The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) welcomes to the store author Matthew Davis on Monday, November 17 at 6:30 pm for a discussion featuring his new book, A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore. An impressive work of narrative nonfiction, A Biography of A Mountain combines history with reportage, bringing the complicated and nuanced story of Mt. Rushmore to life, from the land’s origins as sacred tribal ground; to the expansion of the American West; to the larger-than-life personality of Gutzon Borglum, the artist who carved the presidential faces into the mountain; and up to the politicized present-day conflict over the site and its future. 

Written with extraordinary detail and attention to the humanity of this history, A Biography of a Mountain will be published in tandem with the monument’s 100th anniversary. Mr. Davis will be in-conversation with our resident historian, Jon Grand. 

More about the Author: Matthew Davis is the author of When Things Get Dark. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and others. He has been an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America, a Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, and a Fulbright Fellow. He holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa and an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He lives in Washington, D.C.