Copies of All Standing will be available for purchase and signing at the event, which is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Reading Room of Lithgow Library.
In All Standing, Miles recounts the dramatic tale of the legendary ship, the Jeanie Johnston, which ran between Ireland and North America during the height of the Irish famine. Using newspaper accounts, rare archival documents, and her own experience sailing as an apprentice aboard the recently recreated Jeanie Johnston, Miles weaves a thrilling, intimate narrative of the Irish immigrant experience.
During this time, the people of Ireland emigrated to North America in search of job opportunities and a better life, crowding onto aptly named “coffin ships,” whose gruesome conditions rivaled those of slave transports. But unlike every other coffin ship, the Jeanie Johnston never lost a passenger. While over 100,000 people died aboard other coffin ships, the combined efforts of the Jeanie Johnston’s crew allowed thousands of individuals to find safety and fortune throughout the United States and Canada. What these men – and their ship – accomplished over the course of their eleven voyages to North America was the stuff of legend.
Miles is a professor of environmental writing at Unity College. The Belfast resident is also the author of Adventures with Ari.
Lithgow Library is located at 45 Winthrop Street in Augusta. For more information, call the library at 626-2415 or visit www.lithgow.lib.me.us.
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