Happy Monday, and welcome to the third installment of the ongoing Overlook holiday giveaway bonanza! Last week two lucky readers scored literary prize packs featuring the complete Charles Portis paperback backlist and a pair of beautiful design books by Milton Glaser and Eva Zeisel. Congratulations to Friday’s winner Carl Scott, and a big thanks to all those who have entered so far. Are you a
We'll spare everyone pictures on this rainy, humid day, but today Carrie Hagen came into the Overlook offices to work with our new editor, Stephanie Gorton. (Welcome, Stephanie!) She has a book coming out this August called WE IS GOT HIM: ABDUCTION, MURDER, AND FEAR OF THE EVE OF AMERICA'S CENTENNIAL.
We launched this title last week, and everyone is waiting impatiently for the manuscript to be finished so we can start reading! It's true crime in the vein of Devil in the White City, and the story is absolutely fascinating. It's 1874, and a young boy named Charley Ross (learn more about him here) was snatched from his front yard in Philadelphia in what became the first kidnapping for random in America.
The title "We Is Got Him" comes from the famous random note, which we'll just preface with one [sic]:
Mr. Ross- be not uneasy you son charly bruster he al writ we as got him and no powers on earth can deliver out of our hand. You wil hav two pay us befor you git him from us. an pay us a big cent to. if you put the cops hunting for him yu is only defeeting yu own end. we is got him fitt so no living power can gits him from us a live. if any aproch is maid to his hidin place that is the signil for his instant anihilation. if yu regard his lif puts no one to search for him you money can fech him out alive an no other existin powers don't deceve yuself and think the detectives can git him from us for that is one imposebel
yu here from us in few day
Philadelphia was preparing to celebrate the American centennial after decades of civil war and recession, and Hagan weaves the story of this kidnapping--and how it threatened to unravel social confidence and plunge a city into despair--into the fight by the Philadelphia mayor to preserve the city's stature and other politicians using the Centennial as a chance to show America's endurance.
The research that went into
We Is Got Him is incredibly daunting--Hagen worked on it while earning her MFA in Writing Nonfiction from Goucher College. We're absolutely thrilled to be publishing this--mark your calendars for August!
I love history, especially 19th century. So I would LOVE to win this!<br /><br />bbeell @ windstream.net
Love the shirt!<br />Jessica at booksake(at)yahoo(dot)com
Maybe lightning will strike twice. Please enter my name to win.<br />carlscott @ prodigy.net.mx<br />Thx...Carl
Many thanks for this fascinating choice.elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com
History, mystery and intriguing. Great combo and books. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
Oh, this sounds wonderful. Please, Santa!
Big fan of historical mysteries here!
These sound fantastic!
lol...the photo on the t-shirt looks like my Uncle Louie!<br />Thanks for the great giveaway...cheers!