Fine Art and Foul Play

 FINE ARTS AND FOUL PLAY

 A scandal in professional rowing nearly derailed the career of one of America’s greatest artists, Thomas Eakins. Historian, journalist, writer and playwright William Lanouette will tell the tale in an illustrated talk, “Fine Art and Foul Play,” at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 8 in the community room at the Princeton Public Library.

 A social event open to all, it is a chance for Princeton’s rowers and Eakins fans to get together to hear the story and learn a good bit of rowing history into the bargain. Refreshments will be served.

 Lanouette, himself a rower, is at work on a book, “Racing to Oblivion,” the source for his talk. He is also the author of “Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, The Man Behind the Bomb.”  His play, Uranium + Peaches, about Szilard’s efforts to stop President Harry Truman from dropping the atomic bomb, will be performed at the Princeton Arts Council on March 10 as one of Princeton’s Geek Weekend/Pi Day events.

Lanouette has been a reporter for Newsweek, The National Observer and National Journal, as well as Washington Correspondent for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, The New York Herald Tribune, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Wilson Quarterly.