Montclair Literary Festival To Host Jon Meacham

For its final event of the year, Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival is excited to host Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and #1 New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham in an online conversation about his new book And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle on Thursday December 8 at 7pm (EST). Jon will be in conversation with Rutgers University professor and political historian Louis Masur.

In this new illuminating portrait, Meacham chronicles the life of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts with depression, his political fairness, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.

“It’s so fitting that our last event of the year highlights Abraham Lincoln’s personal values of fairness and empathy that were acquired through the gift of literacy in what Lincoln called ‘ABC schools’,” said Festival Chair Marcia Marley. “Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival was launched in 2017 to promote literacy and reading for all, and the sharing of information and ideas.”

Tickets cost $40 and include a signed copy of the book (value $40). Online event-only tickets are available for $10. Ticket link here. The event will be held online via Crowdcast.

S2G’s Montclair Literary Festival is the premier literary festival in New Jersey. Since its inception six years ago, the festival has seen its in-person and online audiences increase to 7500 in 2021. Previous attendees have included Trevor Noah, Patti Smith, Malcolm Gladwell, Isabel Allende, Henry Winkler, Douglas Stuart, Don Lemon, Jane Fonda, Paul Krugman, Erik Larson, Colm Tóibín, Alan Cumming, Min Jin Lee, Chelsea Clinton, Salman Rushdie, and Paul Auster.

This is a special event held for Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival.

Any proceeds from the festival benefit parent organization, Montclair-based non-profit Succeed2gether, which offers after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education and opportunity gaps in Essex County, NJ. You can read more about Succeed2gether and the festival at www.succeed2gether.org.