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News anchor and award-winning TV reporter Mary Calvi will discuss how she uncovered a love affair between George Washington and Heiress Mary Eliza Philipse while researching her book Dear George, Dear Mary.
It’s one of the topics Calvi will discuss when she speaks at Sarah Lawrence College on April 18. The event, sponsored by the College’s Writing Institute, will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Wrexham Living Room, 1 Mead Way, Yonkers.
A first-time author, Calvi wrote the book based on hundreds of letters, witness accounts, and journal entries she compiled in three years of research. The book explores Washington’s relationship with his first love, New York heiress Mary Philipse, the richest belle in Colonial America. She started the project after her curiosity was piqued by the historic Philipse Manor in Yonkers. Calvi is married to Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, and as First Lady of the City of Yonkers attended his inauguration there. The book, published by St. Martin’s Press, was released on February 19.
Calvi is the co-anchor of “CBS2 This Morning” and “CBS2 at Noon” at WCBS-TV in New York City, and the recipient of nine New York Emmy Awards. She has provided live breaking news reports on a wide range of stories across the tri-state area. Calvi has been honored for her writing at the New York Festival’s World Media Awards, and has earned a National ACE Award for Excellence in Journalism, a Clarion Award for Excellence in Reporting, and the ACIM Award for Excellence in Community Service. Calvi graduated magna cum laude from the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University with a degree in journalism.
Patricia Dunn, director of The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, said she believes that writers and would-be authors will be very interested in what Calvi has to say. “As a first-time author, Mary Calvi was able to enliven her book with real life details, which she uncovered through careful research—a skill that all writers should cultivate,’’ said Dunn.
The Writing Institute nurtures writers on a variety of levels. In addition to non-credit courses it offers in many genres, it engages the public through writing events such as the Wrexham Road Reading Series, which brings together writers from inside and outside the Sarah Lawrence College community to share their work. Their most popular program, Publish and Promote Your Book Conference, draws hundreds of published and would-be authors each year in June to get practical advice from literary agents and publishing house editors on how to publish. Learn more about The Writing Institute