PORT TOWNSEND — Historian Pam McCollum Clise will talk about her new book, Tracing Footsteps, and sign copies of it Wednesday, Sept. 10.
Clise, a former history column writer for the Peninsula Daily News and the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader, will speak at 6:30 p.m. in the Port Townsend Library’s Learning Center next door to the Carnegie Library at 1220 Lawrence St.
The talk and book signing are free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be for sale at $24.99 per copy.
“By following footsteps from the past and unfolding the lives of the people that made it happen, it is possible to see more clearly how the richness of today’s community was been handed down from those who came before us,” Clise said.
In 1963, Clise encountered Irving Hoffman, a high school teacher who instilled in her a love of history by bringing it alive in the classroom, Clise said.
In 1999, working as a volunteer for the Jefferson County Historical Society, Clise began researching questions that people brought into the society.
At that time, limited resources had been put together in one place, and it was necessary to dig through the archives high on closet shelves and elsewhere to find the answers.
Since then, archives have been developed, she noted.
Clise wrote history articles for the Leader from 1999 to 2004.
From 2004-13, she wrote for the PDN’s Jefferson County edition monthly until she retired.
The book is available in Port Townsend at the Jefferson County Historical Society, 540 Water St.; William James Booksellers, 829 Water St.; and the Writers’ Workshoppe & Imprint Bookstore, 820 Water St.
It also is available online at Amazon Books and Barnes & Noble.
It can be ordered wholesale from Baker & Taylor and Ingram Books.
For more information, phone the library at 360-385-3181.
