Erik Larson: The Demon fo Unrest

We are excited to welcome New York Times bestselling author Erik Larson to Frederick on Wednesday, March 18, from 6:30-7:30 pm at the Downtown Community Room at ERUCC in Downtown Frederick. Erik will be discussing his bestseller, The Demon of Unrest. Following his talk, Erik will answer questions and sign books. Copies of The Demon of Unrest and additional backlist titles will be available for purchase at the event.  

Tickets are required to attend this event are and can only be purchased here. There are 2 ticket options, each including a paperback copy of The Demon of Unrest with admission. Books purchased as part of a ticketed bundle and books purchased at events are non-returnable.

For accessibility requests, email [email protected] at least two (2) weeks prior to the event.

About the book: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Splendid and the Vile offers a gripping account of the run-up to the Civil War in this “riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult” (Los Angeles Times).

“This is Erik Larson at his best . . . an irresistible thriller.”—The Wall Street Journal

Master storyteller Erik Larson brings to life the pivotal five months between Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 and the Confederacy’s shelling of Fort Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually K*ll 750,000 Americans.

Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.

About the author: Erik Larson is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, including The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, which examines how Winston Churchill and his “Secret Circle” went about surviving the German air campaign of 1940-41. Larson’s The Devil in the White City is set to be a Hulu limited series; his In the Garden of Beasts is under option by Tom Hanks for a feature film. He recently published an audio-original ghost story, No One Goes Alone, which has been optioned by Chernin Entertainment, in association with Netflix. His Thunderstruck has been optioned by Sony Pictures Television for a limited TV series. Larson lives in Manhattan with his wife, who is a writer and retired neonatologist; they have three grown daughters.

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Host or Publisher Curious Iguana