includes hors d’oeuvres.
Cocktails will be available and can be purchased through a cash bar. No checks or credit cards allowed. Books will also be available and can be purchased with cash only ($35 each)
Interesting fact, Joel Poinsett and Thomas Jefferson have a connection. Jefferson helped facilitate Joel Poinsett’s travel to Europe as a young man. Join us as we hear about the travels of Thomas Jefferson, his personal story, and his obscure travel guide “Hints for Americans Traveling Through Europe” from author, Derek Baxter who traveled following the guide and found more than food and wine along the way. More from the publisher:
A debut that combines historical nonfiction with travel books, for fans of Bill Bryson and Rinker Buck, In Pursuit of Jefferson is the story of an American on a journey through Europe, following the epic trail of Thomas Jefferson.
A controversial founding father. A man ready for a change. And a completely unique trip through Europe.
In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was a broken man. Reeling from the loss of his wife and humiliated from a political scandal during the Revolutionary war, he needed to remake himself. And to do that, he traveled. Traipsing through Europe, Jefferson saw and learned as much as he could, ultimately bringing his knowledge home to a young America. There, he would rise to power and shape a nation.
More than two hundred years later, Derek Baxter, a devotee of American history, stumbles on an obscure travel guide written by Jefferson—Hints for Americans Traveling Through Europe—as he’s going through his own personal crisis. Who better to offer advice than a founding father himself? Using Hints as his roadmap, Baxter embarks on a new journey, following Jefferson through six countries and countless lessons. But what Baxter learns isn’t always what Jefferson had in mind, and as he comes to understand Jefferson better, he doesn’t always like what he finds.
“In Pursuit of Jefferson” is at once the story of a lifechanging trip through Europe, an unflinching look at a founding father, and a moving personal journey. With rich historical detail, a sense of humor, and boundless heart Baxter explores how we can be better moving forward only by first looking back.
