My Salmon Chase book is making progress towards publication November 9, 2021.

I have corrected one set of page proofs; the publisher has them and is implementing the changes in a second set of page proofs. There were not many errors but those that WERE there were worrisome. On one page, for example, I misspelled presciently. On another page, there was an unintentional double negative. In the footnotes, there were many, many volume numbers missing, which would make it hard for a reader to find the correct volume of the published Chase papers in which to find a letter.

Today I meet for the first time with the marketing and publicity people at Simon & Schuster, tasked with helping to publicize and promote the book. Some things I can do myself–I am pretty sure that I can arrange a book at event at the local public library–but some things require help–such as setting up a book event at the National Archives in Washington DC. And it is not clear whether all places are going to go back to traditional book events. Book Passage, in Corte Madera, has done so well with BIG video events; will they go back to their modest, intimate in person events?

I already have a few events set, and have put those on the calendar today. Next up is a fun event, going to Paris, by way of Zoom, with my friend David Stewart to talk about his great Washington book. Organized by one of my mock trial proteges, Alice McCrum.