Actress Libby Franck will perform her one-woman show, “Be Swift My Soul: A Salon with Julia Ward Howe.” Julia Ward Howe was transformed from a wealthy New York belle to a Boston writer and abolitionist in the decades leading up to the Civil War. As the wife of reformer Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, Director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, she entertained and visited with poets, politicians, reformers, writers and exceptional women. Libby will present Julia as the host of a salon that might have included H.W. Longfellow, Edgar Alan Poe, Florence Nightingale, Margaret Fuller, Charles Sumner and Charles Dickens among others. These acquaintances along with her travels abroad, her love of language and music all gave birth to the compelling verses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, perhaps the most stirring and recognizable lines of music in U.S. history. 

This living history performance will take place on the library's back lawn. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own blankets or chairs. In case of inclement weather, the performance will take place in the library’s Fairgrieve Wing. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

The library will be bringing authors to life this summer on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm, with Ralph Waldo Emerson (July 3), Julia Ward Howe (July 10), Robert Frost (July 17), Charles Dickens (July 24), Herman Melville (July 31), and Rudyard Kipling (August 7) all scheduled to visit.