Author Yona Zeldis McDonough will visit the Toadstool Bookshop to discuss her new historic novel on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 11 a.m.
The story of the 1768 public hanging of a young woman in Portsmouth is woven into McDonough’s story “The House on Primrose Pond,” set in present-day New Hampshire. The main character is an historical fiction writer researching the event.
Ruth Blay, an unmarried seamstress and teacher in her early thirties, was accused of murdering her newborn daughter. A five-year-old named Betsey Pettingill had found the dead baby while playing in a barn on a hot summer day. The particulars of what happened next are not recorded, but it is known that the bailiff was called. Ruth was taken to Portsmouth. Though accused of killing her illegitimate newborn daughter she was not convicted of this crime; instead, she was convicted of concealing the birth of an illegitimate child, an “offense” punishable by death at the time. She was hanged for this crime before a large Portsmouth crowd, giving her the very dubious distinction of being the last woman hanged in New Hampshire.
McDonough is the other of several novels and dozens of books for children. She is the editor of and contributor to “The Barbie Chronicles: A Living Doll Turns Forty” and “All the Available LIght: A Marilyn Monroe Reader.” She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, call the bookstore at 924-3543.