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Juniata College

Campus News

Juniata College

(Posted April 16, 2014)

--News Release--

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Best-selling author Myra MacPherson, author of "The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage and Scandal in the Gilded Age," will spend three days at Juniata College, beginning with a speech on "The Importance of Dissent," at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 21 in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.

MacPherson has visited Juniata once before in 2002, to talk about her seminal best-seller "Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation." "Long Time Passing" was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1984.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture and visit are sponsored by the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. MacPherson was recently named a Senior Fellow at Juniata's Baker Institute.

MacPherson will spend Tuesday and Wednesday sitting in on classes taught by Juniata's peace and conflict studies faculty, as well as classes in other departments.

MacPherson has visited Juniata once before in 2002, to talk about her seminal best-seller "Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation." "Long Time Passing" was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and is considered the definitive account of the war's impact on America and the generation that fought in the conflict. The book's new introduction compares Vietnam with the war in Afghanistan and examines post-traumatic stress disorder among Vietnam veterans as it relates to civilian trauma after the events of Sept. 11.

More recently, MacPherson has written "All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I.F. Stone," which provides the basis for her April 21 talk. I.F. Stone was an investigative journalist best known for his self-published newsletter "I.F. Stone's Weekly."

Her latest book, "Scarlet Sisters," published in 2014, tells the story of two sisters, Victoria Woodhull and Tennie Claflin, who were the first women to open a brokerage firm. Woodhull was the first woman to run for president (choosing Frederick Douglass as her running mate).

McPherson came to national prominence as a reporter for the Washington Post, where she worked from 1968 to 1991 and continues to write articles for the New York Times, Salon.com and other national magazines. She also is the author of "The Power Lovers: An Intimate Look at Politicians and Their Marriages" and "She Came to Live Out Loud: An Inspiring Family Journey Through Illness, Loss and Grief."

She also lectures and colleges and universities across the country and has appeared on such programs as "Nightline," "The Today Show" and CNN's "Reliable Source."

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.

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