Virtual Author Talk: Boats Against the Current with Author Richard Webb

Join Westport author Richard "Deej" Webb for a reading and discussion of his book Boats Against the Current. Deej will chat about his book, do a live reading, and then take questions from attendees.

Historian Richard Webb grew up in Westport a few doors down the street from where the Fitzgeralds had lived some forty years earlier. Fascinated with the Fitzgeralds, when Webb learned that author Barbara Probst Solomon, who grew up across the river from the F.E. Lewis estate, proposed in the New Yorker that Westport was the real setting for Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, he was stirred to actively researching her claim.

Boats Against the Current tells the real story behind the famous novel and its tragic hero, debunking the long-held belief that the book was solely inspired by the Fitzgerald's time in Great Neck, across the Sound in Long Island, and lays out enough information about the fascinating Mr. Lewis that it is difficult not to believe that author Webb has located the true inspiration for one of the most captivating and iconic characters in American literature, the great Gatsby himself.

A companion book to the documentary Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story, Boats Against the Current also recounts Webb's own journey of making the film with fellow Westporter and filmmaker, Robert Steven Williams.

Registration Required. Join us via Zoom!

Instructions for Zoom: 

Please download the Zoom app on your computer, phone or tablet. You do not have to have a Zoom account to join the meeting. When you register for this program, you will be sent a unique Zoom ID and password. A few minutes before the event, open the Zoom app and type in the meeting ID to join us. 

Need help joining Zoom? Check out this video!

Or for tech help please email us a few days before the event and we will be happy to assist you.

Farmington Libraries Virtual Program Code of Conduct Policy