MARK OPSASNICK, author of the books "Capitol Rock" and "The Lizard King Was Here", will discuss his recently published article "Coffee, Confusion and Jim Morrison: The Forgotten History of Hip Coffee Houses and Beatnik Poets in the Nation's Capital."

The article, which appears in the current issue of "Beltway Poetry Quarterly," can be accessed for free by visiting http://washingtonart.com/beltway/contents.html. Opsasnick will talk about his research behind the article and his presentation will conclude with a question-and-answer session. Free copies of the article will be distributed to those who attend and a reception will follow his talk. Opsasnick's last presentation at Kensington Row Bookshop in August 2006 drew a capacity crowd, so please arrive early! For additional information, please visit www.xlibris.com/markopsasnick.html.

Did syphilis travel from the New World to Europe on Columbus’ ships? What remedies did Lewis and Clark use to treat the disease on their expedition? What impact did the introduction of penicillin have on the spread of venereal disease? These are some of the many questions explored in a new book just released by Praeger Publishing entitled Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America by noted medical historian John Parascandola of Rockville, MD. Dr. Parascandola will discuss his book, emphasizing in his remarks how and why the brunt of the blame for the transmission of syphilis was unfairly placed on women over the centuries. For example, he will discuss the forced quarantine of women with venereal disease in America during both world wars.

John Parascandola received his Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968. During his career, he has served on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as Chief of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, and as Public Health Service Historian. He has received numerous awards and professional honors, and is the author of the award-winning book The Development of American Pharmacology: John J. Abel and the Shaping of a Discipline (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992). He currently works as an historical consultant and is an adjunct lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Maryland College Park.

Copies of the book will be offered at 20% off

Much of the world's Internet management and governance takes place in a corridor extending west from Washington, DC, through northern Virginia toward Washington Dulles International Airport. Much of the United States' military planning and analysis takes place here as well. At the center of that corridor is Tysons Corner--an unincorporated suburban crossroads once dominated by dairy farms and gravel pits. Today, the government contractors and high- tech firms--companies like DynCorp, CACI, Verisign, and SAIC--that now populate this corridor have created an "Internet Alley" off the Washington Beltway.

In Internet Alley, Paul Ceruzzi examines this compact area of intense commercial development and describes its transformation into one of the most dynamic and prosperous regions in the country. Ceruzzi finds that a variety of perennially relevant issues intersect here, making it both a literal and figurative crossroads: federal support of scientific research, the shift of government activities to private contractors, local politics of land use, and the postwar movement from central cities to suburbs.

Paul E. Ceruzzi is Curator of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. He is the author of A History of Modern Computing (second edition, MIT Press, 2003) and other books, and coeditor of The Internet and American BusinessM (MIT Press, 2008).

Jeffery King's book, The Rise and Fall of the Dillinger Gang is the first book to focus on John Dillinger's partners-in-crime, as well as on Dillinger himself. The backgrounds, criminal careers, and the eventual fate of the Dillinger gang members--Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, 'Red' Hamilton. Homer Van Meter, Tommy Carroll, Eddie Green, Harry Pierpont, Russell Clark and Charles Makley--are gone into in great detail.

Jeffery S. King was a reference librarian at the U. S. Bureau of the Census for 20 years and at the Washington, D. C. Public Library for seven years. The author of The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd, he lives in Washington, D. C.

Copies available in store now!