POSTPONED: Alias Agnes with author Elizabeth De Wolfe

Program Type:

Author Event

Age Group:

Adults
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Event Details

This program has been postponed until fall. Please stay tuned for the new date!

 

 

Elizabeth DeWolfe is a Professor of History and co-founder of the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of New England. She is also an author of nonfiction about ordinary women's extraordinary lives.

 

She will be at the library to discuss her newest book, Alias Agnes: The Notorious Tale of a Gilded Age Spy. 

 

Alias Agnes details the story of Jane Tucker, a Boston stenographer who took a job as an undercover detective with a ten-week mission. Her target: Madeleine Pollard, former mistress of Congressman William C. P. Breckinridge, whom she had sued for breach of promise when he failed to marry her. 

Exploring the intricacies of this trial and a scandal that captivated the nation, DeWolfe uncovers the strategies women used to make their way in the world, drawing parallels between the previously forgotten and incomplete tales of Tucker, Pollard, and the women who testified in the trial.

Written in engaging prose with all the intrigue and suspense of a detective tale, Alias Agnes chronicles the lives of women at the cusp of the twentieth century—the opportunities that beckoned them and the challenges that thwarted their dreams.