Thursday, June 4, 2009

Civil War Preservation Trust Conference

Wednesday afternoon I arrived here in Gettysburg for the annual conference of the Civil War Preservation Trust. This morning (Thursday) I spoke at 9am to the attendees about the new book with Steve Stanley, The Complete Gettysburg Guide. It was a very nice time - my buddy Ed Bearss was along, and I was flattered that he stood up in the front of the room near me so that he could hear. Over 100 people came to hear about the new book, and afterwards Steve and I signed many, many copies for the folks. I listened to several of the speakers that morning -including John Miller, who is doing wonderful work commemorating the events in Maryland - and they were all terrific.

After dinner tonite, Steve and I signed more books for the attendees, and we got a nice surprise tonite. The new chairman of the CWPT, John Nau III, came over to us with CWPT President Jim Lighthizer. John and Jim looked at The Guide and they were so impressed with it, John bought quite a number of the books on the spot. John purchased one for himself, and the rest he's giving as gifts to a number of friends of his... I will post more about this later...!

Tomorrow night (Friday) I will be at the cocktail hour for the Gettysburg Discussion Group to deliver and sign more books. Supplies of The Guide should be arriving at the distributor in the next couple of days and will be shipped right after that.

By the way, if you haven't had a chance to listen to my interview with Mike Noirot for his blog This Mighty Scourge, please do so. It was neat talking about the book and Steve's talents in creating it. Please leave a comment for Mike about the interview because I know he'll appreciate that.

It's been a whirlwind couple of days, and it's been great meeting old friends and making new ones. The next few days should be fun and I'm looking forward to seeing more friends from the Gettysburg Discussion Group tomorrow night.

2 comments:

  1. Hi JD,

    It was great to see you and Steve again this week. Having already read an advance version of your book, I knew it was going to do well, but after finally seeing it in hard cover with Steve's maps-- this will definitely be one that I'll recommend to people on tours. I already bumped into several people this weekend who bought CWPT copies.

    Jim Hessler
    www.sicklesatgettysburg.com

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  2. Thank you, Jim - having a distinguished and knowledgable guide such as yourself recommending the book is more than we could ask for. It was also terrific seeing you at the dinner - I enjoy talking with you, and I'm hearing all good things about your new Sickles book! Saturday I saw an advance reading copy of it, and it has one of the best covers I've ever seen, too.

    J.D.

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