Doomed Romance: Broken Hearts, Lost Souls, and Sexual Tumult in Nineteenth-Century America (Penguin Random House, 2021)

Please join us on Thursday, October 28, at 5 p.m. Eastern, for a 2021 History Book Festival virtual event with Christine Leigh Heyrman, author of Doomed Romance: Broken Hearts, Lost Souls, and Sexual Tumult in Nineteenth-Century America (Penguin Random House, 2021). Heyrman will be in conversation with Laurie S. Fulton. This event is free but registration is required.

About the book
In 1825, Martha Parker, a gifted, ambitious young woman from New England who aspired to become an educator and a foreign missionary, accepted a marriage proposal from schoolmaster Thomas Tenney. But several weeks later, she rejected Tenney in favor of rival suitor Elnathan Gridley, a clergyman headed for the mission field. Tenney’s male friends retaliated by sending an anonymous letter to the head of the foreign missions board impugning Parker’s character, and Tenney himself threatened to reveal more about their relationship, ruining her future prospects as a missionary. The scandal provoked a resistance within evangelical ranks over womanhood, manhood, and, surprisingly, homosexuality, that ultimately threatened to destroy the foreign missions enterprise.

About the author
Christine Leigh Heyrman is the Robert W. and Shirley P. Grimble Professor of American History at the University of Delaware. Her other books include Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt, which won the Bancroft Prize, and American Apostles: When Evangelicals Entered the World of Islam, which won the Francis Parkman Prize.

Laurie S. Fulton will be in conversation with Heyrman during the event. Fulton served as U.S. Ambassador to Denmark from July 2009 to February 2013 and is co-chair of the Ambassadors Circle of the National Democratic Institute, a nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide.

How to attend the online event
All registered attendees will receive a follow-up email from “LibCal” with Zoom log-in information. If you don’t receive this email after registering, please check your SPAM folder. If you still can’t locate the email, please contact info@historybookfestival.org.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes. Each copy purchased comes with a signed archival bookplate.

About the Festival
With the help of our presenting sponsors—Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty—as well as our community partners and volunteers, the 2021 History Book Festival will, once again, be full of great discussions online with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction.

Our 2021 Festival will follow last year’s format: allowing you to bring history home—and stay safe! We are extremely grateful for the virtual venue and assistance in event promotion provided by the Lewes Public Library, in conjunction with the Delaware Division of Libraries and Sussex County Libraries.