Beginning in early January, I will take up two months of residence (most weekdays) in Providence, Rhode Island, thanks to the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Library Fellowship.  The fellowship is granted for those working on a book of American history before 1830 — my current project on the Aaron Burr Conspiracy, which is under contract to Simon & Schuster, fits those parameters nicely. 

While in Providence, I will have access to the library’s collections on early American history, including Hispanic-American materials which can be very helpful with the Burr story.  (One of his major goals was to raise hell with Spanish lands in Texas, Mexico, and West Florida.)  And I also will have help from Brown’s reference librarians.

And, yes, there is no question that Providence can be a madhouse during January and February — often referred to as the city’s “high season” — but I hope to be able to survive the tourist throngs.  I’ve already signed up to give lectures on Impeached to two Civil War Roundtables while I am in New England, and hope to look up some old friends and make some new ones.

But that’s not the end of the beneficence of the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Fellowship, no sirree.  In June and July I will be in residence at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, where my responsibility will be to finish my book.  Which is good, since the manuscript is due in New York in September.  And I hope to get back into cycling shape.  (Great flat rides around there; cycling buddies always welcome.) 

So, if you’re in New England or on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, give me a shout.  The show is coming to a community near you!