Invented around 1918 by Russian Leon Theremin, and bearing his name, the theremin is one of the earliest electronic musical instruments. While that fact alone is of interest, the method by which the theremin is played adds an incomparable mystique to this unusual instrument's qualities, virtues, and sometimes, detractions.

When Leon Theremin made his appearance on the American scene in 1927, he was greeted as a celebrity and creator of an instrument that was an incomparable novelty. Theremin attracted the interests and financial support of wealthy promoters, all the while operating under the clandestine auspices of Soviet Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennich Del, the secret espionage organization of the then-emerging Soviet Republic. His dual existence as an inventor of marvelous electronic instruments, but also as a loyal Soviet charged with a mission to glean secrets from the United States military and industrial complex, was the basis for his troubled and often burdensome existence.

Since its inception and original commercial production in 1929 by the Radio-Victor Corporation of America (RCA), the theremin has waxed and waned in the public eye, at times used by established composers such as Joseph Schillinger, Leopold Stokowski, Miklos Rosa, Henry Cowell, and Edgar Varese; and also often the subject of amateur experimentalists for odd noise-makers and school science projects.

Arthur Harrison will present the theremin as part of the Kensington Bookshop evening lecture series on Thursday, July 23, 2009. He will be accompanied by guitarist Michael Winters, and will offer examples of theremin performance, as well as a history and technical description of the instrument.

A vivid firsthand record from the Union ranks of major battles and figures of the Civil War, and of the Reconstruction efforts that followed. The letters, journals, and newspaper writings of Henry Perkins Goddard (1842–1916) of Norwich, Connecticut, provide much firsthand detail about the passions and principles of a divided nation during the Civil War and Reconstruction as witnessed by a scrupulous soldier and scribe eager to capture the bitter realities of his time. Edited by his great-grandson, The Good Fight That Didn't End includes Goddard's accounts of combat in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, his travels across the war-torn South after the war, and his encounters and friendships with well-known historical and literary figures of the era, including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, George Armstrong Custer, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain. www.thegoodfight.us

Calvin Goddard Zon, great-grandson of Henry P. Goddard, is a journalist and historian living in Washington, D.C. He is a former staff writer for the Washington Star daily newspaper and his articles have appeared in such varied publications as the Civil War News, the Progressive, the National Catholic Reporter, and People.