P R O G R A M
The Alexandria Festival of the Book
Portraying America 1776 - 2026
March 14, 2026
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
228 S. Pitt Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
9:30 – 10:00 Registration, Book Sales, Book Signings — Norton Hall
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10 - 10:15 Welcome
Oran Warder Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Matthew Gibson Executive Director, Virginia Humanities
​10:15 - 11:15 George Washington and His Legacies
Moderator: Patti Miller, Managing Editor, Encyclopedia Virginia
Tim Rose George Washington and Alexandria: A Founding Friendship
Ricardo A. Herrera Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778
Cassandra A. Good First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America
​11:30 - 12:30 Views of the Period
Moderator: Hugh De Santis, Author and former U.S. Diplomat
J. Dean Norton The General in the Garden: George Washington’s Landscape at Mount Vernon (contributor)
Bryan J. Zygmont Portraiture and Politics in New York City, 1790-1825: Gilbert Stuart, John Vanderlyn, John Trumbull and John Wesley Jarvis
Larrie D. Ferreiro Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It
​12:30 - 1:00 Book Sales, Book Signings and Break — Norton Hall
​1:00 – 1:50 America’s Gilded Age
Moderator: Matthew Gibson, Executive Director, Virginia Humanities
Donna Lucey Sargent’s Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas
Henry Wiencek Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age
​2:00 – 3:00 America’s Jazz Age to the 21st Century
Moderator: Phoebe Stein, President, Federation of State Humanities Councils
Kirk Curnutt F. Scott Fitzgerald: 100 Years after Gatsby (contributor)
Deborah W. Parker Becoming Belle da Costa Greene: A Visionary Librarian Through Her Letters
Catherine Wyler (by Zoom) Film Producer: Memphis Belle, Directed by William Wyler, and The Dalai Lama’s Gift to the World.