Press 53 Announces New Edition:

Searching for Virginia Dare: A Journey into History, Memory and the Fate of America’s First English Child

By Marjorie Hudson

 

A Fall 2007 Selection of the BookWomen Traveling Book Club

 

Lewisville, N.C.— Press 53 has announced the re-release of Marjorie Hudson’s popular book Searching for Virginia Dare on June 1 in conjunction with the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia.

Hudson’s book explores the history and legends surrounding England’s 1587 colony at Roanoke Island, NC—the venture that laid the foundation for the successful Jamestown settlement 20 years later. The Roanoke Colony claims “first” status as the birthplace of America’s first child born of English parents—a girl named Virginia Dare. What happened to that child and the “Lost Colony of Roanoke” is a mystery that has dogged historians and poets for 420 years.

“We knew the time was right to bring out a a new edition of this book,” said Kevin Watson, editor and publisher of Press 53, a Winston-Salem-based company. “It’s a timeless tale that should be read by people all over the country.”

Author Marjorie Hudson took on the quest for Virginia Dare with a fresh eye, gaining attention of literary critics and booksellers alike when her book first came out in 2002. The book was reviewed and recommended in Our State, North Carolina Literary Review, NC Libraries, and Tar Heel Junior Historian, and many others. Mixing memoir with travelogue, fiction scenes with historic documentation, Hudson brought the extraordinary details of the Lost Colony story to light “like freshly minted gold” (Doris Betts).

Searching for Virginia Dare has gained attention as a selection of the BookWomen “Traveling Book Club,” which plans two tours of the Outer Banks in Fall 2007, Created especially for women, the tours are designed around a reading list of books by women that explore a specific landscape of interest. The book will also be featured in a teacher training in June sponsored by North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

The new edition invites readers to help the author create a “Virginia Dare Day”—a day when Americans tell lost stories of immigration, migration, and ancestry.

 

What Reviewers Have Said About This Book:

“Hudson forges and engaging blend of history, fiction, and memoir that commands the reader’s interest.”—Kestal Phillips Jr., Our State: Down Home in North Carolina.

“Hudson’s writing style is fluid and poetic… Those who value the art of writing as well as substance will enjoy this ‘fool’s errand’.”—Allan Scherlen, North Carolina Libraries.

“Hudson does a wonderful job of turning what for most has been a staid history lesson into an entertaining and informative read.”—George Olsen, Public Radio East.

“Hudson has written the book I would have liked to have written.”—Dr. E. Thomson Shields, Director, Roanoke Colonies Research Office, in N.C. Literary Review.

 

What We Said About SFVD:

“A fantastic weave of wit and observation, of careful investigation and scrutiny of sources, mingled with the personal narrative of a Yankee come South…” The People’s Civic Record.

 

 

About the Author:

Marejorie Hudson grew up in Washington, D.C., and northern Illinois and now lives in Chatham County, North Carolina. Her writing has won many honors, including two Pushcart Special Mentions for fiction, and she was a finalist in 2002 for the Sherwood Anderson Foundation award. In 2005, she was selected by the North Carolina Arts Council as Artist-in-Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

Paperback, 6x9, 184 pp.

Publisher: Press 53

June 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-9793049-6-5

Price: $16.00

 

Find out more at www.Press53.com

Or contact Sheryl Monks at

sherylmonks@press53.com

 

 

 

Searching for Virginia Dare:

A Journey into History, Memory, and the Fate of America’s First English Child

by Marjorie Hudson