Public Lecture: Norfolk to New Orleans: Riding, Reading and Writing the Mississippi River, Norwich Forum, June 4th

Harriet Martineau, Jonathan Raban

This June, I'm delighted to be taking part in the UEA Showcase Week taking place at the Norwich Forum as part of the University's 50th anniversary celebrations. More details are available here, and the full schedule of talks (featuring some very hot tickets) is here. At 3pm on June 4th I'm going to be talking about Harriet Martineau and Jonathan Raban - two writers with Norfolk roots who travelled along the Mississippi River at rather different moments in its history. Readers with keen memories may remember that I've written about these two before - Martineau here (and in River of Dreams), and Raban here, if anyone wants to bone up in advance. The full blurb of the talk is below. Hope to see you there.

Heir Hunters

Last year I did some filming for an episode of BBC1's Heir Hunters that finally aired today. I was brought in to tell the story of the unhappy marriage between Nellie Grant, daughter of President Ulysses, and her British husband, Algernon Sartoris. Researching their union was a lot of fun, since it mainly involved digging into nineteenth century celebrity gossip. For a little while at least, Nellie and Algie were quite the golden couple, celebrated in publications across the globe. Then, things rapidly soured...

For a little while you can see the episode here. And I also wrote a post for American Scrapbook that includes a lot of the lovely detail that I couldn't get into the programme (like the descriptions of Nellie by Henry James). That's available here, forever - enjoy.

Nellie Grant and Algernon Sartoris

"Finding Your Roots": In Conversation with Branford Marsalis at the US Embassy

Branford Marsalis, me

Last week I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in an event at the US Embassy organised by PBS America to promote their new documentary series Finding Your Roots. They screened an episode that featured the New Orleans family histories of jazz legends Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. - you can watch a preview, here. Branford Marsalis himself flew in for the event, above, and I was part of a Q&A session with him after the screening. I'd certainly recommend watching the episode (indeed, the series) if you get a chance - it touches on fascinating dimensions of New Orleans history throughout, replaying so many of the issues and moments raised in Southern Queen in a very intimate way.

Gods of the Mississippi

Great news for anyone with even a passing interest in the social and cultural history of the Mississippi River: Michael Pasquier's Gods of the Mississippi is just about to be released by Indiana University Press. I'm delighted to say that I have a chapter in the collection. It's an exploration of a number of antebellum American new religious movements (the Vermont Pilgrims, Mormons, Millerites), their relationship with the Mississippi, and the ways in which echoes of these groups lived on in the writings of early Midwestern realists like Mark Twain, William Dean Howells and Edward Eggleston who grew up around them. But beyond that, this looks to be a very compelling set of essays which should very fruitfully extend our understanding of the river's role in national life.

I'm doubly delighted to say that River of Dreams also gets a kind hat-tip in Michael Pasquier's introduction - alongside Thomas Buchanan's wonderful Black Life on the Mississippi (that I reviewed here). This is what he has to say:

Gods of the Mississippi is available from Amazon.com here, Amazon.co.uk here, and can be previewed on Google Books here.

On Tour

Throughout February I'm embarking on what has turned out to be something of a micro-tour.

♠ On February 6th I'll speaking about Joseph Thompson Hare and other Transatlantic outlaws at Oxford University's new Transatlantic Literature in Context seminar series. English Faculty Seminar Room B, 5-6.30pm.

♠ On February 13th I'll be speaking at the University of Hertfordshire, about Mark Twain, the Mississippi, and other river writings in the decade after the Civil War. Details to follow.

♠ And on February 20th, I'll be talking about Twain again, this time at the University of Birmingham. Details are available here - Arts Building, Room 439, 4pm.

If you're attached to, or in the vicinity of, any of those institutions, come and say hello. Looking forward to it.

BBC History Magazine Travel Special: New Orleans

BBC History Magazine kindly asked me to contribute to the history travel supplement that comes with this month's issue (January 2013). I was very happy to oblige - and, unsurprisingly, picked New Orleans as my historical destination of choice. A few scans below:

UEA Christmas Lectures for Children 2012

(Tickets available here)

I'm very excited to be giving one of the University of East Anglia Christmas Lectures for Children this year.