The Puritans’ Summer of Love with Dorothee Kocks, PhD
Dorothee Kocks will present images from her forthcoming illustrated ebook Such Were My Temptations: Bawdy Americans 1760-1830. The slide show will include an explicit engraving of Benjamin Franklin “in congress” with Lady Columbia and early, graphic book covers for the banned novel Fanny Hill, as well as some pop music from the era – the glass harmonica, an instrument banned in some towns for being too sensual.
Kocks said she found the images tucked away in archives and buried deep within black-and-white scholarly tomes while researching her novel, The Glass Harmonica: A sensualist’s tale (Rosa Mira Books, 2011). In the Revolutionary era, Americans tried out all kinds of freedoms, and some historians now estimate that one in three New England brides was pregnant on her wedding day.
The slideshow and discussion will be an opportunity for conversation and wonder about our complicated and human foremothers and forefathers.
Dorothee will be available from 5:30 to 7, with the (shocking and illuminating) slide show from 6-6:30.
What: Slideshow and Discussion of historic erotica
Dorothee Kocks is the author of the historical novel The Glass Harmonica, A sensualist’s tale, and the nonfiction book Dream a Little. She earned a PhD in American Studies from Brown University, and taught in the history department at the University of Utah. Dorothee has been the recipient of numerous writing grants and residencies, including those at Can Serrat International Residency in Spain, Byrdcliffe Artists Colony in Woodstock, NY, and the Vermont Studio Center. The Utah Arts Council awarded her a $5,000 publication prize.
Dorothee’s writing has been called “rich” and “evocative.” The Glass Harmonica has been praised as a “knock-out historical novel” that “perfectly combines the novelist’s and historian’s skills” and is “filled with moments of startling insight and deep wisdom.” Such Were My Temptations arose while researching the novel, and is what Kocks calls a ‘transmedia ebooklet.’ Using the latest in publishing technology, the ebook includes video clips, music, and links to Facebook for reader discussion. http://www.dorotheekocks.com/
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