My latest book, The Brandywine Battlefield: The Untold Story of Its History and Preservation, sold out on two recent book signings – that’s 40 books and they were summer sales.
Here's more about the book:
The 216-page softback book highlights the generational effort to save the vanishing battlefield of September 11th, 1777, now spanning Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania.
Each generation included a range of people from early 20th century authors and schoolteachers to state senators and war veterans, all of whom promoted the preservation of this “sacred” terrain with the belief, still relevant today, that the character of the land is inextricably tied to its history.
The book features more than 60 old photographs and postcards of a 35,000-acre battlefield terrain that has been a research and preservation project of the Brandywine Battlefield Task Force since the 1980s.
The book includes community stories and anecdotes such as George Washington’s “sniper” and “Spies & Traitors.”
Part three of the book focuses on historic sites & military landmarks such as Martin’s Tavern and “Proctor’s Hill.”
I have many years of experience giving original presentations that are custom-made to each audience. Most focus on the history, stories, and books of the Brandywine Valley including "Indian" Hannah, Early Transportation, and the Battle of Brandywine
Other examples of past presentations are as follows:
This fascinating illustrated lecture will highlight the marketing genus of Philip M. Sharples (1857 – 1944). His pioneering techniques were used to sell his cream separator to such far-flung countries as Japan and Germany.
This lecture will appeal to students of marketing as well as early advertising such as illustrated color magazine ads.
The success of the famous Sharples Tubular Cream Separator can be seen in its duration – it sold from the 1890s to the 1930s – and the fact that it was considered a life changer by farm women across America.
One of my lectures was featured here:
https://www.unionvilletimes.com/?p=7479
The subject of many of the images in the "Photo Gallery" are found in The Story of Milford Mills, first published in the late 1980s. As many readers might know, I have I expanded the book with additional historic maps, vintage photos, and interviews.
Based on the response I received (read on) I had hoped to get the book published in 2020 but a deadline with a publisher concerning my American Revolution book delayed the Milford Mills book. It's now back in production and scheduled for a 2025 release date, and available for mailing by St. Patrick's Day!
I was thrilled with the response I received at my outdoor lecture (pictured here) "Milford Mills: A Lost Village," hosted by the East Brandywine Township in June of 2017 at the west boat launch at Marsh Creek State Park.
I also gave a lecture, "Talk Back," in 2018 at the East Brandywine Township building. The presentation was partly designed to gather information about former Milford Mills residents
To learn more about the Milford Mills book or to pre-order the book before publication,
https://quillman-publications.com/418-2/
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My upcoming publication, The American Revolution in the Brandywine Valley, is scheduled to be published in early 2024 by Schiffer Publishing.
The hardback book is an illustrated history featuring contemporary images by photographer Steve Ladner.
The book is based on my own research and the studies conducted by the Brandywine Battlefield Task Force. Read more about this Chester County group in my magazine piece "Brandywine Battle" in the "Download" section of this web site. (If you are viewing this on your cell phone you will have to scroll down nearly to the last section.)
My services include help with book publications such as content review, line-by-line editing, and basic copy editing.
I am experienced with on "on-demand" publishing such as Amazon's platform, CreateSpace. This method is ideal for writers interested in getting their manuscripts into production and into the hands of readers.
Visit: http://quillman-publications.com/services/
I am the author of several regional books about the area's artistic and cultural history, including 100 Artists of the Brandywine Valley, which showcases painters, sculptors, and photographers. I spent more than 20 years writing about the Arts and local history for the Philadelphia Inquirer. My last five years at the paper were spent covering the local dining scene outside of Philadelphia.
I earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English with a creative writing focus.
My graduate degree is from Philadelphia's Temple University, where my creative writing advisor was the novelist David Bradley and I won the Maurice Beebe prize for essay writing, an award connected to an internship at the university press.
My interest in writing dates back to childhood when I co-produced a rather messy newspaper with hand-drawn columns and fake advertisements that were satirical before I knew the term.
I went onto be the first sophomore to live in the “literary” house at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. The college has the largest literary endowment in the nation, thanks to the 1930s novelist Sophie Kerr.
During my time in “Richmond House,” the Associated Writing Program was based there and the visitors included New Yorker writers and poets, and such literary luminaries as John Barth and Allen Ginsburg, who during their respective visits, ate an oysterman’s lunch and stayed overnight after trying to repeat his 1967 "happening," when he famously led a group chanting ancient Aramaic exorcism rites in an attempt to levitate the Pentagon. Naturally, we were inspired as young writers with Ginsberg's unwavering faith in the power of words.
The following year, I took a workshop with Ginsberg and heard a rare performance of Howl when I was a student at Manchester College, Oxford University. It was one of many memorable parts of my Oxford "experience," which included studying in the historic Bodleian library and writing weekly essays with tutors at different colleges. My free time was spent exploring Oxford's book shops, seeing plays in London, and taking part in the university races as a member of a women's crew team for Linacre College.
My different honors in Arts journalism, creative nonfiction, and fiction typically have been in the form of grants and scholarships to well-known literary workshops.
They have included the “Tin House” (a literary magazine) summer writing program in Portland, Oregon; the Vermont Studio School; the University of New Mexico’s summer program in Taos; and the Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) , an international literary study and cultural organization. I took part in SLS's workshop in Vilnius, meeting writers and poets from throughout the world but especially from former Soviet bloc nations in Eastern Europe.
I have also been accepted into the teaching program of the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project at West Chester University and have received funding for writing projects from the Leeway Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.
As the co-author of Walking the East End: A Historic African-American Community in West Chester, Pennsylvania, I earned a preservation service award from the West Chester Downtown Foundation.
