Novelist Christopher Lehmann-Haupt to Read at Mount Saint Vincent

9/2/2005

The University of Mount Saint Vincent will host novelist Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, who will read from his latest novel, The Mad Cook of Pymatuning: A Novel, on Thursday, September 29.

The novel, which will be released in hardcover in September, is a chilling coming-of-age story about a 1950s boys’ summer camp gone awry. Seventeen-year-old Jerry Muller returns to Camp Seneca with his 9-year-old half-brother Peter and the psychological baggage of his divorced parents. But something at Camp Seneca, which he has been attending for several summers, does not seem right. As Jerry plunges into the mysteries around him, he finds himself growing up fast. An editorial review by Publishers Weekly says Lehmann-Haupt “builds suspense and delivers the expected cataclysmic conclusion to this scary campfire tale.”

A former senior daily book reviewer for The New York Times, Lehmann-Haupt resides in Riverdale with his wife, writer Natalie Robins. Lehmann-Haupt is the author of three other books, including A Crooked Man, Confessions of a Book Award Judge, and Me and DiMaggio: A Baseball Fan Goes in Search of His Gods. His first book, Me and DiMaggio, received a number of positive reviews including the Chicago Tribune, which called it “taut and engaging,’ and The Library Journal, which said his writing had “deft characterization, credible dialogue, and a strong plot enhance this smart tale of corruption and intrigue.”

The reading will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 29 in the President’s Reception Room in the Administration building at Mount Saint Vincent. Lehmann-Haupt will sign copies of The Mad Cook of Pymatuning: A Novel, which will be available for purchase at the event. The reading is free of charge. The Mount Saint Vincent and neighboring communities are encouraged to attend.

For more information, please call 718-405-3345.