The Maltese Falcon was published in 1930 and the story is set in 1928. What was Northampton like during that time? Calvin Coolidge was finishing up his term as the 30th President of the United States and returning to live out remainder of his years in Northampton. Join Julie Bartlett-Nelson, Elise Bernier-Feeley and Dylan Gaffney from the library’s Information Services team as they set the scene both locally and nationally including a visual tour using historic photographs of Northampton during the 20s and 30s. What has changed and what has been lost?

This program is presented by All Hamptons Big Read. The communities of Northampton, Easthampton, Southampton and Westhampton are coming together for this project to present discussions and events in March through May of 2015 based on the noir classic, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. All Hamptons Read has been awarded a “Big Read” grant by the National Endowment for the Arts which will assist us to purchase copies of the book and offer programming in each community.

Video by Bonnie Burnham

Tags: Forbes Library, The Big Read, All Hamptons Read, Calvin Coolidge, Maltese Falcon, Julie Bartlett-Nelson, Elise Bernier-Feeley, Dylan Gaffney