Join us on Monday, October 13^th, 2014 as we proudly present “Defiant Brides: The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married” by author Nancy Rubin Stuart who comes all the way from Cape Cod, Massachusetts  to give us this presentation.  

Our lectures have proved to be very popular and we strongly recommend that you book your seat now. 

The all inclusive admission price is $49 per person which includes the 18th century American Fare Buffet, all soft beverages and coffee, family style sweets during the question and answer session, all tax and gratuities, the lecture, and a donation to help support the Paoli Battlefield Historical Park.

Your admission also includes a raffle ticket for a chance to win a night’s stay at the General Warren Inne. There will be one winner drawn at each lecture.

In her book, esteemed biographer Nancy Rubin Stuart writes a dual biography of both Peggy Shippen Arnold and Lucy Flucker Knox, both spirited women, and reveals that neither was simply a “traitor” or “patriot.”  This book portrays two rebellious women who defied expectations and struggled-publicly and privately in a volatile political moment in early America.

When Peggy Shippen, the celebrated blonde belle of Philadelphia, married American military hero Benedict Arnold in 1779, she anticipated a life of fame and fortune, but financial debts and political intrigues prompted her to conspire with her treasonous husband against George Washington and the American Revolution. In spite of her commendable efforts to rehabilitate her husband’s name, Peggy Shippen continues to be remembered as a traitor bride.

Peggy’s patriotic counterpart was Lucy Flucker, the spirited and voluptuous brunette, who in 1774 defied her wealthy Tory parents by marrying a poor Boston bookbinder simply for love. When her husband, Henry Knox, later became a famous general in the American Revolutionary War, Lucy faithfully followed him through Washington’s army camps where she birthed and lost babies, befriended Martha Washington, was praised for her social skills, and secured her legacy as an admired patriot wife.

Drawing from never-before-published correspondence, Nancy Rubin Stuart traces the evolution of these women from passionate teenage brides to mature matrons, bringing both women from the sidelines of history to its vital center. Readers will be enthralled by Stuart’s dramatic account of the epic lives of these defiant brides, which begin with romance, are complicated by politics, and involve spies, disappointments, heroic deeds, tragedies, and personal triumphs.

Nancy Rubin Stuart is an award-winning author specializing in women’s and social history. She has appeared on national television including CSPAN, and NPR, and has written for the New York Times, among other publications. Stuart is a board member of the Women Writing Women’s Lives Seminar at the CUNY Graduate Center. Currently, Stuart lives on Cape Cod where she serves as Executive Director of the Cape Cod Writers Center, writes for American History, the Huffington Post and as a columnist for the Barnstable Patriot.

Nancy’s other books are:

The New Suburban Woman: Beyond Myth and Motherhood

The Mother Mirror: How A Generation of Women Is Changing Motherhood in America

Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen

American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post

The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox

The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation

For more on Nancy Rubin Stuart, go to http://nancyrubinstuart.com/