Nationally-known, prize-winning author and former public editor of the New York Times Daniel Okrent will visit us virtually on May 4 at 5:00 PM on the big screen in the Holyoke Public Library Community Room. The author of six books, Okrent has been described by Publishers Weekly as “one of our most interesting and eclectic writers of nonfiction over the past 25 years.”

Two of Okrent’s books available to borrow from the Library and on Libby.  Informal, drop-in discussions of Last Call and The Guarded Gate take place at the Holyoke Public Library History Room on 4/25 and 5/2, 4:00-6:00 PM, leading up to Okrent’s virtual visit. Call 413-420-8107for more information.

The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law that Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and other European Immigrants out of America: The chilling story of how anti-immigration activists of the early twentieth century — most of them well-born, many of them progressives — used the bogus science of eugenics to justify closing the immigration door in 1924.

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition: Deemed a “narrative delight” and a “marvelous and lively social history,” Okrent’s account weaves entertaining anecdotes into a narrative full of insights as to how the Prohibition movement succeeded and failed.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Holyoke Local Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Photo credit: Raymond Elman.