On Sunday, September 10^th from 2:00 – 4:00 PM at the grounds of the Luzerne County Courthouse near the deer, the LCHS will welcome author Melanie Akren-Dickson, who will be discussing her newest book: “Conversations with a Courthouse Deer”. Beginning in 1888, reporter Ernest Hanson began writing articles in which he “talked” with the Courthouse Deer (then still on Public Square). Hanson and the deer would discuss and lambast major figures in local news including politicians, clergy, judges, etc. Now more than 130 years later, Melanie Akren-Dickson has republished these articles, with annotated notes and context, as well as photos and illustrations to create a fantastic look at contemporary 1880s Wilkes-Barre.

Melanie Akren-Dickson has also published Coal County Connections: How finding an 1800s autograph album led to a quest to find its signers in coal patch towns of northeastern Pennsylvania, and You Dream Every Night That I am Home: Letters from a young Civil War soldier to his wife in Eckley, a town in the anthracite coal fields of Northeastern Pennsylvania both of which are based off of her geological research into her ancestors in NEPA. All three books will be available for sale at the event. This event is free to all. For questions, call 570-823-6244 ext. 3 or email reservations@luzernehistory.org.