Author to talk Saturday at Colchester bookstore

Memoir: On Saturday, Books and Boos, an independent  bookstore in Colchester, is hosting a talk and book signing with Quincy Abbot,  author/editor of “From Schoolboy to Soldier: The Correspondence and Journals of  Edward Stanley Abbot, 1853–1863,” a coming-of-age Civil War memoir.

Talk and booksigning: Abbot will talk about how he got into  researching his family history, what he learned about the life of a young  soldier in the Civil War and his own experience as a self-published author. A  booksigning will follow his talk.

About the book: “From Schoolboy to Soldier” is a personal  account of the short but meaningful life of a mid-19th century New England lad  who, as a 14-year-old, wrote of his desire to become a serious writer — and now,  150 years after young Stanley’s death on a Civil War battlefield, his writing  has been brought to publication by his grandnephew, Abbot.

Journals and letters: Abbot, a long-time Connecticut  resident, inherited a trunkful of Stanley’s journals and letters, in which he  wrote about growing up in pre-Civil War New England, his reasons for enlisting  in the Union Army, his desire to become an officer and his experiences at the  Battle of Fredericksburg, the Mud March, the Battle of Chancellorsville and the  long march from Virginia to Gettysburg, where he succumbed to a mortal wound on  July 8, 1863, at the age of 21.

Learn more: Books and Boos is located at 514 Westchester  Road in Colchester. For more information about the event, call (860) 861-6214.  To learn more about the book, visit fromschoolboytosoldier.com.

Free refreshments will be served!