"An Evening
with T.C. Boyle"
Event Information

The Field Library took part in the 2009 Quadricentennial festivities by welcoming home T. Coraghessan Boyle, a noted, award-winning, contemporary American author, Peekskill native born and bred and friend of our library. T.C. Boyle read his short story, "The Lie," onstage at the Paramount Center for the Arts on October 17 at 7:30 p.m.  Following a Q&A with the packed audience, the library  hosted a book-signing and cocktail party in the theater lobby. The evening ended with a theatrical showing of the 1994 Sony Pictures film, The Road to Wellville, made from another Boyle novel.  This was Tom's first-ever public appearance in his hometown of Peekskill, and he was honored during the evening with The Field Library's fifteenth annual civic award, The Chester A. Smith Award. 

Mr. Boyle's appearance culminated ONE BOOK ONE RIVER, a community-wide read of World's End, one of his most well known and earliest works, an extraordinarily perceptive glimpse into our town's and our locale's unique place in history, which, in many ways, has been mirrored in other Hudson River communities. During the months of September and October 2009, The Field Library was engaged in this project with all interested readers from Peekskill and other local communities, public libraries and book clubs located along the Hudson River and throughout the area. Free paperback copies were made available through a grant from the New York State Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial.

Peekskill Riots
Photo Album

Mothball Fleet
Photo Album

T.C. Boyle researched World's End using The Field Library Local History Collection, the Colin T. Naylor, Jr. Archives. This distinguished special collection is an extensive and rich repository of rare and valuable maps, original manuscript documents, and unique materials extending back to the colonial era of Peekskill's earliest  history.   
World's End celebrates Peekskill's heritage by setting its story in three stages of Peekskill's past, and interweaving these three time periods: the early founding of Peekskill, its Dutch families and colonial settlers; the influential period of post World War II, its social and political milieu, and racial events as epitomized by the Paul Robeson riots in the neighboring Town of Cortlandt; and finally, the 1960's suburbanization and sprawl of commercial development surrounding Peekskill, with the resulting empty Main Street syndrome.

Here's a link to T.C. Boyle's published works