Co-sponsored this spring by the Friends of the Essex Public Library and the Essex County Museum & Historical Society

On April 15, Ellen F. Brown, co-author of "Gone With The Wind, A Best Seller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood", will entertain us all with the saga of this most famous southern novel at "A Southern Dinner", at 6 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Millers Tavern, VA. Hear how this novel captured the the whole world's attention as it grew from the fertile imagination of an Atlanta newspaper reporter into one of the most endearing, and enduring, movies of all time.

On Saturday, Ms. Brown will be at the Essex County Museum & Historical Society on Water Lane in Tappahannock, VA, to share memorabilia from the movie at a wine and hors d'oeuvres reception from 1 to 4 p.m.

Tickets for Friday's catered southern dinner are $30 for members and $35 for non-members. Tickets for the Saturday reception are $5 for members and $10 for non-members.

Proceeds to benefit the library and the museum.

For more information, call the library at 804-443-4945.

The Friends of the Essex Public Library presents “Weekend with a Writer”, a program designed to bring residents and visitors together with noted authors to share their love for literature.

Over the course of a weekend, residents and students of the community and area visitors have the opportunity to meet with the selected author in an intimate setting with an extended time frame in which they can discuss the author’s works and the nuances of writing and publishing. The weekend always begins on Friday night with an Author Dinner at a local venue. Here the audience can meet the author and purchase books while sampling local cuisine and offerings from area wineries. On Saturday there is usually a second event held at the library, geared to the author’s preference. We might offer a lecture, or a writer’s workshop – we have even held an antiques road show. In this more casual setting authors and their fans can share rich communication about the value and pleasure of reading.

We also host the occasional lunchtime “Weekday with a Writer” when an author is unable to spend an entire weekend with us. No matter what the program, the mission remains constant: to share a love for literature.