Vermont Antiquarian Booksellers Association

David Hackett Fischer, 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner for Washington’s Crossing, will be at VABA’s Burlington Book Fair to talk about his newest book, Champlain’s Dream. The VABA Spring Book Fair was named a Champlain Quadricentennial Event, and since Mr. Fischer will already be in Vermont to speak at Middlebury, he was happy to attend. He will be available to talk about his book and sign books from 11 to noon.

Mr. Fischer’s other books are Albion Seed, The Great Wave, Paul Revere’s Ride, and Freedom and Liberty. Max Boot, in his November 2, 2008, review of Champlain’s Dream for the New York Times Book Review, said “Is there a finer student of American history writing today than David Hackett Fischer? If so, I don’t know who it would be....This veteran professor of history at Brandeis has turned out one dazzling study after another.”

Bill Kauffman said in his October 11-12, 2008, review for the Wall Street Journal “In Champlain’s Dream Mr. Fischer seeks to restore the French explorer’s importance to North America’s past and to highlight the ideas of tolerance and peaceful co-existence that Champlain championed ­-- yes, in the 17th century. To the ‘father of New France’ (what we now call Quebec) Mr. Fischer applies his signature blend of social history and classic narrative.... Champlain’s hyperkinetic life is often a dizzying whir of playing courtier; navigating treacherous if non-metaphoric shoals, and dodging icebergs and the ‘dreaded black flies’ of North America. But Champlain’s Dream is as ruminative as it is action-filled. What Mr. Fischer has really done is to sketch a character whose virtues ­-- prodigious curiosity, respect for other cultures, a sense of fairness --­ he considered exemplary.”

Mr. Fischer will also be giving the 36th Charles S. Grant Memorial Lecture, at 4:00 that afternoon at Middlebury College. His talk will be “A War for Peace: Champlain and the Mohawk.”