Author Bill Shaffer to discuss ‘Scandalous Hamiltons’ Oct. 13
Lewes Public Library and Browseabout Books will host Bill Shaffer in a live, online conversation about his new historical true crime book, “The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, A Founding Father’s Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism,” at 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 13, via Zoom.
Shaffer tells a tale almost too tawdry to be true – a con woman meets the descendant of a Founding Father in a brothel, dupes him into marriage using an infant purchased from a baby farm, then goes to prison for stabbing the couple's baby nurse – all while in a common-law marriage with another man. The scandal surrounding the ill-fated relationship of Evangeline and Robert Ray Hamilton, though little known today, was one of the sensations of the Gilded Age, and brought with it the rise of tabloid journalism.
Shaffer is also the author of “Emotion In Motion: 55 Baranger Displays,” and has worked as a research assistant for historical publications. His work can be found on designobserver.com and on Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s website, where he was a Smithsonian fellow. He holds a master’s degree in the history of design and curatorial studies from Parsons, The New School.
Registration for the Zoom-based program is required at tinyurl.com/zoomwithauthors or the library website, lewes.lib.de.us.
Participants are encouraged to support the authors by purchasing a copy of the book from local independent bookstore Browseabout Books. Each copy will be signed. Orders may be placed online at browseaboutbooks.com, by calling the store at 302-226-2665, or in person at 133 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach.
