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With the
approach of the annual Barnum Festival and P.T.Barnum’s 200th
birthday celebration,
New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry (www.steveberry.org)
is coming to Bridgeport to help the Bridgeport History
Center raise funds to restore its historic Barnum circus
posters and also to help writers perfect their craft. All
funds raised from a History Matters Writers Workshop being
conducted at the Bridgeport Public Library’s North Branch on
July 6, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. will go toward preserving the
Bridgeport History Center’s collection of several historic
Barnum circus posters from the 19th and 20th
centuries.
History
Matters is a foundation launched by Berry to assist
communities and organizations around the world with historic
restoration and preservation efforts. This effort was
inspired by the author’s travels around the world doing
research for his historic thriller novels and his
observation that funds were drying up or not available to
preserve history.
“History is
about people, places, things,” says Berry. “It is who we
were, who we are, who we will be.” He added, “At present,
over 4.7 billion artifacts are held in public trust by more
than 30,000 archives, historical societies, libraries,
museums, scientific research collections and repositories.
Over 65% of these report damage to their collections due to
improper storage. Another 53% note a danger from moisture
and over 26% have no environmental controls to protect their
collections from the efforts of temperature and light.” What
if these rarities are not preserved? Quite simply, links to
our past will be irretrievably broken.”
Besides being
a bestselling author who has sold 10 million books
worldwide, Berry is also an accomplished instructor who has
taught concepts of writing to audiences around the globe. He
understands both the ‘thrill of victory’ and the ‘agony of
defeat’ when it comes to publishing as his road to
publishing spanned 12 years and 85 rejections. Now one of
the most successful living authors, his list of published
books includes The Paris Vendetta, The Templar
Legacy, The Amber Room, The Third Secret,
The Venetian Betrayal, The Alexandria Link,
The Romanov Prophecy, The Charlemagne Pursuit,
and -- coming in November --The Emperor’s Tomb.
The History
Matters Writers Workshop will take place on Tuesday, July 6th
at the Bridgeport Public Library’s North Branch at 3455
Madison Avenue in Bridgeport. For more information contact
Bridgeport City Historian Mary Witkowski at 203-576-7417.
Early Bird registration at $85 is available until June 22
and after that date the workshop fee is $100.
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