Library Foundation presents author Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop
The Johan Fust Library Foundation is honored to present author Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop who will speak about her newest book, Daughter of Spies, in the library loggia on Tuesday, March 21, at 4 p.m.
Daughter of Spies is a uniquely personal, fascinating, and multilayered story. Elizabeth’s parents both served in intelligence positions during World War II. Her father, Stewart Alsop, served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS,) and her mother, Patricia “Tish” Barnard Hankey, served with the British Security Service (M15) as a decoder. After the war, they were at the center of the Georgetown Set, a prominent inner circle of politicians and celebrities in post-war Washington, DC.
Elizabeth’s father and his brother, Joe Alsop, grandnephews of Teddy Roosevelt, were renowned political columnists. They interacted with the most powerful political figures of the time. Against this elite political and social backdrop, Elizabeth grew up with her five brothers in a DC suburb.
Her memoir focuses on her mother, who, as the book begins, is in her later years confronting dementia and a loss of independence. Elizabeth finds a box of old letters, and together she and her mother visit the past. Elizabeth explores her mother’s alcoholism and unravels the causes, accompanying secrets, and their impact on her and her brothers.
Daughter of Spies is a treasure of historical and personal insights told through the author’s childhood memories and her experience later in life as her mother’s health surrogate.
Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop grew up in Washington and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. She is an author for all ages, with 60 works of fiction published. She won the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award and the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award.
Elizabeth’s event will be on Tuesday, March 21 at 4 p.m., in the loggia and courtyard of the Johann Fust Library. There is no charge for this program, but advance registration is required. To register, visit the Library Foundation’s website JFLFBG.org. For questions, please email info@JFLFBG.org or call (941) 964-0211.
