Pulitzer Prize-winner for 'The Gulf' among nonfiction authors speaking in Naples in 2024
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The Nonfiction Author Series is bigger than ever for 2024, moving to a larger venue and featuring four best-selling writers.
They will take us from the eve of World War II’s battle of Okinawa to a fishing boat tragedy off Long Island, from the rebirth of our endangered bald eagle to a dying woman’s inspiring horseback ride across America.
The four Monday morning events are presented by the nonprofit Friends of the Library of Collier County, to raise funds for the 10 branches of the Collier County Public Library system.
The series moves this year to a larger venue at Hilton Naples, on U.S. 41 near Pine Ridge Road, and still includes a full buffet breakfast, followed by the author’s talk and a book signing. Tickets are selling quickly. See the info box for dates, times, cost and how to sign up.
The featured speakers are:
Elizabeth Letts, author of “The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America,” on Monday, Jan. 22;
Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” on Monday, Feb. 5;
Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird,” on Monday, Feb. 26; and
Amanda M. Fairbanks, author of “The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind,” on Monday, March 18.
“We are very excited about this year’s program,” said Lew Paper, chairman of the Friends committee that plans the series.
“The growing public interest in the series continues to inspire us to find authors who will meet the expansive tastes of the Naples community. Unfortunately, increased costs have required us to raise the price more than we would like. But I do hope people will remember that this is a fundraising event and that a portion of the series cost is tax-deductible.”
The Jan. 22 author, Elizabeth Letts, grew up mostly on the back of a horse in Southern California, so it’s no accident that much of her writing focuses on horses.
A Yale graduate, Peace Corps veteran, certified nurse-midwife and mother of four, Letts penned “The Perfect Horse,” the true story of American soldiers in Europe rescuing hundreds of purebred Arabian horses that had been kidnapped by the Nazis and were in danger of being eaten by starving Soviet troops, and “The Eighty-Dollar Champion,” about a trainer who made a show jumping champion out of a nag headed for the slaughterhouse. Her historical novel “Finding Dorothy” imagined the life and influence of Maude Gage Baum, wife of L. Frank Baum, who wrote “The Wizard of Oz.”
In Naples she’ll talk about her most recent book, “The Ride of Her Life,” whose subtitle sets the stage: “The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America.” It’s an inspiring story of a 63-year-old woman in Maine who, given a medical death sentence, sets out in 1954 with her dog on a 5,000-mile horseback ride across America to see the Pacific Ocean.
Next up, on Feb. 5, is Buzz Bissinger, author of “The Mosquito Bowl.” He’s a familiar name for his earlier blockbuster “Friday Night Lights,” which has sold more than 2 million copies and spawned a movie and hit TV show centered on the Texas city of Odessa and its obsession with the Permian High School football team. He also was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting team at the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1987 and has penned explosive articles for Vanity Fair and Sports Illustrated.
In his latest best-seller, “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” the action centers on two U.S. Marine Corps regiments on Guadalcanal, training for the deadly invasion of Okinawa. Their ranks include many college football stars, former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly 20 men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. So, naturally, they decided to play a football game on Christmas Eve 1944.
Months later, 15 of those 64 Mosquito Bowl players would be dead on Okinawa’s bloody battlefield. Bissinger traces the lives of those who lived and those who died, their childhoods and families, and the loss of innocence for college athletics and the nation.
The Feb. 26 speaker is Jack E. Davis, professor of history at the University of Florida for the past 20 years.
Davis has made Florida’s environment his personal beat, culminating with the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his groundbreaking book “The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea.” The New York Times Book Review called “The Gulf” a “beautiful homage to a neglected sea.” In 2009 he published “An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century,” a dual biography of our state’s environmental patron saint and of the Florida Everglades.
For his 2022 book “The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird,” Davis offers a rollicking history of America’s complicated relationship with our national symbol. It ranges from the time we almost wiped eagles out of existence, out of a mistaken view of them as livestock predators, to today’s reverence for the noble bird.
Closing out the 2024 Nonfiction Series in March is Amanda M. Fairbanks, author of “The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind.” Fairbanks was originally scheduled for the 2023 lecture series but had to cancel, so the FOL is pleased she is available to speak this season.
Her book describes how, in March 1984, four men left Long Island’s Montauk Harbor on a commercial fishing boat called Wind Blown. A week out at sea, a severe nor’easter struck. The boat disappeared, and the bodies of the crew were never recovered — a shocking loss that reverberated in the close-knit eastern Long Island fishing community.
Fairbanks goes beyond the background of the crew and the impact their loss had on their survivors; she also details the shift of Montauk and the nearby Hamptons from working-class villages to a summer playground for New York City’s wealthy. The Wall Street Journal called the book “riveting.” Vanity Fair said it provides “a sweeping, and often devastating, portrait of a community on the brink of transformation.”
Fairbanks’ journalism experience includes positions at The New York Times, Boston Globe, HuffPost, Newsweek and The Atlantic.
Each presentation in the series will include a breakfast buffet, featuring choices of hot and cold entrees, including eggs with bacon and sausage, cereals, yogurts, fruits, a variety of breads, juice and coffee.
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The 2024 sponsors of the Nonfiction Author Series are:
Platinum — Bigham Jewelers, Stock Development, The Club at Olde Cypress
Gold — Books-A-Million, Fidelity Investments, Gulf Coast International Properties, John R. Wood Properties
Silver — Naples MacFriends User Group, The Capital Grille, Wynn’s Market
Nonfiction Author Series
What: Author lectures and breakfast that raise funds for the Collier County Public Library system
Where: Hilton Naples, 5111 Tamiami Trail N., Naples
When: Breakfast is served at 8:30 a.m.; the authors speak shortly after 9:15 a.m., followed by a book signing
Author lineup: Elizabeth Letts, Monday, Jan. 22; Buzz Bissinger, Monday, Feb. 5; Jack E. Davis; Monday, Feb. 26; Amanda M. Fairbanks, Monday, March 18
Cost: $350 for all four events for members of the Friends of the Library of Collier County, and $395 for nonmembers. Friends memberships begin at $40/year and provide access and discounts to many other programs. A portion of the ticket purchase can be tax-deductible.
Purchase tickets and become a member: Go to collier-friends.org; or call Marlene Haywood, the Friends’ Program Director, at 239-262-8135; or email Marlene at mhaywood@collier-friends.org.If the series sells out, she will maintain a waitlist for tickets.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Pulitzer winner, 'The Gulf' author, others to speak in Naples in 2024
